NMW to increase again next year to £12.21 ph.

[ZoeZee]

If you’ve not had a pay rise this year, despite bringing it up to your employer, and now there’s set to be another 6% NMW increase next year (which is fantastic, don’t get me wrong) the pay gap is narrowing ever more between skilled/unskilled employees.

Skilled and those with MANY years of experience, might as ditch their responsible/stressful jobs (which often keep you awake at night) and look for something that doesn’t have the added responsibility?

Almost 20 years experience means nothing to some employers! AIBU?

Any employers who have a view on this increase, please let me know how this might affect you and your staff.

I think it’s fair to say the Labour Party has abandoned our youth snd elderly and fucked anyone who strives in between.

Hardly abandoned the elderly. I’d have liked to see people my age hit much harder, I think we got away pretty painlessly.

Blossom toes, back I see 🙄

I’ve never been away. ☺️

That's economics, it's the way it's always been. Some people will benefit depending on their expenditure though.

Speaking of farmers there are enough threads that indicate that food prices will have to go up or the govt will have to increase subsidies.

I work for a charity and only the senior management team get 20ph and over. Managers get about 15ph. It is a skilled stressful low funded industry and it is so demoralising working strategically for years to move up the ladder by improving skills and being a useful asset and being flung down a bit further to the bottom every year. Everyone deserves fair pay but current my young adult children earn nearly as much as me and the value of starting at the bottom and working your way up seems to be becoming void

Obviously in a privileged position then. Nice that you want to see petrified old people too frightened to turn on the heat made to suffer even more. Lovely!

I don’t, I want the least wealthy of all ages to have more. I want to see comfortably off retirees like me pay our fair share. Is our money not good enough for you?

Avg hourly rate in Beijing is the equivalent of just under £4 per hour. I sincerely hope pps are not suggesting the minimum wage is dropped to a similar amount so we're competitive.....

@Gorgonemilezola Going by the comments that’s what many would want.People on a low income, should stay on it!!
I run a small business however l understand it’s not just all about me.

Clearly you don't actually manufacture anything in this country.

Clearly you like to jump to your own conclusions.

If you manufacture anything that needs humans to make it then you cannot compete on price with something similar made in China.

So your answer is, to keep your staff on a low wage.

OK, let's hear what you manufacture and how you remain competitive, I'd love to know?

Blanketyre why don't you tell us what you manufacture and why it's necessary to pay your UK workforce £4 per hour to remain competitive.

You are making assumptions about my buying habits there. Nevertheless my point stands.

To me it's the double standard of the Government

Insist on fair wages for UK workers
(Which we should have) meaning prices have to increase

But then government/council buy from overseas manufacturers because they are cheaper (as they pay their employees £4 an hour)

Or government contracts for care or Early years - insist the NMW is X but then keep the funding for the service at Y

There is a logic disconnect in there

@Blanketyre As you haven’t actually explained what you manufacture not sure why it’s so important to you, that l have to.You’ve made it clear you would prefer to pay people less than the minimum wage to remain 'competitive’
Not every small business thinks this way.

I manufacture. I don't try to price compete with cheap tat from China, why would I? My products are more expensive because they are of a high quality. People who want to buy cheap crap aren't my target market.

To be fair a lot of manufacturers are struggling to compete with China. Particularly on price and the economy has moved away from manufacturing because of this. Although some still manufacture here.

They focus on innovation, customer service, after care, quality..

Lots of governments when awarding big contracts will have clauses saying the product has to be assembled in that country to keep jobs. The uk has been quite poor at this, generally going for cheaper abroad options and not specifying uk jobs as part of thier contracts.

But uk people people could factor this in when making thier own purchasing decisions from small products. Like who made this, what was their life like.

I don’t think the answer to not being competitive is for the lowest wages to be kept low.
People will always buy cheap crap from China, but I also think as the public becomes more aware they do buy more “home grown” goods.
I don’t see why the responsibility for not being competitive always lies at the lowliest workers door. Look to the top and see if they can take a hit.
You see it all the time, staff cut so that profit can be increased, however it is almost never the top of the food chain that needs to take the cut.
That needs to be looked at, not the little guy made to feel bad because that extra 77p has wrecked the economy

Why do you do it then if it makes you feel like this?

Why are you having a got at Blanketyre? They run a business and said they lost a contract to an overseas bidder who pays staff less. Its perfectly acceptable to deduce that the increase in NMW will create more of that issue?
Having concerns about staffing costs imposed on you by politicians with zero business experience is legitimate. It doesn't mean you want to pay slave wages!

Any western business in competition with China is on a hiding to nothing and has been for a long time. The additional NI and minimum wage is neither here nor there.