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.

Good for you OP. If you feel unappreciated and very qualified then leave. If you live in one of the many areas of the UK lacking in quality, well-paid jobs then good luck to you finding a suitable NMW job.

And you'll be up against many people with experience in working NMW jobs for their living, so you might not be the hotshot you think you are. And the 'unmentionable' ageism - what with your 'advanced' years some employers might assume you as being not so physically capable of carrying out the required duties.

But you go forth and......do you.....or whatever

Ok 👍🏻

Indeed.

https://www.themantic-education.com/ibpsych/2021/08/18/key-studies-workplace-stress-status-and-the-whitehall-studies/?origin=serp_auto

I think it's great news! Work needs to pay better! All of my friends who have professional jobs not in the public sector have had a lot of pay rises.

I would have agreed with this until seeing the extortionate utility rises over the last few years. It's becoming unsustainable for small businesses no matter how efficient they are. Market readjustment won't be more functional efficient businesses, it will be survival of only the large (tax avoiding, employee exploiting) corporations with capacity to swallow losses.

The budget could be a disaster for a lot of smaller business but also big charities and retailers who are going to be hit with an NI increase and minimum wage increase. It will mean redundancies unfortunately. If you look at the profits of even some of the very big retailers a lot won’t be able to sustain that.

I do think that public services need to be funded better but the economy seems so fragile It feels very risky to place a lot of burden on business. As harsh as it sounds, many of the people making decisions on this on the treasury are incredibly bright but clueless re the real world implications of some of what they’re about to unleash in the budget.

@ExitViaGiftShop

The govt needs to put a stop to people being subsided by state benefits because companies do not pay their workers enough! employers, especially the large businesses, need to pay their staff properly! They need to take the hit, not the tax payer!

This.

Too many businesses have been getting away with paying their staff peanuts and expecting the taxpayer to supplement their poverty wages through the benefit system.

All workers should get a decent salary, not have to rely on benefits while in work.

Also agreed.

If you have to exploit people, your business isn't viable.

Supermarkets don't need to, they choose to prioritise shareholders ahead of customers and employees.

I run a business with 25-30 staff on average, all paid above minimum wage currently.
The increase in NMW, plus huge increases in employers National Insurance expected to be announced this week, mean I'm facing a tough call as to whether to employ less full-time staff or just less staff in general, or potentially give notice on my business, as these increase combined with energy & food/drink costs above the rate of inflation make it borderline viable.
It's pretty soul destroying right now.

So you would be happy with a rise in UC instead

People aren't seeing the correlation between higher NMW and a higher cost of living are they. The staffing costs will be passed onto everyone else by way of higher costs for food, fuel, energy, care, council tax.... NMW is one of those things that's great on paper but the reality is it just accelerates financial decline. I give it 5 years before another economic crisis hits.

Or not supporting
I don't get UC obviously because no children so I'm expected to be fine on min wage

The Labour Party are utterly ridiculous. They are about to make Liz Truss’s government look like economic whizz kids.

Push up minimum wage- costs passed on so makes life even more expensive wiping out any increase.

Coupled with the anticipated rise in employers NI many businesses won’t be able to afford to employ people leading to higher unemployment

Honestly -who the hell voted these 16 year old socialist worker sellers into office????

Yet another way that the child free are screwed over

We are still in the current one.

Yes people who work full time should not have to rely on benefits. But looking at most people's expenditure housing costs are one of the biggest problems.

Well, it's about to get a whole lot worse.

Don't be daft.

If people lose their job because employers can’t afford the increase, they will get universal credit anyway so I don’t know why people think this will reduce the benefits bill

With that well reasoned argument, I take it you were one of them!

Is it daft? Families who are just over the benefits threshold and own their own home are going to no longer have surplus income to use retail stores, they won't be able to afford tradespeople to repair their homes, they may give up on the cleaner, stop their child's dance lessons.... Can you not see the impact this is going to have on a wider scale?

Why this kind of bitter reply? It's true what OP is saying, why would people want higher levels of responsibility for an ever closing gap? The NMW & LW rising is great, but the smaller the gap between that and other jobs the less appealing the other jobs because; plenty of which are essential to society, just as some of those on NMW are. The issue is that these jobs above minimum haven't risen as much if barely at all, not that the lowest paid get a bit more. This is completely ignoring the reality on employers etc as well.

So easy to say

This. The bloody problem is housing. Its too expensive. But let's make employers the enemy eh.

Agreed! Tesco for example can afford it, but they will pass the cost onto customers so won’t effect them unless people cut back on what they buy even more, however they will still be spending the same