To think with min wage going up 6.7% that

[Frugalcheesecake]

Minimum wage is going up 6.7% next year. My pay has gone up by tiny amounts in comparison to this and is stagnating some years compared to inflation. I only earn a bit above min wage and I find my job very stressful.

Yes I know some minimum wage jobs are stressful but Ive done some that are easy too. AIBU to think that if min wage gets close to your wage a lot of people will quit just to get an easier min wage job if they can find one that is less stress

bump

Yep, I always say this. The answer isn't to keep raising the minimum wage (although I don't know what the actual answer is either)

The fact that some highly skilled jobs that take years to train for will be paid close to a shelf stacker in tesco is ridiculous.

It's taking away any incentive to work hard and get qualifications. I wouldn't bother if I knew I could get similar money and less stress working on checkouts 🤷‍♀️

Seems like it’s happening already, with TAs., ambulance call handlers etc. Hard to blame people!

Did you seriously "bump" after 4 minutes?! Good lord give us a chance to type.

I agree with you.

I think it will cause employers who are paying people just a bit above min wage might struggle to find trained people they would have had in the past work for them

I think the idea is other salaries will continue to inflate also. So retail supervisors who are about £1 over NMW will then also rise to continue being that, and it will trickle upwards. Not everyone will raise salaries obviously, but enough will that if you're stagnant, there are options to move.

But NMW is the only one the govt controls, so it makes sense to start there.

@LittleRedRidingHoody true its just I sometimes think that they wont as UK wages have been stagnating for a while

Inflation at the moment is around 2% min wage up 6.7% so if your payrise is less than 6.7% your pay is going up less than someone who is on minimum wage when inflation adjusted if Im right

Well they’ll need to move the tax brackets- crazy that the diff between no tax and 40% tax is 30k

Yup that's what's already happening the wages are sandwiching up so there's a slither just above minimum wage that will soon not be worth doing

@OnlyFoolsnMothers yep completely agree but I think they are frozen until 2028 so messed up

YANBU. I want everyone to have a decent quality of life but yeah it stings when you’ve spent £££££ on a degree and X years working your arse off in a stressful corporate environment and each year the earnings gap between you and the [insert minimum wage job] gets smaller and smaller. Won’t be long before I’ll be earning the same as someone stacking shelves or cleaning toilets - in fact, once my student loan gets deducted from my monthly pay cheque, I’ll be earning even less than them!

Some companies will raise their wages to attract the best staff so have to be prepared to move to those employers

@dhxxx youd hope but the thing is will they though?

A lot of employers are now facing a big hike in NI taxes

Inflation at the moment is around 2% min wage up 6.7% so if your payrise is less than 6.7% your pay is going up less than someone who is on minimum wage when inflation adjusted if Im right.

I suspect this comparison is a bit simplistic. It might be true that the rise is above Inflation this year but if you were to compare it to the much higher numbers over the last 3 or 4 years it may not have risen in real terms over the entire period.

I wish theyd stop using terms like national living wage too which is a lot of crap

People always use the argument that people will give up their jobs to do min wage jobs, but I've literally never met anyone who has done this. It's a total non argument.

but the argument is to raise wages across the board not to keep people down

Some will and the ones who don't will lose their good staff. Then will have to raise the wage to attract someone to fill the role.

Of course it won't happen in all companies, and they can get away will paying existing staff less than trying to attract someone new. But that's why people have to move jobs to get decent pay rises these days. All my big salary jumps have been from moving employers

If you're on min wage you woukdnt be earning enough to be paying back student lone. Stop being so hyperbolic.

@TortieRage I've known several mums do it. For example one mum friend was an estate agent who now works in a supermarket. Not worth the hassle of trying to juggle family life with a stressful job for the difference in post-tax income. Similarly know a teacher who works as a TA. because the extra earned as a teacher isn't worth the stress.

If the wage differentials were more significant I don't believe they'd make these choices.

I don't think the solution is to not raise minimum wage at all. I mean if you don't do that, there is literally no incentive at all for any other wages to rise. Everyone has been complaining that wages have stagnated but then everyone also complains when the minimum wage rises...

I work in supermarket retail. There's been a huge shift in what's expected of minimum wage employees as a result of the increases & easy jobs like shelf stacking & checkouts don't really exist anymore, unless they are part time or temporary. I have some students who just do checkouts but shifts are 4 hour shifts.
Shelf stacking doesn't exist as a role anymore & staff are expected to stock manage and are accountable for any problems.

Staff are now expected to be self sufficient & respond to customer demands so they would need to be managing queues whilst completing task.

There's fewer staff & anyone with a full time or over 30 hours contract will be doing tasks previously completed by management.

I'm on an 8% NMW differential & am duty/key holder to a medium sized town centre branch - dealing with all incidents - over this weekend I've had a customer collapse in the shop, a violent fight in the car park, numerous shoplifting incidents, a car v pedestrian, a lost child and 2 requests for CCTV & statements for police that could result in me attending court.

If I wanted to work in a supermarket doing just checkouts or stock management without the added responsibility I would have to reduce my hours to 12 a week. If I want 24 + or full time I have to take on the duty/key holder tasks. There simply isn't an option to work full time on NMW but only doing 'easy' tasks.

People on minimum wage can have student loans too you know? I'm still paying mine back. And yes I have a degree
No I don't stack shelves or clean toilets

Half the threads are "I can't survive on less than 100k or my 6k a month is tight to live on"
The other half are "Min wage doesn't need to go up"

Excuse me? The repayment threshold for a Plan 2 student loan is £27,295 per year. With this 6.7% increase, the minimum wage for a full-time worker will be £23,873.60. So less than £4k difference and the gap decreases each time the minimum wage rises! So not hyperbolic at all.