To think minimum wage is dire. What hourly rate would you work for?

[ColdTantrum]

Been job hunting and shocked at some of the low wages I’ve come across in the UK.

Do you agree the minimum wage is shockingly low?

What’s the lowest hourly rate you would be willing to work for?

Yes it is and that is why we need UC to top it up.

It’s low but it’s low for a reason tend to be entry level jobs, my last job was min wage until I had been there 1 year then it increased.

I'd be willing to work for minimum wage if i was unemployed and that's all I could get, and carry on looking for better paid work.

It is low but people don't want to pay more for things, you can't have both, higher wages and cheaper goods

@ItWasTheBestOfTimes I was speaking with the landlord of our local pub who is already struggling to break even and said the minimum wage increase may force them to close this year as they have a lot of staff and just can't absorb it. They can't increase their prices any further.

Obviously the rise is great for people on minimum wage - my DS included - but there is an impact and that impact might be that people lose their jobs entirely.

I earn £12.85 an hour working in care at home. Not minimum but I still find it a major struggle. I defy anyone who thinks it’s low skilled to come and try it. I do it because I find it rewarding and flexible and because I have no longer got the qualifications for a better job but it’s hellish trying to fund a rental car etc in this kind of income. I’m too old to retrain and don’t even know what I could possibly otherwise do. I’d like 18 to 20 an hour, to answer the original question

I am paid £13.50 per hour for my job . It's quite a reasonable wage for what I do.

The pay of carers makes me sick, it's such a challenging job with so much responsibility.

I don't think minimum wage is too bad but the stagnation above it makes it impossible for people to progress and earn more. I work for a government department and our admin earn less than the minimum wage will be in April. Their job is very complex and technical and some of the information they deal with daily is horrific. We are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit when they can be paid the same to do jobs with far less responsibility. Their pay will have to go up in April but that then puts them on an equal footing with practitioners , so where is the incentive then to do that role? I work in the justice sector and people would be shocked by the salaries

No, I think it's acceptable for entry level or low skilled work. What I do object to is the dumbing down & devaluation of certain skills/roles to justify only paying minimum wage.

I've worked on minimum wage, and would again if I were unexpectedly out of work - but as a single parent in the Home Counties it would barely cover my essential bills - and wouldn't even touch my mortgage.

I think it is shockingly low TBH. Last time I was on NMW I was 18, living at home, working in retail - it seemed like loads 😂 But I feel it's impossible to support a family on it - everyone I've met on minimum wage who has kids is either getting UC top ups or working 2 jobs, neither of which should be necessary IMO. Even 'low skilled' jobs (often some of the toughest in terms of manual labour) are not just covered by students/teens any more - and they should be paid enough to cover a decent standard of living. It doesn't really matter they're low skilled, because they are necessary to society either way.

Nobody would accept minimum wage if they had a choice. It's very sad that many hard-working people can't live on their wages.

I work in legal services, approx 20% of our income is from legal aid and legal help work, it used to be much higher than this before the cuts. A lot of it is work for low rate fixed fees set by central government that was barely profitable 5 years ago. When costs go up there isn’t really much we can do in those departments except find efficiencies and push the private paying work. The way things are going people will struggle to find a solicitor who offers legal aid even if you qualify. The 2 people I know of going through redundancy at the moment also work in legal services and a related field. One firm is closing entirely and another has cut whole departments that will no longer be profitable come April, so my friend who works in legal accounts is affected as they won’t need as many of them due to the reduction in bills and transactions. It’s going to be a bumpy few years.

I’ve not looked into this in great detail, but I do wonder if the introduction of minimum wage in the nineties has actually hindered wage growth. I used to live in a different country and wages were extremely competitive for jobs we consider minimum wage jobs in the UK (e g hospitality and retail and care). They had to be competitive to attract the best candidates. I’m sure it wasn’t perfect, and many construction workers were low paid migrants. But yeah, UK salaries seem to have slowed against inflation since the introduction of minimum wage. I think that’s because we assign value to roles in a different way. Anyway, just musings.

So you feel sorry for yourself, not those who are actually on a low wage.

Their pay will have to go up in April but that then puts them on an equal footing with practitioners , so where is the incentive then to do that role?

The gap between grades has been eroding for ages and nothing is ever done to address it.

I'm not on minimum wage but all I'll say is remember who we needed when we went into lockdown. It was the minimum wage/low paid workers that kept the country going and they don't get enough recognition or pay for what they do. The carers, retail workers, bin men etc were essential and we shouldn't forget that. Someone has to do the jobs that people deem as unskilled and if you are fortunate enough to get paid more than the minimum wage then consider yourself lucky. I know people will say they studied hard for their wage but not everyone gets the same opportunities to better themselves and they have to go out and earn whatever they can to make ends meet.

A single person working full time on minimum wage would not be entitled to uc top up. It's usually because they have children or are not working full time that they are entitled to claim

There was no legal minimum wage when I first started working in the mid-90s and I earned £3.50 an hour, which was a standard entry-wage for most junior office jobs at the time.

There's no evidence of that at all. If the market rate for their labour is higher then they can get a job elsewhere. In fact the market rate is lower hence why we have minimum wage. Also few employers are "billionaires"

Higher wages just result in employers cutting staff and automating production.

There should be a focus on making sure that everyone earns a living wage. At the moment workers support business owners and companies by working too cheaply - I think that this can be managed only through legislation. Of course many minimum wage jobs are seen as women's work - the way that the wage structure is set up is nothing more than a misogynistic construct and ignores the fact that raising the floor for women raises the floor for everyone.
The country I live in currently has a small government department that does work that is seen as very valuable. Lots of the jobs require people with very specialized skills and PhD level education, plus a willingness to live in remote places. People who do this work are incredibly passionate. The disgrace is that these workers are hugely underpaid and leaders of the department have said that the only saving grace is that the wages are so low that the families in question are eligible for high levels of family tax credit. So this government department is being heavily propped up by social support. It's a disgrace. Wonder if anyone can guess the country and the department.

Yes, I was in a flat share until I was 30. I was in a skilled job and earned what I considered a decent wage but I was single.

Interesting point. I betva labourer on a building site gets more ... it's because it's mostly women doing these jobs.
Train drivers getting paid more than nurses is also appalling.

Excellent post and example of what is happening a million times over. We need to be very careful not to let the current trajectory and economic inequality get even worse. It is the path to societal collapse.

People say this like everyone gets UC. If you are single with no DC, there is no top up