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?

That's very giddy assuming people actually have a choice at times . How many low/unskilled people are realistically going to be able to choose to earn anything above minimum wage

This. Too many jobs which are actually skilled are paying minimum wage or close to it.

I often wonder this too. I started work pre minimum wage and there was so much more wage variation. I left one employer for another as the other paid twice as much for basically the same role. Then the first employer had to put thier wages up too. but minimum wage seems to be like price fixing at a bargain rate. Everyone knows the minimum you can get away with and therefore more and more jobs get sucked into low.

When? I don't remember that

After graduating in 1996 I earned 30k within a couple of years, just doing basic IT support.

30 years later 30k is still a good wage in the area where I live: about what CEOs of local charities earn! Wage stagnation has been shocking.

Personally I don't work for less than £400 a day doing desk-based self-employed work: usually around £500 a day. I'm quite disabled now and would rather be employed but don't think I'll be well enough to ever work full-time again.

I don't think minimum wage is poor, what I do think is happening is severe wage stagnation (they say 20 years and counting for wage stagnation now) and you now have qualified, experienced, staff, with significant roles and responsibilities on just a few thousand pounds more than those on minimum wage roles.

I earned £2.30 p/h age 16 in a local toy shop. I moved to Early Leaning Centre on £3.33 an hour for the same work. The thing is, NMW is essential, but for someone who lives with parents, pays no bills etc it's great but for someone with rent, bills, kids etc it doesn't go far.

For those who have wondered what they can do without qualifications etc, cleaners in my area charge £15-20 p/h. Obviously hard to make that a full time job due to distances between jobs and such but maybe an option for some. Advertise on local Facebook pages etc so no overheads and the clients supply their own equipment/products.

The cost of living crisis only started in 2021. So minimum wage did exist. I dont know if minimum wage 2019 had equal buying power to minimum wage 2025, though. Rent, energy and food are much more expensive and make up a bigger chunk of minimum wage spending so I'd think inflation for this group has been very high.

I'd work for minimum wage if I had to. I wouldn't have a choice! I don't have savings to fall back on.

I earn £29k currently but if I lost my job and the only option was minimum wage I'd do it.

That's not low!

I charge £55 per hour, however I’m freelance so no sick pay, pension, NI.
im self taught marketing, PR, advertising and now basic HR too.

I'm on £12.20 an hour, public sector, exhausting job which requires a lot of knowledge and people skills. I can afford to do it as I have low outgoings. Some sectors rely on people who have built a skill set through years of hard work then decide to put it to the public good. There's no way they could afford to pay us what the job deserves. There are a lot of highly skilled people on low wages.

When I was an apprentice in a nursery I was £2.60 an hour and I was constantly left to run the room myself or with a newer apprentice. I then became an NHS phlebotomist and was paid £9 and hour 🤣

The cost of housing fucked it up long before the col crisis to be fair.

Yes this.

my job is paid min wage. There’s a few colleagues who have to have extra training for medical devices that keep people alive and you have to monitor and operate them. The refresher training is regular and paid.

They get paid the same as me without the training. I refused to do the training because it doesn’t garner a higher hourly rate for the responsibility my boss hadn’t thought about that aspect when I told her why I wouldn’t do it.

extra stress, extra training with no benefit.

im actually a designer by trade and so many of those jobs that require a degree and yrs of work experience plus talent are 23/24k a year. That’s barely above min wage.

ive seen a design job recently that required a degree in design 4yrs min experience including ability to use 3D modelling software, know web design, good photography skills inc lighting (which is a separate skill set) as well as illustration skills for 24k. I have those skills but the amount of extra training I put myself through and the costs don’t reflect the pay. Plus it was in the middle of nowhere (joys of the south west!) so the commuting costs would be high and no WFH benefits.

job today required 4yrs min commercial driving experience and only offered min wage. I can get more in a local supermarket.

if you want skilled people you have to pay for them.

£11.44 per hour, £397.19 on a 40 hour working week. That is not contributing to a pension. That is take home pay of £1.721.16 a month. After rent, say £750 a month, council tax of say £150, Gas & Electric £200, Water £35, car ins & Tax £50, broadband £25, mobile phone £20, (I think that the basics) leaves you with around £491. Then food, petrol, clothing, doesn't really leave a lot does it

Well, I'm on it, and struggling

Because, I'm part time, and overtime has now been banned (always used to make up extra hours; most in my company are pt)

Oh I know. Single people get no help.

This

Far too many jobs pay minimum wage now. There seems to be no progression in terms of pay or jobs. Employers expect people to suck it up.

People on mumsnet (and in the real world too) have very little sympathy for people on minimum wage. The general view seems to be "it's fine to pay poor people poor wages because if they don't want to have poor wages they should just stop being poor". Not everyone can retrain. Retraining costs time and money that poor people don't have. Because they're poor. So they are therefore obviously choosing to continue being poor so therefore not deserving of sympathy. Meanwhile mumsnetters do have sympathy for those on £35-50k because things are very expensive and you just can't get by on that much these days.

So much of the problem is down to property inflation. But when I was younger absolutely nobody rented a flat on their own.

I think minimum wage has increased dramatically. But the problem is that there are some jobs paying it that should not be in that band. Then there is the problem of wage stagnation afterwards.

I think you will find that any country has problems with minimum wage, housing and cost of living.

In my industry, I wouldn’t work for less than £5/600 a day for work within the UK, or higher depending on location/risk.

It’s hard to get a decent understanding of what people would work for, when their jobs and skill sets are so varied.

I’m currently on £46k PA but, after taking voluntary redundancy last year, had to work a minimum wage job for 3 months. That was certainly an eye opener! £355 to slave all week, I didn’t even earn enough to pay back my student loan FGS. I’d say bare minimum would be £40k per year.

Minimum wage used to be enough to house yourself, pay bills, and have enough for fun after.
Everyone who works full time should expect that but successive governments - Tory and (New) Labour - have devalued work and prioritised protecting unearned income/profit, house price increases, inheritances etc. Work isn't a route out of poverty anymore - and running the country as a giant Ponzi scheme isn't sustainable.