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?

No one knows what life may throw at them. To put food on the table and pay the bills I’d work for minimum wage if that’s what I needed to do. It would be a huge change to living standards. But we need to eat.

I know minimum wage is there to protect people working in unskilled , “first steps” jobs, eg retail, hospitality however I was working in childcare and still on minimum wage. A job that needs a qualification. 3 years ago I was work in for £9 an hour with 3 other staff and 32 children in our care. Demoralising. NMW for caring, educating and encouraging our future generations is a bit of a slap in the face. This was a private sector job,

I now work for the Local Authority who pay much more which makes you feel more valued as a staff member.

The minimum wage is (scroogily) calculated on the assumption that you'll do forty-plus hours per week.

Unfortunately, a lot of MW jobs are also those that offer low-hour contracts. For instance, bar and restaurant work.

My daughter got a job the middle of last year as a server at a national chain restaurant. She was on contract. They were very busy and they wanted her to do thirty hours a week - so not quite enough to qualify as a permanent employee, which would mean they'd have to offer benefits such as sick pay and holiday. However, she could just about survive on that - pay the rent, eat, come home to get her washing done and leave with all our cheese.

But her employment contract guarantees only five hours a week, and since November, when her seaside town is deserted, that's all they give her. Five hours a week on minimum wage. And even then, if it's quiet, they send her home.

So I told her to apply for Universal Credit, which she has.

What this amounts to is that corporations - the employers - are saying, 'Yuh, we want these people available, but when things are quiet, we expect the taxpayer to support them. Maybe things'll pick up in the spring. Letcha know.'

I have been an employer. And a parent. And it seems to me that it's the job of employers to offer young people dependable, regular income, so that they can establish themselves in the world - get a flat, take responsibility for it, build a life.

My kids are lucky, and they know it - I provide a safety net. But plenty of kids - and I'm talking late teens, early twenties - don't have that. And it's wrong - it's absolutely immoral - that we've built a society in which young people have to rely on either parents or the state in order to make their way in the world.

How have we got here? Because the rights of corporations to make money comes before anybody else's right to anything.

She's absolutely entitled to sick and holiday pay regardless of if she's PT/FT - if they're not paying her that they're breaking the law.

Ah, maybe I've misunderstood, or she has.

Can you point me at an informational link? Thank you.

@PointsSouth sure!

www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights this is a good starting point. Companies deal with it differently but she's entitled to holiday for the hours she's worked - not based on her contract.

www.gov.uk/guidance/statutory-sick-pay-how-different-employment-types-affect-what-you-pay

Wages in general are dire unless you work in a select few industries. That’s why we have a ‘cost of living crisis’. Wages do not align with the cost of everything else. Minimum wage workers are the most vulnerable too given that many work zero hours or casual contracts and if they are off sick they simply don’t earn.

I'm self employed and charge "per job" if you like

My hourly rate varies from £40 per hour to over £200 per hour - that said - I (unfortunately) work no more than 10-15 hours a week so I'm not rich but I'm okay for money

Can't imagine working for min wage now

@PointsSouth

Because the rights of corporations to make money comes before anybody else's right to anything.

I agree that employees should be protected from exploitation but to be fair businesses exist to make a profit. It is unrealistic to expect them not to make money, indeed they would go bust if they didn't.

As I say, I've run one. And to some extent I disagree with you.

It's certainly true that companies exist to make a profit. But that's only a part of their function. They also exist to provide structure and opportunity for their employees. They also exist to support their people as part of their families. They also exist to serve as focus and enablement to communities. They also exist to contribute to the culture and self-realisation of wider society.

You may say, "Well, yeah, but they can't do any of that stuff unless they make a profit."

To which I reply, do you think that making a profit has to precede all the other stuff? It doesn't. In fact treating your employees in the way I suggest will contribute to profit, because happy, secure employees are hard-working, committed employees. Companies that consider the needs of a people's families will retain employees because of that consideration. Companies that get involved with a community will be supported by that community.

This is not theoretical. It works.

But my point was that if companies do not give steady, reliable income to young people, they can hardly complain - and so many do - when young people just think, "Fuck you - I'm not coming in this weekend. The job just doesn't matter enough to me."

Minimum wage is low in the UK. But what pisses me off even more is that in 4 months I'll be earning £1.70 an hour more than minimum wage, in a role that took years to learn and cost me thousands to qualify for

I might as well take the pay cut and drop all the stress once it's come in to force.

Presumably you will be increasing your wage in that post? Loads of professions start on low wages, but end up being decently paid

I don't think that the better paid amongst society understand that MW is the expected norm for many, many roles and not just those that are traditionally seen as low paid ie hospitality, retail and care. Even the supervisors, managers and team leaders in those industries are often only paid a nominal amount extra to MW....Managing or leading a team requires skills, qualifercations and experience but probably only pays a £1 hr extra..
I have a friend who is an NHS bed manager (a very skilled and stressful role) but is only paid £13.57 hr another friend is a clinical support worker, which again is even lower paid, NHS admin are general only a band 2 or 3 (a bit above MW) ...In the real world that's what many, many experienced, skilled people are earning and working damned hard for it too

Agree with parts but it’s crazy to say that a business is unreasonable for increasing & decreasing hours due to demand- that is just finance & life. There would be next to no local cafes, shops, restaurants etc without this because lots of businesses have predictable highs & lows and would go under themselves if for 6 months of the year they were paying a full staff full time when they don’t even earn enough to cover their own rent those months (as is the case where we are, very seasonal).

My husband is the same, once his wage used to be amazing however his employer has not increased wages to the same extent as minimum wage has been increasing meaning the gap is closing and he said once minimum wage is closer to what he gets paid he would be just aswell working in a easier and less physical job.

I find the phrase "willing to work for" a bit odd. For most people, working isn't a choice, and if they can't get a job that pays more than minimum wage, that's what they get. Willingness doesn't come into it.

Most people don't have a choice, if they are out of work they have to apply for jobs so that they are meeting their work commitments for Universal Credit.

I'd work for whatever it takes to survive.

Why should anyone have to sacrifice the best days of their life for a return that pays poverty wages?

Unskilled my arse. Everyone's time is precious!

@ARealitycheck mentioned jobs that are desperately needed, like carers, are paid far too low. You would have thought that jobs that many people don’t want to do, eg bin men, cleaners etc, would be hard to fill, so would need to pay more to attract people to the role. Instead, these jobs that the country relies on, maybe/maybe not skilled, physically hard jobs, possibly unpleasant work, pay NMW. It makes no sense.

Because the alternative is greater poverty?

My pets hate is 'entry level' wage, giving the impression that it's a step up. For the vast majority of adults earning that level, it is all they can expect at any age. Promotion may add a nominal amount which, after Mr Taxman gets at it is paltry but get all the responsibilities, commute costs eat into an already shit wage.

Tbf actual bin men (public sector not private waste collectors) are paid reasonably well.

I can assure you they are not - I work in the industry. We have just advertised a full time job with starting salary of less than £23k. We are in the south east.

It’s stagnated massively. Since the 10p tax rate was scrapped this is a travesty. The upper rate has also stagnated. So very very rich people are successfully getting middle income people to blame low paid people and vice versa. When the issue is really that we a) have very low tax for very very wealthy people (not Bob on £60k but Boris on £1million) and b) we tax families more punitively than almost any other country relative to individuals. When you consider that benefits are based on household income but tax is based on individual income with no longer tax credits helping those with dependent children it’s patently unfair.

Most "advertised" jobs seem to be offered at minimum wage. Even where a skill is required with a formal qualification such as fork-lift driver.

DC went for job as "assistant manager" in a retail shop which included key holding and opening and closing shop. The pay was 20p per hour more than then minimum wage. Ha!