Why isn't work paid better?

[malificent7]

People who work hardshould be able to afford a better life for themselves. So many work in stressful jobs and also have stressors outside of work too like poor housing, expensive food and childcare etc. Please explain to a simpleton why jobs aren't being paid in line with inflation...espwcially public services.

Part of the housing issue is the significant increase in single adult houses. More people live or want to live on their own and as more and more families spilt up this doubles the housing needs of each family. People are also wanting bigger houses with spare rooms, studies etc. And semi detached or detached.

Overall peoples expectations for what a good standard of living means have increased massively. Which isn't on it's own a bad thing but it mean that when this isn't possible people are discontented. For example when my parents married and had their first child they lived in a rented two bedroom 4th floor flat, with all second hand furniture. Nowadays that would be seen as struggling but to them it was a step up from what many of their peers had to start their families in..

Housing benefit doesn't cover rent in the vast majority of areas of the UK, and under 35s (who are the least likely to own and the most likely to be struggling with housing costs) aren't eligible for it at all, so I think it's unlikely that is the cause of the problem.

Wages are fine, everything else is too expensive. I'd be very happy on my wage 10-15 years ago

We have finite resources.

It’s really quite odd to me that at a time when we have a housing crisis we are still replacing flats with houses, and reducing the number of people who can be housed as a result. In most countries people live as a default in flats, it is normal in London. So why not elsewhere in the U.K.?

There isn't a simple explanation OP.

Imagine yourself the owner of a shop. You need to buy stock, sell it to make a profit, pay business expenses (rent, utilities), pay staff and pay yourself enough to cover your needs.

Get juggling when the costs of buying stock rockets, as do utilities and rents, your mortgage and food bills rise as do your staff who naturally demand a pay rise.

Meanwhile because everyone is struggling people start cutting back on buying your products.

Do you see how non simple it is?

Housing benefit is a massive distortion, that it doesn’t cover 100% of rent is a detail. It still pushes rent up and means people who don’t get housing benefit can’t afford to rent. While giving £££££ to politicians and their cronies.

Presumably if you want to abolish it you want to get rid of landlordism all together? If so, then we're in agreement!
I'd much prefer properties being rented by HB recipients to be compulsory purchased by councils and turned into social housing for those same people. It would amount to a proper reversal of one of the most harmful aspects of Thatcherism.

U.K. wages are low (relative to the cost of living) compared to many countries. They are propped up by high income taxes on the small percentage of higher earners and then paid to the lower earners in the form of tax credits and other state benefits, protecting the profits of business owners. The system is pretty broken.

That’s quite a leap to make. There would still be some private landlords.

I’m not sure what you suggest is workable as most of the properties would need huge amounts of work which wouldn’t be practical or affordable. Plus it wouldn’t increase the amount of property.

It truly would be easier to build new flats for people to live in, if you want to increase social housing.

Yep

Not sure about that. I think we are wealthy enough but the wealth has been unevenly distributed.

And all those companies are making massive profits.

It would, but I think there should be some mechanism for seizing long term empty properties and no one should be able to buy a house that isn't their primary residence, Too many empty investment properties just sit....
Yes, I know I'm an impractical dreamer.

exactly this. I thought the same about Amazon telling their workers that can’t afford pay rises but then at same time posting record profits. I do wonder how many people who work at Tesco recieve top up benefits?

You think a 10 to15% return on investment for a business is excessive?

Public services pay - that is largely down to the last government.

Pay in general - employers pay what they can get away with. It's a market economy. The tax system is skewed in favour of the rich. The personal allowance has been frozen since 2021 so, although the minimum wage has gone up significantly , tax is becoming more significant for those on lower wages.

So you think somebody should be able to buy a property on one NWM income?

I'm with you, there is a strong message, pushed by the unions and the media, that public sector workers like teachers, nurses etc are poorly paid, when actually that is not the issue at all. Our pay is pretty reasonable (As a physio i am on same pay scale as nurses, after 5 years was a band 7 which is well over 50k), our annual leave is good (I get 7 weeks a year plus bank holidays) a weeks paid carers leave, good pension and generally there is quite a bit of flexibility in hours for a good work life balance, especially if commuinity based.
The issue is mainly how we are treated - workload, abusive patients/badly behaved pupils, not the finances.

Wages in the UK are a disgrace.

But don't be fooled and think those who work in the private sector are well rewarded....they can often pay even worse than the public sector depending on the role.

I'm a sahm but occasionally look at job adverts in case anything catches my eye. It's absolutely appalling...a basic admin job paid £25k in 2005 in London. A basic admin job in 2025 still pays £25k. And 9-5 doesn't exist anymore....many jobs expect 8.30-6 or 9-6...it's a joke.

I've even seen jobs which pay minimum wage have the cheek to describe it as a competitive salary😂

Yes, private sector pay has fallen behind the public sector.

Housing is now treated as a financialised asset,

Everything is treated as a commodity. My health, your kids, next doors dog. It's what we wanted, it's what we got.

I don't think it's wages, I think it's the cost of everything wages have to cover. I earn well but in the last 12 months rent has gone up, insurance has gone up, utilities have gone up, food prices are ridiculous and even the price of toiletries have gone up. What pay rise I did have doesn't cover the increases so although technically I earn more I have less disposable income. It's soul destroying if you dwell on it.

Definitely, but the media focus on 'poor public sector workers' distracts from this.

TA/HCA's/carers are not paid enough for the stress of their roles, but qualified pay is pretty reasonable I think.

Employers pay the lowest they can get away with. Businesses are about making money for their owners/shareholders. Higher wages means less profit in the immediate term, and businesses chiefly look at the immediate future.

I worked for a company that was privately owned by descendants of the founder. They didn't work for the company, but they took the profits so they had a comfortable life without having to work themselves. The thing was, with every generation there are more people expecting to be supported. Their individual percentage share of ownership was lower, but they demanded the same return. Hence the company got squeezed until it collapsed.

The other big reason is cheap labour from abroad. The shortage of British workers willing to do the job for the wages offered means firms import people who are willing to do it. Which means wages are lower, British people cannot afford to do the jobs and more immigration is needed. Immigration is the real cause of the cost of living crisis. It drives up house prices and keeps wages low. Cut the problem off at the source, remove anyone who has arrived in the last 30 years (and their children and grandchildren), confiscate their property and after the short-term carnage we would have a much better society with plenty of cheap housing and employers having to pay higher wages.

That's the real solution. Drastic yes, inhuman certainly, but that's the basic problem: a good living standard for one person means a much lower living standard for several others. Wages are low because workers are feeding money to the few at the top. Millions have to be screwed so thousands live well. The choice is, do we want the country as a whole to be in the "elite" in global terms - which means being comfortable screwing over most of the rest of the world - or do we want to act with morals but be consigned to remain forever poorer?

There's no ethical solution that enables everyone to live well. Wealth is comparative, for one person to feel well-off or comfortable, many more have to feel poor.

Definitely, my pay has gone up significantly. My wage on newly qualifying in 2002 was about 15k. Now a newly qualified staff member is on 30k.

I bought my first flat for 73k. The same flat is now about 140k, so proportionally has stayed the same to the salary. But everything else has gone up so much that saving a deposit is really tough