To feel undervalued due to minimum wage increase?

[Littlebittiredoflife]

When I first started this job four years ago I was earning enough in 15 hours as if I was working 16 hours at minimum wage. This meant as a family we could access the tax free childcare scheme. However for a while I've not earned enough to access that. I'm currently earning less than what the minimum wage will be from April. I'm just feeling that my time is worth less year on year given that everything else has risen in price. I'm not sure what I can do bar finding another job, but I'm lucky I like my work and they are flexible with hours. Anyone else feeling this way?

They will probably have automated payroll software which will increase it anyway.

Paying tax is not what makes you eligible for this. Also in a two parent family you need both parents to be working, so the tax is being paid by one of us.

So why don't you just work more hours?

I suppose I feel like I'm being punished in three areas. One cost of living has increased, so everything costs more, two I can't access tax free childcare and three I'm being paid relatively less for my time than I was four years ago.

Why did you not address this the first year you lost your TFC and ask for either one more hour or a small pay rise?

Surely if you’re a good employee you can ask for one more hour work. It will unlock so much more for you.

They don't have more hours for me to work.

You're not being punished anymore than the rest of us!

So work an extra hour! Either at your existing job or get another one. If you work 16 hours, you'll be paid at least 16 hours at minimum wage. Isn't that obvious?

Your gripe is basically "I only work 15 hours but I want to be paid the same amount and be entitled to the same benefits as if I worked 16 hours".

I imagine at 16 hours they start having to pay national insurance, so don't want to pay me for 16 hours. Someone else might have more knowledge in this area.

Well yes because these were the terms in my contract when I took this job four years ago. I wouldn't be complaining if these were the terms I'd signed up to, it's the fact that they've changed that's making me feel undervalued.

Ask for a wage increase?

Thank you for getting it, demoralising is the word. Equally agree that nmw should increase and it is a good thing.

It's not just tax free. I'm not entitled to the extra funded hours because I don't work enough- I work term time only so my average hours across the year is less than 16. That's worth around £250 a month.

This is exactly it.

Well,no, there was never a guarantee that you'd be paid 16xNMW for 15 hours work. Those were never the terms. It just happened to hit that sweet spot for a while. You were presumably employed for 15 hours at £x and you are still getting paid 15 hours at £x (plus possibly a payrise).

The answer is simply that if you want to access the TFC, you need to find a job for 16 hours. That's the only way you can guarantee your salary will always be at least 16 hours at NMW.

The joys of Brexit.

Yes you are right, it wasn't the terms. I feel like my time is worth less now due to the three factors mentioned above. I am lucky my childcare costs have reduced with age as basically 3/4s of my salary used to go on childcare. So we are only talking a few pounds on after school and holiday clubs. It's the feeling of value that I'm upset about, not the actual money.

I don't know when we lost it as childcare circumstances changed and my partner juggled more of it by working his hours more flexibly. The last time we had to confirm eligibility we couldn't due to the nmw increase at the time. I guess we continue to juggle without paying childcare.

I think it's cheeky expecting to claim tax free childcare when you're not a tax payer. You're an adult. Get a job with more hours, surely you can work at least 21 hours per week? You'd still be part time.

I do agree about jobs that were above minimum wage now being devalued. Jobs that were paid above NMW to acknowledge the level of qualifications and experience required now pay much less which is unfair to the workers.

NMW absolutely needed to increase and I'm all for the increase in April but all the other wages also need to increase.

We're going to end up with qualified professionals on NMW if we're not careful. What's the point in spending time, money, time away from family, stress of assignments, etc studying for qualifications if you could just not bother and get paid the same amount anyway?

Yanbu. Your job was valued e.g. 20% higher than minimum wage and now your employer sees it as a minimum wage post, despite you probably having more than minimum wage responsibilities.

The only thing to do really is get a different minimum wage job or apply elsewhere.

I'm confused as to why something is cheeky when that's how the scheme is designed? Both parents need to be working and my dp pays tax?

It only really increases the dignity of workers if it’s actually enough to live on. In a lot of cases it’s a way of making huge profits while paying their workers too little.

I was going to ask if you work for the NHS OP, but the charity sector seems about right.

You need to speak to your employer and explain this to them. They likely have no idea what an impact it has made to your individual circumstances or even given any thought to how some employees' payscales have been devalued by NMW increases. They may or may not be willing to increase your hourly rate to put you back at 15hrs for 16xNMW or give you the extra hour's work, but if you don't ask, then you definitely won't get it.

If they won't/can't help, it is worth finding a small very local (to minimise total time out of the house) job to cover the income difference. Depending on what hours you're already doing/when DH can cover childcare: cleaning, covering lunch breaks in the local pub, lunchtime supervisor at local primary school one day a week etc? The extra hour's pay plus the value of the funded hours would be worth over £300pm based on your figures and a 4.5 week month - definitely worth an hour a week at a top up job! (Or, as in my first paragraph, a brief but slightly uncomfortable chat with your manager)

Your gripe seems based on you not being able to claim benefits that you see yourself as entitled to. Is there a genuine reason why you can’t look for a different job that offers more hours?.

Eta not sure why it quoted you! Sorry! Its a generalnpoint below, not aimed at your comment!

I do agree with the general complaint but I do want to make the point that women should never see their salary as pointless because it goes on childcare.

That's a 50/50 expense. Yes, it is usually just shorthand for "childcare costs £800 a month and I earn £900 a month so it wipes it put" but my point is that that mindset devalues women's worth.

We get development, a life outside domesticity, social aspects, we aren't solely dependant on a mans saleary and therefore put up with stuff we wouldnt if we have choices, we arent up shit creek if we want to split up with a husband because we have access to a job and our own money which hits our bank accounts first before we put it into joint funds.

My point is that it's dangerous to reduce our salaries to simply being the cost of childcare, because its so much more. It actually pays towards the childcare, the insurances, the mortgage, the energy bills, the car. It doesn't matter that it happens to be a similar figure as childcare. No man goes to work and says his salary is to cover childcare. His salary is always for the mortgage, even if it's a similar amount.

Womens part time salaries never seem to be to cover the mortgage... it's reductive to say a salary only covers childcare, because you then get into the "pointless going to work to pay someone else to look after my kids" viewpoint.