Will everyone be on it soon?

[AGreenBanana927]

Minimum wage going up by nearly 7% in April and past few years have seen some large increases in percentage (rightly so) but myself and friends we arent getting that much and the gap between my wage and min wage is getting closer and closer when wealth inequality getting worse

AIBU that soon a lot of jobs will just be on min wage soon and that the UK actually needs a maximum wage?

I think this is pretty awfuk tbh! Maybe if you paid her more and explained what would be ‘ideal’ from her role, she would deliver it. The fact she’s been there two years tells me she is definitely worth more than you think tbh.

Pretty silly to say we'll all be on minimum wage, when many of us earn a lot more.

She has been trained, managed within an inch of her life, she is just not that good and doesn’t really care. But not everyone can be great at everything, she still deserves a wage, just not a particularly high one.

So for example, she does some of our invoicing for a big customer. It’s quite easy, the computer does most of it, but she has to add carriage, VAT or take it off for overseas customers.

At her recent appraisal she was marked down because she continues to make careless mistakes. She asked “what would a reasonable amount of mistakes be” and we said “zero!” and she thought 1-5 mistakes PER WEEK was reasonable.
Our other employee who invoices for other customers has made maybe two mistakes in the last 6 months.

Labour are SO short sighted it’s unreal. Some might be paid more but businesses are screwed over and will hire less thus fewer jobs. It’s actually insane.

This.

As someone else said it’s the government increasing the NLW. Lots of businesses will struggle with it and the NI increases and it will contribute to going out of business. E.g. hospitality. Conversely ther are others that need to bridge the gap and pay a fair wage to all roles and employees. Not as simple as the same % increase to everyone. It’s about bringing those on a low wage up to a living wage. And just to throw it in there, why is it that those looking after our most loved and valued- parents/toddlers -are on the lowest wages? Bemusing!

If you think your other employee is performing well, why didn't you tell her that a reasonable amount of mistakes would be 'two every six months' or 'four a year'?

When you say 'zero' mistakes is reasonable I think you are confusing 'reasonable' with 'ideal'.

People are not robots.

But there should be zero mistakes - it is not a hard job. I’m giving an example of why we wouldn’t pay this employee more.

She needs a Performance Improvement Plan, regular monitoring. Perhaps she needs more ‘aids’ to working - Simple cheat sheet, final review process before sending invoice off.

You either have to manage her up, or manage her out - fairly and reasonably.

@Ozgirl76 the bottom line is that you’re giving wage increases to employees not on MW that aren’t proportionally equivalent to the increases MW workers have seen.
Like most employers tbh.

What that particular woman is doing badly or not doesn’t matter as such. The reality is that people at her level, doing her job as now earning proportionally less than before. Because let’s be honest, if you were to employ someone else, you wouldn’t employ them at a higher wage would you? (Same background, 2 years experience etc… just like her).

There is a huge issue with the difference between lowest and highest wages shrinking. It has been the case for a while. And yes people are going to stop striving. What’s the point of it?

£500 a month is a lot!

With your attitude she maybe thinks you deserve minimum effort? It doesn’t sound a very encouraging or supportive place to work

We don't need a maximum wage but after getting 3 promotions, which is worth double minimum wage now and historically was worth four times minimum wage, I've absolutely stopped doing the extras of my job on principle.

The way things are going and my age means that at some point I will hope for a redundancy payment and seek a lower responsibility role for similar pay and no stress.

Yanbu. I'm currently feeling very trapped in my nmw job. Looking for something "better" but realising that I'd likely be worse off financially as my current position is very flexible (like a lot of nmw jobs, it's shift work) so I don't need to pay for childcare. The very small wage increase I'd get from changing would be completely cancelled out several times over by childcare.

Perhaps. Everyone else seems to get on ok though.

You want them to artificially suppress minimum wage to make you feel better/richer/more special? How does their income hurt you?

Communism by the back door- everyone paid the same except for an elite.
Reason why people aren't going for promotion.
However with housing costs as they are there would be more homeless without it

Except working for minimum wage often means working shifts, evenings, weekends and bank holidays. It means limited annual leave, no sick pay beyond SSP and no bonuses or extra pay for unsocial hours.

It may not be mentally stressful but it’s often physically tough, the hours aren’t family friendly in the slightest and you have to deal with the general public.

I did NMW retail for years and would never go back - it was awful.

Logically i know the increase is because costs go up and it literally stops people entering poverty, but by giving 7% to the bottom rung and less/none to others, the middle rung feel squeezed because they are experiencing the same cost increases and less disposable income, which devalues working and attitudes to working, which benefits noone.

I'm not sure what the solution is really because I'm sure it's tough for employers who want to reward staff but ultimately its either profit margins for small businesses or or large stakeholders that need to be kept happy that makes it difficult to balance.

I do think in 20-50 years things will look vastly different because it's not sustainable but I couldn't tell you what it will look like.

Expecting humans to never make a mistake is just ridiculous.

No-one's said that @Smallmercies

But people who's job requires qualifications, training, experience, work beyond normal hours and other factors that used to pay a premium which has been degraded by ongoing lower pay rises mean they're no better off than people who are usually doing jobs that are easier, less stress and easier to switch off from. They could earn the same money for a lot less hassle and their extra effort is no longer rewarded. People on higher wages would be happy if they simply had the same percentage pay rise as people on NMW job.

There's a big difference between 2 mistakes every 6 months and one nearly every day though.

Ask for a bigger pay rise, historically that’s what men do, partly why they tend to earn more.

Or line up another job, then ask for a pay rise, you will then know how much you are worth to your current company.

Many jobs aren’t just about money they are about contacts, experience, opportunities. These can all be added onto a wage packet. Or trust, terms and conditions, flexibility, security, promotion.

I suspect many workers will just max put the benefits of sick pay and putting in the absolute minimum effort, the kind that sees many people dipping on and off performance management for years until companies just pay them to leave and recruit someone for less money.

As you get near the end of your working life and don't need the money in the same way, it becomes a more appealing option.