To think it is not that easy to 'get a better job'

[EuclidianGeometryFan]

Seen a few threads lately about people with money issues, and on low wages or minimum wage.
Then some posters say things like 'why haven't you got a promotion in the last X years?' 'Why don't you re-train / upskill?' 'Why don't you get a better job?'

As if anyone stays in a minimum wage job for years just for the fun of it!

The job market is a pyramid - there is not enough room on the higher levels for everyone. Even as you age you can't automatically expect to climb the ladder and move up - the maths don't stack up. Not every field of work has a 'career ladder'.
Some people are stuck on minimum wage or not much more, for life. They may not have the ability or skills or aptitude to re-train or get promoted, let alone the time and energy.

It smacks of blaming the OP for not being ambitious enough. Some posters seem to have no conception of what life and the job market is like for minimum wage workers.

They are saying that a binman deserves to live in poverty because they are too thick to do more. That is the vibe I get from a few people on this thread.

Yes. Of course a doctor is more important.

They deserve what they are getting paid. Given a binman is physically (and mentally) healthy to do the job and go outside. Their success and life is down to them.

I think you’re really misunderstanding the role. There’s no one-to-one assistance with the exam apart from walking with a student to the loos and waiting outside. And honestly this hardly happened because time is precious in exams and students didn’t waste time going to the loo, they would go before the exam. If it did happen you could make sure it was one of the other invigilators who did it instead of you. There were always multiple invigilators in an exam. Anyway, it doesn’t sound like it’s something you’re interested in.

With out bin men rubbish would pile up, it would cause diseases , huge stink, trip hazard’s, rats, cockroaches, people would get ill and there would not be enough doctors to deal with all them ill people

Bin men are important are doctors . …

Just to buck the trend. I am degree educated, worked in the field I studied until I had kids, then worked for NMW. I have just left a job that involved health screening, hospital referrals and medical scans.

As of Monday, I will be working for Aldi. Which pays more than my previous job, has better working hours and better benefits. Surely this is the scandal, I studied for years to be able to do my previous role, but I will be paid better to move stock around a supermarket.

Bin men are easily replaceable. Anyone of sound body can do it.

If bin men upped and refused to work, I'd physically take my garbage to a landfill site or pay for private waste clearance.

😂talk is cheap
landfill site men count as bin men also. What if they all refused to do them jobs.
You really are up yourself

Do you mean dealing with patients? I can’t think of a job where one is qualified to refer patients to specialists / other clinicians paying NMW, but I’m prepared to be corrected (and stunned).

I'd pay out of my own pocket to go to a private landfill.

you make a-lot of odd assumptions and don’t care about others 🤔

…where there would still need to be people dealing with the bins

MN is full of easy solutions. Get a better job, learn to drive, get therapy, just leave...If only our decisions could really be that straightforward. I guess that's the nature of an anonymous forum though, and sometimes another person's perspective might give us a push in the right direction.

Don't forget take in ironing , become a childminder or move somewhere cheaper - all easy and instant solutions!

And who's manning the landfill? Are you paying enough out of your own pocket to ensure that the people providing that service aren't on a low wage? Or is it a free for all with no one there, because no one should be in a low waged job? Are you also going to sort it all yourself and make sure the laws around waste disposal are adhered to? Are you going to make sure everyone else is doing the same?

And how are you getting there without fuel for your car, keeping it taxed, MOT'd and insured (who all need some low paid workers to function)?

And your car will need cleaning after I would think, where are you buying the stuff to do that? Because there'll be no shop assistants aside from the few that are students or retired or working around children at school so they're not actually available when you want to go to the shop, so it's shut, or there's nothing on the shelves and only a couple of people serving.

Want to grab a coffee on the way back? Nope. No low paid coffee shop workers to serve you there, all off doing better jobs.

And that's just one trip to the local landfill.

I agree OP. All paid full time employment should yield a sufficient salary for a reasonable standard of living.

There was a thread the other day from a woman on NMW (I think) who worked full time and had nothing to live on after bills were paid. People were criticising her because she had a £10 Netflix subscription. I thought it’s a bugger isn’t it, you work full time and can’t even come home after a long shift and watch a sodding series than literally everyone will have.

Sometimes MN is funny. People have no problem with families on benefits who don’t work getting £3000 per month but blame someone who works FT for not having a pot to piss in.

I love my job, genuinely love it. However.... I put in extra hours sometimes, because it's time restrictive with deadlines (and because I thoroughly enjoy what I'm doing) - everyone on the team does - it's not me not being able to manage time effectively. Everyone's cases are different though, some might have a quick fix, others might need a lot of work.
The next pay grade would involve me having the original type of workload but with extra responsibilities and as a single parent, this just wouldn't work for me. I've worked 5 unpaid hours this week alone and logged on the day I was on AL.
How the hell am I supposed to progress in this role, when I already work my arse off and there aren't enough hours in the day? And I really want to progress, even though the next pay grade is only 3k more.

If she was in dire situation she could have cancelled. YouTube is free

That’s by the by. She shouldn’t have to.

She's not entitled to anything.

Not really feasible though since they can only work select hours.but you need a range of people to fill in all the gaps.

In my department there are a few of us with kids who work set hours during the day so I guess we come into the ex SAHM bracket (although none of us ever were) We are bringing in a bit of extra money propped up by a higher earning husband.

Fine but if they chose to walk out or we had to leave because they were twats then we would be asked why we didn't have a career, were financially independent.

Only the managers and assistant managers earn a chunk over minimum wage, there are a wide variety of others from all different backgrounds doing the jobs of food servers, receptionists, gym staff, groundskeepers. You can't rely on students forever so who actually does those jobs if everyone aged 23-65 was working in a high paid career?

Well then no one is entitled to anything, so the 'better' jobs aren't entitled to the higher wages they are paid nor the lifestyle that allows.

But of course you might say they earned it. In which case we come back to that poster is working too, and they should be paid enough to cover living costs as well as a bloody £10 Netflix subscription so they're not simply existing to provide other people a service, paying out everything they earn on the basics that keep them alive and available to provide that service, and then quietly disappearing when not required without having any sort of life themselves, and make other people money.

The problem here is an ever increasing number of people think that's exactly what should happen, and the people on the other side are not staying quiet about it.

Most of these jobs are easily replaceable and are low skilled. One person refuses to do it, they'll find someone else who will. That's why the pay is low. You're not entitled to anything.

Take u.c for example. Horrific and unfair system to minimum wage workers.

Working people who need a top up allowance from universal credit will NEVER earn more whilst they're on there.
For every £1 over their threshold, you get to keep 45p and 55p goes back to u.c.
I worked it out as I'm concerned about my single sister with 2 children. She's on minimum wage. After tax and national insurance, for every hour worked over 16 hours, she is working for just over £2 an hour.
So how do minimum wage workers on u.c improve their lives? They're trying by working over time, extra hours and not even earning minimum wage at the end of it.

Unemployed people however on u.c, get the full amount without having to pay it back AND they qualify for interest free loans that employed people on minimum wage can't get.

It's a disgusting system that keeps minimum wages at that exact point. Every effort to do better and you hit a very big wall.

I don’t understand the argument that you “can’t rely on students forever”. Unless we experience a very steep population decline and immigration grounds to a halt, there will always be young people who need part-time low-skilled jobs to earn some money while they study, or retirees looking to top up their pension. The reason some jobs pay NMW is precisely because anyone can do them and there is a steady stream of people who will do them. If everyone was intelligent enough to be a doctor and it took 6 months to qualify instead of 5 years (and then some) then the pay for doctors will plummet. The high barriers to entry in certain professions are one of the things that dictate higher pay.

The point about people having enough money to live is a separate (and valid) argument. COL is too high relative to wages, the State has to step in so businesses can keep labour costs down and be able to compete globally, if not offshore more and more of their workforce meaning fewer jobs in the UK. Although AI will take care of that, I’m sure. I don’t know what the answer is, apart from everyone accepting a lower standard of living, which is depressing.