To think it’s crazy that National Minimum wage is £27k

[Butterflyfluff]

Yet it’s not really enough to live on 😢

My first job paid £7.5k per year and I thought I was loaded! And I’m not ancient.

Now 2 people on NMW earn over £50k between them yet it’s really not enough these days.

@Constantrunner , and if they inherit at 67, after working their guts out, would you begrudge them a couple of lovely holidays rather than putting their inheritance away for the possible care home fees?

Most people inheriting now are fairly elderly. We were 67 and 68 when we inherited from our parents. We had made our way in life, and having been self-employed, we saved. We did deeds of variation and passed our total inheritances down a generation.

Is this satire?

I think it's a fine level for minimum wage.

Entry level, unskilled work.

It's enough to live on. Obviously not enough to live in luxury but you wouldn't expect that for unskilled workers.

@HardFuckingBird how much of your income goes on housing?

@Papyrophile no. I was just explaining to a poster that you cannot assess a pensioners wealth based purely on the job they did before retiring. For every person like me who barely inherited anything, there is another who inherits a lot of money.

I am a pensioner and I have to make own wine using kits I buy online. Concentrated grape juice, brewing sugar, oak chips and yeast. It turns out at about 8 per cent ABV, not the 13 per cent that you get with the French stuff. I have started making my own bread and yoghurt and ice cream.

I might get a Salter's Steamer from Maidenhead to Windsor races or maybe a riverboat from Tate Britain to Tate Modern and both would be massive treats.

Yep, it's insane. But it's less than £26500, I think. Not surprising given inflation but silly. What is the point of everything 'increasing' all the time when it's just relative to everything else?? Just keep numbers the same!! Haha

What’s even more crazy is that it’s only double minimum wage that you’re into higher rate tax.

Inflation. It's tempting, but it usually escalates and escapes beyond the value in the economy, which is why it's a bad idea.

I do not know wealthy people, every person who is taking these trips are/were working class until they retired. Every one of the people I am talking about worked low wage jobs and live in a poor part of the country. You can tell me over and over that this isn’t the case, but it is. These people barely went on a holiday before retiring, now they live the life.

Here is a list of the jobs in no particular order:

• part time supermarket X2
• early retired design engineer
• sheet metal worker
• care home staff
• low level council office role X2
• nurse
• clerical worker X2
• cemetary caretaker
• not working due to disability

Tell me which of those is wealthy?

The average working household has disposable income BEFORE housing costs of approx £600 more than pensioners…have you seen how much rent or mortgages cost now? What about how much it costs to raise children? And the extra costs for transport to and from work? Extra car needed because you can’t share easily? Any activities being paid for 4 people instead of 1 or 2 in pensioner households…that extra 600 a month isn’t going to touch the sides is it

You are lovely parents. Your children are so fortunate you were so generous.

These are illegally low wages, are you self-employed?

However, the low paid in the UK pay through the nose for accommodation. Putting a roof over your head is stupidly expensive. But this is a smallish country, yet economic opportunity seems limited largely to the SE. I don't really understand why the rest of the country doesn't seize the opportunities.

You're not allowed to have this opinion on MN

Also none of them inherited either, they’re all in the same family (except spouses) and grew up on a council estate. The spouses all have living parents bar one who also grew up on a council estate. No homes being left to them, or big bank balances.

we haven’t seen this level of inflation for hundreds of years

You should have seen it in the 1970s - just 50 years ago. It hit 27% in 1975.

But you dont work full time so no comparison.

How?!? Or are you mortgage-free or in council housing?

Yeah that's what my ex tells HMRC /child benefit.

Meanwhile he has a brand new van. Several holidays away every year. Loads of work done on the house , all then usual cash in hand /tax dodge clichés

But FT MW is £27k so how can your family income be £20k?

It’s interesting because Dh and I are very middle class and live a very middle class lifestyle: £800k+ house that we’ll be mortgage free on in hopefully another 5 years, 3 cars and a couple motorcycles between us (none brand new or on finance), 2 kids, I have a horse I keep in full livery, we have nice holidays, we eat nice food, kids do lots of hobbies, Dh and I do lots of hobbies.

Yet, I earn about £24k a year right now, PT self-employed, Dh takes about £50k a year, also self employed. So our total household income is about £75k ish or maybe a little more each year.

But we live a very comfortable lifestyle (in the south west in a nice area). Yet I hear that people are on £100k+ and are struggling, and I think, but how? You don’t even have a horse or your husband doesn’t spend £5k a year on new mountain bikes. Where is all your money going? Because neither of us works FT and we live a very nice lifestyle.

Genuinely curious- no criticism intended at all- do you not get benefits on top of the £20k if you have kids?

£38k for working households, £32k for retired households excluding housing costs. So for a retired couple on state pension of £12k each, they each have a private pension of £4k a year. It includes benefits like attendance allowance for disability costs.
And it's because housing costs are so high. Working age adult households obviously have much higher median income than £38k, but they have to pay housing.

I worked in 1996 for 12k i think, and that wasn't loaded by any means.

When was your 7.5k?

@mindutopia , could you explain why you can manage on so little?