National Living Wage £11.44 from Apr 2024

[AbondonedThemePark]

What do people think?

This is pretty decent I think.

It also starts at age 21 instead of the current 23, with under 21s getting the much less National Minimum Wage (not so decent).

I wish I had the luxury of sitting on a pedestal looking down on those trying to make a living - ignorance must be bliss

Who's that then @SkyFullofStars1975 ?

I'm self employed, no pedestal here. Just trying to make a living like lots of people, only without taking advantage of others by paying them poor wages.

Way back in the day when minimum wage first came in, my then employer went to see their lawyers to try and get out of it!

Saying small businesses need to just suck up the wage increases- they will just put their prices up. Can’t se how this won’t fuel inflation tbh.

Will giving workers a pay rise make inflation worse?

The IMF has said corporate profits are the biggest driver of inflation in Europe, while in the UK pay rises for the top 10% of earners have been driving price rises.

I'm sorry if this is silly but with the increase what would the minimum salary be for someone working 35 hours a week with 31 days holiday per year.

Doing this is not the answer.

On the surface, it is good for those on minimum wage. But:
More people paying more tax.
Reduction in the cost of ‘in work’ benefits.
Companies will foot the bill and will also have to increase their skilled workers pay or they risk the pay gap being too narrow.
What impact will this have on inflation which is still higher than it should be?
Cynical but the government are doing this for their own benefit.
They should have increased the tax thresholds and reviewed the child benefit tax charge.

I wonder if this is partly because they're thinking of a May election? It would be a good thing to use in the run up?

I hadn’t realised Scotland set different minimum wage to England.

is your mum working in England then?

Not having pay rises for 10 years certainly didn’t stop inflation, it soared over the last two years

You are likely doing them a massive favour by letting them go….I don’t get employers who pay the minimum to under 23s when they are doing the same job…l think that’s very poor form

Salary of £20820.80 for 35 hours

salary of £22308 for 37.5 hours

salary of £23795.20 for 40 hours

It's certainly prompted me to start looking for a new job. I work in the arts on £30k, my job has a fair bit of responsibility that stresses me out somewhat (safeguarding, managing, budgets), as well as obligation to travel. With deductions and commute I'll only be a few hundred pounds better off next April than I would be if I still worked in the local shop - which was definitely a less stressful job emoti

I think reducing the age to 21 is a long overdue, it fits with those leaving university and is the age I consider people to be adults.

The reduction in NI % will also benefit this group, who will keep more of their earnings.

What is interesting to me is, as the NMW rises a lot more employers are potentially going to have inadvertent breaches. By that I mean employers paying above NMW thinking we are OK, but in specific circumstances they are not.

NMW compliance is based on the maximum of a single pay period e.g. one calendar month. For those working 37.5 hours Monday to Friday who are paid 1/12 of salary some months may trigger a breach.

Example months can have between 20 and 23 working days.
20 days x 7.5 hours = 150 hours x £11.44 = £1,716.00
23 days x 7.5 hours = 172.5 hours x £11.44 = £1,973.40

£23,500 / 12 = £1,958.34 so months with 23 working days breach even though the annual salary is £1k + more than 37.5 x £11.44 x 52.2 = £22,393.80.

If you are close to NMW and paid monthly my advice is to do a quick calculation.

Yes, I will now be only pence above nlw and those without experience could not do what I do without months of training and that's if they are a quick learner and it comes naturally.

It certainly will make people question the job roles with responsibility paying just above this.

So what were you going to do when they turned 23? Sack them?

I think it will lead to a lot of small businesses going under, bars restaurants who haven't recovered from COVID losses yet will get rid of the 21s and employ 18+ or cut the hours massively. Same in Supermarkets and anywhere that is unskilled. ( I don't think these jobs are unlikely btw and I did them in my youth)

We don't have a different minimum wage in Scotland it's the same as in England/Wales. We do have a different tax system though which is slightly different to England/Wales

U@KateyCuckoo

By the time they get to 23 they will be more skilled and experienced and earning money into the business

Totally different scenario then

It's not quite as simple as people seem to think it is for small independents.

A huge number of small businesses went bust in the last year. Bigger businesses will offer smaller contracts or invest in automation.

Getting rid of staff in hospitality wouldn't be a great move for businesses who are already struggling to find anyone to work for them in some areas of the country.

So you're paying peanuts to everyone. Otherwise I can't see why £150 max (before taxes and other reductions) added to monthly wages of the poorest workers would outrage everyone else.

My hourly pay was a tad above minimum wage. With the new NMW it will be a tad under, so I can expect a 20p or so increase in April.
It's absolutely shite. But apparently, everyone in any paygrade above me, in the whole country will be outraged. Well fuck them!

If you're all so "professional" then use your PhD brains to get away from scraping pennies and looking starving people in the mouth.

@closingdownsale similar situation here (I no longer work in the arts but the charity sector). My salary has gone up 3% in 5 years. Literally what’s the point?! I have a degree, worked my bum off to “work my way up”, line management and budgets. When I started 5 years ago it was fairly good pay for what I did, but they added extra responsibilities under the guise of a restructure (no extra pay). The local supermarket is hiring, I have two children, I can’t take my work home with me anymore (much to the dismay of my child free line manager), why am I breaking my back?!

I'd actually love for it to be a national vote everytime there's a rise proposed for anyone on anything. It would be dead entertaining to watch a man beat down a fellow man every single time, Hunger games style.

I'm a cynic already, with the best of them but threads like these just highlight how many bullshitters are out there. They're less worried about their own pay, than they're worried about the gap(!) between them and those lower down.
The same people who donate to food banks, will begrudge the poor getting a few extra quid in pay... Upsets the status quo I suppose. The human condition.

You can't afford to pay a grown adult £11.44 per hour?

That's scandalous. It can't be much of a money-making business, more of a hobby, no?

I'm presuming, since you state you'll have to pay them £4 an hour more per hour, that this one employee you have is also now 21 years of age, so will qualify for an adult pay rate.

So, now, what are you going to do? Run your business on slave labour or hire an illegal migrant who'll work for £4 an hour cash in hand?