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Original poster

minimum decent wage

26 replies

hercules · 12/09/2004 22:02

How much is the minimum decent wage do you think?

OP posts:
MummyToSteven · 12/09/2004 22:04

I think that depends on the cost of accommodation, so would really vary dramatically throughout the country. I would say at least £7.50 per hour.

Original poster
hercules · 12/09/2004 22:05

How much per annum would you be happy to earn?

OP posts:
MummyToSteven · 12/09/2004 22:06

I would say £12,000. I'm not saying that £7.50 p/h is any less than I would be prepared to earn.

misdee · 12/09/2004 22:06

to live comfortably round here in private rent (3 bed house) then i'd say around £25k.

that would be around quarter of the money on rent only. maybe i'm being greedy. lol.

MummyToSteven · 12/09/2004 22:07

I have earnt a lot more than that, but was stressed out by my job, which I think was an enormous factor in me becoming depressed during my PG.

Original poster
hercules · 12/09/2004 22:08

I think around 26k

OP posts:
misdee · 12/09/2004 22:08

what is the minimum wage these days anyway?

remember being shocked when safeway upped our wages from £4.30 to £5.25 an hour.

misdee · 12/09/2004 22:09

isnt national average £22k?

MummyToSteven · 12/09/2004 22:09

to be fair, if I had to be self-supporting, no financial support from DH, £20,000 - which I guess means in the interests of fairness, I should bump up my hourly rate to £9.60 per hour!!!!

misdee · 12/09/2004 22:12

thing is, even with a minimum of £25k a year it would only get you a mortage large enough for a studio flat here. you'd need 2 people working full time to get enough money in to buy a house.

MeanBean · 12/09/2004 22:12

I think it all depends on are a of country, accomodation costs and dependents. What is a good wage for someone young and single who has inherited a house, is a pittance for someone with three kids in an expensive housing area.

MummyToSteven · 12/09/2004 22:13

thats an interesting point about the mortgage misdee. on dhs wages we can cover our mortgage, but not sure that dh would have got our mortgage on his salary alone. oh dear, this really does tangle me up in knots.

misdee · 12/09/2004 22:16

but i live in hertfordshire, 2nd most expensive palce to live outside of london. studios start around 75k, 2 bed houses/flats 100-125k, 3beds around 150k. and thats just the basic older houses. new 3 beds are 230k+ .

i had a 2bed flat a few yrs ago which we sold for 85k. up in manchester at the same time some friends of ours bought a brand new 3 bed house for 75k.

lydialemon · 12/09/2004 22:17

Well, to privately rent a 3 bed house where I am is around £1000 PCM, so thats £12,000 a year. If accomodation is a quarter of your income then a comfortable salary would be £48,000.........double our income

Which is why I live in a 2 bed council flat with 3 children

linnet · 12/09/2004 22:18

National Average is £22k? My dh works full time and doesn't earn anywhere near that. And we live in an expensive area.

MummyToSteven · 12/09/2004 22:19

think we spend about 1/2 our money on accommodation atm..no wonder we're skint!!!

misdee · 12/09/2004 22:19

lydiamom, get onto teh council with regards to over crowding. by rights u should be a top prioty to move.

where abouts are u uk wise? i'm guessing inner city.

lydialemon · 12/09/2004 22:19

Reasonable 3 bed terraced house would cost you about £225,000 here, guess where I live!

misdee · 12/09/2004 22:21

london

Original poster
hercules · 12/09/2004 22:22

Small 3 bed terrace where I live is from £250

OP posts:
jane313 · 12/09/2004 22:23

2 bedroom houses cost £250,000 around me and another bedroom is at least another £80,000. A colleague had her one bedroom house valued at 255,00 recently too.

lydialemon · 12/09/2004 22:23

misdee, I live in Lambeth - they sold off all the social housing

When I had DD and became 'overcrowded' (not legally until there are 6 adults living here!!!!!) I moved up from 1,600 on the transfer list to 895. I worked out from their figures of how long it takes to rehouse the top person on the list, that it will take at least 8 years to get a transfer

misdee · 12/09/2004 22:24

i know the closer u get to london prices rise dramactically. i'm in WGC so am further out than some, so we have a lot of commuters here.

misdee · 12/09/2004 22:26

they sold off all the social housing? so what the heck can u do? can u move anywhere else? i know you can apply to other councils if u have a family link with the area (parents/sisters/aunt/ dog??) its shocking they can leave families like that.

lydialemon · 12/09/2004 22:36

OK, DH is telling me off for doing something I can't spell. What happened is that rather than using the money raised by selling council properties through 'right-to-buy', to build more houses it used it for everything else. Lambeth was short of money because it is the worst council ever at collecting council tax. So there are lots of 1 bed/2 bed flats but hardly any 3 bed properties as they sold them and didn't replace them.

It sucks.

All the neighbouring boroughs are in the same boat to a certain degree.

If they raised the minimum wage to a decent rate though, we could buy lots of flash toys to make us forget about the pokey (but very nice in other ways) flat!