Rises in Minimum wage leading to rises in services?

[Katymac]

There has been discussions (on several threads) that employers should 'just pay better wages'

I wondered how this would work?

I have contracts with parents to provide care at a certain rate (calculated wrt the wages my staff get)

If the Minimum wage is raised.......do I get to increase my prices? Or do I have to do new contracts with both my employees and my clients?

& when I go out for a meal the cost of that meal will be astronomical; never mind shopping at Tescos

IF the minimum wage is raised will it happen over night (didn't they do that with road signs & driving on the other side) or will it be gradual?

How would it work?

People seem to be incredibly naive about this. Making employers pay better wages will just lead to more job cuts. I can't understand the 'them and us' attitude to emnployers. Some corporations are bastards, but most employers in the UK are small businesses that are really struggling right now. It won't help anyone if they go under because the Govt is forcing them to pay their employees more money.

That's it isn't it?

How much will nursery/childcare cost if the minimum wage rises?

Exactly. Inflation sucks but wage rises can just exacerbate it. If a minimum wage nursery worker has to be paid more childcare costs go up, you then have to earn more to pay for the childcare, your employer has to charge more for whatever services to afford the pay increase, and so you're back at square one.

My nursery is already losing money, I can't imagine what it will be like come October with the wage increases!

Is there a proposed figure yet (for October)?

"People seem to be incredibly naive about this"

Maybe. Unfortunately there is no easy solution to it.

From an employees point of view, raising the minimum wage makes sense - until there are job losses of course.

On the other thread the wage increase is being talked about in terms of a quick decrease in people on benefits. Which is logical if talked about in isolation.

• £5.80 to £5.93 an hour for workers aged 21 and over
• £4.83 to £4.92 an hour for workers aged 18 to 20
• £3.57 to £3.64 an hour for workers aged 16 to 17

But they're reducing the higher rate to 21 year olds, it used to be 22 year olds.

I agree Kaloki. It just annoys me that people seem to have so little regard for the small and medium businesses that will really struggle with this.

Will that change with the budget? or is that set?

because tbh 13p isn't going to worry me - it was the discussion of £10 an hour that scared me

I don't think it is a case of little regard TBH Callisto, just getting so wrapped up in one aspect that they lose sight of the bigger picture.

My Dad owns a hotel and with the increase in VAT TO 20% raising the minimum wage will push him to the brink. However I do understand the other side of it. It is a difficult situation to be honest.

Well at least the treat of it has galvanised me into calculating how much each member of staff actually costs me