Employers expecting people to work for £6.50 an hour!!

teabelly

It was in the press recently that an organisation had calculated that for a single person to have a reasonable standard of living, not including running a car, it required a salary of £14k. That is more than minimum wage. I would have said that was the basic minimum salary. Why should people be forced to live a life of penury because they're not the brightest? Not everyone has the brain to get A-levels, degrees and so forth to get the better paid jobs but it shouldn't mean they have to have a miserable existence.

Wages are far too low. The value of money halves roughly every 15 years. The average wage in 1995 was 17k. Just to keep up with the loss in value of money average wage needs to be £34k.

The UK should stop competing with sweat shops and start paying decent wages. Then we wouldn't need to pay money out on tax credits and other wastes of money. Employers should be paying decent wages in the first place. Why should the tax payer be subsidising these low wage merchants? Either raise the NMW or raise taxes on profits on organisations that have more than a certain percentage of employees eligible for tax credits because the full time salary is too low.

Snakeeyes21

markbass wrote: »

Rent £600 at least PCM live in a cheaper place, flat share etc

Food £150 a month cut down on food you fat pie, I spend at most £20 a week and eat very well and healthy

Bills??? paid for from the savings above

clothes??? same as above

Travel (car or public transport)??? not relevant, most people on low wages work close to where they live, in any case within easy / cheap commuting distance (or they wouldnt have applied for the job), around here a weekly bus ticket is £12 that gets you around all the towns / villages

And what you live your life as a monk and never go out or spoil yourself every six months??? not everything costs money!! why do you think you have to spend loads of money to enjoy yourself? a walk across the beach with a £1 bag of chips does wonders for the soul, more than a !!!! up with the lads would do.

Sorry mate your argument falls flat on it's face when dissected, and i mean no disrespect when i say that. Tis your argument that fails before it even starts

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Googlewhacker

teabelly wrote: »

It was in the press recently that an organisation had calculated that for a single person to have a reasonable standard of living, not including running a car, it required a salary of £14k. That is more than minimum wage. I would have said that was the basic minimum salary. Why should people be forced to live a life of penury because they're not the brightest? Not everyone has the brain to get A-levels, degrees and so forth to get the better paid jobs but it shouldn't mean they have to have a miserable existence.

Wages are far too low. The value of money halves roughly every 15 years. The average wage in 1995 was 17k. Just to keep up with the loss in value of money average wage needs to be £34k.

The UK should stop competing with sweat shops and start paying decent wages. Then we wouldn't need to pay money out on tax credits and other wastes of money. Employers should be paying decent wages in the first place. Why should the tax payer be subsidising these low wage merchants? Either raise the NMW or raise taxes on profits on organisations that have more than a certain percentage of employees eligible for tax credits because the full time salary is too low.

It is nice to see a valid arguement rather than someone ranting and raving about how things are tough.

It would be nice if the NMW is higher but it would just mean that all living costs would go up to compensate for the increase in the wages. And thus a short time after the new NMW level is brought in we will be getting the same conversations about people on NMW not earning enough to live...

kjmtidea

Right now I would quite happily work for less than the NMW, I just want a job

dmbaxt

my oh works for NMW, you just adjust and tighten the old belt a bit - buy cheaper brands at the supermarket, etc. but it depends on how much you're outgoings are.

He was earning a fair bit more than that until he got made redundant then you don't have the luxury of waiting for the right paid job to come along in the sector you want to work in, not when you have a mortgage to pay. NMW is better than £68 a week off the job centre anyday. Plus it looks better on your cv to be in work no matter how poorly paid.

donquine

£6/ph at 40 hours p/w = £880 take home.

Here, rent starts at £500 and council tax at £85 (assuming single person discount). A bus pass is £55.

On top of that, you need to consider the costs of fuel (gas/electricity), prescriptions (depending on where in the UK you live), food, toiletries, internet, tv licence, a landline, a cheap PAYG mobile... These are all what I would consider basic living costs.

I rather suspect to have a decent quality of life on that wage in this part of the UK, you would be looking at a houseshare.

OH says money can't buy happiness, but I think it can go a long way.

Hammyman

markbass wrote: »

What is it with the employers out there that expect the earth from employees for between 6 and 7 quid an hour, it's a disgrace to expect people to work for these sorts of sums, i remember the wages were higher than this ten years ago, is it a case of Employers taking advantage of the lack of jobs about, knowing damn well they'll be takers for their measly wage?

Many of the jobs in my area, East Yorks, are minimum wage and its been like that for years. Without NMW, they'd be still paying a couple of quid. Plenty of lorry drivers working for £7/hr at the moment.

yorkie18

I earn approx. £6.70 an hour and my husband earns about £6.00 an hour. We own our own house, pay all the bills we have to pay, and own a car. We also have many things people may call a luxury, but we can afford it. I would say if you're careful you can afford to live on between £6-£7 an hour. Sure, it would be nice not to have to be careful with our money all the time, but as long as we can pay the bills that's the main thing.

Googlewhacker

yorkie18 wrote: »

I earn approx. £6.70 an hour and my husband earns about £6.00 an hour. We own our own house, pay all the bills we have to pay, and own a car. We also have many things people may call a luxury, but we can afford it. I would say if you're careful you can afford to live on between £6-£7 an hour. Sure, it would be nice not to have to be careful with our money all the time, but as long as we can pay the bills that's the main thing.

This is the point exactly.

DCFC79

teabelly wrote: »

It was in the press recently that an organisation had calculated that for a single person to have a reasonable standard of living, not including running a car, it required a salary of £14k. That is more than minimum wage. I would have said that was the basic minimum salary. Why should people be forced to live a life of penury because they're not the brightest? Not everyone has the brain to get A-levels, degrees and so forth to get the better paid jobs but it shouldn't mean they have to have a miserable existence.

Wages are far too low. The value of money halves roughly every 15 years. The average wage in 1995 was 17k. Just to keep up with the loss in value of money average wage needs to be £34k.

The UK should stop competing with sweat shops and start paying decent wages. Then we wouldn't need to pay money out on tax credits and other wastes of money. Employers should be paying decent wages in the first place. Why should the tax payer be subsidising these low wage merchants? Either raise the NMW or raise taxes on profits on organisations that have more than a certain percentage of employees eligible for tax credits because the full time salary is too low.

yes i remember that, yes its a shame the nmw isnt more but thats how it is,