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

Indie_Kid

thorsoak wrote: »

Now I have no knowledge of this - but would not someone who is on NMW be entitled to housing benefit & council tax benefit? Not to mention child tax credits/child allowance if s/he has children?

Or are we talking about people under the age of 25?

Even if you were under 25, you'd still be entitled to some help. However, it would be the shared-room rate and not one bedroom rate for housing benefit / LHA.

kr15snw

O.k, lets look at this.

£6.50 an hour for 40 hours a week gives you £940 a month after tax.

So my bills:

Mortgage: £170
Food: £200
Water / Gas / Electric / Other Bills: £300
Sky: £40
Mobile: £20
Internet: £10
Petrol: £40 (It's cheaper for me to drive the 5 miles to work than it is to get a bus - 3 chages!!)
Bridge Toll: £15

Thats £805 a month, which leaves me £135 a month to 'live off'.

Oh and this budget is for 2 adults and we still get the luxury of a mobile, sky and internet

Seems an ok wage for me

Timalay

I'm only on £6.20 an hour with my school cleaner job (I do 20 hours a week), and bring home about £500 a month after tax and my work pension. I pay my parents about £100 a month board and put another £100 a month in a savings account. I quite happly live off £300 a month.

In this day and age you can't be too picky with how much you'll work for because there will be someone willing to work for less if you are. Also if you increased the NMW, a lot of the smaller businesses would strugle even more so than they are already.

clb776

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.

Thats very good. How long have you had your house? It is impossible for anyone earning NMW to get on the properrty ladder now. An average 2 bed house in my area is £178000....by using an online calculator I have seen that on a minimum wage, working minimum wage a couple who both work NMW MAY BE able to borrow between 50-730000. Say that is almost £100000 that has to be found from somewhere.

My husband works 40 hours a week for NMW (£5.80), after breaks he gets paid for 35. After tax he brings home around £675 per month. Tax credits etc can't really be included, because if we tried to save for a house by the time we got to whatever the savings limit, these would be taken away. I am currently job searching (great time for it!!), but once I start, if full time the same, would be the same if not a bit less after I have paid for childcare.

NMW cannot be livable as if it was there would be no need for tax credits/housing benefit etc. It is however what is affordable to employers etc.

Guess it depends where you live too. Down here a property will rent for £700, similiar house, area etc in wales say can be £400. The wages are still the same though.

Its not necessarily about having a poor education either. There are no jobs out there, and most of them are for NMW or near enough, regardless of what the job is.

Googlewhacker

clb776 wrote: »

NMW cannot be livable as if it was there would be no need for tax credits/housing benefit etc. It is however what is affordable to employers etc.

A better idea IMO would be to say that anyone that earns NMW should not pay tax up until the equivalent of £7.50 an hour (which is what IS makes it upto I think), this way the pressure is not on the employers, the employees get a decent wage, benefits are lessened and for example people who decide not to have kids etc also get some reward for their earnings rather than giving it all to families etc (that they would not get from benefits).

Edited to say not just NMW but all wages upto the £7.50 limit will get no tax upto the £7.50 limit IYGWIM

SarEl

clb776 wrote: »

Thats very good. How long have you had your house? It is impossible for anyone earning NMW to get on the properrty ladder now. An average 2 bed house in my area is £178000.... Down here a property will rent for £700, similiar house, area etc in wales say can be £400. The wages are still the same though.

Its not necessarily about having a poor education either. There are no jobs out there, and most of them are for NMW or near enough, regardless of what the job is.

And I think the operative word here is "down":) I live in the North of England, and where I am, you can't quite buy a palace for £178k - but you wouldn't be a long way off. Just as it depend where you live in Wales - my brother lives in Wales and he cries like a baby when he sees the market value of my house compared to his! And lets just say that mne is less than his. House prices in the UK are artifically and unreasonably high - unike anywhere else in Europe and much of the rest of the world.

Person_one

Googlewhacker wrote: »

Also you have not answered the question about what you have done to further yourself and actually deserve a higher wage?

There are lots of jobs that I think deserve a better wage than they get (including mine!) and lots that I think are massively overpaid. Unfortunately, jobs that don't generate income for people higher up a ladder don't get paid well.

Personally, I find it hard to think about what someone can do to 'deserve' more money when I see care workers earning NMW and footballers, bankers, sales reps, etc. earning obscene amounts.

Really shows what we value in this country.

clb776

Googlewhacker wrote: »

A better idea IMO would be to say that anyone that earns NMW should not pay tax up until the equivalent of £7.50 an hour (which is what IS makes it upto I think), this way the pressure is not on the employers, the employees get a decent wage, benefits are lessened and for example people who decide not to have kids etc also get some reward for their earnings rather than giving it all to families etc (that they would not get from benefits)

What is IS?
I agree that is a better way to look at it. However, if there were all those low wage workers paying no tax they would take the money of others. Its all just too expensive!!

Googlewhacker

Person_one wrote: »

There are lots of jobs that I think deserve a better wage than they get (including mine!) and lots that I think are massively overpaid. Unfortunately, jobs that don't generate income for people higher up a ladder don't get paid well.

Personally, I find it hard to think about what someone can do to 'deserve' more money when I see care workers earning NMW and footballers, bankers, sales reps, etc. earning obscene amounts.

Really shows what we value in this country.

We are getting into a differant arguement but my point was that here was the OP moaning about £6.50 being a low wage when he probably hasn't done alot in terms of education/training/apprenticeships etc to deserve earning higher amounts of money.

I could be wrong and if I am then it is upto the OP to be pushing himself in terms of applying for better paid jobs because they are out there regardless of how tough the current situation is

Googlewhacker

clb776 wrote: »

What is IS?
I agree that is a better way to look at it. However, if there were all those low wage workers paying no tax they would take the money of others. Its all just too expensive!!

Income support....