Why do people only pay the minimum wage

nomoreboomandbust

Masomnia wrote: »

I'm starting a job as a cleaner next month. £6.72ph. Not complaining.

I'd do it for less, as I'd rather work. But I'm not exactly going to turn round to them and say 'You've overvalued my labour, so here, have 79p per hour back'

Just to disclose, it is in the public sector (anyone surprised?) Fingers crossed after the spending review.

I was hoping it wasn't- we don't public sector wage averages going down- where is our ammunition going to come from to bash PS:)

bendix

globalds wrote: »

It is because of the responsibility of the position that I think it needs to be rewarded properly and with a sense of perspective to all the people involved.

Bil gates is in fact an example of a fairly benevolent boss as all the people who were initially involved in the risky process of starting up all had shares as a reward.

Reward also needs to have some connection to the amount of risk involved. If one has the advantage of being able to negotiate a contract that rewards just as well for failure as success or is based on a short term target that has no longer term benefit, or worse have an administrative position that can carry none of the risk associated with private business then the concept that you require some kind of comparable salary is absurd.

I am not a screaming socialist but quite like the idea of a maximum wage(Probably set at a couple of million a year).
As i've thought one of the spin-off's from this would be that a well run company would not be known for haveing an MD that picked up the highest salary , but would have the most employees who were paid at the maximum allowable.

What do you mean by maximum wage? Most CEOs are remunerated with shares.

Some CEOs get tiny wages (there are instances of some only being paid £1 a year), but have shares and options so their remuneration is linked to the shareprice.

It's trite to talk about having a maximum wage. You can't legislate such things - even if you did, there are ways around it.

Masomnia

bendix wrote: »

What do you mean by maximum wage? Most CEOs are remunerated with shares.

Some CEOs get tiny wages (there are instances of some only being paid £1 a year), but have shares and options so their remuneration is linked to the shareprice.

It's trite to talk about having a maximum wage. You can't legislate such things - even if you did, there are ways around it.

It'd probably make them better off in fact, as more payment in shares means more income taxed as a dividend rather than as income!

bendix

Masomnia wrote: »

It'd probably make them better off in fact, as more payment in shares means more income taxed as a dividend rather than as income!

Precisely. All too often people speak in empty slogans (there should be a maximum wage) without for a second sitting back and thinking through the consequences.

How on earth could a maximum wage be implemented? What would happen to those companies (and jobs) run by those people who run successful businesses and don't want to comply - do people think they would stay in the UK?

Masomnia

bendix wrote: »

Precisely. All too often people speak in empty slogans (there should be a maximum wage) without for a second sitting back and thinking through the consequences.

How on earth could a maximum wage be implemented? What would happen to those companies (and jobs) run by those people who run successful businesses and don't want to comply - do people think they would stay in the UK?

Quite. The Premiership would be finished too; although being an Oldham fan it might not be a problem for me personally

nomoreboomandbust

Masomnia wrote: »

Quite. The Premiership would be finished too; although being an Oldham fan it might not be a problem for me personally

You have my sympathies

bendix

Not mine. I'm a Leeds fan. But, then, I would be, wouldn't I?

sunrise27_2

tomterm8 wrote: »

Thanks. That's interesting. I went off the HMRC website http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/nmw/. After all you would have thought the organisation tasked with enforcing the national minimum wage would know what it was.

yet another example of the government not updating their own websites
I had BIG problems earlier in the year with my daughters ema a lot of it due to them not updating their information

tomterm8

Implementing a maximum wage would be impossible, they didn't even.succeed at that in communist russia.

frosty

misskool wrote: »

interestingly, people pay their personal household cleaners more.
http://www.house-cleaning-uk.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=171

I've seen rates of up to £15/hour.

I have cleaned houses for the last 20 years,I started because I could drop the children to school go and clean then be there to pick them up again.During school holidays I could take them with me(they watched tv,played in garden ect).I decided to keep the cleaning going because most jobs here are min wage,I charge £12 an hour, all jobs are in walking distance,they provide everything I need.I love it they make me coffee and lunch,I receive great christmas presents/cash.When they go on holiday they pay me to keep an eye on the house(no cleaning) .I have been cleaning some of them for years,I am swamped with work.I love it.