Why Are Rates Of Pay So Low In NI?

dj9928

Compared to the mainland pay in Northern Ireland is crap. You just need to check out the jobcentre website to see the vast majority of jobs are offering min wage, even graduate jobs rates of pay are awful compared to the mainland

NAR

Probably there are two main reasons; lack of jobs and lack of competition.

There is not a great deal of unemployment either, which means there are not a large number of well qualified people unemployed.

talksalot81

It is strange when one considers that many services are actually more expensive here...

Our employment situation is a bit funny of course, do not forget that there are an obscene number of public service jobs which actually pay quite well. The problem is that we have very limited industry beyond that.

ManAtHome

So why has NI had the largest % increase in house prices over the last year - did they start from a ludicrously low base?

ginger_nuts

ManAtHome wrote:

So why has NI had the largest % increase in house prices over the last year - did they start from a ludicrously low base?

started from low base rate and BTL market .Also loads off people from eastern europe and they all need housing .More people needing housing executive housing they isnt there so they have to rent privately ,so more BTL houses needed.

dj9928

I reckon its one of the worst places in the UK to live, Low pay and cost of living high, The vast majority of us first time buyers have a better chance of winning the lotto than getting a morgage.

I can't help but think (and someone correct me if i'm wrong) that the reason pay is low is down to foreign workers, I mean why would an employer give me a payrise etc if they can get joe to do it cheaper, or why would an employer advertise a decent wage when they can get jane to do it for min wage, While these foreign nationals are good for the economy, they are keeping the wages down.

If this is part of the reason, it may well explain why Northern Ireland is one of the most racist countries in the western world.

But of course I may be well of the mark..

motorguy

ManAtHome wrote:

So why has NI had the largest % increase in house prices over the last year - did they start from a ludicrously low base?

Yes. three years ago i bought a semi detached sized 3 bedroom end terraced house for £42,000. i would imagine this would have been a fraction of what the same house would have made in most of mainland UK.

motorguy

dj9928 wrote:

I reckon its one of the worst places in the UK to live, Low pay and cost of living high, The vast majority of us first time buyers have a better chance of winning the lotto than getting a morgage.

I can't help but think (and someone correct me if i'm wrong) that the reason pay is low is down to foreign workers, I mean why would an employer give me a payrise etc if they can get joe pole to do it cheaper, or why would an employer advertise a decent wage when they can get jane latvian to do it for min wage, While these foreign nationals are good for the economy, they are keeping the wages down.

If this is part of the reason, it may well explain why Northern Ireland is one of the most racist countries in the western world.

But of course I may be well of the mark..

Totally agree with your first statement!!

I live in the craigavon area where there are there are a lot of foreign workers. This impacts the community in several ways. (a) they tend to work in minimum pay factories and appear happier to work unsociable hours and (b) they are renting a lot of property, which means more investors are buying up these typically entry level properties to rent out to them.

However i dont think the influx of immigrants explains why even very skilled or management jobs could easily be 30% down on their mainland equivalents?

motorguy

dj9928 wrote:

Compared to the mainland pay in Northern Ireland is crap. You just need to check out the jobcentre website to see the vast majority of jobs are offering min wage, even graduate jobs rates of pay are awful compared to the mainland

Is it not fair comment that most companies who advertise on the job centre website tend to be only prepared to offer in or around the minimum wage?

https://www.nijobs.com, https://www.loadsajobs.com and even local papers may yield more jobs and a higher average pay...

Giving an example of that by doing a quick analysis of just the I.T. sector alone - JobCentre online today 22 jobs compared to https://www.nijobs.com - 579 jobs.

More or less all of the jobs on JobCentre online are for entry level techicians, data input clerks etc. nijobs roles ranges from that right through to senior i.t. management roles....

chunter

I do think there is a huge bottleneck building up where a proportion of people who own houses now will not be able to afford to shortly, mostly owners of second houses.

1) Wages are not rising at 30% per year so there must be an adjustment.

2) The current madness in the housing sector is almost entirely fueled by speculators.

3) A proportion of NI house buying is being done by people in the building industry. A chicken and egg thing. If building slows and builders have no work it's a sell, sell sell on the extra houses.

4) The NI population is going up significantly, but it's a relatively unskilled new population so not bringing higher paid jobs. Compare it to the South where there has been a huge been influx of big US conglomerates. This pumps huge money into the economy. Nothing remotely like that here.

In summation, wages are aligned to house prices and there's a big elastic band on the two.

The other option is that NI becomes a place of "haves" and "have nots" and there's an awfully big gap between the two. Landowners and tenants.

That should start the argument....

wifeforlife

pgilc1 wrote:

Totally agree with your first statement!!

I live in the craigavon area where there are there are a lot of foreign workers. This impacts the community in several ways. (a) they tend to work in minimum pay factories and appear happier to work unsociable hours and (b) they are renting a lot of property, which means more investors are buying up these typically entry level properties to rent out to them.

However i dont think the influx of immigrants explains why even very skilled or management jobs could easily be 30% down on their mainland equivalents?

Live in the same area, and although I get what your saying and agree to a point esp with housing, these people are working the jobs we think we're too good for. Also regarding our low wages its because maggie broke the unions backs years ago and now we have noone to fight our cases.

As most people here know I'm a civil servant and even the recent pay increases had my blood boiling, cr@p and doesnt reflect the work we do and what does NIPSA (the union) care, !!!!!! all

Cath