Employers can't 'afford' to pay a living wage?

z1985m

Its the big huge companies out there that annoy me. They make millions and millions every year but only pay their staff minimum wage. I can understand small businesses paying minimum wage, but i have no sympathy with the 'big boys'

k12479

z1985m wrote: »

Its the big huge companies out there that annoy me. They make millions and millions every year but only pay their staff minimum wage. I can understand small businesses paying minimum wage, but i have no sympathy with the 'big boys'

But if the 'big boys' pay above market rate for a minimum wage job it would have an adverse effect on the small businesses whose staffing costs would also go up...and the whole inflationary thing continues.

And chances are, a part of those millions and millions from the big huge companies ends up in your pension pot (if you have one).

Kajimba

Russe11 wrote: »

I think the big elephant in the room we are all forgetting is that the jobs are not there.

Yes, the most optimistic calculation I've seen is four jobseekers to a vacancy. In my area it's 7. The possible solutions are a massive population reduction (unlikely, but we could get a new flu pandemic), creating more jobs (not going to happen on a big enough scale) or abandoning the ideal of every one being fully employed in a 40 hour a week job. However, getting rid of the 40 hour culture means that part-time jobs must pay enough to handle rent & living costs. Part time jobs don't do this if they are minimum wage.

The really big elephant is that the non-minimum wage jobs are not there. Everyone I know on minimum wage has a degree.
Everyone I know on minimum wage has at least five years experience.
Everyone I know on mimimum wage is making as many job applications as possible outside of their current work.

Of course, the plural of ancedote is not data.:D However, if these people are having trouble moving on from non-minimum wage work, what about those with no qualifications or experience?

Then there's the jobs that pay minimum wage, but should be valued higher. Shop keyholders for instance. Maybe I'm overly cautious, but I don't think the lowest paid employees should be the ones opening & closing the store and the safe.

thor

Itismehonest wrote: »

I'd be really interested to know how many people on here would, if they won millions on a lottery, would give it all or even say 50% of it to the poor?

In a heartbeat pal! But then I'm not greedy.
I would be more than happy having enough to live on without having the need to work or rely on benefits but that is all. No holidays, fancy restaurants, private schools etc.
If I had only won 500K though, that would be another matter.