MSE News: Half of UK 'struggling to next payday', study says

Former_MSE_Darryl

"Around nine million more adults are struggling with money now compared with seven years ago, according to a major report into the health of the nation's finances..."

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Half of UK 'struggling to next payday', study says



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You-kip

Of course they're struggling as the minimum wage has been set as just over £6 which at £800 a month is living in poverty.

gadgetmind

It's a two-way street. If you can't be bothered to acquire the skills to earn significantly more than minimum wage then why should someone pay you more than your current meagre skills are worth to them?

Harsh but true.

You-kip

gadgetmind wrote: »

It's a two-way street. If you can't be bothered to acquire the skills to earn significantly more than minimum wage then why should someone pay you more than your current meagre skills are worth to them?

Harsh but true.

Well in Germany France etc whether you're skilled or not you'll still getting their Min wage which stands at near on 10 euro an hour.

JuicyJesus

gadgetmind wrote: »

It's a two-way street. If you can't be bothered to acquire the skills to earn significantly more than minimum wage then why should someone pay you more than your current meagre skills are worth to them?

Harsh but true.

The issue is that with our economy in the state it is, there aren't many jobs going, but the ones that are there either require significant specialist skills or are minimum wage. It simply isn't as easy as not being bothered to acquire the skills if you have no means of acquiring the skills or supporting yourself or your family in the meantime because the only jobs you can get are in fast food restaurants. Add to this that the basic cost of living - food, housing, energy, utilities - is inexorably increasing, and we're going to reach breaking point eventually.

Realistically, the minimum wage should pay enough for someone to live independently. Make it so that even the lowest paid jobs pay well enough for someone to put food on the table and have a comfortable life, and you not only sort out the problem of benefits paying more than work, but you also get more money circulating around the economy and more tax and National Insurance revenue coming in.

Good luck with that happening in this Parliament, with only a slightly higher chance of it happening under any putative Labour government.

hanlou007

agree with gadgetmind, everybody seems to want things for nothing. Put in the effort and you will be rewarded. Sit on your backside in front of your Sky TV all day (which seems to be something everybody struggling still affords to pay) and all u deserve is the minimum wage

Archi_Bald

You-kip wrote: »

Well in Germany France etc whether you're skilled or not you'll still getting their Min wage which stands at near on 10 euro an hour.

Are you sure that "Germany France etc" do have a minimum wage? And that it is 10 euros an hour? URLs please.

EDIT: Been doing a bit of googleing that seems to confirm that certainly across Germany there is no statutory min wage nationwide, and certainly not 'near on 10 euro an hour' where they do have some min wage agreements in states and/or professions.

• March 7 2013: Unlike many other EU countries, Germany does not have a national minimum wage even though specific industrial sectors have one. The upper chamber of parliament, the Bundesrat, has now proposed a minimum wage of 8.5€. http://www.bruegel.org/nc/blog/detail/article/1036-a-review-on-germanys-minimum-wage-debate/
  .
• some German minimum agreed wages by state and/or profession - (nothing that indicates there is any country-wide min wage, or that that wage "stands at near 10 euro an hour": http://www.wageindicator.org/main/salary/minimum-wage/germany
  Important to recognise that, like Scotland/Wales/Ireland/England in the UK, Germany has many "nation states" who have their own, mainly independent jurisdiction. There's a few more than 4 of these over there: Baden-Württemberg, Bayern, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Hessen, Niedersachsen, Bremen, Hamburg, Berlin, Rheinland-Pfalz, Saarland, Schleswig-Holstein....and I may have forgotten some because at the back of my mind it says there are 16 or so states that make up Germany
  .
• July 11 2013: German opposition in poll push for statutory minimum wage http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5f12d68a-ea3b-11e2-913c-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2aqZ8y8hk

Archi_Bald

hanlou007 wrote: »

Put in the effort and you will be rewarded.

I would second that. For example, where I live ("affluent" South East) the only folks who seem to valet cars, usually in car parks, are non-Brits (judging by their accents). They seem to be quite busy and there every day of the year - - even when we had the positively freezing weather earlier in the year, and the same guys and girls (!!) were there yesterday when it was a boiling 31 degrees centigrade. They usually do a stirling job - - sparkling clean car, no scratches, for a fiver. £10 if you want a polish, and £14 if you want the inside cleaned as well. They are always polite and cheerful never chasing you for business. Just a bunch of folks who no doubt live on a rather tight budget but they seem determined to make a living from hard work.

Nothing really to stop anyone from coming up with business ideas like these, and making money from services that the public want.

jonesMUFCforever

Well nobody has ever asked me whether I am struggling financially or not - has anybody else on here ever been asked?

Take these figures with a pinch of salt!

If you were asked would you not make things up or look worse than they really are??

JuicyJesus

hanlou007 wrote: »

agree with gadgetmind, everybody seems to want things for nothing. Put in the effort and you will be rewarded. Sit on your backside in front of your Sky TV all day (which seems to be something everybody struggling still affords to pay) and all u deserve is the minimum wage

Not sure someone who sits in front of their TV all day really deserves minimum wage, but hey, your opinion.

However, nobody here is talking about people sitting on their !!!! all day, they're talking about people who work full time. And the question really is: should someone who works full time, in even the most menial of jobs, be able to sustain themselves on the minimum wage? Logically, any option other than "yes" is basically saying that people should be able to work full time but not be able to actually live on the wages paid, thus there is no point in working.

So - we can either reduce the cost of living (pretty much impossible to do through government means, as we don't live in a planned economy) or we can increase the minimum wage, which brings all the benefits I mentioned above. What would YOU do?

To put it more bluntly - why should the minimum wage be so little as to put anyone receiving it in poverty?

noh

You-kip wrote: »

Well in Germany France etc whether you're skilled or not you'll still getting their Min wage which stands at near on 10 euro an hour.

Doesn't seem to be much different to here. There is no national minimum wage in Germany
According to this website minimum wage in Germany depends on the area you live in and the occupation. Lowest amount is 7 Euro per hour around £6.
France does have a national minimum wage currently 9.43 Euro an hour around £8.20.
http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/particuliers/F2300.xhtml