Living wage - does good politics result in bad economics?

wotsthat

A supermarket job at £9.35/ hour would suit me just fine in a few years as a glide into an early retirement.

Sadly I fear a shelf stacker will never earn £9.35/ hour and my dreams will be dashed.

CLAPTON

wotsthat wrote: »

A supermarket job at £9.35/ hour would suit me just fine in a few years as a glide into an early retirement.

Sadly I fear a shelf stacker will never earn £9.35/ hour and my dreams will be dashed.

just vote conservative

Thrugelmir

wotsthat wrote: »

A supermarket job at £9.35/ hour would suit me just fine in a few years as a glide into an early retirement.

Sadly I fear a shelf stacker will never earn £9.35/ hour and my dreams will be dashed.

Sainsburys staff are receiving a 4% rise to take their pay to £7.36 per hour from the end of this month.

The 4% will of course mask the 1% in the public sector when the averages are released.

wotsthat

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Sainsburys staff are receiving a 4% rise to take their pay to £7.36 per hour from the end of this month.

The 4% will of course mask the 1% in the public sector when the averages are released.

Still somewhat short of my desired £9.35/ hour to be a shelf stacker or hospital porter for a few years before an early retirement.

I'm also after a blanket minimum wage of £9.35 - it's no good for me if just a few forward thinking organisations implement it to attract the most hard working and productive shelf stackers because I want a high rate of pay without the hard work.

Doesn't seem much to ask especially when it represents good policy too.

martinsurrey

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Sainsburys staff are receiving a 4% rise to take their pay to £7.36 per hour from the end of this month.

The 4% will of course mask the 1% in the public sector when the averages are released.

now then, imagine 2 people got a job last year, one as a teacher and one as a shelf stacker.

the teacher had been a teacher for a few years (an M2), and is average at their job.

the shelf stacker had been a shelf stacker for a few years and is great at it.

Who's pay rise was the highest, the 1% or the 4%?

the teacher was on £23,764 and doesn't get a 1% pay rise, they move to £25,934 an effective 9.1% pay rise...


the Shelf stacker gets 4%.

teachers at the top of their pay scale are on £32k+ which is well above average for the UK and can be reached in your late 20's, (while the national average salary is reached at age 38). So teachers get above average pay rises until they are well above average salary, at a lower age than average, not too shabby (and that's without me mentioning the argument starting holidays).

http://www.nasuwt.org.uk/consum/groups/public/@salariespensionsconditions/documents/nas_download/nasuwt_014603.pdf

System

The impact will vary greatly depending on the salary mix of the organisation concerned.
A high tech high wage company won't be affected at all. Everyone earns ten times the NLW already.

A company almost entirely staffed by low wage people, like a care home, will be seriously affected, and have to cut staff numbers to survive.

We are in the middle, and the problems will not be so much financial as one of morale of the staff. As those at present on the NLW find they get a gratuitous 10% pay rise, other staff higher up the tree won't. So pay differentials will erode steadily. Within a few years there will be no incentive for staff to take on more responsibilities and climb up the pay grades.
It is those at present just higher than the NLW who will be most affected, by the insidious notion of "Why should I bother?".

PasturesNew

Many people will notice no difference when the minimum wage goes up, as it'll just reduce their benefits.

Those on low pay who get no benefits will see the point of working for a NMW job.

The bosses will just have to cut back on London property buying, yachts, Moet and trophy wifes' spending.

Thrugelmir

martinsurrey wrote: »

Who's pay rise was the highest, the 1% or the 4%?

the teacher was on £23,764 and doesn't get a 1% pay rise, they move to £25,934 an effective 9.1% pay rise...

Grading scales aren't like for like. Eventually you top out. Even shelf stackers can move up the pyramid to a higher level.

For Sainburys staff on a 37.5 hour week its over £500 per annum on the very basic.

1% on £32k is £320.

Appears the gap is being narrowed.

Dansmam

Value added? Teacher, quite a lot, shelfstacker a bit but no influence on the country's future, not lot of scope to set someone on the road to genius. It's not just money that matters but if we lose a genius for lack of a teacher the whole nation is the poorer. I worry that these threads don't grasp the value of anything but cash.

CLAPTON

Dansmam wrote: »

Value added? Teacher, quite a lot, shelfstacker a bit but no influence on the country's future, not lot of scope to set someone on the road to genius. It's not just money that matters but if we lose a genius for lack of a teacher the whole nation is the poorer. I worry that these threads don't grasp the value of anything but cash.

what total nonsense


if we all starve to death through lack of shelf stackers the whole country will be worse off.