What happened to decent salaries?!!

sarymclary

Sorry for venting my spleen here, but I just have to get this out there!

I gave up work after having my 2nd baby in 1994 (I worked in HR). Since then I've had babies 3 and 4, the youngest of which has just gone up into junior school (the eldest is sitting GCSE's). In the intervening years I have been widowed, and am now a single mum of these 4 lovely boys.

I am sick of living on benefits, feeling like a second class citizen, having to resubmit all my financial details at least 4 times a year, paying almost full council tax and rent, and juggling finances constantly just to survive. So in the past few weeks I've been trying to see if there is any kind of work out there that I could do.

I am absolutely amazed that wages don't seem to have gone up in the 14 years since I last worked. I was looking online today on the Job Centre pages and the salaries are around £5.50-£6.50 p/hr, or £11-14k p/a. When I left work I was earning over £6 p/hr, and even then I thought I was quite badly paid. The thing is, that all that time ago, a 3 bed house round here cost less than £50k, and now you don't get much change out of £200k. Petrol was less than 50p a litre, and my electric bill was about £40 p/m, whereas I now pay £80 p/mth. So, if the cost of living is now so much higher, why haven't salaries followed suit to afford it?

I have used the online calculator to find out what I would get by way of tax credits, but when all's said and done it's still not really enough, and I can't see how we're going to survive.

I live 10 miles from the children's schools, and the youngest 2 don't qualify for transport, so I do the school run. I am having a nightmare trying to work out the logistics of getting the kids to/from school as well as considering how I'd get to a job (nearest main towns are 30 miles away) and back. I know there is a walking bus from a local nursery, but of course this is going to be even more expense on top of what I already pay, and then commuting would have to be factored in. How do people do it?

I don't have local friends or family to help me out, so really do have to sort this out on my own, and know I will be relying on my 2 older boys' help to look after the younger 2. I am trying to be more creative about moneysaving (like planning to grow my own veg this year), I make my own bread, etc, but my food bill is still enormous. This evening I had to have a heated discussion with my eldest boy to explain why I couldn't let him eat the fresh chicken portions he wanted to cook, because I couldn't afford for him to use that as it was being saved for 2 other meals, and that he had to make do with the cheaper 'southern fried style' chicken I bought, but he says he's sick to death of them, but they were £1 a box in Farm Foods, so that's what they've got. If they won't eat veg, there's not much to choose from.

I don't want plasma screen TV's (my old TV works just fine, and we like board games still!), I don't want holidays, I don't drink or smoke or go out to socialise, but I just want to be able to feed, clothe and keep my kids comfortable in their own home. I can't ever see me owning my own home again (lost the old one when widowed); you can't take it with you I suppose, but that also limits my options on moving location to be closer to where the children go to school. I'm in a very rural location, the majority of work advertised seems to be cleaners, labourers, care home work, or sales workers. I have even thought of working nights, but am frightened at leaving 4 children at home alone overnight, even if the eldest is almost 16. It just doesn't seem right.:eek:

There was some government minister a week or so ago saying how easy it was for mums to go back to work with free childcare up for grabs. Hmmm, well I'd really like a chat with her, because it really isn't that easy, we don't all live in a bit city with lots of ameneties and choice of workplaces - although it does look very pretty outside my bedroom window when I look at the view, if that's a worthwhile payoff?

So, is it just me, or is everyone else up against this elsewhere, and if so, how do you cope? How have you got out of the 'benefits trap'? Or am I just completely deluded and should be grateful for having a roof over my head, and 4 healthy kids (which I am, by the way) and leave it at that?

OK, rant over.:T

[Deleted User]

I agree regarding the salaries, where I work it is a real bone of contention as the Government have set a maximum 2% per year pay rise when inflation is currently around double that. Eventually, if it stays the same we could be living on a pitance. It isnt great right now but we get by.
To be honest I cant give much advice regarding how to get by living in rural areas as I live in a city but hopefully someone on the boards will give you some decent advice rather than just complaining along side you

sarymclary

Thanks subsoniccoyote, I don't think I hold out much hope of advice, as such, as I've tried discussing this with friends, and no one seems to have any answer. I just felt I wanted to make it 'public', as I'm sick of feeling like the scrapings of society, just because I can't afford to go out and work to support my family. I had my first job aged 12, so I was brought up with a work ethic.
I'd love to have the chance to make changes for my family, to have a choice about where we lived, to be able to afford school trips, swimming lessons, or the extra tuition they've asked for, or to just let them eat decent fresh food. It comes to something when fresh veg and meat cost more than a 75p cholesterol laden family pizza. Even eggs cost over £2 a dozen! Just grateful for my bread maker, and cheap flour!! :-)

Lakeuk

It's a visous circle of low pay that I can see getting worse with employers taking advantage.

This is what I recone happens:-

employer advertises job with wage way below market rate but higher than minimum.
No one applies for what ever reason (local living costs, etc...)
So employer goes to goverment to be allowed to being in skills from abroad,
Skills come in but on minumum wages, they cope (just!) because they don't being in family and share costs with other people coming in to fill the artificial skills gap
Over time the market rate for this skill goes down effecting everyone else (no pay rises etc...)

PasturesNew

I've worked continually, being single. And I can make some direct comparisons with my past.

In 1990, as a temp, I was paid £6.60-9.90/hour. In 2007 the rate was just £6/hour. But that is because between those dates the whole job of secretarial/administrative work has been downgraded due to the presence of PCs. These days it is considered that anybody stuck in front of a PC can perform efficiently in any function they are asked to perform just by installing software on that PC. You now have managers struggling for 2 hours with a letter, whereas before they'd dictate it in 5 minutes flat to a proficient shorthand/typist.

There are many similar jobs which have been continually downgraded over the years so the employer plonks a PC on the desk and employs the cheapest person they can to do the job.

nearlyrich

I have had a similar conversation today with a friend of mine who is the single mum with a useless ex who has managed to escape his responsibilities as a father and she has sole care and financial responsibility.

She has a responsible job but the pay is rubbish and she can't get any help with school meals or rent etc.

Employers will pay as low as they can get someone, people need to work for their self esteem but getting a decent job that pays enough for childcare isn't so easy to find.

Good luck with finding something suitable.

exil

If you take a job you will qualify for tax credits. Not much but it might help a little!

PasturesNew

As you worked in HR, is there any mileage to be had into looking into reskilling and then offering HR services to small local companies at all?

A lot of effort, but if you are self-employed like that and working X hours per week you can qualify for the Working Tax Credits. Yet still have your kids around.

When your business grows and it isn't professional to have them about, or you need to meet customers expectations so that you aren't 100% in control of your hours of working any more, then you'd be able to take on childcare services as required.

Just a thought. I appreciate it might not be appropriate.

wisbech_lad

China (and India) happened...

2.4 billion people basically said sod living in poverty, let's make some money. And did. With the result that (1) commodity prices went up, as said Chinese & Indians can now afford to eat meat, buy a motorbike, build flats etc and (2) real median wages in the West stagnated or only grew a little, as many jobs (making Dysons, or shoes, or answering phone calls, or writing C++ code) can be done by said Chinese and Indians.

If it is any consolation, the living standards of Chinese especially has transformed since 1994 (I moved to China in 1993, thinking that if you can't beat'em, join'em)