Minimum Wage,£7 an hour
Poll: Minimum Wage,£7 an hour
Total Members Polled: 313
Discussion
pork911 said:
crankedup said:
Society is becoming increasingly divided between those who have and the have nots in terms of the salary gap and hence living standards.
how exactly does the width of the gap affect the living standards of those at the bottom?comparison is the thief of joy
Personally I am past climbing the greasy pole of betterment, in terms of remuneration, and enjoy being out of the rat race
crankedup said:
pork911 said:
crankedup said:
Society is becoming increasingly divided between those who have and the have nots in terms of the salary gap and hence living standards.
how exactly does the width of the gap affect the living standards of those at the bottom?comparison is the thief of joy
Personally I am past climbing the greasy pole of betterment, in terms of remuneration, and enjoy being out of the rat race
but resentment and contempt isn't really a living standards issue and more for the particular individual to address
joe blow's life isn't really made worse because others have more
he does though comfort himself that it is by mistaking it as a zero sum game
whose fault is that and whose concern should it be?
joe's only
crankedup said:
eccles said:
mjb1 said:
PugwasHDJ80 said:
We are seriously considering letting our dog go as he costs us close to £200/month.
Do you have to feed him caviar?
£200 per month for dog
£110 per week for all supermarket shopping for him, wife and child
?
how much exactly is his child benefit????
pork911 said:
Foppo said:
That would make sense wouldn't it.The situation we have is,people with families on low incomes need two salaries,to survive.Children need looking after and childcare is expensive.Granparents have to be available to help out.
Off the topic inflation supposed to be about 2%.Is heating cost included in this figure?
Is it responsible to have children you can't afford?Off the topic inflation supposed to be about 2%.Is heating cost included in this figure?
How will that ensure future economic growth?
£7/hr is wrong. It's actually £6.31.
A 37.5 hour week on the above would give you £1,025.38 gross and £932.14 net per month.
I challenge anyone to live on that around here. The cheapest private rental property in Dorking is £695 per month for a poky basement, plus Council Tax, bills etc.
So someone on minimum wage is entitled to Tax Credits, you may say.
I've plugged the numbers for a single person with no children into the Working Tax Credit calculator. This gives a further £65.58 between now and 5/4/2014. Whoopdy doo.
A 37.5 hour week on the above would give you £1,025.38 gross and £932.14 net per month.
I challenge anyone to live on that around here. The cheapest private rental property in Dorking is £695 per month for a poky basement, plus Council Tax, bills etc.
So someone on minimum wage is entitled to Tax Credits, you may say.
I've plugged the numbers for a single person with no children into the Working Tax Credit calculator. This gives a further £65.58 between now and 5/4/2014. Whoopdy doo.
Mobile Chicane said:
£7/hr is wrong. It's actually £6.31.
A 37.5 hour week on the above would give you £1,025.38 gross and £932.14 net per month.
I challenge anyone to live on that around here. The cheapest private rental property in Dorking is £695 per month for a poky basement, plus Council Tax, bills etc.
So someone on minimum wage is entitled to Tax Credits, you may say.
I've plugged the numbers for a single person with no children into the Working Tax Credit calculator. This gives a further £65.58 between now and 5/4/2014. Whoopdy doo.
£7 is what Georgy boy is planning on raising it to.... A 37.5 hour week on the above would give you £1,025.38 gross and £932.14 net per month.
I challenge anyone to live on that around here. The cheapest private rental property in Dorking is £695 per month for a poky basement, plus Council Tax, bills etc.
So someone on minimum wage is entitled to Tax Credits, you may say.
I've plugged the numbers for a single person with no children into the Working Tax Credit calculator. This gives a further £65.58 between now and 5/4/2014. Whoopdy doo.
eccles said:
mjb1 said:
PugwasHDJ80 said:
We are seriously considering letting our dog go as he costs us close to £200/month.
Do you have to feed him caviar?Ours costs £16 a month to feed. However her vet bill score is currently about £200 month average since we've had her (includes a big op 1.5 years ago, had her 2 years)
PugwasHDJ80 said:
we have a household income of more than 4k, but have a one year old.
We live just outside London, Me working doesn't bring in enough to pay the bills (nowhere close), so my wife HAS To work, She works a full month, and after childcare brings in £180 after tax for a lot of hard work. Childcare, student loans, rent (cheapest 2 bed round here is £1000 + bills), plus cars (mine paid for by my job), and we just about break even on a monthly basis. Sometimes we put away £100, which then gets eaten by a car repair, or essential for our daughter.
Our one holiday last year was camping in cornwall, which was free in a friends field.
Do we have it badly? god no. But on the flip side, i work 60+hours per week and we can't afford a holiday! We are very careful with money- our luxury is food, and for the three of us we spend about £110/week on supermarket shopping (although about £109 of that seems to be nappies :P ) which could be cheaper (we use Aldi and Waitrose!)
Did you not Used to have a chip shop?We live just outside London, Me working doesn't bring in enough to pay the bills (nowhere close), so my wife HAS To work, She works a full month, and after childcare brings in £180 after tax for a lot of hard work. Childcare, student loans, rent (cheapest 2 bed round here is £1000 + bills), plus cars (mine paid for by my job), and we just about break even on a monthly basis. Sometimes we put away £100, which then gets eaten by a car repair, or essential for our daughter.
Our one holiday last year was camping in cornwall, which was free in a friends field.
Do we have it badly? god no. But on the flip side, i work 60+hours per week and we can't afford a holiday! We are very careful with money- our luxury is food, and for the three of us we spend about £110/week on supermarket shopping (although about £109 of that seems to be nappies
:P ) which could be cheaper (we use Aldi and Waitrose!) Why don't you get back into that line?
Mobile Chicane said:
You're still talking £600 a month plus bills locally for a flat share.
I stumbled across an ad recently for a grotty house share in a grotty part of Hammersmith - £800!
Is that not an inherent flaw in a national minimum wage? I stumbled across an ad recently for a grotty house share in a grotty part of Hammersmith - £800!
Round here in the South West, £800/month will get you a three bed semi in a nice village or a two bedroom period cottage. Where my sister lives up North it's 3/4 bed detached money.
oyster said:
pork911 said:
Foppo said:
That would make sense wouldn't it.The situation we have is,people with families on low incomes need two salaries,to survive.Children need looking after and childcare is expensive.Granparents have to be available to help out.
Off the topic inflation supposed to be about 2%.Is heating cost included in this figure?
Is it responsible to have children you can't afford?Off the topic inflation supposed to be about 2%.Is heating cost included in this figure?
How will that ensure future economic growth?
A key point about the minimum wage is that the vast majority are not condemned to earn it forever.
I myself started on a salary that was below the threshold of the minimum wage when it was first introduced 18 months later. I was on a training contract though and knew it was a temporary situation. It was very survivable as I was living at home still.
For the young there might well be a need for them to earn low wages while they train and establish themselves in their chosen careers and a minimum wage should not be set at too high a level to prevent this.
For those not moving into a professional career there is usually scope for some sort of job progression to lift them out of the minimum wage, if even by not a large margin. If the minimum wage is not at a sufficiently high level to pay for all the necessities of modern life then there is an incentive to progress.
I myself started on a salary that was below the threshold of the minimum wage when it was first introduced 18 months later. I was on a training contract though and knew it was a temporary situation. It was very survivable as I was living at home still.
For the young there might well be a need for them to earn low wages while they train and establish themselves in their chosen careers and a minimum wage should not be set at too high a level to prevent this.
For those not moving into a professional career there is usually scope for some sort of job progression to lift them out of the minimum wage, if even by not a large margin. If the minimum wage is not at a sufficiently high level to pay for all the necessities of modern life then there is an incentive to progress.
problem is - we live in an (increasingly) hourglass economy. There are jobs at the top and at the bottom bit fewer and fewer in the middle as semi-skilled positions disappear and more and more companies develop flatter structures.
Furthermore, more jobs are now part-time. In retail it's very rare now for jobs below management level to offer full time positions and when you think that the the big four supermarkets alone - Tesco, Sainsbury's Morrisons and Asda - employ 1 million people it brings it home just how many people are working in low pay, short hour positions. So, there are plenty of people on minimum wage who don't even get the chance to work full time, let alone do overtime.
(My wife works at Asda and even over the xmas period they were asking staff to go home, or not come in in order to save money on wages so don't kid yourself that you can just rack up loads of overtime.)
As a second family income, minimum wage is okay - depending on the income of the other wage earner.
If you're a young person living at home, and are lucky enough to be working full time on minimum wage then you can have a pretty good, fun life. If you want to leave home then you can probably forget it.
Furthermore, more jobs are now part-time. In retail it's very rare now for jobs below management level to offer full time positions and when you think that the the big four supermarkets alone - Tesco, Sainsbury's Morrisons and Asda - employ 1 million people it brings it home just how many people are working in low pay, short hour positions. So, there are plenty of people on minimum wage who don't even get the chance to work full time, let alone do overtime.
(My wife works at Asda and even over the xmas period they were asking staff to go home, or not come in in order to save money on wages so don't kid yourself that you can just rack up loads of overtime.)
As a second family income, minimum wage is okay - depending on the income of the other wage earner.
If you're a young person living at home, and are lucky enough to be working full time on minimum wage then you can have a pretty good, fun life. If you want to leave home then you can probably forget it.
Gassing Station | News, Politics & Economics | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff