[Martyn*]

More and more each day I hear about how many people are working but still relatively poor. How much has changed? In the 1930s people were talking about how people mainly worked to avoid starvation. It seems as if we are heading back to those times.

Wage earners now need Housing benefit, some even need foodbanks. Many are juggling their finances, some have sold their cars unable to even run them anymore. Many have given up public transport and got themselves a bicycle, many begrudgingly pay the fares. Many have either increased their hours or decreased them to make up shortfalls in their financial situations. They are told that work is dignified even if it does not pay well at all. But this is no consolation for the wage earner. The nights out at the weekends and the once-a-year holiday has had to go. Children may have had less presents. Everything has sky-rocketed. And the government want us to work longer and harder for little.

The minimum wage is looking more and more worthless as each year passes. Tax credits only work short term and Housing Benefit has been reduced and will follow more sharp and short reviews as the money dries out.

So is the minimum wage now worthless?

[TheCurlyHairedDude]

who works for minimum wage? You can easily find jobs for 8/9 per hour

[ufo2012]

Completely and entirely worthless!

[FO12DY]

(Original post by ufo2012)
Completely and entirely worthless!

Yes, worthless.

£6.08ph is worthless. It is not worth six pounds and eight pence each hour as some fools seem to think.

[Spaz Man]

It's completely worthless, especially in London as it doesn't increase in proportion to inflation like benefits and pensions.

[Snagprophet]

Well regardless what the minimum wage could possibly be raised to, the total wages paid to all staff cannot be higher than the breaking even point because you can't rely on something as unreliable as profits for someone to live on. Businesses also can't grow if they don't get any profits, so there's no point paying it all to staff.

[FO12DY]

(Original post by Martyn*)
some have sold their cars unable to even run them anymore.

Cars are a luxury item, that's why they and fuel are charged standard rate VAT.

If people can't afford them, they're right to sell them.


What more is there to say?


Unemployment won't be reduced by demanding higher pay for unskilled workers.

This is not the time to increase minimum wage. Reducing benefits would make more sense. Many people openly say that they are not motivated to find work, because they'd earn the same or only fractionally more than they get given for dossing around all week.

Why is the taxpayer paying for that kind of behaviour?


Increasing minimum wage and reducing benefits would both motivate job-seeking. But benefit reduction would be much better for the economy.

[FO12DY]

(Original post by Spaz Man)
It's completely worthless, especially in London as it doesn't increase in proportion to inflation like benefits and pensions.

I refer you to my earlier comment, spaz man.

(Original post by FO12DY)
Yes, worthless.

£6.08ph is worthless. It is not worth six pounds and eight pence each hour as some fools seem to think.

[ufo2012]

(Original post by FO12DY)
Yes, worthless.

£6.08ph is worthless. It is not worth six pounds and eight pence each hour as some fools seem to think.

Who in their right mind would want to work for that?!?

[sambrfc10]

Up until my 18th birthday (about 4 weeks ago) I worked for £3.80 an hour. I had no motivation to go to work so I just rejected any shifts that were offered to me. The minimum wage for me now is £4.98. Still absolutely pointless considering some of my friends are on £7.50 an hour.


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

[Observatory]

(Original post by Martyn*)
More and more each day I hear about how many people are working but still relatively poor. How much has changed? In the 1930s people were talking about how people mainly worked to avoid starvation. It seems as if we are heading back to those times.

Oh come on. Most people could live comfortably on £3-5 per day for food. That's less than 1 hour at minimum wage!

btw - you seem to have been making bizarre conspiracy theory threads on TSR for some years now. Have you ever in fact been employed? Do you intend to again?

[ufo2012]

(Original post by sambrfc10)
Up until my 18th birthday (about 4 weeks ago) I worked for £3.80 an hour. I had no motivation to go to work so I just rejected any shifts that were offered to me. The minimum wage for me now is £4.98. Still absolutely pointless considering some of my friends are on £7.50 an hour.

Your employer is pretty much just taking advantage of you/your age.

Not surprised your motivation is poor and you should definitely just reject any shifts that you don't want.

At least you are sensible about it, make your money work for you - do the work you want for the money you want. Anything else just tell them to go and

[Snagprophet]

(Original post by Observatory)
Oh come on. Most people could live comfortably on £3-5 per day for food. That's less than 1 hour at minimum wage!

btw - you seem to have been making bizarre conspiracy theory threads on TSR for some years now. Have you ever in fact been employed? Do you intend to again?

At uni, I can get several dinners worth of chips, veg and meat for about £2.50 from Asda. I know bills have to be covered by wages but, tbh, loads of people are too proud to go smart price or go to Lidl/Aldi so most people wining can go **** themselves.

[Astronomical]

(Original post by Martyn*)
More and more each day I hear about how many people are working but still relatively poor. How much has changed? In the 1930s people were talking about how people mainly worked to avoid starvation. It seems as if we are heading back to those times.

Wage earners now need Housing benefit, some even need foodbanks. Many are juggling their finances, some have sold their cars unable to even run them anymore. Many have given up public transport and got themselves a bicycle, many begrudgingly pay the fares. Many have either increased their hours or decreased them to make up shortfalls in their financial situations. They are told that work is dignified even if it does not pay well at all. But this is no consolation for the wage earner. The nights out at the weekends and the once-a-year holiday has had to go. Children may have had less presents. Everything has sky-rocketed. And the government want us to work longer and harder for little.

The minimum wage is looking more and more worthless as each year passes. Tax credits only work short term and Housing Benefit has been reduced and will follow more sharp and short reviews as the money dries out.

So is the minimum wage now worthless?

No.

The things you've mentioned can be ascribed to people trying to live beyond their means. The minimum wage is not meant to provide a car, annual family holiday and so on; it's more or less to avoid starvation, as you said yourself.

[SillyEddy]

I don't think everyone takes a full responsibility for their own finances. Minimum wage funds minimal living.

I work at £5.52 an hour, where it's £4.98 for my age range at minimum wage. That said, I work with someone who is 16 and gets paid between £7 and £9 an hour at Tesco, I can't remember which, but they just stack shelves. We, on the other hand, work our arses off for a national chain of hotels/restaurants. Why do we do it? Well, it was my first job after I started driving. The hours are incredibly flexible (I pick and choose when I work) and I can come back during holidays to work for a few weeks. Only one month out of two years of employment actually involved me paying for any tax/NI at all. I just don't earn enough, but importantly: I do not pay for anything either! I'm allowed free-board whilst in full time education, and will hopefully be going to university in a few weeks. I've had other jobs, but I didn't like them. Some of which were better paid.


The national minimum wage should be adjusted though - I think they are still considering it. They said that it should be a 'county minimum wage'. Places such as London are of course far more expensive to live in, so their workers will be paid more. I'm not sure if that's based on the location of the business or the address of the employee - Hopefully the location of the business, as it would help to reduce prejudice from employing more expensive staff.


The threat seems to be that if the minimum wage goes up, there will be a shortage of jobs. I don't really think so. It's just ridiculous to raise the minimum wage by like 2 pence a year - Like that will really add up?

But at the same time, some people are just lazy looking for work. As I say, a 16 year old is being paid really well. If you're on minimum wage for an extended period of time, there's a large chance that you just didn't look hard enough for anything better.

[Scumbaggio]

I think there are more roles that pay minimum wage now that might not have done in the past.

[lbsf1]

Aged 16 looking for a part time job there is nowhere that is prepared to pay over the minimum wage (3.80an hour) to a 16 year old. And I'm guessing is the same for 18 year olds with little qualifications where they would only be able to get jobs with minimum wage.

Last week I saw a family guy episode on exactly this. Stan wanted to kick out hayley, saying that the minumum wage is easy to live off. He tries it for a month and proves that it isn't if you want any kind of quality of life.

Shows very truthfully what most adults with better jobs think and how wrong it actually is, minimum wage is to low, benifits to high (in the uk) and you end up with the situation now with tax so high to pay for those who don't work.

http://www.watchcartoononline.com/am...ey-mo-problems

[FO12DY]

(Original post by lbsf1)
Aged 16 looking for a part time job there is nowhere that is prepared to pay over the minimum wage (3.80an hour) to a 16 year old.

Lol.

Loads of places. I work at an independent cinema for the higher bracket minimum wage.

John Lewis Partnership pays about £6.60ph for standard staff (at John Lewis or Waitrose) regardless of age. Plus all the crazy benefits, 1.5 hours for overtime, Sundays, and bank holidays.

[WelshBluebird]

(Original post by FO12DY)
Cars are a luxury item, that's why they and fuel are charged standard rate VAT.

Partly true.
But at the same time you have to realise that many people either have to drive for their jobs, or have to drive to be able to get to where their job is. Public transport is simply not good enough in many places.

(Original post by FO12DY)
This is not the time to increase minimum wage. Reducing benefits would make more sense. Many people openly say that they are not motivated to find work, because they'd earn the same or only fractionally more than they get given for dossing around all week.

Now is certainly not the time to reduce benefits.
There are not enough jobs out there.
For many who are not unemployed, it is not their fault and is certainly not a choice.
Especially at a time when everything is increasing in price, reducing benefits would be disgusting.

(Original post by FO12DY)
Increasing minimum wage and reducing benefits would both motivate job-seeking. But benefit reduction would be much better for the economy.

"Motivating" job seeking won't do anything when there are not enough jobs there.

[Suetonius]

Minimum wage is self-evidently worthless and counterproductive. I hate how there's a consensus that if you oppose the minimum wage you oppose the intentions of those advocating it. On the contrary, as is the case with most statist dogma, the end-goals of its advocates are almost never achieved. The minimum wage, for example, leads to higher unemployment and lower productivity within a company. Why would an employer hire somebody and pay them a wage which exceeds their skill level when that money could be invested in something else?