Clarification: Of course if your current wage is <15 then it would rise to 15 so the poll doesn’t apply to you…peasants
I heard this talk on the radio some time ago that people (politicians?) want to raise min. wage to £15 per hour. If it were to happen and my wage were to remain the same as it is now I would immediately apply to several other positions like gatehouse staff, admin staff in transport, loader, forklift operator off the top of my head. I would resign immediately upon getting an offer for one of the above jobs. How about you?
Problem with minimum wage is it’s always the minimum. You need to forget the number. 1999 minimum wage was £3.60. 2022 it’s £9.18. Do you reckon a 40 hour a week minimum wage worker is 2.55 times wealthier now than 23 years ago?
Minimum wages goes up, wages above it goes up, cost of everything you buy goes up. Reality would be your own wage would have gone up. So financially it would be the same as quitting your job now to work minimum wage. Only in the future, when min wage is higher, but so is your own wage.
Probably would.
Or I’d go in a warehouse driving a forklift.
This is what I hate about minimum wage.
I get the idea in principle stops slave labour etc
But every year people on minimum wage get a small pay rise.
Some compamys I’ve worked for there office staff etc are.on minimum wage they get a pay rise.
Yet drivers etc who are paid more don’t get a yearly pay rise.
The gap between us is closing.
I class driving as a skilled job and pay should be more than an office bod.
Yet every year they get a pay rise.
I dont know mate, I used to only previously get a pay rise when there was physically not enough bodies willing to do the job so cheaply at my old outfit.
One year later and a new unionised job and I’ve had four pay rises in just over 12 months and a few bonuses too.
The situation you describe happened recently, in January I think, at my wife’s work. She works in a kids nursery as a room manager and none of the pay for any of them is high enough for the crap they have have to do in my opinion. Anyway, when minimum wage went up it meant people who weren’t room managers or weren’t fully qualified achieved parity with those who were so they had to uplift the rest of the wages to maintain that gap otherwise they’d just have people think ‘why the extra hassle’ and jump back down to a role with fewer responsibilities.
I suspect that’s what would happen if a draining effect happened with truck drivers - their wages would lift to give that gap to make it attractive again.
Only if it’s a minimum wage job which pays you to sit around on a loading bay watching Netflix!
It’s really annoying me the way everyone is jumping on the “strike for pay rise” bandwagon. Do the masses really think that giving everyone a pay rise is the cure for inflation? I also find it funny some of the highest paid professions are the first to start striking, guess they must have over-extended themselves on their 70k+ salaries. Interest rate hikes must be a ■■■■■ when you’re mortgaged to the limit expecting interest rates to stay low forever…
Prices will only drop once demand is reduced; demand will not be reduced by giving people more cash to spend. I’m amazed that people are so surprised at the state of the economy, what did they really think would happen after the government pumped so many Billions into the system during covid?
Of course, it’s easier to blame it all on Russia (makes a change from China I suppose), than the energy producers which are profiteering from the situation.
Sorry for the rant but it really ■■■■■■ me off seeing the clueless politicians promising ■■■■ that is just going to make the situation a lot worse in the long term. 6-12 months of pain or a decade of runaway inflation?
Thankfully this is a global issue, so while us brits will most likely just ■■■■ it up and carry on regardless, hopefullys the masses from nations with a backbone will not just bend over and take it.
That would work normally but this is different as it’s inflation on the input side (ie not caused by flyaway consumers demand) and is being felt on essentials, like gas, like electric, like food. The very very basics.
I get that inflation can be brought down by interest rate hikes eating up disposable income so people think twice about that new TV or that new car because they’ve got less disposable income due to the increased cost of servicing debt. But how does that square when it’s the basics like food, fuel, energy and so on. Where’s the headroom there? Eat less? Heat less? That’s the issue being faced now.
In much the same way people who strike for a pay rise annoy you, people who blame people for striking and mention about pay rises causing inflation annoy me, because it’s never mentioned that the huge corporate bonuses are a much bigger contribution to inflation and they seem to get away unscathed while working people turn on each other but hey ho
Likewise nobody seems to have picked up a link that those striking have a union but are also “some of the highest paying professions”. Nobody see any link there? Not popular on here I know but for sure the majority of unionised jobs I’ve had have been the better ones throughout my working life
Driving HGVs is one of the most riskier jobs to do.
You make one mistake you can easily lose your livelihood or end up in prison.
I knew someone doing a night trunk. A boy racer tried to speed passed him lost control and ended up under his trailer and sadly died. It affected him massively, even though he was not at fault.
I’d sooner be a trolley pusher at a supermarket then driving a HGV if the money is the same.
Fifteen quid is about $30, I wouldn’t get out of bed for that, but it really depends on the individual situation and local costs. For comparison, we pay $2.00 a litre for diesel, $1.80 petrol, $3.50 a loaf of bread*, $2.00 a litre for milk*. I’ve got no idea what grog costs, but a pub meal, steak, chips and salad, varies from $20 to $30.
*Quality, brand name items, lower quality home brands offer lower prices.
I would be expecting $35 phone for straightforward, single trailer work. $40+ for multi-trailer or specialised skills such as truck mounted crane, fuel tankers, pneumatic tank, etc.
The rates above are for the first eight hours, next two hours are at x1.5 and double time after that. There are other ways of paying, such as per km, but it all has to work back how much you make per hour.
So £1 is about 2 aussie dollars? So double our price fir a relative cost in your dollars?
Diesel at my local supermarket is £1.81 or $3.60 at your rates.
Petrol as above is £1.65 or $3.30
Branded bread £1.20 or $2.40
Milk 4 pints (2.2ish litres) £1.45 or $2.90
Steak and chips in my local £12.50 or $25
Minimum wage now is £9.50 or $19
My own wage is £19ph (on average) so $38
If the minimum wage became £15.00 then jobs that require qualifications would have to pay around £20.00. Other wise skilled and/or qualified people would say why take on responsibility for no extra money.
Some of us are lorry drivers by choice and at heart doing the job we maybe always wanted to, earning good money for doing the job we like is a welcome bonus and for most of us who put the effort in it tends to work out.
I like many others could have gone different ways and earned more money, but at what cost? working for years at a job you dislike being stuck in one place surrounded by greasy pole climbers playing office/workshop politics or having to pander to the general publics whims? no ta, give me lorry driving any day of the week.
Money isn’t everything, if it is then you’re definately in the wrong industry
Punchy Dan:
I think if the min wage went to £15 p hr there would be a lot unemployed.
Why?
When the min wage was first introduced was there a spike in unemployment figures?
When the min wage is put up, are there increases in unemployment?
When you think about what you can buy with £15.00 its not a lot. Many people are on that now any way. It would make a lot of difference to people who work in care homes and the likes of Subway.
