National Living Wage Comes Into Force

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35935677

I have issues with the concept of £7:20 being anything like a real "living wage"
but it means a pay rise, nevertheless.

Anybody on here that will benefit as from today ?

[Old_Geezer]

In my opinion it was only a purloining of the phrase in order to raise the minimum wage level and fool the public into thinking it was more. And it seemed to work.

[fiction-factory]

It is not a great deal by our UK standards but it is higher than in the US and far higher than in most of the countries that we seek to compete with. Many on the living wage will get in work benefits too. There are also many self employed people in the UK who cannot afford to pay themselves the living wage

[mikey4444]

OG....you are correct of course....it is a con. But its just been said on the radio, that it will mean a pay rise for over a million people.

[naomi24]

Why is it a con? Would you have preferred it not to rise?

[Old_Geezer]

If it were really a living wage then they'd no longer qualify for benefits.
If employers were not paying a living wage then they were abusing the employees and a social change well overdue. If benefits are still applicable then it sounds like they continue to want labour at unfair rates.

[Old_Geezer]

I'd have preferred them not to pretend it was the living wage and for the public to realise it isn't. Isn't that a cynical yet successful con ?

[fiction-factory]

Those who qualify for benefits tend to have children to support or have huge housing costs. It is a living wage if you have no family to support and don't live in London. but it would need to double to be a living wage for those with numerous children, pets, cars to support

[mikey4444]

I agree OG .....well deserved BA !

[fiction-factory]

Living wage is just a term that hasn't fooled you OG and doesn't fool others but it's a way of signalling a major change to the minimum wage.

[Old_Geezer]

A living wage should cover at least one hypothetical kid or it's not an accurate description. Single person living wage maybe.

[naomi24]

OG/Mikey, that's not saying much for the intelligence of the working man.

[douglas9401]

In the interest of clarity then, it's a living wage for single, non-smoking, non-drinking skip surfers living well away from major conurbations.
Quite a mouthful, you can see why they settled on 'living wage'.

[mikey4444]

dougie...lol !

[Old_Geezer]

Nor the non-working women either Naomi. Not to mention everyone else.
Still a raise is a raise.

[naomi24]

OG, you aren't fooled, and neither is Mikey apparently, so why assume other people are? The problem is you only consider one side of the coin, Give the working man more - good idea - but how do small businesses pay for it? They are forced to charge the consumer more, the consumer is reluctant to pay the price, the business collapses and with it the jobs. Marvellous!

[fiction-factory]

Of course the new minimum wage/living wage is going to look extremely attractive to those considering coming here to work from countries where the minimum wage is perhaps a quarter of what it is here

[Jomlett]

The new national minimum living wage is introduced today, April 1st, but the joke is it doesn't apply to anyone under 25.

[youngmafbog]

My my Mickey, do you ever think past your Marxists ideaology?

Foring a wage up is not all roses at all. As pointed out above small businesses often are struggling to make ends meet. Owners often will earn less than the min wage, guess you dont care about them though you will have them labelled as evil masters or some such rubbish.

Then we get to the more practicval matte. Once such issue is child care. Many childcare assistats are on min wage (some less as u 25 of course). Put up the salary and where do you think the extra cash will come from? Thin air? No those same people who you just paid extra too just find themselves paying more to nurseies, travel, supermarkets etc.

In addition you have the problem that by raising the min wage of the lowest employee their supervisor wi then become agrieved and will ant more. And then their supervisor and so it goes on. You simply end up back at square one.

So barring a move to total communism, something no country has achieve with success you are stuck with market forces.

[fiction-factory]

Clearly some feel the amount is still too low at £7.20 per hour and the term 'living wage' is a con. The Living Wage Foundation has been campaigning for a 'living wage' of £8.25 per hour. I wonder if that is also considered to be a con term?
Perhaps the term shouldn't be taken too literally since it takes no account of how many hours someone works. If someone works 45 hours a week at £7.25 then it's a reasonable sum; but if someone works only 15 hours a week then it gives nowhere near enough to live on for most people.

[Hopkirk]

A lot of the thinking is to do with reducing tax credits to bolster the income of the low paid (good, because this country's bill for benefits is way too high)

However if the pay increase reduces tax credits then surely people will be no better off?