Every Little Helps I Guess

[tiggerblue10]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59038076

Is this welcome news in your household?

[tonyav]

Working overtime then, Hopkirk.

37.5 hours is the norm in industry these day's.

[Hopkirk]

No, that's my contracted hours.

[naomi24]

Wages rise and because everything has to be paid for prices go up. As Jesus said, 'The poor will always be with us' ... or something like that.

[tonyav]

Unusual hours these day's, Hopkirk.

[Hopkirk]

HGV driving for a major supermarket.
We have hours that are equivalent to a four and a half day week of 48 hours.

[tonyav]

Is this something to do with the tachograph, Hopkirk ?

[Hopkirk]

No, just what the contract says.

Some of the guys are on different contracts with shorter hours.

[tonyav]

Mmmmm, strange hours.

[Hopkirk]

Not that unusual for drivers

[THECORBYLOON]

An average of forty-eight hours a week is the usual maximum unless employed in specific types of work or the employee has opted out.

[Hopkirk]

A slight difference though. The working time directive maximum average week of 48 hours doesn't include breaks, while my working week does include (paid) breaks.

[youngmafbog]

Raising the minimum wage ultimately is pointless

Every job is on a sliding scale. Simply put (and only for illustration before the usual start) if you pay someone £8:00 and hour, their supervisor £10:00 an hour and their Manager £15:00 an hour when you raise the min to £9:00 everyone up the scale will want the same rise. To pay for these rises prices have to rise (inflation) and then you are immediately back to square one.

I'm not saying people should be paid a pittance, but one needs to look past the immediate hyperbole often used when announcing a higher minimum wage.

[New Judge]

Quite so. And it also demonstrates that governments should not interfere in matters that don't concern them (i.e. how much an employer pays his staff). It is already apparent that staff shortages in various industries are pushing pay rates up. When companies need staff they will pay more to attract recruits. Those costs will be passed on to the customer who may or may not choose to buy the company's products or services. It has nothing to do with the government and the taxpayer should certainly not be called upon to make up the wages of employees whose employers are paying them poorly.

[lankeela]

As an independent living support worker I am on minimum wage and for sleep-ins we don't even get that - from 10 - 7 we only get £30 a night. This was challenged recently in the courts but even though we are 'on call' all during the night we are only allowed to be paid an hourly rate for any hours we actually have to work.

[andy-hughes]

In theory it is wonderful.

However, since a lot of people on Minimum Wage rely on Tax Credits to make up the difference between the MW and actual survival, they will no doubt find that the additional payments from the MW are offset by the reductions in their Tax Credits, to the point where they are actually worse off than they were before.

This will follow the patterns of all governments, make a big noise giving with one hand, take it away silently with the other.

[maggiebee]

As a pensioner I would love £9.50 per hour for a 35 hour week. We can apparently live on fresh air. I do know about benefits, but so do those people on the minimum wage.

[youngmafbog]

I'm not sure you can compare pensioners with working families.

Doesnt mean you shouldn't get more just a totally different topic,

[pixie374]

Maggie, I honestly believe that being able to live on a pension, will be a very brief experiment. That isn't how they started, the ages are higher and higher (in my memory, mine has gone from 60 to 65 to 67.... so far). So, I won't trust a pension, they are making no sense any more.
They were originally brought in, for men over 65- which was their life expectancy then. And the pension age has not increased in line with it.
It's genuinely hard to see.... how all humans have to stay in full-time education until at least 18, get benefits for unemployed stages, NHS, schooling etc. And can live without working at all for up to 40+ years. While housing etc for tax payers goes up and up. Where is all this extra money supposed to come from?

[maggiebee]

Agree Pixie, the world is ill divided. Neighbour's grandson is 19, has never worked and has no intention of finding a job. Why should he? He will be taken care of for the rest of his life.

[pixie374]

Yes... there qdoesn't seem to be much difference between genuine need or not-botheredness sometimes.