What do you think the NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE should be?

Question

It's obviously too low in the UK otherwise there wouldn't be so many people struggling to buy houses and support their families. I reckon £16,000 should be a minimum full-time wage. Why is it that hard work is so low valued these days?

Answer 1

Ive been asking myself that question for the past year now.Should be at least £8 an hour.
I work 12hr nightshifts each week to earn a pitiful £7.34 an hour and im a single guy with a mortgage and a car to run and im feeling like im barely surviving.I needed a new exhaust for my car and had to pay £100 last week and that will take me around 6 weeks now to claw that money back.
I think Britain is terrible for hidden charges/taxes and the current min wage is no match for the continuing inflation.
I work with a lot of polish ppl and although i cant understand them im sure they are very nice ppl,there very happy ppl aswell because they make the same amount of money as me , they get reduced living expenses and their wage over here amounts to 4-5 weeks wages in poland. So they work here and save up then go back home and live like kings.
At the end of the day,companies and businesses are out there to make themselves as much money as they can regardless of their workforce so they will do all they can to pay their staff as little as they can in order to get rich.
Is it right that footballers become millionaires for kicking a ball around when someone else works for 50 odd years getting £200 a week for digging roads or helping to build hospitals etc.
Feck it , i think im gonny sell up and move to Poland with Boris and Swelga
Aaagh im angry now lol

Answer 2

In 1986 after tax i used to bring home £180 for a 37 hour week, some workers are only bringing home around the same pay today.
Tony Blair said up to the 1997 election that the minimum wage should be £5.50 ,ten years later it around that mark but the cost of living ,houses,fuel and everything else has gone up since then .
I agree £16000 + should be a good starting point.

Answer 3

I say it should be $11.75 a hour but keep in mind that some businesses, companies or corporations would cut hours in order to save money. Instead of employees working full-time they would working part-time. Sometimes they would send employees home early or they would cut certain health benefits, which they should not do.
But I am not fimilar about how things go over there. The only thing I know is that some governments do not appreciate their own people, and do not provide what they need for their families (Society in general)

Answer 4

There should be no minimum wage.

Minimum wage legislation is the ultimate example of a dog chasing its tail. They are enacted to help people afford the ever increasing costs of living. However, the very act of implementing a wage floor increases labor costs which cause the cost of living to increase again. Result - the dog can't catch the tail because the tail is moved by the dog and the minimum wage won't catch the cost of living because the wage pushes the cost of living up. It is feel-good legislation at its worst and has never, since its implementation, solved the problem it is thrown at.

Answer 5

there should be a minimum wage not sure what it should be maybe &7 an hour. for all these companys that want to set a wage depending on market conditions p off if you have a buisness and you want to employ someone you should pay them a decent standard of living or you shouldnt be in buisness

Answer 6

i SAY 6.50$

you aren't suppose to support a family on min wage. Min Wage is designed for Single people maybe in High school trying to get experience. NOT 40 year olds with 5 kids working at Wendy's.

Pathetic.

Answer 7

ah the national slave wage.

what a joke.. let hard working honest people go to work just to be able to pay the household bills and ever increasing taxes.

who said they abolished the slave trade,, its whats keeping the economy of the uk afloat.

hard work is so low valued because companies know they have desperate people willing to work slave waged.

although it could effect small medium sized companies, i think its all a con, keep the people on the breadline they easier to control.

whilst councillors and politicians shareholders reap great expense's and salaries, at the expense of the wealth and well-being of the UK

Answer 8

£16000 sounds brilliant - but many small businesses struggle to make a profit anyway, all that would happen is they would go bust and the staff would get laid off. Big companies (such as Tescos) would have to raise their prices and so the £16000 pounds you'd get paid would lose it's value pretty quickly. That's capitalism for you - bring on the revolution :)

Answer 9

I agree but while we have so many immigrants willing to do the work for less it aint gonna happen! Dont get me wrong I think they work hard and deserve a chance but I also believe that the minimum wage should be higher than the lowest rate of benefits so that lazy brits would see it as worthwhile to go to work!!!! Or just be more careful who gets benefits!!!!

Answer 10

There's problem here though. If you raise the minimum wage to much, all the companys will raise their prices for foods and other products. So it really doesn't help.