Living wage

[Gob]

The Case for a Living Wage

The Living Wage is a term used to describe the minimum hourly wage necessary for housing, food and other basic needs for an individual. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has set out a methodology to calculate the level of pay that an average family with two working adults and two children would need to earn to fulfil basic needs. It does not cover ‘wants’ such as a car or holidays.

£7.85 is the living wage for London. The rate would vary in other parts of the UK, but £7.60 has been suggested as a national average.


Lowest paying sectors of the UK economy

In 2008, 5 million employees in the UK were paid less than £7 per hour. Two-fifths of all part-time workers were paid less than £7 per hour in the same year . Around two-fifths of people from

ethnic minorities live in low-income households, twice the rate for non-BME workers. The 2009 annual report by the Low Pay Commission states that the four largest low paying sectors in the UK are retail, hospitality, social care, and cleaning respectively:


The Living Wage will:

Create an increased incentive for employers to invest in workers (e.g., training, opportunities for career progression, better health and safety).

Result in a reduction in the need for tax credits and benefit payments. It may also indirectly reduce costs in education, health care and policing — by improving life opportunities for employees and their children.

Improve productivity, reduce staff turnover of staff and lower absenteeism

http://livingwage.edmiliband.org/case/

£7.60 = $11.70 US or $12.55 AU or $12.05 Can

[dales]

That's roughly what it is in San Francisco.

Outlying areas it drops to around $8.35 or something like that.

I think the Fed. minimum is $7.50.

[Gob]

The current UK minimum wage is £5.93 ($ 9.21 US / $9.80 AU / $9.46 Can) so it's not a huge increase they are looking at, but how many businesses could afford that in today's economic climate?

[dales]

On top of workers comp, payroll taxes, ssi, etc.

[dales]

I like the idea of a dead wage better.

Nothing for nothing, everyone wins.

[Lord Jim]

The Living Wage will:

Create an increased incentive for employers to invest in workers (e.g., training, opportunities for career progression, better health and safety).

Result in a reduction in the need for tax credits and benefit payments. It may also indirectly reduce costs in education, health care and policing — by improving life opportunities for employees and their children.

Improve productivity, reduce staff turnover of staff and lower absenteeism

Geesus, whoever wrote that is in desperate need of a basic course in economics; let's look at these claims one at a time:

Create an increased incentive for employers to invest in workers (e.g., training, opportunities for career progression, better health and safety).

Precisely the opposite. Forcing employers to raise wages creates incentives for reducing their work force, not ot spend even more money "investing in workers"

Result in a reduction in the need for tax credits and benefit payments. It may also indirectly reduce costs in education, health care and policing — by improving life opportunities for employees and their children.

Again, exactly the opposite is the case. Benefit payments will increase because of more workers being laid off.

Improve productivity, reduce staff turnover of staff and lower absenteeism

There's absolutely no reason whatsoever to believe any of those things would happen.

so it's not a huge increase they are looking at, but how many businesses could afford that in today's economic climate?

It may not look like that much when you look at it from just the hourly dollar rate perspective, but when you do the math, it's actually pretty significant...

An increase from $9.21 to $11.70 per hour is a 22% pay increase. How many small businesses could absorb a 22% increase in their labor costs without reducing their work force? I don't know the situation in the UK, but in the US, I'd say damn few.

[Gob]

I have to agree Jim, it seems a bit "jam tomorrow" to me too.