Minimum Wage

[Hugh]

Was the minimum wage such a good idea? rather than making the poor richer it as now made them poorer because of loss of employment. Thousands of jobs which the less educated people could have done have now gone abroad. I know myself I would be quite happily take a job at £3.50 an hour rather than be on welfare.
Its alright saying all worker should be well educated and skilled, but we cannot all be brainy, when brains were dished out, I dipped out, but got through life with hard work and long hours. The minimum wage should be scrapted allowing jobs to return to our workers.

[caminito]

I don't have any firm opinion either way on this question.
So I googled ....minimum wage good or bad ....and this page came up .
Interesting to read the opinions posted ?

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100222182603AAP2EVk

[Ivanhoe]

Was the minimum wage such a good idea? rather than making the poor richer it as now made them poorer because of loss of employment. Thousands of jobs which the less educated people could have done have now gone abroad. I know myself I would be quite happily take a job at £3.50 an hour rather than be on welfare.
Its alright saying all worker should be well educated and skilled, but we cannot all be brainy, when brains were dished out, I dipped out, but got through life with hard work and long hours. The minimum wage should be scrapted allowing jobs to return to our workers.

Oh dear oh dear, Thatcher returns, back to exploitation of British workers while the top get richer.

[Hugh]

Hello Ivanhoe back on form, nice to hear from you, I was beginning to miss you.

But let me ask a question and try and see it the way I am thinking. I am certainly not a cruel heartless person.

If you and your wife were about to lose your home because of redundancy, would the pair of you take low paid jobs and work long hours to pay your mortgage???

I did, and many people now losing their homes would do the same, given the chance.

[caminito]

Steady on Hugh .......
It's the "states " duty to look after him.  
You can't expect him to accept any responsibility for his own position  

[Papaumau]

The minimum wage !

This was designed to ensure that powerful employers could not use that power to turn their workers into wage-slaves.

The minimum wage is set at a level that is just slightly above the poverty-trap level so that people who want to work can get more rewards from working than they can being unemployed. ( This is a VERY important standard to maintain as inflation constantly pushes up salaries in the open work market ).

Yes, it is true that the wage-bill for the employers is a large part of their overhead but if these employed persons are to earn enough to make working worth-while there HAS TO BE a figure at which this minimum wage is set. It is the cost of living standard that sets the minimum wage as if people need to subsist they must be able to earn that minimum set amount.

Employers will ALWAYS pay the lowest amount that they think they can get away with and without a government minimum set wage many workers would still be working for less than they can survive on.

Simple as that really !

[Ivanhoe]

Papaumau, The main problem now regarding a minimum wage is the means test for housing benefit and council tax exemption.

How many workers by receiving a pay rise ( minimimum wage), would find themselves over the threshold for the above help, and therefore be worst off having to pay high rents and council tax.

What we need before anything else in this country is a national council house building programme, and to get rid of the council tax by replacing it with higher taxes on middle and high earnrs.

With abolition of the council tax in favour of a local tax based on ability to pay and higher income tax rates, there will be winners and losers among middle England, but this is better than a form of local tax not based on ability to pay.

[Hugh]

The problem with the minimum wage rather than it increasing the pay packet, the jobs have gone abroad. Jobs in security have been taken over by security cameras and alarms which is a cheaper option, than paying the guard a minimum hourly wage.

I was happy to work long hours on a very low hour rate when I left the forces rather than collect unemployment benefits. It was my choice. That choice as now gone for people who are now losing their homes through redundancies.  

[GrannyMac]

With abolition of the council tax in favour of a local tax based on ability to pay and higher income tax rates, there will be winners and losers among middle England, but this is better than a form of local tax not based on ability to pay.

The lib dems promoted local income tax in place of council tax, and I liked that proposal.   But I also liked some elements of the 'poll tax'.  If it had been introduced properly, it was actually fairer than taxes based soleley on the 'value' of a property as it was charged to individuals not houses.  The way council tax currently works, a single person with an income of £40k gets a 25% reduction.  A couple both on miniumum wage with a joint income of less than £20k pay 100% of their bill, and they won't qualify for any council tax benefits. 

[caminito]

I agree with you Grannymac..
I thought that the Poll Tax was a good idea badly implemented !
Everyone uses the services so everyone should pay in theory

[Ivanhoe]

I entirely agree that a poor man pays the same amount of tax as a rich man.

Deary me, what was I thinking of. tch tch.

[caminito]

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
by Stephen .R. Covey


quote
Covey’s seven habits are based on an inside-out approach to personal growth. He suggests that we must have personal victory before we can have public victory. The book shows us how to go from being dependent to independent to interdependent.

Dependent people are controlled by people and things outside of themselves. They blame others for their shortcomings and need constant feedback from others to feed their self-image.

Independent people take personal responsibility for their own lives. They are self-determinists who have confidence in themselves. They get their self-image from within and are unaffected by others.

[Ivanhoe]

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
by Stephen .R. Covey


quote
Covey’s seven habits are based on an inside-out approach to personal growth. He suggests that we must have personal victory before we can have public victory. The book shows us how to go from being dependent to independent to interdependent.

Dependent people are controlled by people and things outside of themselves. They blame others for their shortcomings and need constant feedback from others to feed their self-image.

Independent people take personal responsibility for their own lives. They are self-determinists who have confidence in themselves. They get their self-image from within and are unaffected by others.

Well bully for them.

[Ivanhoe]

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
by Stephen .R. Covey


quote
Covey’s seven habits are based on an inside-out approach to personal growth. He suggests that we must have personal victory before we can have public victory. The book shows us how to go from being dependent to independent to interdependent.

Dependent people are controlled by people and things outside of themselves. They blame others for their shortcomings and need constant feedback from others to feed their self-image.

Independent people take personal responsibility for their own lives. They are self-determinists who have confidence in themselves. They get their self-image from within and are unaffected by others.

There is no such thing as Society, or Community, just individuals.  Now who was it who spoke these immortal words. ??

[GrannyMac]

There is no such thing as Society, or Community, just individuals.  Now who was it who spoke these immortal words. ??

We all know it was Maggie Thatcher.  Unfortunately the bit about society nearly always gets quoted out of context.  She said 'They're casting their problem on society. And, you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first. It's our duty to look after ourselves and then, also to look after our neighbour. People have got the entitlements too much in mind, without the obligations'. 
From: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher