Wages Today......quite staggering when you think about it.

[pjd57]

I started as an apprentice bricklayer in 1973 age 16.
First pay was £13.
A pint of lager cost 13p ( underage pints were fairly normal )
I don't imagine many teenagers now could buy 100 pints off their take home pay.

 

[Accy cyclist]

I worked at a local pet food factory during the week before Christmas 1976. It was a temporary job while i was still at school. After an hour's compulsory overtime (only for men,not women) i received £22.50 for a week's plus overtime work! I could spend nearly that much now on a daily shopping trip!

 

[brodiej]

Apprentice panel binder 1974 here. £12

 

[winjim]

I work for the NHS. Since 2010, the top of my pay band has increased by 11%. Inflation over that period has been 29%. Don't believe the government when they tell you that NHS workers have had a pay rise. They haven't, and the latest round of adjustments was a pay freeze at best.

Pension conditions have got worse as well, contributions increased, index link to CPI rather than RPI, retirement age gone up...

 

[Sterlo]

I remember working a Saturday job in BHS at 15 for £7 for the full day, never been so well off in my life.

 

[CanucksTraveller]

I have no idea what the hourly rates were at my first jobs which were Saturdays in a bike shop, and then a book shop... I seem to remember thinking that they really weren't worth losing my Saturdays for.
I went properly into full time (ish) work in 1989 first as a barman, and then as a baker for about 8 months while I waited for a place in the RAF and again I don't know the rate. Somewhere between two to three pounds an hour maybe? But I do remember being far more pleased with the brown envelope containing the pay slip but also stuffed with tenners and change. Some of that went to my Mum for feeding me (at her insistence!)

When I joined the RAF in 1990 the yearly wage started at about 9k per year, rising to around 14k once I'd been in a few years.
My last few years (around 2009-2012) in the RAF were closer to 30k a year but we were on a pay freeze, or effectively a real terms pay reduction every year. When I was preparing to leave to go to a commercial job, they asked me to stay and sign on for another 8 years, I didn't have to think about that for too long.

One thing's for sure, the public sector is no place to get monetary reward for your time and dedication.

 

[marinyork]

That is the issue
Minimum wage should be for a zero skill, sedentary job.
A job you can learn how to do in under one shift and that does not involve doing much
A new, young, Security guard with no responsibility would be an example.

So why are waitresses (for example) being paid minimum wage ?
I'd like the Treasury to start looking at shops and restaurants (and many others) and taxing the company on the basis of proper pay for staff.

For example - we expect a young waitress to be on a minimum wage plus 20%, so we will be taxing you on that minimum basis.

Employers often convince themselves the paragraphs about no responsibility and waitress (above) are the same. As it's not been explicitly said but obvious, employers often poach moderately experienced workers from other workplaces, usually for non-cash incentives or working conditions or saying the right things. Then I've seen a lot of managers say things like ooh yes look at them, they are brand new at the job and wonderful, how marvellous I am at spotting talent. Well erm, not really, the person's done the job twice before in other companies and yes they may be 'young' but you've exaggerating. Person gets pissed off after 6 months or a year as minimum wage and no development. The cycle repeats and they go and get another one. The odd one makes it to be a team leader or manager and there's back slapping about what a wonderful meritocratic and enlightened employer you are.

The £9 or so in supermarkets can be pretty good whack, since before those stonkingly large minimum wage rises which prompted supermarkets and others to raise wages from around £6.50-£7 to around £9. That it's applied to 16-18 year olds by some companies is absolutely right and good for them. The company I worked for was utterly ridiculous in that when I left nearly all paybands and skills payments had vanished completely and pretty much everyone was paid the same, literally from the day they walked in to someone that was far more valuable that may or may not mean they had 10, 20, 30 years experience. Retail makes an entire living out of keeping this individuals with flattery or letting them do other more skilled jobs to stop boredom, or other non-cash incentives. What keeps the whole show on the road sadly.

 

[Brains]

Employers often convince themselves the paragraphs about no responsibility and waitress (above) are the same. As it's not been explicitly said but obvious, employers often poach moderately experienced workers from other workplaces, usually for non-cash incentives or working conditions or saying the right things. Then I've seen a lot of managers say things like ooh yes look at them, they are brand new at the job and wonderful, how marvellous I am at spotting talent. Well erm, not really, the person's done the job twice before in other companies and yes they may be 'young' but you've exaggerating. Person gets pissed off after 6 months or a year as minimum wage and no development. The cycle repeats and they go and get another one. The odd one makes it to be a team leader or manager and there's back slapping about what a wonderful meritocratic and enlightened employer you are.

The £9 or so in supermarkets can be pretty good whack, since before those stonkingly large minimum wage rises which prompted supermarkets and others to raise wages from around £6.50-£7 to around £9. That it's applied to 16-18 year olds by some companies is absolutely right and good for them. The company I worked for was utterly ridiculous in that when I left nearly all paybands and skills payments had vanished completely and pretty much everyone was paid the same, literally from the day they walked in to someone that was far more valuable that may or may not mean they had 10, 20, 30 years experience. Retail makes an entire living out of keeping this individuals with flattery or letting them do other more skilled jobs to stop boredom, or other non-cash incentives. What keeps the whole show on the road sadly.

One can only hope that Supermarkets paying £9/ph to the teenagers will will remove them from the pool of the restaurants that only pay minimum wage.

I would hope in time that big employers will pay fair wages, which in turn will be the bottom dwelling employers will be forced to pay something approaching a reasonable wage, otherwise they wont get any takers.

Having said which:
I have a couple of friends who run a hotel in Cornwall, they pay above local market wages, (no one is on minimum wage, not even 16 year old waitresses).
They have no problem getting in mostly (eastern) Europeans to do the work. Good people, the jobs are well done.
However whilst they go out of their way to get in locals, they have never had one last more than a few months, and several who have not even lasted the week, as they find the job a bit much like hard work.

Swings and roundabouts i guess

 

[marzjennings]

My annual salary in 2020 is 50% less than my salary in 1997.

I'm staggered by how much my salary has increased since '97, and I'm very conscious of how fortunate I've been. Given that, living costs seem to keep track with income and the amount of available bike cash I have each month doesn't seem to have changed at all.

Looking back to how much I earned as a kid and young adult, I'll spend more on a single coffee than I used to earn in a day. I spent more on a round of 8 pints and a side of chips last night, than I used to earn in a week. And I bought a new bike two years ago that was equivalent to about 6 months pay (gross) in '97. Feckin mental as I think about it.