General Chat

They have just said on the radio that the minimum wage as from today has gone up, any comments from anyone about it, what do you think. Margaret

I was on a fiver a WEEK in 1955

there has to be good and bad points to it. small businesses with part time staff struggle to survive with that sort of wage, but huge corperations can afford it. i dont know the answer really. what i do know is that if i got that while i was in the army i would have been on about 250k a year!! x

I was getting £3 week in 1964 Margaret

That's a lot better than the US. Some states don't even have minimum wage laws. Some employers in Oklahoma only have to pay $2 an hour. That's £1.11 Crista

Dorothy Yes it is low so gramps must have been overpayed and i was doing an apprentiship for hairdressing.

As someone who is well qualified in my field and getting paid minimum wage, I think it is long overdue. Holliday pay was also introduced at the same time as minimum wage which is most welcome. Jacky

Margaret Yes it has gone up, but actually to £4.85 an hour not £4.80. Make sure you are paid the correct amount. Check out this website http://www.dti.gov.uk/er/nmw/ Margaret

i still think thats too low.should be a fiver an hourxxxxx(:

Not if you are a pensioner, it doesn't take great ability in maths to divide my monthly pension of £350( per month please note,not per week) to work out my daily allowance. And don't fall for the 'Pick it up its Yours' which is a big con and makes the Govt. look as if it is careing Regards everyone Rose

I agree that a small business will feel the effects more than a large one - my hairdressers already has a notice up to say that prices are going to increase...I have had a small business of my own and know that labour costs have to be passed on...in the end we all pay

I understand the problems of small businesses... but... you try living on a wage of less than £5 an hour. Why should someone work hard and earn a piittance ?

Dorothy G, Yes that was my first job. I was a trainee Carpenter. My Stepmother would give me half a crown a day for my Dinner. That bought 5 Weights, a book of matches, Beans on Toast and a cup of tea. What the he.. have successive Chancellors of the Exchequer done to our economy when a coin in the gutter isn't even of enough value to justify the time it takes to pick it up. Have you ever worked out how long it takes to count five hundred pennies?

could make it a fiver couldn't they!!!! when i started work at 16 in a millinary i was on £4 a week!! i was training on a sewing machine, and later i was on £8 a week!!!! god i thought it was great bringing home all this money!!!! chris.

I still have my very first pay cheque stub. In 1961 I was earning £35 PER MONTH, MORE THAN MY HUSBAND WHO WAS EARNING £28 PERMONTH What would that be in todays terms. Our first house cost us £3.000 a very nice little three bed in a new town. We couldn't afford £4.000 for the next size house up Rose

Susan from Otley Think you've misunderstood, the rate for a sixteen year old is not £4.80 its £3.00 an hour. You dont get the top rate of £4.85 until youre over 21. Margaret

Hi Margaret, I'm just interested - what do you get for 5 pound. I live in NZ and it's about NZ$15.00 and hour which sounds quite good. I was just wondering what can you buy with 5 pound. How much is bread and milk for instance? I remember that when I lived in England many years ago a pound didn't buy a lot - is that still the same?

Hi Christine, how are you? These items were on a recent till receipt:- Bread = 84 pence = $2.24 (but you can get it cheaper) Milk 4pints (2.27L) = £1.59 = $4.24 Butter = 72 pence = $1.92 (cheapest I found on the day) Baking potatoes = £1.19 Kg = $3.17 20 cigarettes = £4.70 = $12.54 We certainly found that our money seemed to go further over there especially with fruit and vegetables. Clothes worked out to be about the same cost wise - so possibly expensive for you. I'm comparing your Farmers with somewhere like Britain's Littlewoods - about right I think. I suppose it's all relative to the average wage, what seemed cheap to us could possibly have been a struggle to find for someone that lives there full time. I think the dearest thing we had to buy over there was anti-histamine tablets. (blasted mozzies!) Magsx

Hi Mags, Yes, thought there wasn't much in it. It's only if you are earning big money in U.K. then bringing lots of English pounds here you do well. It's pretty hard for us coming for a holiday there.