Britain Needs a Payrise

scorza

scorza

scorza

Caporegime
Joined
22 Jun 2004
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Deep England
That's the message of this year's Trades Union Congress. With the assault on pay and living standards for most UK workers ongoing despite the recovery, they have a point. Whether anything will happen is another matter sadly.

I was heartened to read here: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/08/poverty-pay-isnt-just-about-economics-new-york that although the minimum wage in New York is less than the UK (£4.93 as opposed to £6.85 an hour) cleaners in hotels over there earn considerably more, and have an average wage of $32k a year. Why? because 70% of all hotel staff in New York are unionised. We really shot ourselves in the foot when we let our governments dismantle the unions didn't we? Low pay is our legacy.
 
They earn is because they are tipped.
People tip cleaners in hotels there.
They tip people to do their jobs.
You need to look at the average revenue taxation breakdown for the jobtype, and see how much is expected to be in tipping.

Anyway. Yes Britian could do with a pay raise. My standard of liviing is down about 12-14% over the past number of years, it might break even over the next two and stop dropping but that remains unclear.
Frankly, there is no money to pay for such a raise, and thats why we do not have such a raise. If mad labour get in they might attempt some figures manipulation to ruin the economy again (yet again), but until the country can afford the pay raise, there won't be anything of substance.
 
How about you compare apples for apples and look at the wages of cleaning staff in London rather than the country as a whole? Link

That is comparably MORE than the average wage in the US.

Shocker that people living in major cities earn more than the national average :rolleyes:
 
Hikari Kisugi said:
They earn is because they are tipped.
People tip cleaners in hotels there.
They tip people to do their jobs.
You need to look at the average revenue taxation breakdown for the jobtype, and see how much is expected to be in tipping.
Click to expand...

You tip your hotel cleaners do you? How does that work exactly?
 
Hades said:
Leave some money for them in your room when you leave.
Click to expand...

For what? cleaning the room for the next guy? If it's for how clean the room was when yesterday, how do you know it's the same cleaner who is cleaning today?
 
scorza said:
For what? cleaning the room for the next guy? If it's for how clean the room was when yesterday, how do you know it's the same cleaner who is cleaning today?
Click to expand...

In the usa this is routine, i do NOT do it.
In the usa they do, thus part of the reason for a higher wage.
Do you deliberately misunderstand, or are you incapable of comprehension?
Compare resturant waiter salaries, you cannot, they are not like for like, due to tipping.
 
Unions. Yeah. Great for this country so far :rolleyes:

There is a place for them, but they have WAY too much power.
 
Hikari Kisugi said:
In the usa this is routine, i do NOT do it.
In the usa they do, thus part of the reason for a higher wage.
Do you deliberately misunderstand, or are you incapable of comprehension?
Compare resturant waiter salaries, you cannot, they are not like for like, due to tipping.
Click to expand...

There's a brilliant Freakonomics podcast on tipping. I think it said the USA was the country with the highest number of tip-reliant jobs in the developed world. They pay something like $40bn in tips every year.

It's also discriminatory, with different racial and sexual types giving and receiving different levels of tips.
 
Hikari Kisugi said:
In the usa this is routine, i do NOT do it.
In the usa they do, thus part of the reason for a higher wage.
Do you deliberately misunderstand, or are you incapable of comprehension?
Compare resturant waiter salaries, you cannot, they are not like for like, due to tipping.
Click to expand...

I've been to the USA and stayed in hotels there, so I know about the tipping culture there. However I did not see any obvious way of tipping a hotel cleaner in the same way there was for tipping a hotel porter, or the waitress in the restaurant. I was merely asking how one would go about tipping a hotel cleaner, so far the one suggestion of leaving some money in your room doesn't seem practical.
 
Hikari Kisugi said:
They earn is because they are tipped.
People tip cleaners in hotels there.
They tip people to do their jobs.
You need to look at the average revenue taxation breakdown for the jobtype, and see how much is expected to be in tipping.

Anyway. Yes Britian could do with a pay raise. My standard of liviing is down about 12-14% over the past number of years, it might break even over the next two and stop dropping but that remains unclear.
Frankly, there is no money to pay for such a raise, and thats why we do not have such a raise. If mad labour get in they might attempt some figures manipulation to ruin the economy again (yet again), but until the country can afford the pay raise, there won't be anything of substance.
Click to expand...

You say there's no money for a pay rise, but mp's are getting one... A hefty one at that...

One rule for them, another for the rest of us...
 
It is not easy to compare UK and US earnings.
The OP's $32k (£20k) wages could be judged against a 40 hour 48 week minimum earnings income of £13k in the UK. However in the UK there are income and tax credits depending on your household.
In the UK you can earn £10k without paying tax, in the US you pay tax from $1 upwards at 10%.
In the UK you get healthcare, basic but based on need, free at the point of delivery

The rights of individuals for employment, paid holidays and equality tend to be better in the UK.

The welfare state safety net has to be paid for and this will impact on the level of income paid directly in the pay packet of all.
 
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