Is the new national living wage actually a step up for Britain?
On the 8th of July 2015, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, announced the regulations regarding the new national living wage. From April 2016, this will become law, which means that “If you’re working and aged 25 or over and not in the first year of an apprenticeship, you’ll be legally entitled to at least £7.20 per hour.” (HM Government, 2015) This an increase of 50p compared to the previous £6.70, which makes it the largest increase regarding the national living wage since 2009. (GOV.UK, 2016) This essay will discuss the likely economic effects the new national living wage will have on productivity, employment and poverty. It will do so by stating a general assumption
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Income and poverty are strongly linked. The first assumption, therefore is, that with an increase in the national living wage, resulting in more income, poverty is likely to go down. This, however, does not mean it is a cure for poverty. The national living wage is for everyone and even though this seems to be a fair concept. There will still be people which are not as well of as others. Much more has to be done in order to decrease poverty than a 50 pence increase in the national living wage. The increase might have been announced with good intentions but “one principle is fundamental in the amelioration of poverty: those who are equally in need should be helped equally.” (Stigler, 1946: 364) While higher wages could be seen as some type of help many of the workers benefiting from them are not even classified as poor which means that poverty is not as directly affected as employment or productivity. Another factor that will not benefit those living in poverty is the increase in prices that is assumed to come with the new national living wage. This is due to increased demand for goods and services as well as producers trying to balance out the additional money they now have to spend on wages. Which leads to the difference between those living in poverty while having a job and those who are not employed. The extra 50 pence earned every hour will give those being employed the possibility to make up for the higher prices and might even help them out of poverty. People moving out of poverty could also benefit the government. During the financial year 2013/2014 the UK spent £251 billion on welfare. (ONS Digital, 2015) From April 2016, when the workers will earn more this could mean there might be less additional support needed from the government and at the same time more money available to the government to invest elsewhere such as in education or
This was said by George Osborne the Chancellor George Osborne of the Exchequer and Second Lord of the Treasury of the United Kingdom. Gorge Osborne, through his statement above has shown that he is willing to increase the national minimum wage from £6.31 to £7 per hour which is above inflation. The National Minimum Wage was set up in 1998 to protect low-paid workers, which I think was a good idea. However, an increase in the UK National Minimum Wage will cause more harm to the economy, employment sector and even the society than the proposed good. Students may leave their primary aim of getting educated to go in search of jobs; employers will employ less numbers of people thereby increasing unemployment; and the economy will suffer lack of growth that might get Britain into bigger debts and quite possibly a recession. It is not a good move!
Living wage is a level of income that enable workers to afford basic necessity of life like shelter, food, health care and education. This is to afford any one that work full-time to live above poverty line, avoid homelessness and hunger; it’s meant to just meet basic necessities and provide buffer against emergencies or improve quality of life. It’s however disheartening to note that this basic wage has continue to be a dream for most workers in this country today; even as the companies or entities they work for makes record profits. Opponent of national living wage had cited possible job loss, capital flight in this era of globalization of capitalism, and natural forces of market as reason why implementing national living wage is a bad policy that would make the
If the government raised the minimum wage, then the amount of people in poverty would decline. The poverty line in 2015 was $12,331 a year, only 20 percent below a full-time minimum wage worker’s annual salary of $15,080 (Should the Federal). As a result, minimum-wage citizens can barely meet their living needs. A study completed by the National Low Income Housing Coalition in 2015 said that a worker must earn $15.50 an hour to be able to rent a one bedroom apartment. If someone needed a two bedroom apartment they would need to earn $19.35 an hour (Should the Federal). More people would be able to find adequate housing or their family if minimum wage were to increase. As a result. Less people would be living on the streets. If the minimum wage was raised to $9 an hour, over 300,000 people would be lifted out of poverty. Even better, raising minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would result in over 900,000 people out of poverty (Should the Federal). Consequently, more people would be living comfortably if the minimum wage were to be raised. Poverty levels
To analyse and draw conclusions on minimum wage in relation to its standing in business law, we first of all need to define what the meaning of the term is. National minimum wage was introduced in 1998 through the national minimum wage act. This enforced that employers would pay each employee a set value set by the government per working hour. One of the main benefits of this was that the most low skills jobs within society received a fair wage. Setting the price of minimum wage is a complex task as the main priority is to reduce the negative effect on the labour market, creating benefits outweighing the costs. Inflation and minimum wage have a very close relationship, with inflation being the annual increase in the price of goods and services. As inflation rises, it is natural for minimum wage to follow at a similar rate. In october 2014, minimum wage increased 3%, whereas inflation increased 2%. This shows an improvement in the real term income for over 1,000,000 of the lowest paid workers in Britain.
A living wage can at least assure that a worker is being paid for basic requirements like housing, food, transportation which would help in their work and health care. According to the definition which states that the normal living wage should be good enough that not more than even 30% of his/her pay needs to be spent on living. But full-time workers were being paid the current minimum wage which would lead to incomes below the living wage in most of the areas in the country. In economical terms, that means that if a person is a full-time employee supporting his/her family of four on this current minimum wage, his/her household income would be 7000$ which is far below the poverty line. Campaigners who were in favor of raising the minimum wage to a living wage argue that doing this would give employees and their families the best chance to come out of debts and poverty stricken in the country. As an large number of employees take on lower wage work, poverty in the United States has increased: In 2005, 12.6% of Americans lived in poverty, compared to 15.7% this year (almost 50 million citizens)–the highest rate of poverty since 1965. Raising the minimum wage to a living wage would hopefully help to reverse this
I support the national minimum wage. I think the minimum wage standard set a baseline for the fairness of pay. Without wage standard, workers can be subject to abuse that may lead to exploitation. There are many people today that count on the minimum wage to help them meet basic human necessity such as food, shelter, and clothing. These workers are the unskilled and the less educated of society. In fact, they are probably the most hardworking people in our society. Policy makers would often take an example of families who work two or three jobs to meet ends meet to justify why minimum wage should increase to lift these families out of their situation. What policy makers fail to realize is that no matter how much you increase the minimum
Assess the likely impact of UK Government labour market policies on any three macro-economic objectives. Refer to the information and to your own knowledge (30)
If the government will listen then, “the raise in wage will not hurt employment like many think” (Editorial Board). If we raise the wage according to the shift in economy then it should only help the economy. The increase in the economy will open up more opportunities for people in return to retain steady work. In reality, “at least a $11 an hour would be needed to raise people above the poverty line” (Editorial Board). That would be a $3.75 increase from the low bomb of $7.25, Americans would make about $23,00 per year vs about $15,000 per year The boost in pay will further the growth of businesses and employment in the American economy. The economy has been in a tailspin before and we want to keep the unemployment low, but also allow people to make enough
The National Minimum Wage is based on the amount an individual gets per hour, dependent on age and whether an individual is an apprentice or not. The majority of individuals are entitled to this by law however there are some individuals that are exempt from this, these are if the individual is self employed, company directors, volunteers or family members of the employer that are living in the same household (Gov.uk, 2016).
It seems only logical that providing the poorest segment of society with more pay for their work will improve their situation and give them the working capital they need to work their way out of poverty. With each incremental increase those who are directly affected by the increase will instantly have more money to help them purchase more good and services to improve their living conditions. Additionally increasing the minimum wage would likely have a positive effect on the overall economy as workers immediately increase their consumption possibly increasing GDP and the resulting employment
In this article, the author discusses the significance of living wages for workers in the US. The author explains that over the past decades, families have been unable to keep in stride with the cost of living, due to low income. While jobs are being created, they do not provide sufficient wages for many families. Additionally, due to the requirements of some federal assistance programs, individuals must accept these employments, regardless of pay. As the economy has grown, the wages remains the same and many minimum wage earners fall below the poverty line.
Now I shall analyse the impact of the national minimum wages act 1998 on the 2 employment contracts of the company New Forrest logistics. This act is an important piece of legislation that the company is advised to follow very closely. This act sets the minimum wage levels an employee is entitled to per hour in accordance with the age group the employee falls under. The current wage of those falling under the group of 21 and above is £6.08 and that falling under the group of 18 to 20 is equal £4.98. This legislation will obviously have an impact on both the contracts of employment drawn by New Forrest logistics as they will have to state in the contract what wages they will pay the concerned employees. Thus they will need to ensure that they abide by the act and pay the employees the correct wages in accordance with the age group. If they violate the legislation, they will be liable legal action.
Existing workers will benefit from this in the short run. However, in the very long run, changes in technology are being seen as shown by multiple food chains removing real personnel and replacing them with automatic tellers to take the consumers orders (Patton, 2015). The automatic tellers only increase the natural effect of raising the minimum wage which is the surplus of labour. Fewer people will be employed with all consumers experiencing a decrease in purchasing power caused by the increase in prices that firms must commit to in order to make economic profit. The government response could be the implementation of a low wage employer fee which would be allocated according to the labourers at the same time giving them a voice in the big-box community (Smiley,
Their Real Living Wage is set at £8.75 per hour for workers aged 18 years and over (Living Wage Foundation, No Date), as young people face the same living costs as others. Employees have shown support for this and 3000 employers have signed up and pledged to pay their workers the Real Living Wage despite no legal obligation (Living Wage Foundation, No Date). The news of an increased national living wage has the potential for a number of benefits and drawbacks for the economy. There is a strong case for the new living wage to be implemented. It may help to reduce poverty, as the introduction of an increased rate of pay will increase the lowest of salaries which will, in turn raise the income of such workers and this results in them having more disposable income and therefore spending ability.
The living wage movement is an economic reform movement that has become one of the most important public policy issues that has come up within the last 10 years. Although there is no single definition, it is often defined as an hourly salary that allows working families of four to have an income that is above the federal poverty line. This means that the livable wage laws often stipulate that hourly wages should be two to three times above the federal Mininum wage. However, unlike the Mininum wage, the living wage has so far only been enacted on the county and city level. Cities and counties enforce the living wage for companies that have contracts with their respective cities and counties, receive subsidies