Is the minimum wage worth working for anymore?

[Anna B]

Why bring bankers into it...there are lots of jobs that require qualifications...how about comparing a cleaner and an electrician...maybe a care worker and an engineer who maintains machines that are used in hospitals to keep folk alive ...sorry it's not quite as evocative is it ? While ever there are people willing to do care work for minimum wage then not much will change..

 

You can compare whoever you want with whoever else you want, the point remains how do you evaluate the worth of one job against another?

 

Should care workers strike do you think? Will that change things? Should all low paid workers strike? Is job satisfaction a quantifiable part of the equation?What is low pay these days? It's all relative.

 

I don't know the answers, but all these problems are a consequence of a capitalist system. That doesn't mean I'm against capitalism at all, but it does have inherant problems, (as do all systems,) that need to be addressed.

[epiphany]

Minimum wage is a great way to discriminate against low skilled workers and empower corporations that can use such a law to anti-competitive advantage.

 

Just another unholy coalition between the do-gooders and the special interests...

[tinfoilhat]

You can compare whoever you want with whoever else you want, the point remains how do you evaluate the worth of one job against another?

 

Should care workers strike do you think? Will that change things? Should all low paid workers strike? Is job satisfaction a quantifiable part of the equation?What is low pay these days? It's all relative.

 

I don't know the answers, but all these problems are a consequence of a capitalist system. That doesn't mean I'm against capitalism at all, but it does have inherant problems, (as do all systems,) that need to be addressed.

 

Easy. Level of skill required and/or danger. If you need a triple bypass you could have four mechanics have go, all good men and true (and the heart is pump afterall). I'll have one surgeon. This isn't capitalism, this is more basic than that.

 

There are modern exceptions, care workers deserve more money but there job has only really appeared because of modern medicine. Residential and nursing homes ate chock full of people who, in the main, wouldn't have lived to the age they have complete with whatever affliction they have because heart attack, cancer, other disease or industrial accident would have done them in in the 1940s or 50s. We are reaching the age we are (complete with problems) due to the advancements of doctors, engineers, hellfire even bankers and politicians (no major wars either).

 

That's why they get paid more than care workers.

[truman]

You can compare whoever you want with whoever else you want, the point remains how do you evaluate the worth of one job against another?

 

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You advertise a salary.if no-one wants to do that job for that money then you have to up the salary until you get takers for it..then you can select the workers you want from those..that's how it works isn't it..? Obviously we're talking purely about money here..I'm not sure you can put "worth" on any other aspect of a job and get a sensible comparison..is a fireman "worth" more than a doctor,is a doctor "worth" more than an engineer,is an engineer "worth" more than a cleaner etcetc..we'd be stumped without any of them..I suppose the salary paid is down to the availablity of suitable people to do the job..

[Rupert_Baehr]

You can compare whoever you want with whoever else you want, the point remains how do you evaluate the worth of one job against another?

 

Should care workers strike do you think? Will that change things? Should all low paid workers strike? Is job satisfaction a quantifiable part of the equation?What is low pay these days? It's all relative.

 

I don't know the answers, but all these problems are a consequence of a capitalist system. That doesn't mean I'm against capitalism at all, but it does have inherant problems, (as do all systems,) that need to be addressed.

 

 

If all care workers (indeed, all low paid workers) 'withdrew their labour' (going on strike for a week or two - or even a month or more - probably wouldn't work) then the lack of applicants for the jobs that those workers had previously filled would force up the wages - or force people to do the jobs for themselves.

 

If - after the wages started to rise - large numbers of people tried to get those jobs then that in turn, would drive the wages down.

 

In most cases (there are one or two exceptions) Jobs - like goods and services - are worth whatever the market is prepared to pay for them.

[danot]

You advertise a salary.if no-one wants to do that job for that money then you have to up the salary until you get takers for it..then you can select the workers you want from those..that's how it works isn't it..? Obviously we're talking purely about money here..I'm not sure you can put "worth" on any other aspect of a job and get a sensible comparison..is a fireman "worth" more than a doctor,is a doctor "worth" more than an engineer,is an engineer "worth" more than a cleaner etcetc..we'd be stumped without any of them..I suppose the salary paid is down to the availablity of suitable people to do the job..

Bankers aren't being paid obscene amounts of money because they were once in short supply, they're being paid obscene amounts of money because they're holding the UK government to ransom.

 

What other profession can you name that demand hefty annual bonuses despite having routinely under performed? What type of managing director would even consider rewarding an employee/contractor whose poor performance, deceitfulness and corruptness had almost bankrupted the company? What type of managing director would then use the remaining stock interests of the shareholders(while blatantly ignoring the objections of the shareholders)to subsidize further investment ventures proposed by this employee/contractor and of course to pay-roll the hefty annual bonus they're demanding?

 

What other managing director would then notify the shareholders that they'll have to dig a little deeper as the employees/contractors latest venture didn't quite turn out as they'd predicted due to yet another catalogue of errors plagued by deceitfulness, and corruptness?

[L00b]

how do you evaluate the worth of one job against another?

By what added value each of the two jobs provides to the 'buyer' of the 'effort'.

 

Of course, that pre-supposes that you can express the added value in financial terms.

 

That is going to vary from buyer to buyer, from industry to industry and also, to an extent, from point-in-time to point-in-time.

 

So, in a word as in a hundred, "comparing" two jobs for trying to determine a common denominator with which to grade one against the other, is pointless

[stoneman]

Is it worth working at all these days. Low wages and Loads of stress

[Forumosaurus]

There needs to be a link between the profit of companies and the wages they pay.

 

There are multi billion pound corporations that only pay minimum wage, and the fat cat sat at the top is earning many millions a year whilst the guy at the bottom is scraping by.

 

Link profit with pay, simple.

[tinfoilhat]

There needs to be a link between the profit of companies and the wages they pay.

 

There are multi billion pound corporations that only pay minimum wage, and the fat cat sat at the top is earning many millions a year whilst the guy at the bottom is scraping by.

 

Link profit with pay, simple.

 

5 years ago tesco made billions. This year it made a loss. How do you work wages out ? How do employees get on, certainly when most companies send out quarterly reports ? Do you give a giant quarterly bonus then nothing the next ?

 

In some industries, certainly those with consistent profit turning Market leaders (like Microsoft I guess ) employees would get stacks more than those working for smaller companies, meaning loads would go to the wall.

 

Sadly, the power is often with the consumer. We rarely use it wisely.