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National Minimum Wage - Does it work?

There has been much talk about the minimum wage, all three main political parties have promised to increase the NMW in the run up to the next general election - now is a good time to see how and if the NMW works. 

 If it were not for the minimum wage many of us would have been working like slaves and society would be a completely different place.

 The minimum wage works, it was a smart move to introduce the minimum wage and it brought many people out of poverty. But now whoever is on minimum wage is quite likely to be in the poverty bracket. The poverty rate of working age adults without children currently hovers around 20%!

Lets look at some figures:

Your take home pay on minimum wage after tax and NI is £212 per week. 

In Essex an average one bedroom property would cost about £110 per week to rent - add council tax (£25) and bills (£25) and you're making it £160 a week just to have a roof over your head. 

That leaves you with £52 for food, transport, phone and anything else that you may need. Not a lot really.
My argument is, why hasn't the minimum wage been increased sooner? To earn the minimum wage is to force yourself into poverty, you have no choice, so many organisations choose to pay NMW because it is a bargain for them! And why wouldn't they, the less they pay out the more money that make for themselves that's a no brainer. 
This government should be doing more, increase the NMW to a fair amount and help people out of poverty. The NMW no longer works and will continue to not work until its increased- its putting people in poverty not taking them out of it. 

I think a minimum wage of £8ph is a better and fairer figure.

That would give you a take home pay of £247 per week after tax and NI. An increase of £35 may not seem that much but that’s £1820 in a year.

Now you have £87 for food, transport, phone and everything else that you may need. 

Sounds better to me, what do you think?  



(By the way, these figures are an average - find out if you're paying the right amount of tax - http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/tax-calculator/) <a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/13125195/?claim=fyge3ac6z46">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>
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  1. Unknown7 November 2014 at 00:59

    i think we should all be on atleast £8 an hour, I'm on minimum wage and find it very hard to survive, grateful i share everything with my partner because if we did not combine our income, i don't know how i would survive, id definitely be living at home!

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