Minimum Wage

Hello everybody, how are you?

Me?  Not too bad.  Tired, but that's the norm isn't it!  These days you put more hours in to make the money to pay the bills don't you, unless you're one of the fortunate richer people who have had their income tax knocked down.  Now the government think that it is a good idea to suggest abolishing the minimum wage, which is an absolutely ludicrous idea.  I think they are basically trying to make things so bad for the lowest earners that there will be a rise in the number of people committing suicide, dying from hypothermia, dying of starvation, or dying from anything else that they can't afford.  What a bunch of absolute morons!

When we first moved three and a half years ago I think it is to where we live now, I was working a similar job that paid me minimum wage, and we were able to pay everything with a little left over (not much, but still).  Now I am still earning a minimum wage, we live at the same place, and we have had to forgo a few things such as the payment of contents insurance, because my pay just won't stretch to that.  I am actually starting to contemplate getting rid of the mobile broadband as well, but then that would mean that I would never get online because I never was able to afford to get someone in to set up broadband at home - the initial outlay for that was just too much!  I always intended to do it, but never afforded it!

Unfortunately, this bunch of absolute tossers that we have in power at the moment think it's right that while they have been in power they could double the income tax for the lowest earners whilst ensuring that the rise in the national minimum wage goes up at a smaller percentage than that of inflation - how good is that?  To add insult to injury, they are now on about abolishing the minimum wage altogether which would probably mean a return to me working for £2.25 or less an hour like I was doing before the National Minimum Wage was brought in at the beginning of April 1999.  I remember it well - my employers were talking about dropping half of the staff at the factory on the lead up to it's enforcement.

Before that I was working silly hours (and continued to do so in fact).  The official hours were eight in the morning until four in the afternoon monday to thursday, and then eight in the morning until I think one or two in the afternoon on Friday.  Shifts were available for the Saturday if we so wished.

I didn't do anything outside of work anyway really, so I started by doing a lot of Saturdays, then every Saturday, and then when we moved to new premises I decided to add to the hours in the week.  By the time the NMW came into effect, I was arriving at the factory for half past five in the morning, and then leaving at half past seven at night Monday to Friday (occasionally I would finish at 1 in the afternoon on the Friday), and the Saturday became half past five in the morning until two in the afternoon I think it was.  That is seventy eight and a half hours people at £2.25 per hour.  Even then that was a terrible wage.  That was after my initial starting wage of £1.75 per hour.  That first National Minimum Wage of £3.60 was incredible (I had to look that up because I thought that it was less than that).  It was an incredible rise in pay, but with it came it's problems.

My employers changed their rules relating to the pay of overtime, so that there were loopholes where those of us who were used to doing a certain amount of overtime actually got paid less money.  They basically changed how many hours we could work before receiving time and a half, as well as double time.  That was the worst part back then - on a Saturday we had previously got time and a half for the eight until midday work, which were the usual Saturday hours, and the extra four and a half hours were paid at double time.  Now, they were adamant about not opening up until six o'clock in the morning on the dot and closing at one o'clock in the afternoon and stipulated that we had not exceeded the standard hours to qualify for double pay.  I hear that a lot of employers pulled tricks like this back then.

As soon as the NMW came into force, all of us that worked there signed new contracts, which we had to do within our fifteen minute morning break.  The idea there was that we would just sign it without reading because we hadn't the time to read it all thoroughly, and then when anything happened they would bring up a new clause in the contracts we had signed (but not had the time to read).

If the government win this ludicrous idea to abolish the NMW then I will be evicted from where I live now because I am 99.9% certain that my present employers would be only too happy to drop our pay by perhaps four pounds per hour from the £6.19 per hour it is now to £2.19 per hour.  Why wouldn't they?  They can pay less to the employees while lining their own pockets even more.  I see that the MP's rate of pay isn't being dropped! Have they lost the ability to receive expenses?  I don't get any expenses!  Why should they?

These people asking for Iain Duncan Smith to live on benefits for a week I think need to change their demands - let's see how he gets along on them for a whole year without any outside help!  None of them have ever had difficulties and never will!  There is no working man's political party anymore.  Strangely that was originally the basis behind the Labour party, who were there to give people a separate choice to what they had with the Conservatives and the Liberals.

Basically I am having a rant here because I can see the stupidity of what they are thinking of doing.  They say that they are trying to equal things out, but I think that they all need to be checked by psychiatrists, because that is a ridiculous and unfathomable belief.  I just don't want to be evicted, end up homeless, or starve to death because some greedy bastard of an MP doesn't want to pay out of his own pocket for the mistakes that they themselves have caused!  I don't want to pay for their mistakes.

Let me put this more clearly - Because inflation has gone up to the degree where the shopping I bought three years ago for £25 is now £40, and I am paying twice the income tax (20% instead of 10%), as well as a higher rate of National Insurance (another form of Income Tax if truth be told because I don't think there will be such a thing as the State Pension when I'm that age, or for that matter a National Health Service that is worth a shit what with all the cuts they keep enforcing - they'll be asking if leeches can be used instead of tablets and medicines next to save on costs)!  Yes, the NHS is free for us to use, but only because workers pay for it through the National Insurance Contributions - contributions that we are required by law to pay!  You don't get anything in this world for nothing!

Anyway, rant over.  I have deleted some bits where I got very carried away.  I'm beginning to wonder whether I should have written this blog, but I'll see if I get any comments.

Thank you for reading.  Please take care.

1.04am Friday April 5th 2013 (42 years, four months, and ten days old).