Are we low paid?

[wacko74]

we're on a very good wage, go and get a job in a shop, pub, hotel or virtually anywhere else and see if we are underpaid then.

Maybe.. but i dont think your average job in a shop, pub or hotel works you so hard that you literally get home and collapse on the sofa exhausted and in physical pain ( ankles, knees etc) pressures your time so much that you have no oppotunity to be sociable in any way with your colleagues or customers or has so much responsibilty that making one genuine mistake could result in instant dismissal i.e. losing a special in our case.
To compare the work we do with your average shop/pub worker is ridiculous.

[mrlovepantsuk]

we're on a very good wage, go and get a job in a shop, pub, hotel or virtually anywhere else and see if we are underpaid then.

To compare the work we do with your average shop/pub worker is ridiculous.

why is it ridiculous, we are talking about being low paid, we are anything but low paid compared to these jobs.

[opgpat]

The starting salary is OK but significantly there is no pay-scale which means after just a few years service you will be underpaid.

After 2years service a policeman will be on 26K and they can be promoted to sergeant after as little as 3 years to be on 34k.
Standard trained firefighter will be on 28K - with 5K London allowance.
School Nurse will be on 20-27K and after specialising say as a GP Nurse or Midwife they will be on 26-34K.

OK you might say these jobs require more training and skills than ours which is true but the point is staff are rewarded for longer service via a pay-scale and have the opportunity to progress up the scale with more training.
.

[BELIAL]

Make 50 cents a day picking over a landfill site in the Phillipines . Bastards are well off compared to a ten year old in India recovering scrap from toxic hulks for 10 cents a day. Evil s**t apologists and excusers ,Karma

[pony]

It used to be a good wage about 15-20 years ago.
But minimum wage is slowly creeping up and a series of low wage rises and the cost of living means we can't afford to buy half of what we could 20 years ago.
I know someone who pushes trolleys around in a supermarket and he gets about £1.50 an hour less.Easy job and he can toss it off and its not as demanding physically.
D2D makes our wage seem better than it is.
Not low paid yet but its getting there.

[spoodoo]

ITS NOT SKILLED BUT PHYSICALLY IT S A HARD JOB. THE BIN MEN ,THE POSTIES ,EVEN CLEANERS ETC THE JOBS THE PUBLIC VIEW AS LOWER END ,THE COUNTRY WOULD BE IN A BIT OF A STATE WITHOUT OUT US THOUGH. WE ACTUALLY GOT A PAY DECREASE NOT A PAY FREEZE IF YOU COUNT BILLS FOOD ETC GOING UP . BET CROZIERS NOT GONNA GO STARVIN THIS XMAS EH ,,,THANKLESS JOB WE HAVE,,RANT OVER!

[DGP1]

Easy job and he can toss it off

I used to have a job like that but I decided to join RM

[dados]

52 hrs this week,O/T & SA,take home £330.00,52 back breaking hours for that,its criminal,but thats what i need to do for a decent wage,my body is in bits.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Easy job and he can toss it off

I used to have a job like that but I decided to join RM

Omar - I name thee

[DGP1]

Easy job and he can toss it off

I used to have a job like that but I decided to join RM

Omar - I name thee

[el_cartero]

theres worse paid jobs liek cleaning toilets hotel porter kitchen staff..

But its the the very bottom end of a good paid job and for tha hard work compared to say a web designer on 30 k a year .

id say it was a pretty low paid slaves job .

specially if your part time.

[rhino49]

We are not badly paid - we are overtaxed. No one in this country should be paying tax until they are earning over £15k a year. An earlier post from someone said that part timers are badly paid - of course you are, do you want a full timers wage for doing 10 - 16 hours less work. Try working in retail - their managers earn a lot less than us and do a lot of (albeit not as physical) work without pay. I speak from experience of nearly thirty years in retail and it has a lot more inconvenient hours and required standards than we do. Do you think how lucky the bar staff are when you go out in the evening and see them serving 5 deep crowds at the bar for little more than £5 an hour and all the abuse they can take?

There is a lot more to a job than the pay and at present I am happy with it, the physical challenge for me as a 60 year old is there but I cope with it, and I like the people I work with. I never complain about too much work because it is far better than none and while we should still work towards improving our conditions and working environments I think we should be happy with our lot.

There are ways to improve every situation and sitting on your arse and moaning about how much other people have is definitely not one of them

[spilie]

rhino no offence but if it was up to you and people like you we would have workhouses and all the rest of the victorian conditions, you seem to think that having a stiff upper lip and getting on with it are noble signs, that is what has kept the working man in place for centuries, i personally think we and all the woking men/women deserve a hell of a lot more than we are getting but remember we are all fighting for not just us but our childrens future so if you are questioned by your children and grandchildren about why the working class are kept down just remember your reply that, they should stop moaning and get on with it

[rhino49]

rhino no offence but if it was up to you and people like you we would have workhouses and all the rest of the victorian conditions, you seem to think that having a stiff upper lip and getting on with it are noble signs, that is what has kept the working man in place for centuries, i personally think we and all the woking men/women deserve a hell of a lot more than we are getting but remember we are all fighting for not just us but our childrens future so if you are questioned by your children and grandchildren about why the working class are kept down just remember your reply that, they should stop moaning and get on with it

No offence taken Spilie, other than that you consider me and my children to be working class. I shed the chips from my shoulders many years ago when I realised that all men put their pants on one leg at a time, that no one was superior to me and that I had no right to look down on anyone. We can't all be at the top of the food chain or the money mountain and I have already said we are reasonably paid for what we do. Both my children have university educations and their corresponding degrees which I never had the chance of or aspired to but I have my own paid for house and a comfortable existence - it's just a shame every 20 year old wants it all by the time they are 21.

[borders]

The results of the 2009 ASHE show that median weekly pay for full-time employees in the UK grew by 2.0 per cent in the year to April 2009 to reach £489. Median earnings of full-time male employees were £531 per week in April 2009; for women the median was £426.

10 per cent of full-time employees earned more than £971 per week, while 10 per cent earned less than £271. Between April 2008 and April 2009 the distribution of gross weekly pay narrowed, with a 3.2 per cent increase at the bottom decile, and a 2.1 per cent increase at the top decile.

Median gross weekly earnings for full-time employees were highest for 40 to 49-year-olds at £551. Male employees reached their highest earnings in this age group at £606, whereas women reached their highest earnings for 30 to 39-year-olds at £498. Earnings increased until employees reached these age groups and steadily decreased thereafter.

Median full-time weekly earnings in London were £627, significantly higher than in other regions, where they ranged from £436 in the North East to £514 in the South East.

The full-time occupations with the highest earnings in 2009 were ‘Health professionals', (median pay of full-time employees of £1,031 a week), followed by ‘Corporate managers’ (£745) and ‘Science and technology professionals’ (£698). The lowest paid of all full-time employees were those in ‘Sales occupations’, at £278 a week.

The percentage difference between the median level of full-time earnings in the public sector (£539 per week) and the private sector (£465 per week) widened over the year to April 2009, following annual increases of 3.1 per cent and 1.0 per cent respectively.






Source: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings