Home Work & Study
If you need urgent support, call 999 or go to your nearest A&E. To contact our Crisis Messenger (open 24/7) text THEMIX to 85258.

Pay freeze

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Just had a letter from Personnel dept that we're not getting any rise in salary this year.

That's bad when petrol going up, food so expensive, my landlord keeps increasing rent and inflation soaring ahead about 5%

How am I going to make ends meet without using bank credit?

And the government says public sector employers should impose a pay freeze for the next two/three years

Some folks working for successful private firms I know are still getting wage increases

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Find a new job then. Or join the union and go on strike.

    Them's the choices. I'll be on strike.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    When I was in retail, our pay was frozen from 2009 and my former colleagues tell me it's not been increased yet.

    It's shit, and in real terms we all know it amounts to a pay cut, but it's happening everywhere.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Find a new job then. Or join the union and go on strike.
    Look at state of job market- no chance

    Unless I become a Tube driver then my union is guaranteed to strike for more money
    piccolo wrote: »
    When I was in retail, our pay was frozen from 2009 and my former colleagues tell me it's not been increased yet.

    It's shit, and in real terms we all know it amounts to a pay cut, but it's happening everywhere.
    Shop employees work hard- constantly watched by customers and often hard hitting top managers in the store. A year on year pay freeze must be demoralizing, especially most retail work borders on National minimum wage
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Yes, it's almost impossible to live on and I wasn't entitled to tax credits because I'd previously had a high income.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    piccolo wrote: »
    Yes, it's almost impossible to live on and I wasn't entitled to tax credits because I'd previously had a high income.

    You should be able to base tax credits on this years' income.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I wasn't able to for some reason, it may have been a cock up
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Will have been: it's current year income OR last year's income, whichever is lower. And the first £10,000 increase in wages in the current year is disregarded (was £25,000, will be £5,000 next year).

    As for unions, it depends on your union. Unison are about as much use as a chocolate fireguard but I'm in a far more obstroperous union, UCU, and we have already been out on strike about reduncancies, pensions and pay.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I was misinformed about benefits, then.

    I was part of Unite, but at the time there was no talk of strike. That may have changed now.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Private sector pay increases are right down - which while I realise is very different to a pay freeze, it follows a similar trend.

    I think it's something to do with this global economy issue thing that may have been mentioned once or twice?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Is it shite.

    The richest have gotten richer in the last three years. It's just the saps at the bottom who are losing out. It was ever thus, but don't pretend there's no money. There's plenty of money- just look at the bumper profits from your own employer.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    But is that not all to do with the mess the global economy (and our own) is in.

    Oil companies can make massive profits at the moment because the oil price is high, and believe it or not, that actually has very little to do with them. The consumer end of oil & gas is making very very very little money - it's all in what is essentially commodity trading. Which is essentially where the problems came from in the first place.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Centrica made profits of £1.1 billion. If that's very very little money, I wouldn't mind having very very little money.

    Food and oil prices are high due to commodity trading, definitely, but the manufacturers and producers have as much interest in prolonging it as the commodity traders do. The problem is not the global economy being in a mess, the problem is that the rich bankers have lost money and are being allowed to reclaim it from the poor. There's nothing wrong with the economy, the problem is the thieving scum being allowed to steal from you and I.

    I'd personally like to see the CEOs of Vodafone and Goldman Sachs be treated like the common thieves that they are, Sharia style.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Centrica are a gas producer, and that profit won't be coming from the consumer end of their business.

    How is the 'theiving scum being allowed to steal from you and I' not a feature of the economy? I'd say bankers being allowed to reclaim money from the poor (as you put it) is a pretty big problem with an economy.

    Of course producers have an interest in keeping the price high, and that can be seen by the action of OPEC, but what we've actually seen recently is producers acting to try and keep prices down by increasing production. That suggests the bulk of the problem lies with trading rather than producers.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Enough of the profit will be. Prices go up when wholesale prices go up; prices don't come down when wholesale prices come down. You see the same at the petrol forecourt.

    I suppose it depends what you mean by "the current economic climate". If you mean it in the Conservative Party sense- i.e. there's no money, so STFU- then you are wrong. If you mean that the rich are being allowed to get richer at our expense then you're right. There's plenty of money, plenty of companies are making plenty of profit. It's just becoming ever more concentrated in fewer and fewer hands.

    But never fear, we're all in this together. Unless you're a posh Tory wanker. I'm dying to use the c-word but I promised GWST I wouldn't.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I mean the latter. There's plenty of money around, it's just being moved around in a way that's completely un sustainable. It's not something that's easily solved, but at a high level, the problem isn't rocket science either.

    On a related note - my favourite website when forecourt fuel prices are being discussed. http://www.whatprice.co.uk/petrol-prices/cost-litre-breakdown.html

    Oil companies are bad, don't get me wrong, but OPEC are worse, governments are worse, and an economy that mainly functions on trading futures is a recipe for disaster.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    We all know that forecourt owners don't make much money, it's a widely-quoted statistic (which may be apocryphal or it may not) that most garages make more money on the Mars bar and the pint of milk you buy at the same time as the petrol.

    However the real question is how much money BP and Shell and ExxonMobil make in profit out of that 32% that is "refinery petrol costs". It's rather rich of the oil companies to say that they have no say in how expensive their product is. They very much have a say in it, it's just in their interests to keep their prices inflated. You see the same thing with de Beers and the diamond trade.

    However, I agree, the real issue is commodity trading. That's why grain prices are so high too. I don't know how those people can sleep at night, but hey. I expect they just see it as their job, as being professional.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The disconnect between production from the ground and refinery costs means that to a certain extent companies have little control over what their fuel costs.

    If they bypassed commodity trading, and put their own oil from the rock into their own refineries, shipped on their own ships - then they'd keep control. As it is, you can be confident of pretty much only one thing - that the Joe Bloggs refinery will be refinery pretty much everyone elses produced oil (which they've bought in) and very little of their own.

    At which point, refinery costs are massively dictated by commodity trading, and so the pointy finger comes back. It could of course be fixed, by fiscal regiemes making it more attractive to keep the value chain in house and thus reduce the steps - but as it is, fiscal regimes massively favour the trading route - so that's what we get.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Private sector pay increases are right down - which while I realise is very different to a pay freeze, it follows a similar trend.
    believe private sector depends which company you work for- any growth in business or making loss
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Then you get stories like this one, which claims recent statistics show that private sector employees are paid less than their public sector counter parts.

    Which, if true, does start to limit any sympathy one might have for public sector workers complaining about pay freezes and changes to benefits, if in reality it just makes public sector reward conditions move towards those available in the private sector.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The headline figure is true but, as the authors point out, there are issues with methodology which negates any point they're trying to make.

    Public sector workers tend to be more highly skilled and highly skilled people get paid more than low skilled people. The statistics show that there are more low-skill workers in the private sector and that the highest skilled workers generally don't figure- bonuses and self-employment (e.g. company directors) don't figure in the statistics. The lowest skilled public sector workers were outsourced to G4S and Compass and the like a long time ago.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Then you get stories like this one, which claims recent statistics show that private sector employees are paid less than their public sector counter parts.

    Which, if true, does start to limit any sympathy one might have for public sector workers complaining about pay freezes and changes to benefits, if in reality it just makes public sector reward conditions move towards those available in the private sector.

    Traditionally, working in public sector has been seen as more status
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    KiwiFruit wrote: »
    Just had a letter from Personnel dept that we're not getting any rise in salary this year.

    That's bad when petrol going up, food so expensive, my landlord keeps increasing rent and inflation soaring ahead about 5%

    How am I going to make ends meet without using bank credit?

    And the government says public sector employers should impose a pay freeze for the next two/three years

    Some folks working for successful private firms I know are still getting wage increases

    I seriously suggest you try and make ends met without using bank credit. Simple things like budgeting and monitoring what you spend can make a huge difference. If you are not doing those things, start now.

    I know folks working in the private sector who haven't had a wage increase for years.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    sneer wrote: »
    I seriously suggest you try and make ends met without using bank credit. Simple things like budgeting and monitoring what you spend can make a huge difference. If you are not doing those things, start now.

    yeah, in my late teens I ran up hugh credit card debts and thought taking out loans was solution. Fortunately I have some funds saved up now and do weekly list of spending- love it. Gives sense of control in money management :)

    Thanks
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    People on £21K or over in my dept are getting pay freezes... But the pension schemes we're on are technically a pay cut if you ask me...

    I'm on less than £20K and will be paying an extra £600 a year in to my pension, working until I'm 68 (in theory, I don't like my job and am looking to move asap) and getting less in the end (I think people currently retired on my grade get about £5k pension, how DECADENT).

    We went out on strike though and I was picketing. No point complaining... Either fight, or haul ass.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Namaste wrote: »
    People on £21K or over in my dept are getting pay freezes... But the pension schemes we're on are technically a pay cut if you ask me...

    I'm on less than £20K and will be paying an extra £600 a year in to my pension, working until I'm 68 (in theory, I don't like my job and am looking to move asap) and getting less in the end (I think people currently retired on my grade get about £5k pension, how DECADENT)
    any salary over 21k is pretty good- national minimum wage jobs pay half that
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    KiwiFruit wrote: »
    any salary over 21k is pretty good- national minimum wage jobs pay half that
    The problem is NMW is shit, not that £21K is good. NMW is way below what people need to live on unless they live with their Mum rent free!

    £21K won't pay for that much if you live on your own in London. £21K isn't a lot if you're a lone parent, or if you're in debt... If you have a car, or if you have had to take a £20K pay cut because you lost your job and your sector is screwed... £21K won't be enough to rent your own place in most of London.

    And as you said before... The price of living goes up, so you're getting a pay cut. If your pension scheme is changing, you're getting a pay cut.

    In the past year, the country's richest people increased their wealth by 18%. It's a fucking joke...

    But as AR said earlier, join a union. If you want to strike because of pay (and many people would support that) then go through your union's processes to do so (for example, at national conference). There will be many strikes to come. I was told today that maybe even Unison will be in on it (almost passed out I did :p).
Sign In or Register to comment.