Hi,
Thanks Durhamlad, I should've included that when families who have more than one person earning, a collective household income usually means a better standard of living. That said, a significant proportion of such household arrangements don't have that and have debt levels which are way too high still.
I do find it utterly shocking that the UK pays so 'comparitively' little for the public sector. Teachers (I have some in our extended family), Firefighters, Police. I think the most shocking is Nurse's pay levels, it's embarassingly low in my opinion. There's plenty of other public sector jobs which I think are similarly bad/low.
On top of that embarassing factor, I find it utterly deplorable and disgusting that around the country, there's people in the public sector at councils who are paid more than the prime minister. These people granted are running a council, but why do they get significantly more pay than the highest public office in the country? heads of councils and even sub divisions of councils get paid hundreds of thousands a year over many different area councils, again it's embarassing.
I've mentioned it previously (apologies if I sound like a broken record!) but I've had my own close family relatives leave the UK after a few years and mainly due to the levels of pay they could achieve as their careers progressed. Two (husband and wife) of them were highly experienced and qualified Doctors (Anesthetist & pathologist) at the Consultant level. They now reside in the US at quadruple the salary and now, after just 4/5 years, mortgage free. When the wife of the pair was here, the NHS asked her to work with zero pay, just to get 'UK NHS work experience'. That and a few other factors led to their decision to quit here and move to the US. The UK 'lost' two highly experienced and required staff. If they'd had stayed perhaps, then I think right now they'd want to leave with the added layer of stupidness that is the whole immigration / racist attitudes which has become more publicly visible in the last few years.
The UK needs skilled, experienced and talented people to come to work and live here, a lot of areas and sectors desperately need them. I have nothing but respect for teachers, medical staff, police, nurses, firefighters and other public sector workers, but the way the UK is going it looks like many of these sectors will suffer quite significantly. This is a USA>UK orientated forum and along with other similar resources, many Americans do look to think of moving over, I really do wish the UK's 'attitude' and mindset would be much more welcoming, as it used to be a few years ago. A few days ago, a caller into a host's radio show on LBC was typically indicative of many of the UK's population. A woman ringing in saying she doesnt like foreign languages spoken in public, but that she'd just about accepted that Polish is now 'ok' and that she doesn't 'now' mind Polish and other eastern European people as they were more like English people, but that she now has a problem with 'those Indians and Africans'. Prize example of an outright racist!
Apologies for the slight tangent, but it's all 'relevant'. More and more people who previously would have liked to have shortlisted the UK to move to are crossing it off their list. These are mainly skilled and experienced people that the 'leave' voters say they don't mind coming into the country!
On the flipside, the amount of people who call into LBC and various hosts who say that Labour should come into power and that Mr Corbyn will introduce the £10 or £15/hour minimum rate for all businesses is scary. Whilst I fully agree that the minimum wage and living wage in specific areas should be analysed better and for much more appropriate pay scales to be worked out, there's no way the vast majority of businesses could afford to pay £10/hr for non skilled work without raising prices for the goods/services they sell. When those callers are told that, it's the usual 'bury head in sand' and not listen with retorts that 'big business' is greedy etc. What they fail to grasp and understand is the vast majority of the UK's workforce is employed by small to medium sized businesses who just cannot afford big wage/salary increases mr Jeremy C and his supporters talk about. I've been there, employed 30 or so staff and all the constant pressure of pay etc. Although some years ago now, we paid our staff a reasonable amount above the minimum wage and overall, had staff who were decent, loyal, on time and performed well etc, If the political and public will was to enforce a minimum pay level 20-35% more, then I'd have simply laid off the required amount of the staff - it's as stark as that. Since then, that business has morphed into a smaller concern and I'm no longer involved in that from an owner perspective. My next venture I'm about to launch I have done so with the basic mindset that I'll employ... zero staff. I don't want the hassle or headache and I've managed to 'automate' from a business perspective some of the roles traditionally done by a specific person.
The same approach is being done everywhere both in public and private business in the UK. More is being asked of less staff and this presents it's own additional set of issues/problems and concerns not least of which is the mental health of those very people doing the job. It's scary and frightening to hear of the increase in mental health issues and problems of ordinary people and their job prospects has a significant level of cause when problems arise/diagnosed.
The only potential route out which looks more promising on the above and more levels is if the UK remains within the EU and continues to trade and thus keep money flowing in at previously good levels so that it remains in the G6/G7/G8 leading nations. Unfortunately,the vote came in to leave, so it's a case of small businesses adapting to trying to survive over the next few years and on into the next decade or so whilst this whole Brexit mess is sorted out one way or another. I don't think there'll be much hope in salary and pay levels in the UK as a whole increasing.
Apologies for the extra tangent there, again, it's all relevant though !
Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!
