That makes perfect sense and would be fairly simple to implement I would imagine.
Cost of Living pay rises
- Thread starter Nano
- Start date
jonny_greenings_sock
Well-known member
Just seems fair doesn’t it?
If anything would be an incentive for the government of the day to manage inflation better so it doesn’t get out of control, or their civil service payrolls and business donors would take the hit.
Fiscal policy is really complicated and hard to understand - I have no idea - but these things have real world consequences, and below-inflation pay rises or pay freezes in the civil service have always annoyed me.
If anything would be an incentive for the government of the day to manage inflation better so it doesn’t get out of control, or their civil service payrolls and business donors would take the hit.
Fiscal policy is really complicated and hard to understand - I have no idea - but these things have real world consequences, and below-inflation pay rises or pay freezes in the civil service have always annoyed me.
Redwurzel
Well-known member
Which inflation would you use or what time of the year?
Some employers are just surviving - I worked for one and didn't have any cost of living rise for about 6 years as I knew the organisation was really struggling - slightly declining revenues, but not declining costs. They were having to pay more into the pension schemes and more employers NI. 90% of their costs were staffing. As a TU rep I asked for inflation rises, but deep down I knew the organisation was struggling financially and a significant pay rise would result in redundancies or jepardise the survival of the organisation. Not an easy situation.
Some employers are just surviving - I worked for one and didn't have any cost of living rise for about 6 years as I knew the organisation was really struggling - slightly declining revenues, but not declining costs. They were having to pay more into the pension schemes and more employers NI. 90% of their costs were staffing. As a TU rep I asked for inflation rises, but deep down I knew the organisation was struggling financially and a significant pay rise would result in redundancies or jepardise the survival of the organisation. Not an easy situation.
BaronSmoggie
Well-known member
And thats absolutely the right attitude to take. I was in a similar boat for about 7 years and everyone went without raises in order to help the company survive. Once it did, they rewarded staff. I think what sticks in peoples craws are companies profitable in the billions still refusing to adequately reward staff with the same tighten our belts nonsense.
I think that there has to be more transparency in how businesses operate. If prices rise only to cover existing non-pay costs then that is fair enough but when businesses are putting up prices because of "rising costs" but are choosing not to increase those costs internally and therefore making more profit then they are obviously taking the ****. The goal for all unions should be to enforce automatic cost of living rises within the employees contracts and then we don't have to have this ridiculous system of some people being rewarded when others aren't and others just increasing margins. Every time you don't get a rise, your following pay rises are based on a lower number and it can affect your pay across your entire career. If a business can't afford to pay its staff properly then it shouldn't be in business. Employees shouldn't be subsidising employers by accepting no pay rises every year. If they are going through hard times then they should be offering deferred pay rises so that when they can afford it they are still re-basing their salary to keep up with inflation. Compounding is very important. Offering 0%, 0% 6% over 3 years is not as good as 2%, 2%, 2% and it doesn't cover the 2 years of missed increases (e.g. £20k salary with those raises ends up at £22,400 compared to £22,497 which seems reasonable but is still lower and means total pay over those 3 years is £62,400 vs £64,929).
The government can't force private companies to do certain things but they can set an example via the public sector. All public sector employees should have the same contractual cost of living rise. That includes MPs, Drs, nurses, civil servants, teachers etc. The salaries can all be set separately because skills are different but cost of living is a measurable statistic and there is no excuse that anyone's standard of living should go down year to year without any changes to their job or spending other than ideological.
This is one of the ways the government have screwed NHS staff in recent years. They removed the annual increment so now you step up every 3-5 years depending on role. Where it used to be something like Band 8a starts on £42, increment of £2k per year for 5 years to £50k it is now £42k for 4 years and then £50k. At a glance it looks reasonable, same starting, same endpoint but missing out on £12k pay over the 1st 4 years. Whoever does the maths for the unions wants shooting because that last deal was absolutely dreadful. This is before you even get to the below inflation rises.
The government can't force private companies to do certain things but they can set an example via the public sector. All public sector employees should have the same contractual cost of living rise. That includes MPs, Drs, nurses, civil servants, teachers etc. The salaries can all be set separately because skills are different but cost of living is a measurable statistic and there is no excuse that anyone's standard of living should go down year to year without any changes to their job or spending other than ideological.
This is one of the ways the government have screwed NHS staff in recent years. They removed the annual increment so now you step up every 3-5 years depending on role. Where it used to be something like Band 8a starts on £42, increment of £2k per year for 5 years to £50k it is now £42k for 4 years and then £50k. At a glance it looks reasonable, same starting, same endpoint but missing out on £12k pay over the 1st 4 years. Whoever does the maths for the unions wants shooting because that last deal was absolutely dreadful. This is before you even get to the below inflation rises.