General Chat

My wage increase in the past 5 year has been - nothing!
Meanwhile, utility bills have risen, rent has risen by over 30% - that's council rent - so guess who feels like they're subsidising the non-increase in Council Tax :-(
Bus fares have risen by 100%, but the number of 'public' (as opposed to park & ride) buses on our route has decreased by 75%.
I could walk to work - but then you have to take the cost of resoling footwear /buying new footwear into account.
As for 'work' clothes - same ones for years, and I've no intention of buying new ones until I receive a decent pay rise. The public rarely see me, so why should I? :-| If anyone in a 'suit' challenges my (slightly worn) clothes, I'd challenge them to work out HOW I can afford them!

I keep some strange things :-D I have just dug out some weekly season tickets from 1992 when I stopped working in London... Brentwood to Liverpool st £32 plus there was £5 a week charge to park the car at the station & petrol on top of that.

So approx. £40 per week or £160 per month....I was taking home approx. £600 p.m then so a 1/4 of my salary going on travel

As I do not work now, I don't really know the price of rail fare.

When I started work in 1974 I took home £16 a week working in London my train & bus fare each week was £6...so that was more than a 1/3 of my weekly wage. cigarettes were 25p for 20 back then,so 20 packets for that £6....now that would amount to over £140 :-S

They can justify £92.80 for 132 miles on a train line with hundreds of other people paying similar amounts because it is one of the three main benefits of privatisation, every body gets something - the bosses get huge salaries & bonuses; the shareholders get nice dividends; and the weary commuter gets extortionate ticket prices ;-)

I have received about 7% increase in wages in last 5 years, and would think that is the norm unless you have been promoted. So 1.4% pa. sounds right.

Most of the other expenditure is based on the ridiculous public transport costs we incur. Many are paying £3000, £4000 and £5000 for rail season tickets.

Have just looked at commuting from Northampton to London (Euston area). 66 miles, lot of people do commute from that sort of area into London daily.

TRAIN. Train £60.40 second class, £92.80 first class. Journey time 1 hour. Parking expensive at Northampton station, got to drive to station.

BUS. £15.20 return. 2 hours 45 minutes each way to Victoria coach station. Got to get to Northampton bus station. Got to take a tube between Victoria and Euston.

CAR. £22 return in petrol costs. I hr 53 mins journey time each way. Door to door.

Now I can sit in my luxury car listening to my favourite radio programmes for a cost of £22. Or I can have a relaxed first class ride on the train for £92.80, cramped up with loads of other people. Which I would much prefer if it was cheapest option.

How can £92.80 possibly be justified for 132 miles on a train line with hundreds of other people paying similar amounts?

Workers in the UK spend an average 12% of their annual income on costs incurred because of their jobs, according to a survey.

Although average salaries have risen by around 1.4%, the average cost of working has increased by 10% over the past year, leaving workers significantly out of pocket, the report said.

http://money.uk.msn.com/news/workers-spend-12percent-on-job-costs