General Chat

Wage 'capping'...listening to the news earlier

"The BBC's business editor Robert Peston says the most resonant measure of how Barclays has performed can be seen in the average pay of staff at its investment bank, which was almost exactly £100,000 for just the first six months of the year. "

Assuming that one can not work more than the total number of hours in a week, at what ever level of skill,
whether one is a banker, surgeon, dustman, tv presenter etc, do you think there should be an 'absolute maximum' hourly rate for work.

How much is one person worth at the end of the day ?

It would have to be a world wide level otherwise surely the very skilled ie surgeons, financial whizz kids, David Beckham etc would move overseas to sell their skills and abilities.....Im now on national min wage so doesnt affect me lol

I'm all for it. People just don't need to earn the amount of money that some of them get paid. A dustman is far more important to my day to day life than an investment banker and I'd be quite happy if they were on the same wage:)

Good point Colin ( glad we won't be losing you though lol) I don't know that Beckham would be such a loss ;)

Hello Uggers :))

xx

would they do you think DET? or is that just the greedy ones?
a few acquaintances have been lured overseas by the promise of high wages...but found the cost of living to be such that they were in reality no better off...

Is a 50k 'bonus' at Christmas really deserved , or just insane largesse...which helped shift us into recession ?

I wouldn't move abroad just for better pay and conditions, DET. There's far more to life than prospects and salary. I might move abroad for other reasons but it would never be for money.

Can I just point out that Beckham has moved abroad lol

Regarding pay, I would expect an investment banker to be paid more than a dustman but some of the wages some are getting are ridiculous. Having said that I wonder just how many of us would turn it down if we were offered £x hundred thousand a year.

It's a good question Cat,

One of my regional managers said to me, talking about a forthcoming election,
" if you vote for the party that will benefit you most in the situation you are in , you will vote ****, if you vote for the party that will benefit the most people you will vote **** ( the opposition lol)...similar dilemma perhaps ?

so 25k instead of 50k... hard life isn't it lol

I guess the point being with bonuses is how much salary they come on top of ? if your bonus is 50k, is not your salary 'enough' already? and of course whether they are 'earned' for results, rather than just given as a 'matter of course'

The £100,000 'average' salary presumably includes all those people who earn much more lowly salaries, so the figure isn't that meaningful. I don't think wages should be capped - if my OH's company suddenly got tons more work and was earning zillions (I wish!) why shouldn't the staff be rewarded accordingly by a pay rise. Just because someone earns a high salary, doesn't mean their financial position long-term is rosy (and I could spout for ages on this re OH but I won't). Just to say he's earned every damned penny of it.

I think it's a good idea too, But I also think the minimum wage would be if it wasn't so rediculously low!

What I have a problem with is when you are earning much less than someone in the same job as you. For example, I work as a Teaching Assistant in a local School. I have 15 years experience of working with children in many settings. I moved to a new area 3 years ago and so am now working for a different Council - Slotted in on the minimum that they can pay me. Because of that I earn at least £4 per hour less than some of my colleagues who do the same job with similar amounts of experience. The only dffernce being that they have worked for the same council for longer.

Pat

And who sets the 'maximum' then - obviously not MPs as they are an untrustworthy, self-seeking lot! Just because you might not relate to investment bankers on a day to day basis, they still oil the cogs of industry, as do most of us in a small way.

Sheila, dustman oil the wheels of industry too though:)

I wasn't specifically targeting investment bankers, it just happened to be them that were mentioned on the news...the same applies to any 'trade or calling' . Investment bankers have a stressful job , ( as does a surgeon, soldier, train driver etc but with more physical risk ) ...nor would I ever say that hard work should go unrewarded.


it just seems to me that there must be a case for arguing that the pay for the work one does would have a natural cut off point.....

Is there any work I could do, any amount of effort I could put in that would justify a huge salary ? I think there are jobs that DO justify a huge salary...I am just not sure they are the ones where people are currently receiving them!

Two banks that we, the taxpayer, bailed out less than a year ago have each announced almost £3 BILLION profit, (that's £3,000,000,000), for the first SIX MONTHS of this year and are going to hand out individual bonuses of £100,000 plus. That is a bonus for one person of £100,000 for six months work, on top of his or her basic salary, which ain't peanuts!

Two questions that I would like answered:

1. Are the the banks going to pay the taxpayer back?

2. Does anyone now believe that railway workers are not justified in striking for better pay and conditions?