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[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

Something else to have an argument about. 
A lot of talk over the weekend from various people (mostly Tories) that it should now be lifted. So what do we think ?

[JDX]

Yes, it should be lifted. Too many workers not being paid their worth, the cap has been in place for far too long..

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

But on the other hand, the country is almost £2 trillion in debt. 

[Doctor Gollum]

But on the other hand, the country is almost £2 trillion in debt. 

Besides, private sector grass roots pay has actually gone down having been effectively frozen since 2004/5... What's good for the goose and all that

Also, I do wonder if things like a forced minimum wage and chappy compulsory pension schemes are both negative assertions as they give companies/unions a target to dumb down to

[Sir Tigger KC]

Everyone wants great and well funded public services, but nobody wants to pay for it.    Given that despite the cuts, we still have an annual deficit of about £50 billion a year and spend about £46 billion a year on interest payments on our existing national debt, the only way to properly fund public services is to raise taxes. 

Corbyn and Mcdonnell's  plan to raise the necessary money by only taxing the wealthy and big business won't work as they have the resources to change their behaviour to avoid swinging tax increases and they'll simply leave the UK or will employ clever accountants to find the loopholes.  So this means that tax has to go up for everyone and that probably means an income tax base rate of 25%. 

Nobody will like it, but that's what has to happen IMO. 

[STEMO]

But on the other hand, the country is almost £2 trillion in debt. 

Besides, private sector grass roots pay has actually gone down having been effectively frozen since 2004/5... What's good for the goose and all that

Also, I do wonder if things like a forced minimum wage and chappy compulsory pension schemes are both negative assertions as they give companies/unions a target to dumb down to

So..if the public sector has had a pay rises capped at 1% for five years, and the private sector has gone down, where does this wage growth of 2.7% come from. You do talk some shite at times.

[Doctor Gollum]

That's why my basic pay is £18.7K where as my colleagues who started pre 2005 are on £26+

Pre miminum wage double time over time, sick pay and decent pension schemes were normal... Now it's minimum wage, flat rate and opps off

[STEMO]

The STRB are due to report soon, as they do every year. The government would have great difficulty in not following their recommendations this year. However, the STRB seem to think that it's in their remit to take the prevailing economic conditions into account...it's not.
If there is not a decent rise this autumn, there will be a winter of discontent. Corbyn is half hoping that the squeeze will continue, because he knows that would be the end of this government.....and he can get his magic tree out of storage.

[omegod]

As I'm an NHS worker it certainly bloody should be lifted !!!

[Doctor Gollum]

As I'm an NHS worker it certainly bloody should be lifted !!!

Isn't perspective great

[STEMO]

To give you a very rough idea as to where me and the wife are now:

Let's say she was on £60000 in 2010, it's as good a figure as any. We were entitled, as everyone was, to child benefit. That was taken away because anyone earning £60000 lost the lot. (Two people earning £45000 each kept it). So that's minus £80 a month.
She was paying 6.25% of her gross pay in pension contributions (£311 a month), and could retire at 60 on a full pension. She now pays 11.8% of her gross pay in pension contributions (£590 a month) so minus £279 a month. She has to pay this for an extra 7 years and will get slightly less at the end in relation to the salary she ends up on as this is a career average pension.
She used to be contracted out of NI payments, which meant she payed a slightly reduced rate. That ended and, I think, cost about £15 a month.
So that's £354 less each month (It's actually more, cause her salary is higher than that).
Offset this with 1% each year pay rise and it doesn't take a genius to work out that we are worse off than 7 years ago. And she has to work another 7 years.
As for it being a golden pension.....well...it might have been.....once.

[STEMO]

All of this is partly the reason why I'm going to grab my state pension with eager hands as soon as I can. And my winter fuel payment, and even my fickin bus pass.

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

In my opinion, there are many good reasons to keep the pay cap, and tuition fees etc. etc.
But STEMO has kind of hit the nail on the head. If the Tories don't change these things, then many public sector workers and students will put Corbyn in number 10, McDonnell in number11 and Diane Abbot in the home office, somewhere between the end of this year and 5 years time.
Then the economy (and the whole of the country) will be completely facked in a way that only people who are 55 or older will be able to remember.
It will have to involve some kind of tax increases and loosening of the purse strings. I would like to think they will have the balls to scrap HS2 and slash the foreign aid budget, but I wont hold my breath,
Someone will just have to explain to future generations that although our generations left them with unimaginable levels of debt, if we hadn't, there wouldn't be a country left for them at all.
We live in strange and scary times. 

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

Sadly in this country we seem to have a different approach to low pay than we do to high pay.

Government ministers speak of paying huge amounts of money in order to 'attract' the very best (think banking, a career where reward for failure is common) I'm sure Mr Bitz will agree with me on this point.

Strangely the same philosophy does not apply to the low paid. Many rogue employers pay the minimum wage under protest and if they could would pay far less.

[Nick W]

You've all missed the real reason for a Tory government removing a public sector pay cap: it will mean that all the obviously underpaid consultants will be able to afford their own private island in the caribbean put their prices up.