On Monday it was announced by Vince Cable, the business secretary in Cameron’s coalition cabinet, that a freeze of the minimum wage for 16- to 20-year-olds, and a small rise in the adult rate, will be introduced from October 2012. For 16- to 17-year-olds wages will remain at £3.68, while for 18- to 20-year-olds, £4.98 will continue to be the minimum hourly earnings. For those who fall into the 16-to-20-year-old categories, this is the first time wages will have stayed the same since 1999, when the legal minimum rate began.
Through freezing the minimum wage, clearly the government hopes that employers will be encouraged to hire more young people, which will reflect well on youth unemployment figures. Cable stated: “In these tough times freezing the youth rates has been a very hard decision – but raising the youth rates would have been of little value to young people if it meant it was harder for them to get a job in the long run.”
Earlier today, Catherine Gobert-Jones reported that in a recent Labour Force Survey, it was revealed that “the number of full-time students with jobs rose by 54% in the last 10 years to 630,718”. So, for the thousands of students at the University of York who have part-time jobs, be that in the holidays or in term time, what does the wage freeze mean for us right now?
The majority of undergraduates at York fit into the 18-to-20-year-old category, while those who are 21 or over can enjoy an increase of 11p in their minimum hourly rate (totalling £6.19 an hour). While I’m sure this rise is better than nothing, it seems to me that young adults and over-21s are still getting a raw deal.
If you are financially independent, aged 18 to 20, and have to pay for your rent (rather than a parent digging deep, or a loan to cover it), it would take you 16 hours on the minimum wage to afford one week’s rent in York for an £80-a-week house, a rate that is common among the student properties of 2012/13. Regardless of the fact that York’s rent has increased, on average, by £7.70 per week per person, there has not been an increase in minimum wage to help amend for this price alteration.
But the real concern is the increased cost of living, irrespective of the static wage. With a loaf of bread costing around £1.20, and a four-pint carton of milk costing about £1.50, the number of hours spent earning has become so high in order for us to stay afloat financially and be able to afford to eat and live. If students are having to work a few more hours a week to cover the increased rent, a few more hours a week to be able to afford food at its heightened price and a few more hours a week to cover the sky-high prices of general existence, how are we supposed to have enough time to study, live and socialise, without the worry of financial burdens and the constant need to earn more cash?
The answer may be an increased overdraft or perhaps we should be entitled to an even bigger loan. With students already having to count the coppers to make ends meet, however, how to afford to live, with increasing prices yet a static ‘under a fiver an hour’ minimum wage, is a concern for many. It’s at university that you learn how to control spending, how to budget, what are necessary items on a shopping list and what are luxury ones. University shouldn’t be easy economically, although clearly it is for some; it should be a learning curve both intellectually and financially. So, even if there is a freeze on the minimum wage, is it just a case of drinking two fewer pints a week and saving ourselves an hour of part time work, or is the increased living cost and static wage pushing even the best budgeting too far?
i’m sorry but first of all, where on earth are you shopping for 4 pints of milk to be £1.50? loaf of bread £1.20? i know you want to make a point, but there’s no need to exaggerate the point.
“a few more hours a week to be able to afford food at its heightened price and a few more hours a week to cover the sky-high prices of general existence, how are we supposed to have enough time to study, live and socialise”
how about, if you can’t afford living costs at university then you stop spending in other areas such as “socialising” as you call it. boo-hoo if you have to stop going to tokyo on a thursday because minimum wage is frozen. welcome to the real world.
Most unbranded loaves at most leading supermarkets are under a pound, while most branded ones are over (I can give you the full break-down of my research if you desire). Warburtons white sliced 800g – a plain but branded loaf – is £1.20 in Asda, £1.20 Waitrose and, you guessed it, £1.20 in Tesco.
It is true that milk is £1.18 in Asda, Sainsbury’s and the Co-op, but due to the £1.65 price tag given by the Costcutter on Campus, I decided to write that the price of milk costs “about £1.50”. I hope I did not offend, if you consider my estimation to be in any way whimsical and I do hope there won’t be any crying over spilt milk.
As to your final comment, the chances are that increasingly, with the raised prices in standard items of living, people will be forced to stop spending money on “socialising”.
come off it, costcutter is in no way reflective of general market pricing. it’s over inflated and everybody knows it.
i’m sorry but i just don’t see how this article suggests anything like a scam. private sector workers, as in the public sector, are seeing pay freezes or redundancies. quite rightly, students are also having to feel the pinch. why should 16-20 year olds be somehow immune from freezes that are being seen across the economy? we don’t have mortgages, kids, council tax etc etc to deal with, so if anything we’re still pretty well off in the grand scheme of things.
this whingey attitude gives all of us students a bad name. get on with it, enjoy the few years of relative freedom because if you think this is bad, enjoy the tax and bill heaven of post-graduate life…