Why is it so difficult to find employees?

The head of the HSBC bank has just given himself, or been given by his mates, an extra £32,000 per week payrise to dodge the EU bonus cap.
Hope any of you in that bank vote with your feet.
Elegran, this thread was started by GillT saying that nobody would work for her at £6.364 per hour. She never tells anyone how much she gets.
When the minimum wage came in employers cried wolf, saying that they'd all go bust. They haven't.

Yes, there are those who run businesses and those who work for them.

Those who plan and organise can spend half as long again at work as those who do their nine to five and go home. Their hourly rate of pay for the time they put in can be as little as the minimum wage. Ask Gillybob

There is plenty of escapism on other threads, Cathybee You chose to post on here, as did others. There is no law that says everyone must post on the same thread or have the same opinion.

Stomping off in a huff is up to you, but please don't claim to have been chased off. That would not be true.

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And some companies pay huge wages but burn people out within a year with the pressure they put on them to make targets which are impossible to achieve.

cathybee many decision makers are living below the poverty line. The civil service is notorious for paying very low wages.

Unless you have been bombarded with PMs cathybee I cannot see what you are talking about. What sarcy messages and aggression?
If you are feeling got at, report it to GN.

Is it GillT57's fault, Cathybee? If she paid them more, continued to pay all the taxes and so on, and had to put her prices up, would she lose business, go bust, and not be able to pay anything to anyone?

Is she making an obscene amount of profit, or a reasonable living for herself? How much does she get for each hour that she spends on the paperwork and admin of the business?

If the minimum wage were doubled, would prices of services and goods all over the country rise too, to cover the cost?

Big business with shareholders and millionaire owners can absorb higher costs better than small firms.

selling big issue is now a business, as is avon and other door to door stuff like betterwear, you can claim family working tax on them, if you have kids..all a government con

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Because it's not enough to live on, JessM?
www.change.org has a petition going to Amazon this week to get them to sign up to the living wage. As Amazon thinks it's a good idea to avoid paying tax in this country, I am not holding my breath. Anyone who wishes to do so, please sign up now and join the 55000+ who have already done so.

cathybee the minimum wage in this country is £6.31 per hour and as long as an employer is meeting this, and abiding by employment and tax law, what right has anyone to criticise?

Cathybee, you did not offend me, you offended my staff.

I was just about to post the same comment Elegran.

What makes you think that the boss of a small business is NOT working for £6 an hour?

Oh dear GILL you have not had such a good time lately with comments and you have felt the need to constantly defend yourself.

I spoke as I found and did not wish to offend you.

cathybee rather a nasty comment there? My staff are fantastic and we work together as a team, I find the work, provide the equipment, pay my staff and then invoice the client. I dont think they would appreciate being referred to as 'monkeys, and they have all been with me a long time. If you had taken the time to read my post, rather than shoot from the hip, you would see that I am recruiting to cover for staff who are off sick or on maternity leave. If they had been self-employed they would be out of work, full stop and not entitled to anything. As it is I am paying SMP and SSP and still waiting to be reimbursed by HMRC, and also paying he wages of the temp staff. Get your facts right before you criticize eh?

The newly released government figures on unemployment indicate that much of the "improvement" features people who are self-employed. My guess is that many of these are one-(wo)man-bands and are pretty precarious.

Can't get the staff these days

My motto is if you pay peanuts you will get monkeys and if you don't pay a decent wage people will just stay until they find something better.

I appreciate that you have over heads etc but that means nothing to your workers, their question to you would be if you can not afford to maintain the business and it is not showing a profit, then why continue.

Ask yourself this question Would I work for £6 something an hour

gettingonabit

Jane I wasn't accusing you personally of arrogance! And I was merely echoing Durham' s point about hidden unemployment being a side issue.

I think, though, there is a general sense of arrogance in the general working population towards those who are not "employed" in the traditional sense. I held this view myself, until I found myself working casually to make ends meet. I still do this, hoping one day to make some decent money, or to get a "proper" job. I'm one of the luckier ones: I've had my chance to make a decent living, and took it. I despair, though, for youngsters, or those with limited choices. I've also noticed that minimum wage work, particularly in the retail and service sector, is the best many people will be able to aspire to.

I applaud the OP for going against the grain and offering employment, when self-employment would have been easier.

gettingonabit please do not accuse me of arrogance.
If you read my post properly, you will see I said hidden unemployment was disgraceful.
I meant it was a side issue to the discussion we were having about whether employed people were better off in terms of taxes and benefits than self-employed people.

And meanwhile even more high earning celebrities are uncovered running dodgy businesses in order to avoid paying tax. As usual those with the most pay the least and the rest of us have no choice.

Durham I'm not convinced your relative will be allowed to claim jsa after having completed his course as he presumably will have been classed as Self Employed for the purposes of making NI contributions. I've been in the same boat myself and was refused Jsa because I was making voluntary contributions and apparently not able to claim jsa. I've never pursued it further. I'm one of the luckier ones, though, not really needing the money.

It's arrogant to consider "hidden" unemployment as a side issue. This is an attitude I've noticed in many people who are fortunate to have reasonably-paid jobs themselves or who have amassed enough wealth not to have to worry about paying the bills.

The problem is that low (ie minimum wage) pay, self-employment, zero-hours contracts, and general job insecurity are now the norm. In the not-so-distant past working arrangements such as these would have been unthinkable for a person trying to support a family. But there are so many now trying to supplement their income: students, retirees, women working around kids etc that this form of casualised working increasingly acceptable.

These people form a largely hidden mass who are not earning a great deal but who remain under the radar and are largely unaccounted for.

The Government are well aware of the existence of this casual labour pool and are exploiting its existence to convince the electorate that things are improving. And there are many who are falling for the hype, which is useful given the upcoming election. The Bank of England is not so convinced, hence the continuation of low interest rates.

It isn't a side issue, Jane. It's a way for the government to massage the figures to claim that their austerity measures are working. Unfortunately, lots of people believe them.
My sister's son is in the same position, gettingonabit. He has been persuaded to sign up to self-employment, even though he does not do any work. I am not sure what happens after his course is up.
Is he allowed to go back on JSA?
Even school leavers these days are encouraged to become entrepreneurs.

Yes, you are correct aka.
Also it should be remembered that employed people are also entitled to claim tax allowances.
For example, MrA used to claim membership fees for professional organisations against tax.
And I encouraged the dental nurses who worked for me to claim the £70 per annum to which they were entitled for washing their uniforms themselves at home.
If the government is forcing people to become self employed to massage the unemployment statistics then that is disgraceful, but it is a side issue really.