The paid by the hour depends on how many hours you work but most part time positions are hourly. If I worked more than 30 hours at my job, I would be considered full time but I'd have to do that consistently.
I saw an article on how the Queen got in hot water for not paying a livable wage to some workers. The workers were paid minimum wage. The article knew how much a "livable" wage was. Over here, that kind of thing is never calculated (I think because the politicians don't want people on min. wage to know how screwed they are because the livable wage is so far from the minimum wage). NYS min wage is $8.75 an hour (about 4 pounds 62 pence according to google). I make $22 an hour. If I didn't have my husband's salary and benefits, I would be struggling and (like many of my coworkers) have to work two or three jobs to make ends meet. A friend of mine at work's idea of splurging was buying a Netflix account for herself ($5 a month). She can barely afford to buy food and pay for rent but doesn't qualify for any kind of government assistance.
We have the exact same thing going on here right now with unemployment. They judge the unemployment rate by who is collecting unemployment benefits but most of the people unemployed here aren't eligible for it so the number is way way off. In the US unemployment cannot go on indefinitely. The benefits last for two years after you're terminated from a job and actually it's a pretty decent amount of money - nearly full salary in some cases but that's because the employer has to pay it. While you're employed they pay "unemployment insurance", so that when you're fired, the insurance company will pay your unemployment benefits. But because it's such a great benefit, it's VERY hard to get. It's where the sick thing we were talking about comes in. If the employer writes you up a lot and there's a lot of notations in your file about poor performance or theft etc, you likely won't get unemployment. You do have to actively show that you are trying to find a job but it doesn't matter how much your spouse makes because it's all government money.
Child care costs are ridiculous here as well. In fact, when my husband and I have children, our plan is for me to stop working because I would just be turning around and giving my entire salary to a childcare worker.
The worst part with job loss here is the loss of medical benefits (if you got them in the first place). You can do something called COBRA, which means you can pay for your health insurance at the monthly rate that your employer was paying for you to have it. That can go on for either 18 months or 2 years, I don't remember. When my husband had to do that, it was nearly $2000 a month. Not really an expense you want when you're out of work :( Healthcare is a huge expense here. Without health insurance, my husband's medication infusions would cost us well over $5000. My friend had to declare bankruptcy because she landed in a hospital with a severe kidney infection without any medical insurance. The hospital bills were too much and she lost her home.
There is no government pension here at all. When you turn 65 you're eligible for medicare which is government health insurance. Pensions or retirement fund are offered through your employer. I guess the difference here is that my employer pays tax on me. I may be part time. I may make a small hourly wage, but my employer pays taxes on me and I pay taxes on my salary.
Every system seems to have its huge drawbacks! Interesting to see the parallels. We have the same complaint here about those on welfare and those who aren't. The people who work hard and make a living complain that those receiving government assistance are leeching off us and, sometimes, that's true. There are dozens of ways of cheating the system. For example, if I was a stay at home mother and I was not legally married to my husband, I would be eligible for all sorts of government assistance and money even though I really don't need it. There's also a huge illegal immigrant complaint here.
Question? Here in the US we have a social security number, basically a government ID number that's used for everything government related (our taxes, etc). Does the UK have some equivalent of that?
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branchandroot
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Date: 2013-08-21 12:30 pm (UTC)I saw an article on how the Queen got in hot water for not paying a livable wage to some workers. The workers were paid minimum wage. The article knew how much a "livable" wage was. Over here, that kind of thing is never calculated (I think because the politicians don't want people on min. wage to know how screwed they are because the livable wage is so far from the minimum wage). NYS min wage is $8.75 an hour (about 4 pounds 62 pence according to google). I make $22 an hour. If I didn't have my husband's salary and benefits, I would be struggling and (like many of my coworkers) have to work two or three jobs to make ends meet. A friend of mine at work's idea of splurging was buying a Netflix account for herself ($5 a month). She can barely afford to buy food and pay for rent but doesn't qualify for any kind of government assistance.
We have the exact same thing going on here right now with unemployment. They judge the unemployment rate by who is collecting unemployment benefits but most of the people unemployed here aren't eligible for it so the number is way way off. In the US unemployment cannot go on indefinitely. The benefits last for two years after you're terminated from a job and actually it's a pretty decent amount of money - nearly full salary in some cases but that's because the employer has to pay it. While you're employed they pay "unemployment insurance", so that when you're fired, the insurance company will pay your unemployment benefits. But because it's such a great benefit, it's VERY hard to get. It's where the sick thing we were talking about comes in. If the employer writes you up a lot and there's a lot of notations in your file about poor performance or theft etc, you likely won't get unemployment. You do have to actively show that you are trying to find a job but it doesn't matter how much your spouse makes because it's all government money.
Child care costs are ridiculous here as well. In fact, when my husband and I have children, our plan is for me to stop working because I would just be turning around and giving my entire salary to a childcare worker.
The worst part with job loss here is the loss of medical benefits (if you got them in the first place). You can do something called COBRA, which means you can pay for your health insurance at the monthly rate that your employer was paying for you to have it. That can go on for either 18 months or 2 years, I don't remember. When my husband had to do that, it was nearly $2000 a month. Not really an expense you want when you're out of work :( Healthcare is a huge expense here. Without health insurance, my husband's medication infusions would cost us well over $5000. My friend had to declare bankruptcy because she landed in a hospital with a severe kidney infection without any medical insurance. The hospital bills were too much and she lost her home.
There is no government pension here at all. When you turn 65 you're eligible for medicare which is government health insurance. Pensions or retirement fund are offered through your employer. I guess the difference here is that my employer pays tax on me. I may be part time. I may make a small hourly wage, but my employer pays taxes on me and I pay taxes on my salary.
Every system seems to have its huge drawbacks! Interesting to see the parallels. We have the same complaint here about those on welfare and those who aren't. The people who work hard and make a living complain that those receiving government assistance are leeching off us and, sometimes, that's true. There are dozens of ways of cheating the system. For example, if I was a stay at home mother and I was not legally married to my husband, I would be eligible for all sorts of government assistance and money even though I really don't need it. There's also a huge illegal immigrant complaint here.
Question? Here in the US we have a social security number, basically a government ID number that's used for everything government related (our taxes, etc). Does the UK have some equivalent of that?