Jobs damage your wealth

WAGE SLAVERY

In the UK in 2013, more than one in three (37%) new employees are entering part-time work, and one in three (32%) are taking temporary work. This compares with 35% and 27% respectively in 2007. In 1975, part-time workers made up just 30% of the low-paid population (1.1 million). Today that figure has almost doubled to 58% (2.9 million). The share of low-paid workers in temporary jobs has increased from 8% (390,000) in 2000 to 13% (670,000) in 2012. In 2007, part-time workers made up 55% of the low-paid (2.8 million people), and temporary workers 11% (570,000 people).

The proportion of national income that goes on wages, as opposed to profit, dividends and capital, has shrunk from 65% in 1973 to 53% now.

In 2007, the median hourly wage for a new employee stood at almost £8.50; it has now fallen to just below £8. Women continue to be hit harder than men. Of the five million low-paid British workers, three million are women and two million are men.  In hotels and restaurants 68% of workers now earn less than the living wage. In retail the figure is 39%. In 2007 the figures were 59% and 33% respectively.

Low pay (defined as two-thirds of gross hourly median pay, £7.44 an hour in 2012) is becoming more prevalent among the young. Today more than one in three people aged 16-30 (2.4 million) are low-paid, compared with one in five in the 1970s (1.7 million at that time).

If the living wage had increased at the same rate as the pay of FTSE 100 directors since its introduction in 1999, it would now be about £19 an hour, rather than its current rate of £7.45 for people outside London and £8.55 for those in the capital.

Matthew Whittaker, senior economist at the Resolution Foundation, said: "This is a jobs market where many workers are stuck in low-paid, low-skilled jobs, overwhelmingly in the service economy and often part-time or temporary. Younger workers, women and those living outside London are most at risk.”

Capitalism  is full of contradictions. The boss wants to pay his workers the lowest possible to increase profits; but he wants other bosses to pay as much as possible to increase sales. They want a workforce that is brain dead and doesn't ask awakward questions; but they want a work force that has the initiative to increase the boss's profits. Employers use every legal device in the book to ensure they do not pay the right amount of tax and exploit workers even further with zero hours contracts t