Work in private sector. No pay rise in 4 years and our contracts were changed this year and no choice but sign it or................! No Strikes or protest's, I Just get on with it as i need a job!
I'm a self employed plumber, working mainly for householders. I haven't raised my prices in 15 years, lately I'm having to lower my rate to get jobs. A lot of mates in the building trade are earning a lot less than 5 years ago.
I am a freelance male escort. I used to have many ladies in the Knightbridge and Kensington area. Even they are cutting back, I am now less fussy, having to extend my client base to care homes and council estates. Seems those on benefits always have a spare bit of cash. If things get worse, I might have to join red-leader in working Kings Cross.
Funny how when a bubble bursts, some people think the solution to the problem is to inflate a new bubble.
avnt you got an appointment with your love in..........go on say yours is 150hp this time..........:wink:
The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It's no coincidence the Eton boys are in govenment now looking after their chums.
I don't get a bonus Andy. I can't be arsed doing a lot of bollocks tasks for a couple of grand only for half of it to be pinched by the tax man. I'd rather go home early.
If you squint at this kind of attitude ... in a certain light ... it looks exactly the same as when people claim benefits because they can't be arsed to go to work. Obviously the two are different as chalk and cheese, though. Right?
Loz, it's entirely different. In the one case, I'm doing a job, getting paid well for it and taking a load of shit like everyone else. In the other case, some feckless tosser is sitting on their arse all day and expecting you and me to pay for them. Now, I choose to go home on time and enjoy the company of my family while they are still young and living at home rather than 'create a strategy to improve inclusiveness' or 'find then ways to reduce cost of development' or whatever bullshit the senior management have dreamed up. For this, they may choose to reward me with a bonus of around £1,500 at the end of the year. Of that, the tax man will take 40%, plus 10% NI, leaving me with enough for four motorcycle tyres - about £60 a month. My time with my family is worth more than that, so I choose to spend it with them. That's the problem when you take too much tax - there's little incentive to go the extra mile.
I have no problem with someone who works for a living and who decides that his free time is more valuable to him than the additional cash he gets from working overtime/long hours/going the extra mile. I myself sometimes have the opportunity to exchange my precious free time for more hours at work, at an unimpressive rate of pay, and I don't always go for the cash. And yes, it's a lot different from someone who doesn't lift a finger. In your case, and in your shoes, my objection to pulling out all the stops to get a bonus won't be the extra 20 or 10% tax/deductions I'll pay. That wouldn't feature in my decision-making process. One difference (from benefits claimers) is that someone edging into higher rates of tax is also someone who may be able to get more money for more of his effort. I myself could manage the higher rate tax band if I could somehow increase my working day beyond 24 hours - but I cannot. You are better off financially the more you earn - unless tax rates equal or exceed 100% that will always be true. You can argue that your extra effort is worth more than you are being paid for it. You could argue that, ignoring the tax rate for a moment, you should get double or quadruple time for your extra effort or that you should be able to charge your client a premium for your extra effort or, yes, you can argue that you shouldn't be taxed at 40% on your extra effort - but the fact is, you can expect more for your extra time. So you are better off financially. (Yes, some folks have to work extra hours for no reward other than to keep their job. Sometimes, that's me.) Just as an aside, I had a period in my life where I needed to hold down two jobs in order to live. 55 hours a week on average, including working from 8am Friday morning to 8am Saturday morning with a two hour break. The extra job gave me very little extra money ... but it was the difference between barely holding my own, against going completely under. I didn't enjoy how much of my second job went in tax and NIC, I can assure you of that. Didn't stop me though. Forgive me if I fail to weep tears of despair for folks paying tax at a few extra percent (oh, and NIC gets capped eventually at higher rates of remuneration which means your rate of tax effectively reduces once you get to that point). We all get taxed (the folks that contribute, anyway), and we all wonder sometimes whether it's worth working for a living. Should there be a flat rate for all? Maybe. Maybe that's fairer, fairer than having two (or more) bands. You can be damned sure people will still complain about it. The extra tax is not the major disincentive (come back to me when the tax rates creep back up to 83% for earned income plus another 15% for "unearned" investment income).
Jeez. Some chips here from both quarters. Earn more, pay more, simple philosophy that even a monkey can understand...except most self employed, consultants and senior execs dont. Alas thats how it is. What can you do about it? Nothing. I'll keep paying my way too much tax and enjoy the spolis it gives me; second rate education for my son, waiting lists for physio and a warm glow that my tax is paying for others 'deductable' Ducatis
I don't think that's really true. We are still doing relatively well in the UK at the moment. A lot of employers are using 'the economy' as an excuse to pay lower wages and get fewer staff to work longer hours.
I think that Jerry has a very healthy attitude. Spending time with the people who are important to you is about the best way to spend your time. Just having more cash is not a great way to convert your time. Anyone paying a bonus of £1'500 a year is just taking the mick, if it requires all sorts of extra work. You'd be working for peanuts. One of the major hassles of working for corporations is that they just invent needless work, the whole time. Half the people working in one are just jumping through management hoops rather than doing anything useful. I was once invited to a power breakfast with the Uber Uber Boss of the company I was working for. There were about 12 of us in the executive dining room and the mega boss asked us each what we did. From the look on his face, the only person's job he understood was mine. Everyone else was involved in "corporate strategy", or "financial planning analysis" or anyone of a number of other things that no smaller company ever seems to need.
I can guarantee that when you're residing in the old folks home in years to come, if they haven't all closed down by then, you wont be looking back on your life thinking I'm please I worked those extra long hours in that extra stressful job. You'll be wishing you hadn't and had spent more time with your friends and family and went without instead.
When poet Sir John Betjeman, as a very old man, was asked if he had any regrets looking back at his life, he said yes, his chief regret was that he hadn't had more sex.
