Thread by @shaunjlawson

I've just been speaking to a Spanish friend of mine. He told me how happy he is with their new leftist government: specifically, the recent announcement of a rise in the minimum wage there. From 900 euros a month to 950.

Extraordinarily, it was below 800 until 2019.

This got me googling. I was pretty dumbstruck at what I found in terms of just how much worse 950 euros a month is compared to Germany, France or the UK.

And then I became increasingly confused. Even somewhat perplexed.

Dear followers: can anyone explain the following?

In the UK, for 25s and over, the minimum wage is currently £8.20 an hour. It will rise to £8.72 an hour from the start of April. So my first question is: how do we calculate an annual salary from that?

That's not as daft a question as it sounds. Is it 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year? Or is it 40 hours a week, times 4 weeks, times 12 months? Which seems to be the answer Google throws up when comparing the monthly minimum wage to France and Germany.

Let's say it's the latter. From April, 40 x 8.72 = 348.80 per week.

348.80 x 4 weeks = 1395.20.

1395.20 x 12 months = 16742.40.

After tax and NI, that falls to 14920.67, or 1395.20 a month.

Someone's just suggested I subtract holidays, sick days and bank holidays - but UK workers have a legal entitlement to 5.6 weeks' paid holiday a year (including bank holidays). At least the first 4 weeks of that are paid at at least the minimum wage.

That's because of the working time directive. One thing to look for in the post-Brexit UK is what happens to holiday entitlements.

But there's two things that come to mind from all this.

1. How favourably the UK minimum wage compares - *in theory* - with the rest of the world.

2. How in the world can these figures be reconciled with 43% of UK workers not even earning enough to pay income tax? A national disgrace.

I assume the only conclusion here must be how little full-time work is available to so many. Even though the penalties for non-compliance seem weak, I can't believe that companies across the UK are just flouting the law all over the place.

So many of us talk about zero hours contracts all the time (which in terms of holiday pay, currently only take the previous 12 weeks into account, though that will change to 52 weeks shortly). But the epidemic here isn't unemployment. It's under-employment.

Frankly, if there was plentiful full time employment, then at this sort of level for the minimum wage, the economy would do an awful lot better. Because while it's unacceptably low, take home pay of almost 1250 a month isn't outrageous (I think 1500 a month would be reasonable).

But of course, the economy's a borderline joke which barely grows at all. What are the government going to do to free up or create full time employment? Proper, secure work?

Yesterday, I mentioned how so much poverty owes much more to housing costs than wages.

I guess I'd combine that now. Housing costs plus chronic under-employment. But then I look at the situation in Spain, and am almost dumbstruck at how bad it is in comparison. Less than 800 euros a month until 2019 in a modern Western European country is just unbelievable.

CORRECTION: that should say 1243.39 a month after tax and NI.

bbc.com/news/world-eur…

Oooh hang on! I forgot something! The extra 2 months' pay they get in Spain. 950 euros a month x 14 = 13300 euros a year: which converts to 11244 pounds a year. Still shocking, but not quite as much.

We have an extra month's salary for all employees in Uruguay too. Then, in effect, a 14th salary too - it's just not formally called as such. It's called 'licencia', and when I was an employee, I generally received it around March.

The minimum wage here was a bloody scandal when I arrived in 2012. And it's still completely inadequate.

But when I mention that under 15 years of leftist government, it rose from 1242 pesos a month to 16300 a month now, that shows you what an amazing job they did overall.