Minimum wage was introduced in 1998, the rate for over 21’s was £3.60 and 18-21 was £3.00 - there was no rate for under 18’s. These rates, of course, have increased, however the rates have barely increased over £4.00. The minimum wage was introduced to stop the exploitation of poor workers but I argue the low standards of minimum wage is exploitative.
Working a minimum wage job, such as as a shop assistant, is harder work than people give it credit - we have to be on our feet our entire shift with demanding tasks and have to deal with the rudest members of society (people assume it’s okay to abuse workers because ‘it’s their job’).
Minimum wage requires you to work many hours just to earn a decent wage, this is incredibly exploitative as it means people are forced to work longer just to survive.
Focusing on school aged workers; the minimum wage for those under 18 was introduced in 2004 - currently the rate sits at £4.35 per hour - this is awful as people are forced to work more hours to make up a decent wage, this can mess with school work and workers sleep which is incredibly important for adolescents as we need more sleep.
Furthermore, we cannot simply ‘work less hours’ as they are set by the manager and long shifts are required to pay for an increasingly expensive education (trips, supplies and textbooks) because of the underfunding of schools.
For adults who work on minimum wage and require the jobs to work this is worse as they need to work many long shifts for a little reward because of the low rate of minimum wage. With the cost of living workers are more and more needing higher wages to even afford to survive and buy the basics.
In conclusion, the current wage of the national minimum wage is exploitative because it makes workers work long and gruelling shifts just to survive whilst other people barely work and earn higher salaries because of their job position.
