£82,000...

[Gordie]

What really winds me up is the poor pension we Brits get. Much lower than Germany for example, and much lower than the government's much touted minimum wage.
Try living on that why don't ya!

[garynortheast]

Originally Posted by Gordie

What really winds me up is the poor pension we Brits get. Much lower than Germany for example, and much lower than the government's much touted minimum wage.
Try living on that why don't ya!

I am trying to live on it. I have no private pension and I can manage only because I am living temporarily rent free on a friend's smallholding (I help with the growing of food in lieu of rent), utility bills are tiny as there are solar panels on the roof, and I have a cheap mobile phone tariff and no landline.

I need to be moving into my own rented property sometime over the next 6 - 9 months and tbh I can not for the life of me see how my state pension will come anywhere near covering even basic living costs, especially with rents at the currently insane levels they have reached over the last couple of years.

[Bibio]

politicians pay income tax like everyone else so 1/3 of their wages goes back. i personally think politicians should be paid more. lets face it there is only about 650 of them.

i heard that the head of fife council gets paid more than what the prime minister gets paid. tell me that's fair.

[keith_d]

Originally Posted by Bibio

politicians pay income tax like everyone else so 1/3 of their wages goes back. i personally think politicians should be paid more. lets face it there is only about 650 of them.

i heard that the head of fife council gets paid more than what the prime minister gets paid. tell me that's fair.

Ooh, another interesting and complicated question. As a society how do we decide who gets paid what??

For some people pay comes down to supply and demand. For example there are only a few hundred top class footballers in the world. If you want the top players in your club you have to pay top dollar. Conversely, there are about 55 million of us who could sweep the streets and there's only a small number of jobs doing it. So pay is going to be rock bottom.

Within organisations it's mostly down to a mix of incentives and retention. The incentive to go the extra mile is the chance that you will get promoted, and therefore be paid more. So there has to be a salary progression between bottom and top of the organisation. Retention is the supply and demand element of pay, and loosely reflects the market for the skills needed to do a particular job.

For unique jobs like MPs it's much harder to judge a 'fair' salary. Personally, I think something like three times the national average (including people on the dole) would be a good starting point. That way they have an incentive to make everyone better off because that would increase their salary too.

Just my thoughts,

Keith.

[Adam Ef]

Originally Posted by Bibio

i heard that the head of fife council gets paid more than what the prime minister gets paid. tell me that's fair.

Do they have other incomes too like most politicians? Do they predominantly come from wealthy backgrounds?

[Seeker]

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news...y-make-3007595

Should they be allowed second jobs? Paterson is in trouble because he repeatedly used his position to benefit 2 companies that paid him as a consultant. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-59049343

They cannot be trusted to be an MP and have a second job. Boris has changed the rules on ethics investigations (after Patel got away with her bullying) they now have to cleared through him first (they used to be independent). His new investigator works for an arms company with a history of corruption allegations.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dar...-arms-company/

[Bibio]

do politicians who dont get voted into office still get a salary from the gov purse? if they dont then how else are they supposed to make money and still be a candidate for elections?

are they just supposed to drop their job when they become elected and hope for the best come the next election.

[Seeker]

According to The Spectator it costs about £34k to become an MP (2014 figures) but the party has to have chosen you as a candidate (can take 2 years). If you lose the election, you're not an MP and don't get paid, which is why most candidates are reasonably well off to begin with, and there's a call for a bursary to be provided (taxpayer funded).
About 20% of MPs have a second job of some type (130 MPs approx).

[Ruffy]

Originally Posted by Bibio

do politicians who dont get voted into office still get a salary from the gov purse? if they dont then how else are they supposed to make money and still be a candidate for elections?

are they just supposed to drop their job when they become elected and hope for the best come the next election.

I think the "party" generally funds prospective candidates. (Not that I like the party system and I would supprt change there to get better candidate pools for voters to choose from.)

And yes, I think they should drop their current job if elected. Plenty of real world folk deal with fixed term contracts without guarantee of renewal. Risk of unemployment due to underperformance sounds like it could be a good thing for me (if one believes in competition to keep standards up).

Perhaps they should do like the rest of us are advised to do, and put some of their (considerable) salary aside into an emergency account to tide them over in case they unexpectedly get made unemployed? Or train in a real-world marketable skill to fall back on if their chosen career plan doesn't pan out?

Originally Posted by Seeker

About 20% of MPs have a second job of some type (130 MPs approx).

What I can't fathom is how they can have time to do second jobs! Being an MP is hardly clock-on, clock-off shift work. There's always plenty to do to deal with constituency or national matters.

For me, it should be one of the rules to avoid [perception of] conflict of interest that they can't have second jobs while they're MPs. I definitely don't want them distracted by active second job considerations. All efforts whilst 'in service' should be put into making the country better. Remuneration is good, most costs can be expensed, they're hardly on the breadline. (Besides, if they're any good they'll make enough contacts to be more than fine after serving anyway - that must be worth something.)

[Seeker]

Originally Posted by Ruffy

What I can't fathom is how they can have time to do second jobs! Being an MP is hardly clock-on, clock-off shift work. There's always plenty to do to deal with constituency or national matters.

I think your problem is defining "work". David Davis MP is an "external advisor" to JCB, he advises them 20 hours per year for £60,000.
He also "works" for Mansfelder Kupfer und Messing (German manufacturing company) for 6 months for £36,000, not sure how many hours he has to put in here but he is known for being lazy, so not too many. He used to be the Brexit negotiator until he was relieved for being useless (and lazy).

BoZo used to get £23,000/month for writing a Telegraph column and one speaking engagement netted £29,000 (before he was PM).

They don't need to put in much time to rake in the money.