How much would you pay a Saturday sales assistant?

[deniser]

We've always employed over 21s at £1 more than the minimum wage.
I am about to take on a 15 yr old and a 16y old. The minimum wage for their age is £3.53.

We have to give them one hour break out of a 6 hour shift.

How much would you pay them (easy shop work)?

All opinions welcome as I have no idea what to pay.

 

[FluxServices]

To be honest I had a 16 year old working with me and paid him £5.50 per hour, I think paying someone below this is just a joke and the goverment need to get a grip its just a rip off.

Even tho its just a small job the fact that they are making a effect to work and make a living or getting savings.

Its up to you what you pay then but 3.53 is just a joke

 

[Mister B]

I don't think that it's neccesarily a joke at £3.53, but possibly a bit tight. Think of is from a fifteen year olds point of view-six hours will yield over £20 which is not bad for a young person still at school.

If it were me, I'd probably pitch in at around the £4.50-at sixteen they can earn £4.63 at Sainsbury;s so somewhere around that figure would be about right. IMHO

Mister B

 

[groovyjon]

I pay my 16 year old saturday staff a fiver per hour. Anything less than that and I don't think I'd have any commitment from them and I don't want to be left in the lurch when they don't turn up!

 

[seasonsonline]

Erm, I'm not that old and I worked for 2 years on £2.10 an hour! However, I don't believe in slave labour but on the other hand business is business. I would pay 50p-£1 over the minimum wage. Then there can't really be any complaints and this could possibly motivate the employee.

 

[MBS Accountants]

I would possibly pay them near the minimum wage and explain to them that if they turn up and also on time and do not slack then they may get a pay rise. You can then wotk your way up to a more respectable wage.

The two new employees will then get more job satisfaction and would be less likely to leave you in the lurch.

The big question is timing for the first review and making the rise worthwhile!

 

[Draugen]

Try to find out what the other employers in your area are paying their younger staff. The kids will most likely tell you themselves if you ask! Then you can pay yours at least 50p more per hour than anywhere else nearby, and you can pretty much guarantee a bit of loyalty and also, news that you pay your Saturday staff well could spread and be a bit of good PR for you!

I pay my under 18s the same minimum wage as the over 18s. They definitely do feel they're being looked after more than they would be elsewhere, so I do get a lot more commitment from them.

 

[downsouth]

pay what your business model can support, whilst taking on board the comments of previous posts.

Its a careful balancing act between paying too little and running the risk of high staff turnover and paying too much and not seeing value for money from the work the staff do.

I'd certainly be looking £5 - £6 region.

 

[Blush]

I have a 15 year old Sat girl, she gets £5 hour.
I did start off on min wage but felt guilty.
Why not start them at the lowest perhaps, say its a trial period, and if you are happy with them increase their wage after a 2-4 week period.That way they have something to look forward to.15-16 year olds tend to get bored very quickly! This will keep them interested at least a bit longer.
My sat girl starts at 10, has an hour lunch in which she usually spends her wages! and works until 3pm. If I am really busy she works a bit later.I pay her for her lunch too. £30 is a lot to a 15 year old.

 

[maria102]

I think I am clearly over-generous! I pay my 19yr old £7 and hour! she is very conscientious though, but I wish I had started her on less - for example when she's been in the shop alone on a saturday, she seems to have used the phone quite a lot... when we have all our s/s stuff in we are running a tighter ship and I think I need to set her some sales targets; that would have been a lot better strategy and then will have something to aim for, though not sure how to implement this? I can't turn the clock back!

 

[360interactive]

Bloomin eck Maria, £7 an hour!

 

[wordsinart]

What would be great, but big brother wouldn'y allow, would be for you to pay the minimum wage, then, on seeing best effort, being able to dip into your own pocket and slip them a tenner. That would be a better incentive (and more importantly a recognition of their efforts)

 

[cycloneuk]

Do you have any jobs going maria? lol £7 is pretty good, most shops around here only pay minimum wage.

 

[Blush]

£7
I would do a review, call it an appraisal and say in voew of the current economic climate you now have to impose sale targets!
But then again what are other shops paying in your area?

 

[faststaff]

I let my telesales/admin girl work here. For that privilege I allow her to pay me minimum wage.

I'm just a help to my community!

Seriously though, she's 17, and I pay her just over min wage, but she does have a clearly defined progression structure in place, and as she hits certain goals, I'm more than happy to up it.

 

[deniser]

Thanks for all your thoughts.

Before posting I was thinking along these lines with pay rise on birthday:
15y £4.50
16y £5
17y £5.50
18y £6
someone with experience 18y plus £7

Having read your comments I think I will start both on £5 and see how it goes - and make sure it is 50p more than the surrounding shops.

 

[Mister B]

Final comment on the subject relates to working environment and atmosphere.

A long, long time ago I used to run a small shop which was part of a three store chain. We used to pay the minimum wage which was embarassing. We never had trouble recruiting to fill the posts but that was mainly because we had a fantastic working environment and the Saturday kids used to look forward to going to work-the news spread and everybody wanted to come work for me Because of the low pay, I endeavoured to make it a fun and rewarding place of employment.

Naturally, I was always being asked for a pay rise to match what they could earn at Tesco's but the reply was always the same: You want to sit on a checkout for xx an hour then go do it. Alternatively stay here for xx and enjoy your weekends. Not one single kid left. It's not neccesarily all about the money.

Mister B

 

[Blush]

Mister b has hit the nail on the head.
Job satisfaction is so important.Look at how poorly paid hairdressers are, yet I remember reading a survey where they were the happiest in their jobs!
My 15 year old likes variety! They get bored easily so make sure you give them a variety of jobs, try and keep the day varied.Try to give them a little bit of responsibility too and set the ground rules from day one.
1.No mobiles allowed during work time! that means no texting too!
2. No friends to call in during worktime uless they are buying!
There were the two main issues we had to sort out.
I found though, but then again we sell to a lot of teenagers, that allowing a staff discount was also a good incentive.
Because we are small I can also be flexible with start and finish times too.

 

[Zeno]

Thanks for all your thoughts.

Before posting I was thinking along these lines with pay rise on birthday:
15y £4.50
16y £5
17y £5.50
18y £6
someone with experience 18y plus £7

Having read your comments I think I will start both on £5 and see how it goes - and make sure it is 50p more than the surrounding shops.

Sorry but one of my pet hates is where people are payed more or less solely dependant on their age.

If they are good at the job why should this matter?

 

[UKSEOAgency]

im not sure what industry you are in, and i agree on the age thing to a degree.

I know about 6 years ago when i was last working in a shop environment as a fresh faced 18 year old, new to the world of (official) work I was paid more than the 17 year old who had been at the company since a few days after there 16th birthday to the sum of £2.30 an hour.

This was simply because I was 18, and was legally able to operate the lottery machine, sell cigerettes and Alchohol. And i was taught by this 16 year old how to use the till system!

Is this unfair? Most likely yes as we both worked as hard as each other - but at the time there was no minimum wage for under 18's iirc

 

[Zeno]

I suppose the view comes from the minimum wage rates for differing age groups.

I shouldn't get started however I don't believe that this is fair.

A 16 year old working should be paid the same as someone who is 21, 25 , 45 or 90 providing they are doing the same job with the same level of responsibility.

If you are going to bring age into in you might as well bring in gender, IQ, race.

Sorry, rant over.

 

[deniser]

Sorry but one of my pet hates is where people are payed more or less solely dependant on their age.

If they are good at the job why should this matter?

It doesn't come down to age alone but experience. The 15-17y old starting this job as a first job who can't be left alone, whom we need to train in every aspect of the job and needs to be supervised can't be paid the same as our other employee who has 30 years' experience and can run the whole operation single handedly.

 

[James W]

they can earn £4.63 at Sainsbury;s so somewhere around that figure would be about right. IMHO

£4.43 - Actually