Bluey Circles:
Doesn’t matter what you earned, what matters is what that bought you!
comparing the fgures with the Consumer Prices Index is probably the best comparison.
£25,000 now would have been the same as £14,580 in 1997.
£4.38 an hour in 1997 would be equivalent to £7.51 today
£3.50 an hour in 1997 would be equivalent to £6.00 today
useful link here
bankofengland.co.uk/educatio … fault.aspx
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The bank of england is all part of the same establishment that is stitching everyone up and their figures are as credible on that basis.It would be fair to say that for most things you’d need around double the amount then to match wages in real terms.Although housing costs,among other expenses,are in another world.With my £15,000 + pa wages then still not being enough to get near the amount needed to even pay for a mortgage on the house I’m living in now at a typical 3 x salary loan for example.Which my parents paid around £80,000 for in 1996 but which would now cost anyone around £400,000 now.While the 1970’s would have been something else in that regard with under £10,000 house prices on a like with like comparison basis and road fuel costing well under £1 per ‘gallon’ for example even in an environment of massive inflation.The difference being that we had strong unions then managing to maintain wages in real terms against that.At least until the Callaghan administration ended the Party. 
The fact is the establishment have managed to pull off a massive and ongoing rip off regards wage levels v prices.By using dodgy unbelievable inflation/wage v prices figures and over supplying the labour market by exporting jobs and importing labour and unions either too weak to do anything about it.Or the working class voting like turkeys for Christmas for more of the same in the form of global free markets and open door immigration policies.
windrush:
the gaffers could only pay drivers extra if they were getting extra themselves and it wasn’t happening. Nowt to do with Eastern Europeans, just quarries etc not giving realistic rates for the work. Things may have improved drastically now of course?
Pete.
There are two seperate issues in that.Firstly strong unions and less labour supply wouldn’t allow operators the option of using wage rates to under cut rates.While the fuel taxation issue just thieves money out of the pockets of both drivers and operators.With unbelievably many drivers supporting the idea of silly fuel costs because they believe all the Green CO2 rubbish if not that the stuff will all run out if it isn’t effectively rationed in the form of punitive pricing.While the issue of wages not keeping pace with prices in real terms applies across the board regardless of industry.
Nothing to do with the operators cutting rates Carryfast, the quarry owners fix the rates and the hauliers either like it or lump it. To gain large contracts cuts are made, the first thing cut is nearly always the haulage. With Tarmac if you saw ‘SR’ written on your load ticket you knew it was a cut rate! Around the year 2001 I asked a local haulier with a four wheeler flatbed what he would charge to take a load from Matlock to Lichfield, around 40 miles. He quoted £200 to start with and then negotiate if that wasn’t acceptable, we were runing eight wheeled tippers at 30+ tonnes on a similar distance for just over £80 and that was/is the difference in being able to state your own rates. He said that he might only do one load that day which is why he charged more, and we would do three loads at least but we would put a lot more fuel through the pipes besides the wear and tear. And our quarry had some of the better rates, some others were diabolical! 
One large quarrying company once phoned and asked me to take 4 tonnes of planings from Sheffield to Nottingham, the rate quoted was £3 per tonne but I would only be paid for 4 tonnes (not the usual 15 tonne six wheeler rate) so £12 for that run and I was near Bakewell so would be running to Attercliffe empty and back to Matlock from Nottingham empty. When I refused I was told “Don’t you hauliers want any work?” and I told them the taxi fare was more than that.
Pete.
windrush:
One large quarrying company once phoned and asked me to take 4 tonnes of planings from Sheffield to Nottingham, the rate quoted was £3 per tonne but I would only be paid for 4 tonnes (not the usual 15 tonne six wheeler rate) so £12 for that run and I was near Bakewell so would be running to Attercliffe empty and back to Matlock from Nottingham empty. When I refused I was told “Don’t you hauliers want any work?” and I told them the taxi fare was more than that.
Pete.
I once overheard a guy I was working for tell a potential customer over the phone “If I want to lose money, I can leave my trucks in the yard” I don’t think the potential customer became a customer 
Back in 1997 I was working in a factory where the basic rate of pay was over £10 an hour. Sunday 12hr day shift used to gross over £300 for the single shift was more then the entire wage I got for 40 hours at my previous job.
It was good while it lasted…
eddie snax:
windrush:
One large quarrying company once phoned and asked me to take 4 tonnes of planings from Sheffield to Nottingham, the rate quoted was £3 per tonne but I would only be paid for 4 tonnes (not the usual 15 tonne six wheeler rate) so £12 for that run and I was near Bakewell so would be running to Attercliffe empty and back to Matlock from Nottingham empty. When I refused I was told “Don’t you hauliers want any work?” and I told them the taxi fare was more than that.
Pete.
I once overheard a guy I was working for tell a potential customer over the phone “If I want to lose money, I can leave my trucks in the yard” I don’t think the potential customer became a customer
my old boss once told the Scottish division transport and logistics manager at a very large quarry and aggregate firm that we had too take all the red crosses off the doors as we weren’t a charity, never did any work for them directly again but did take over the haulage for 3 of there major customers
In 1997 I was working for Tesco on annual hours, my pay was a basic and set as follows.
Week one I worked 6 days for a set 40 hour week which made me 475 pounds a week.
Week two I worked 5 days and got the same.
Week three I worked 4 days for the same.
Week four I worked 3 days for the same.
Week five I worked 2 days for the same.
Week six I worked 1 day for the same.
Week seven I had the whole week off, then the rota started again. If I worked any day unscheduled I got either time and a half and a day off extra or added to my annual holiday or double time. If I worked a bank holiday when I was not scheduled I was on 28 pounds and hour. It was a great paying job but I got seriously bored and was quit to work for a show / motor sport promo company for even better pay, although I went from a secure highly paid job where I was home every day to a job where I was away for weeks on end, it was much better and more interesting.