General Election 2019

"The Labour leader will also outline Labour’s plans to radically expand free childcare to 30 hours a week for all 2-4 year olds, which will save families thousands of pounds a year."

https://ibb.co/9VBDtWT
https://ibb.co/f9rK9qx

Hopefully these will work

I'm assuming that the nursery owner is not a Labour voter and is trying to scaremonger people into voting against Labour

Exactly my take on this. (Green voter here, in case any pro-Labour bias is implied by my assertion)

Just re-scan-read the manifesto and can't see anything about wages that would force your nursery to pay more either.

Apart from making the living wage £10ph minimum, which is still below the real living wage nationally.

Average Nursery Nurse salary in London is approx 19k, for which you would need to be qualified, how are they supposed to afford anything?

Bingo. Your nursery is paying well below the national living wage. Are you in London?!

Wow. I totally sympathise with you on the fact that you can't afford the increase BUT I am really sad to see that your London based nursery is able to refer to £10ph as a "bumper hike in salaries".

Oh I don't disagree they should be paid more at all, they are just one of a number of other groups of people (like nurses) who do a responsible job and who dont get paid well.

It seems a bit shit tho for jezza and Boris to stand up and say we will give you X y and z as a giveaway and isn't that generous of us but then not provide it though a combination of direct and (in the case of the nursery fees) indirect taxation rather than expecting the end user to pay for it all.

Assuming that they pay the minimum wage, they're going to have to find £1.79 per hour per employee over 25 years old to pay for this.

I suppose the economic theory is that your employer will have to pay you £1.79 per hour more too.

They pay people minimum wage, minimum in London.

Given the record of the last 10 years, and the form of Brexit most likely under the Tories, would you be willing to bet that you won't, one way or another, be £300 a year worse off if Johnson gets in?
At this point you can vote Labour, or Lib Dem depending on where you live, fairly confident that all it will do is stop the Conservatives rather than lead to a Labour government. Also, there are people much worse off than you who will be losing even more money than you under the Conservatives as they continue with their welfare policies. £300 a year would hit me hard too but it won't make me homeless or unable to buy food.

There is no London specific minium wage, just living wage.

Also, the conservatives have pledged to raise the living wage to £10.50, more than Labour.

.

It's not £300 a year. It's 300 a month.

Yup, sounds like utter bollocks.

^^Ah ok, that is steep and would do for me too. Sounds unlikely though if only because the nursery would be pricing itself out of existence so either way you'd lose.

I'd guess it's going to depend how many 16-24 year olds they're employing and in what proportion.

If you employ a load of 20 y/o and under then it's a very hefty bump in the wages. If you're employing 25+ then not so much.

It also sounds like the 30 hours of free childcare will be at a lower rate than what you'd get privately.

I feel like I'm missing something.

What is the current situation with the wages at the nursery that looks after your children. Are they unacceptably low and the workers there deserve to be better paid or are they currently getting a fair wage but Labour want to increase them to something unreasonable? Because if its the latter, then I completely accept your point. But if its the former then aren't you currently benefiting from the exploitation of others?

And as an aside, if £300 is going to decimate your household finances, this does suggest another potential looming disaster for you. If Labour get in then you're on the hook for that at the nursery but if the Conservatives get in then we're almost definitely going through with Brexit unchecked. By the government's own assessment, even with a "deal", this could very easily increase household costs by more than £300 pm. So given that you're almost definitely paying that £300 either way, a) what plans are you making to resolve this increase burden on your personal finances and b) who would you rather the money goes to; nursery workers who care for your child or the machinery of taxation and economic shift, both domestic and foreign, that will also place a burden on the aforementioned nursery workers?

You say you don't mind paying a bit more tax but oppose the people you have outsourced looking after your child to, being paid a living wage?

Have you done the calculations to see that you won't be £300 better off as a house hold under other Labour manifesto pledges?

It does sound like a small business owner scare mongering as they fear being less profitable ( which for a nursery I have some sympathy for as they seem to struggle financially sadly)

Edit: just seen you are saying 300/month now, will climb down from high horse to moderate size horse as that is a big jump on household outgoings but without fact checking, still don't know how you could just change who you vote for on hearsay

I still can't get past the fact that the letter cites the Labour proposed living wage increase when the Torys plan to increase them by more.

Edit: I apologise, they do mention the Tory increase

which for a nursery I have some sympathy for as they seem to struggle financially sadly

yup. Nobody gets rich running a nursery; best you can hope for is one of the big ones comes along and buys you.

As someone working for an organisation who pays all employees as a minimum the London living wage, I am well aware.

LLW is now £10.75, the proprietor is suggesting that an increase to £10 per hour for over 25's would be a 22% increase that means he is currently paying the minimum wage of £8.21 per hour.

Labour manifesto states large investment into childcare, so I doubt anyone is going to pay more and would probably pay less.

"We will reverse cuts to Sure Start and
create a new service, Sure Start Plus,
with enough centres to provide a
genuinely universal service, available
in all communities, focused on the
under-2s.
Within five years, all 2, 3 and 4-year-
olds will be entitled to 30 hours of free
preschool education per week and
access to additional hours at affordable,
subsidised rates staggered with
incomes. Labour will also work to extend
childcare provision for 1-year-olds
and to ensure that childcare provision
accommodates the working patterns
of all parents.
We will improve child development by
transitioning to a qualified, graduate-
led workforce. We value the experience
of current early years workers, and will
offer free training to the workforce to
attain these qualifications on the job.
Achieving this vision will require
significant investment. We will increase
funding and end the fragmentation
of the current system by funding
providers directly, making things
simpler and more sustainable for
both parents and providers.
We will recruit nearly 150,000 additional
early years staff, including Special
Educational Needs Co-ordinators, and
introduce a national pay scale, driving
up pay for the overwhelmingly
female workforce.
Maintained nursery schools provide a
proven, high-quality service but they
are under threat from Tory cuts. We will
provide sustainable, long-term funding
to secure their future."

Having re read the letter I can really see what the owner is getting at, but even so, just doesn't hang together for me.

That said, it doesn't appear to be particularly partisan.