THATS TRUE- paying 8 or 9 pound per hour is a sign of weakness, they know it and will milk you for it too.
best to pay 7 absolutely tops ,thats good money these days . bear in mind a lot of parttimers work below the radar , many on 4/5 quid an hour .
over the last year or more iv employed partimers,its taken me a while but iv now got at least 2 good ones . the benefits of taking on partimers only are many. if one starts playing up,you can depend on the other 1 ,then the messer knows he cant mess cos you will get a fresh worker,if that makes sense . i have a 4 day partimer and a 2 day partimer at the moment ,and will add to it later this summer with another 2 or 3 day partimer ,to share the load
i also have 2 partime leafletters on the go each week , they are harder to handle ,i find they get bored and then start skiving off is my experience ,never bothered about being sacked either