Would you leave a job you love for double the salary?

If you have kids it may not be worth going over the £100k as you lose so many benefits. Make sure you work out what your take home will be compared to now as it won't be double

I’d consider it but I’d be really wanting to get a feel of other stuff like expected workload, what an average day would look like, commute, hours, culture.

I’m on 50k and turned down a 68k job as my current job is quite self managed and flexible and includes the ability to work from home quite a bit. The new job was going to be 9-5 in the office and even though it was a short commute i didn’t fancy it. I’d also worked for the organisation before and I know what it’s like for micro managing and couldn’t stand the thought of going back to that.

is your current job underpaid due to public sector or some other reason? Or is the new job overpaid to make up for some serious downsides? If you’re not currently underpaid I’d do some digging about why the pay is so much more at the new place. Lots of out of hours work expected? Horrible bosses? Lots of stress?

ive twice turned down big pay rises after doing some digging. One place basically felt they had bought your soul and expected you to work all evenings and weekends as well as core hours. The other place was just a terrible company. They fund genocide amongst other things and also treat their staff like disposable pawns. Definitely not worth the extra money to sacrifice morals and mental health!

conversely I also halved my salary at one point (pre kids so I had fewer outgoings) as I hated the place I was at and the new place gave me the same job but with nice people, sensible hours and doing worthy work.

Totally depends. If it was me, right now at this stage of my life, no I wouldn’t. I’m happy where I am, I’m happy with the balance of everything, and we are fortunate in that we don’t need the extra money so there is no reason to.

If we needed the money then in a heartbeat yes I would, because financial security for my family would come above me personally being happy at work.

If you are so bothered about the additional tax just bung everything over 100k into a pension that could bring forwards your retirement age by 5 or 10 years.

I applied for a job that was 31% better paid than the job I was doing and loved. I was paid £84k and moved up to £110k. I only applied for interview experience, I never expected to get the job, but was pretty sure I could score an interview. They offered me the job. I took it. I bloody love it. It was genuinely the best move I could have made. Yes there are compromises, I now have a long commute twice a week, I have some additional stresses, but I also have more autonomy. A great boss and opportunity.

I use salary sacrifice and pay nearly 14% a month into my pension to offset the personal allowance loss.

You say you love your current job and this job is doing something similar.
So you already know that the work is enjoyable.
The only other variable is the people. You get on really well with the people you currently work with. But these people might be just as nice.
I take PPS points about how soul destroying it is to be in a terrible job. I've been there.
But for double the money I would take the risk. It sounds like you're very much in demand. So you can always leave if you don't like it.

Yes

Double salary = opportunity to make a life outside work that you love

Life you love = easy to tolerate a job you don't love but don't mind

Think of the long term potential benefit too r.e pension saving

Goal should be a job you like, life you love

Why are you thinking you'll hate it?

What’s the difference in the role at the new job?

I’ve just done sort of similar. I was on 80k 4 days (100k FTE) and got offered a FT role 130k at another firm. It meant I needed to go back to FT and leave a job I really liked. 6 months on I’m so pleased I moved, there’s so much extra going into my pension and I’m using the other cash for holidays. The team is so lovely and the work is so much more varied and interesting than my previous firm.

good luck OP

Yes, in a shot, there may be nice people in the new place as well……I’m surprised you even have to think about this

It depends. It's the same job, but is it really the same? I left my last job mainly because of micromanagement and excessive on-call. This job is ostensibly the same, but no on-call, 38% higher pay, fewer hours, 10 minute vs 1 hr+ commute - and I've been there less than a year and getting a promotion. In my field (systems administration,) asking about on-call is usually one of my interview questions, because it's often a requirement (this is the first job I've not had to do it,) and it can make a big difference to whether a job is bearable or not.

You need to look at the overall package - it might be double pay, but what about pension, other benefits like private health? What are the hours? What flexibility is there, like WFH, different start or finish times, weekend working... How does the commute compare? Some of these things may be more important to you than money, and they may be different for other people - or at other stages in your life.

It might be worth asking if you can meet some of the people you'd be working with - recruitment is a two-way thing after all. They might want you, but do you want them?

If your current employer needed to make cuts, they would, regardless of your previous loyalty, so don't worry about leaving. I'm still in touch with some people I've worked with in the past - it's much easier to stay in touch with people these days than it was 30 years ago.

This happened to me, I was made an offer too good to pass up so I accepted but when I went to hand in my notice my current employer refused my resignation, went for a meeting and 2 hours later they matched the new offer. So I stayed and got the payrise. Win win! What’s for you won’t go by you x

I'd be gone, like a hot snot!

I would have thought about this BEFORE I interviewed for the job so that I didn't do the time wastery thing of wasting someone's time.

Please don't do it, I have had jobs where I have been happy but financially was in a position where I had to move on and always regretted it. You are on a good salary and in time have the potential to earn more.
I would be suspicious of any organisation offering to double my salary, that doesn't make sense to me and there has to be a catch somewhere.

Not in a million years.
You are better off in a job you love with people you like, no matter how much more money you can earn.
There is one thing in life which is priceless and that is peace of mind. A job you love with colleagues you like gives you that, don't risk it for financial gain.

We spend a lot of hours at work.I personally would take lower pay if I am happy with my team and look forward to work. Obviously if I was younger and needed the extra money I would take the risk .

So sorry you went through this, hating your job is horrendous, I totally agree with you.

There's plenty of reasons to. Your salary would increase significantly and you would be making a greater contribution to the national pot. Paying a lot of tax means you're earning a lot of money.

What is it that you like about your current job? And how certain is it that that won’t change? How secure is your current employer?
if you were to move, what would the prospects for promotion and pay rises be? Or, if you didn’t like it, could it be a stepping stone and you’re able to use the salary as leverage.
In 2008, I took a job with a 50% pay rise plus bonuses. I was there for less than 2yrs before unexpectedly getting pregnant with DC1. There was no way I could combine that job with raising a child so I left at the end of my maternity leave. The job I found paid me more as otherwise they felt it would be too much of a drop. The next move I made 6 years after that paid me more than they had advertised for the role as they wanted me. So I am continuing to reap the benefits as well as having been able to bring the DC up in a larger house than I would otherwise have been able to afford. The tax regime means it won’t make as much of a difference to you as it did to me all of those years ago but I would at least explore the opportunity.

Unfortunately its the way income tax bands work in the UK.
Little point in taking a shed load of stress and working a ton of hours in a 'do the hours required' sort of position for the tax man to waltze off with more than 40% of what you've worked for.

The advice isnt sex dependent its tax dependent

It’s an extra £2,5k per month .. that’s before you make any tax efficient decisions.. so quite a chunk of change

It’s only double your current salary nominally - tax would mean not even close to that. If you’re comfortable and happy, I wouldn’t do it, personally.

Yes. You can make new friends.