To think salary is very low for this job ad

Yes it is shit. The whole system seems to be eating itself.

But failing to increase minimum wage in response to huge CoL hikes would mean the responsibility for topping up unskilled workers income to cover basic essentials (and avoid mass homelessness, shanty towns, crime to survive, etc) then gets pushed back to the government. Which in turn reduces funding available for e.g. nurseries.

There is wealth in the economy. Allowing it be concentrated to the top few percent means the government has less funding via tax (the more money you have, the easier it is to avoid taxation) and the customers can't pay increased nursery fees due to salary suppression.

Rectifying this would mean better income for the nursery (via both increased availability of government funding and higher fees) and the opportunity to increase the salary gap between levels.

Yes there are a lot of woefully underpaid roles out there but getting a good degree from a Russell Group university does not entitle you to a higher salary. It's a marker of strong, and definitely impressive, academic ability, which many employers value but salary is usually determined by many more factors.

I’m in the NW and saw when job hunting
competitive salary - min wage
benefits - bare legal minimum annual leave listed as a benefit

Yes it’s an apalling wage.
I don’t know why people are saying it’s a junior/ basic admin job. It’s vaguely written, and the reference to covering the business manager and receptionist might mean they ARE looking for basic admin, but theres also reference to actual project coordination, which is a technical skill that takes some knowledge and training. (I’m a PM and started out as project support)
Not every low paid office job is automatically “junior admin” 🙄
OP if you want to continue in projects my advice is to get professional qualifications such as APM/Prince2 (sorry if you have these have only skimmed thread) and find somewhere that may be low paid but they are willing to train you up.

EA is Executive Assistant. PA is Personal Assistant.

Originally an Executive Assistant was a higher job than a PA, assisting a senior manager with management work - like having a second brain to do straightforward tasks and freeing up the senior manager to focus on strategic work.

But job title inflation has eroded that and EAs basically do what PAs used to: diary management, travel booking etc.

Some EAs are on very good salaries, up to £60k, according to some Mumsnetters. But I don't know if those are the type of role where you're expected to work long hours and be on call out of hours, especially if you're working for a CEO.

It's not a role with obvious progression into something else and can be difficult to get out of unless you have a strong career development mentality and deliberately use it to gain some skills and then move on. Although the work of a good EA is valued and appreciated by those on the receiving end, it's basically seen as "just admin" and not high status.

Transferrable skills (meeting support, minuting, budgets) can be used to get into project management, in which there is a hierarchy you can progress up (project/programme/delivery management) or branch out (business analysis, change management).

What strikes me is you haven't said what your degree is in or what kind of job/ career you want.

Was there any vocational element to your job? ie science, maths or computing etc?

Is it more an arts degree?

What work do you really want to do?

There's a massive difference between getting a 'job' and creating a career.

What did you plan to do with your degree?

Ridiculous. I wonder what incredibly useful, world enriching product or service this company creates?

But they can't even afford to pay someone London Living wage.

It doesn't even sound that junior, the list of tasks they've got the person expected to do.

Do you have to work in London?

Do you live in London or will you commute?

The thing is its obvious why other wages havent increased though as most businesses dont actually make a big profit any more. Take for example a small ish pre school I look after payroll and accounts for. The gap between the assistants and manager is so small now as they just do not have enough funding to cover bigger rises for all staff. There is very little incentive to bother with responsibilities or qualifications in this area. The government funding is pathetic for nurseries, some years didnt increase, other years increased by a tiny %, meanwhile minimum wage increased massively, supplies getting more expensive. Like I mentioned in my previous post, in 10 years the gap between entry level at my place and my salary (professional) means I am earning £8k less comparatively than I would have. Thats not a small amount.

Its a shit situation for every one at most salary levels now IMO (and for businesses).

Not necessarily. The best EAs I’ve recruited had very little EA experience (one worked in retail- customer facing, one was a receptionist). For me it’s transferable organisation skills, proactive attitude, good judgement, low ego and resilience that makes a good EA.

NMW ensures that the people we need to support our society via 'unskilled' jobs (shop assistants, factory workers, HCAs, cleaners, etc) are able to live average lives without government support. It must rise somewhat in line with CoL or may as well not exist.

The big red flag is why hasn't the average wage increased. I remember when ultra-wealthy was a net worth in the tens of millions! Maybe a few businesses were operating in the 100 million sphere. Now we see companies operating with balance sheets in the multi-billions. Why aren't we in revolt over the unwillingness to let any of that trickle down to the workers' salaries.

I feel angry that there are employers who think it’s acceptable to try to recruit someone on such a low salary.

in general I think that, taking inflation and higher costs of living into account, U.K. salaries have gone down.

I saw a job advert recently for an Independent Domestic Violence Advocate (IDVA) which is where you caseload people who have suffered domestic abuse, help keep them safe, caseload them until they can cope and are safe on their own: it paid £25k a year too, I couldn’t believe it. Imagine the stress and the risks involved in that job - why would you do that when you could work in a cafe for the same? I think it’s a hidden problem with the ever-rising minimum wage. Other salaries are NOT rising at the same rate. It’s destroying the careers ladder and making a mockery of it.

Given your update that you are in work and want to progress, can’t you identify some suitable learning and development? Not just training courses seminars and events, but work shadowing, cover for seniors, reverse mentoring etc.

My adult kids aged 27 and 28 earn almost double this.

Grad entry level jobs in my sector (media) paid 20k at the lowest

Even if it was 15k you had no student debt and rent and housing was far far more affordable.

However you want to cut it... Basically flat grad salary over 30 years isnt right.
Particularly against the context of homes 3-8 x ing in price.

If it's NHS then Agenda for Change and nationalising pay banding really screwed support staff in HCoL areas. But private companies also seem to be in a race to the bottom. Every other admin job listing I've seen recently includes some element of project management (or in some cases people management!) for barely over minimum wage.

The team PAs get paid more than that at my firm.

Agree - but we didn't have to pay for uni tuition so we didn't have thousands of ££££ worth of debt before we started work.
Also rent was cheaper

the median grad salary in the late 90s/early 00s was 18k

That sounds like a massive waste of everyone's time

No we weren't. My management graduate job in 1997 paid me £15k entry. This was considered a decent wage at the time. So that's crap frankly.

OP would be better paid as a nanny...