Would you class £32,000 as a good salary?

Do you get a good pension contribution from your employer with that salary ?

Because you should take pension into account, holidays, sick pay, commute, other benefits.

Other jobs may not offer what you already have ?

You can absolutely aim higher if you want to, and you’re right, there’s flexi working and wfh in lots of companies. Decent pensions too if you pick the right company.

Do you get pension contributions, as that would mean your salary is more. I have a degree, numerous professional qualifications, chose to work supporting others and that salary plus a civil service pension would have been OK, but sadly the younger you are now, the more it has to be to just survive.

I know it seems like a long way off but pension is still relevant - if you were in the private sector advice is to be putting approx 15% of your salary in a pension and that you should have approx 1.5-2% of your annual salary saved by 35 - so £45-60k.

Of course whether you would (or most people actually do!) that is another thing. But having a decent guaranteed pension without having to do so is a real bonus.

Obviously it's not a good enough reason to stay on its own - it's just important that you compare like with like. So for example if you were looking for a private sector job then, to follow the financial advice about pension contributions you'd be wanting to look at jobs paying at least £36k (andbeing prepared to then put 15% of that into a pension plan) to just break even from your current job.

I’m early 50s and have spent a lot of my career in HE and third sector with some private sector in between - not sure how comparable my experience is compared to CS. I haven’t earned below £40k for about 20 years, so I’d say it’s very low. One way to increase may be to move into private sector for a while? One of my biggest regrets in one job was not making the move for internal promotion early enough, and not making it known I was keen to move up. When I moved to my current job I did both of those things and have been successful.

You do know that plenty of people do have to manage on such a wage (and less)?
So many children living in poverty.
Unemployment going up.

Objectively, no. It’s significantly below the national average, which is around 40k full time, and that includes people with no qualifications.

I work in Local Government and earn £39k ish. No degree (or even a levels actually). Have a look around maybe and look to make a change, see if you can move away from the admin side of things and it could increase your earning potential.

DD has recently got a role in local government that pays £28k while training.
She gets so many perks re pensions , Holiday allowance and other subsidies.

she is 25.
Her job allows for so many training opportunities and an almost guaranteed salary upgrade each year.
she actually turned down a graduate position in the CS for this reason.
she has the freedom to chose her training going forward and can do almost any post grad qualification for future progression.

I was initially quite wary of her turning down CV role, but she knows what she’s doing.

I don’t think the CS route is what it once was.

(when she finishes training she’ll be on £34K)

"Literally" being used completely incorrectly there.

Public sector was generally poorer paid compared to equivalent jobs in the private sector but that's pretty old hat nowadays for several reasons

1. there are lots of ps roles that don't have any real private equivalent

2. pay in many jobs in the ps has stagnated, whereas (because of strong unions) ps have tended to have annual pay rises which, while not high, were intended to at least match the increase col

3. doesn't take into account additional benefits more commonly (obviously exceptions going both ways) found in public sector

4. most of the lowest paid jobs are private as well as the highest - agency care workers, retail, beauty, arts...

What wage is your partner on?

I really thought you were going to write you had to manage on your wage.

Try for HEO or even business manager roles.

It is a good salary when you get a great pension, fully paid sick leave for a long time, more holidays than private sector, work from home. Good luck with private sector and similar benefits at the moment.

I'm at SO level as a fully qualified professional with 15+ years experience. The salary is ridiculously low for my experience (£40k) but I have two preschool aged kids and the flexibility and annual leave is amazing. I'm basically treating it as a part time job, I can do nursery runs, appointments, bits and bobs around the house, never have to stress about work and still get everything done. When they're both older and in school, I'll have opportunities for advancement then.

It’s below the average (median) full time wage of £39k so not great, no. As you say it’s quite a junior role. Is there a specific reason you don’t want to move into line management roles, it’s hard to progress in the civil service without either specific skills or management?

Good point. My entire bonus goes to my private pension to try and bolster up.

What is your pension outlook, OP?

I’m in greater Manchester and earn 29.5. I do fine! It isn’t ideal and I want more but I’m a similar age, work in accounting with 5 years experience and the progression can be slow. I don’t have kids and do have a partner which helps.

When NMW is around £25k, then no, £32k isn't a "good" salary for a middle aged graduate.

A lot of new graduates on graduate schemes are on that kind of money, at aged 21 and just starting out in work.

Nope i don't think its a good salary BUT you need to look holistically.

Presumably you get flexitime and also your pension.

A Private sector worker on 32k is probably putting 2.8k pa (5+3) into a pension which is DC. This is total crap compared to yours... as CS is defined benefits i believe so waaaay better

The real issue is your lack of progression within CS imo.
I would look to address that.

I know a friends husband is in CS and he loves it - hes moved up and around a lot. Does loads of the sporting stuff and is now level under scs but doesnt want to go for it as he likes the flexi time.

It's a good salary in that it's in line with the average UK salary.

It depends on what your outgoings are and where you live.

It's also skewed by many graduate salaries, some are hired as managers on £40k straight out of university.

Are you against line management? Assuming youre operational, HEO team leader roles can be a great stepping stone to an SEO role where you'd likely have notably less direct reports (some dont have any). Maybe if you saw it as a temporary learning curve on your way to a higher grade. Worth looking outside your current department too and applying for roles you dont necessarily think would be a perfect fit - competition is high due to the number of EOs applying for higher grades but most areas will keep reserve lists of candidates who meet the standard at interview but aren't the highest scorers. With the way recruitment is at the moment theres probably more movement from reserve lists than new recruitment campaigns.

In terms of salary, i would struggle on it with 3 kids, but agree with ppl - there are notable benefits with flexible working etc. (I'd aleays take a lower salary with flexibility over a 9-5 on site every day job).