Minimum wage vs graduate salaries

[DuesToTheDirt]

So now that the NMW gives you over £25k a year for a 40 hr week, it seems that the gap between that and a graduate salary is tiny. I'm not talking here about the tiny cohort of grads that earn 50k in banking or management training, but about the ones I know personally. The graduates I know, even up to about age 35, are mostly earning not a lot more than that - 26k for one 32-year old friend, 30k for a 28-year old guy in my company, 30k for a friend's child in her late 20s, etc. That's the ones who have actually got a graduate job, as many haven't and are still working in hospitality or similar. Just wondering what the point is of a degree these days!

Yes, I know everyone and his dog has a degree these days, but was I wrong in expecting degrees to help my children get a decent lifestyle?

You’re not wrong. However, hopefully the degree will lead to more interesting jobs and better career progression.

There is likely a lot more chance of progression with a graduate job where as a lot of others would stay on that wage or not increase much. I am now earning over 3 times my starting graduate wage and am only working 4 days a week.

Yep, lots of places maintaining their ~28k graduate salary banding.
Even 35k now should be considered a low graduate salary when these kids have like 50k of debt these days.

Our teens still want to get degrees because what they want to do, or at least some vague notion in a direction, they cannot do without one.

Not all decisions are made because of ££££sssss.

You are a long time earning, and they would like to do that, if possible, not in a NW job with less job security.

On the flip side why should people working in essential NW positions, because NMW doesn’t mean less than or not contributing to society, people work hard in NMW jobs, why should they not be able to pay rent/mortgage and buy shoes, go away once a year?

A more financially equal society benefits all.

Why would a degree make a job more secure? Why would your pay make a job any more or less secure?

I agree with you. But I would say, I got a degree from University of Bath which is quite a well respected university. Annoyingly, I graduated into the 2008 recession and ended up with a basic admin job which paid bugger all tbh. I did work my way up to a more specialist role but that then went to pieces when the company I worked for ended up closing the office I worked in and made everyone redundant. I had small dcs at the time so just took the pay off and stayed at home.

I'm rambling a bit, but basically, even though I'd not worked for ages when my dcs were babies up till the youngest started preschool, I found it relatively easy to find work and I do think the degree helped with that, especially applying to schools or somewhere which values education, like museums or old institutions.

It definitely wasn't a case of walking straight into a job based solely on my degree though. I wouldn't want my kids to go to uni now unless they needed to (eg medicine or law and even then, only if they had a decent chance of succeeding in one of those careers).

Oh I'm not saying they don't contribute and shouldn't be rewarded. Just that degrees are seeming increasingly pointless, especially when you factor in student debt, and 3+ years of not earning.

Well done, and I hope this is the way it will go for my children.

I would have thought that a graduate in a graduate job won't always earn 25k whereas someone on minimum wage is likely to continue earning minimum wage. If we have to continue working until 67, that's a long time with a lot of scope to progress.

Because to be fair a grad with no experience doesn’t really deserve more than min wage. However, it’s a starting point and you would hope they would work their way up from there.

Well if a grad scheme is claiming they need 3 or sometimes 4 years worth of a degree it’s not the same as no experience, otherwise it would be open to those without the additional education.

in theory companies should be paying more and increasing the gap, however the reality is too many companies dont want to increase the wages

@AnraithAgusCeapaireLeDoThoil bath is incredibly highly respected.

The grad scheme in my company pays £34k rising to just under £40k upon exit from the scheme. It is technical work so it reflects the types of degrees we ask for. They're still doing better than minimum wage on that. It's quite encouraging actually, as we're more likely to get career changers with good skills.

Dc graduated last year. They have to have a degree in computer science for software engineer grad job because you need an understanding of how the system is put together. They got the grad job through doing a paid summer internship, that was £25k pro rata. They were heavily vetted for the internship, then you can prove you can do the job and get hired at the end.

Dc hasn't even been there a year and is on £35k and progression is achievable within that national company. I think it comes down to what the degree is in and how proactive you are at researching and securing a job. Where you live post uni may also impact the availability of jobs. Dc wanted a summer internship where we live rather than in the university location. We live where we do because of the sheer number of jobs available for both Dh and myself.

Dc can see the progression possible within the company which is a nationally recognised one. His friend works for a small independent company where they just won't pull in the same amount of business to afford to pay their staff highly.

It depends on the degree and how much demand there is for those skills. Computer Science grads are likely to be in high demand whereas grads from some other degrees might be less needed.

It also depends on how proactive a candidate has been in terms of work experience and other relevant skills.

So no, not every degree is worth more than minimum wage - you can’t generalise, but some degrees are very lucrative!

A degree can consist of knowledge that will be continually required in society, not all jobs can be learnt as you train, some you need to know more than up to 18 education can give you before you start.

There are jobs/careers that will be more secure/in demand.

If everything goes tits up, they can always train to be STEM teachers, which are like gold dust most of the time.

To think further education wouldn’t give some security and choice in the job market seems odd.

And this is what our teens want to try and do, life shouldn’t be, what about money? What about getting in the housing ladder? What about money money money housing ladder learn a trade take a job, student debt, it can, and should be about trying to obtain your dream, or pursuit of knowledge, or just learning to see what happens. Doesn’t suit all, and that’s ok, but it does suit some, and some graduate jobs are more secure.

minimum wage has increased most other salaries have been impacted by wage stagnation

Well for our teens the degrees they want to do don’t seem pointless to us, or more importantly, them.

Yes they cost money now, and that needs to be taken into account, but we suspected they would possibly want to go to uni, so have made financial accommodation over the years to help them out, it’s like America with the “college funds” we used to think were madness.

As mentioned not all decisions should be financial.

Your children, and our children, will be potentially working for 50 years, with pensions to fund entirely, their own children’s college funds, a never ending increase in the cost of living. They won’t get to retire, they might as well have 3 years at the start of their working lives just learning a bit more and just living a bit, before the daily grind sets in!

Well exactly. The candidates have spent 3-4 years doing a degree, and accumulated tens of thousands in student debt - you'd think if a company wanted a candidate with a degree they would need to pay more for that. But it's supply and demand I suppose. AI has taken a scythe to desk jobs, then there's Brexit, and NMW and NI increases raising costs for employers. It's all a bit crap!

I agree. Any working person should have a comfortable enough lifestyle. I do think though that there should be some kind of financial renumeration for going to uni and working towards a career.

There is a HUGE variation in the financial rewards/ graduate pay depending on what course and at what university you study.

You simply cannot generalise here.

In other words, there is no one ‘graduate salary’

Perhaps the trouble lies in the Education Education Education Everybody Can Go To University And Get A Degree ethos over the last however many years.

When I was a teenager in the 1970's, university was only for the exceptionally bright 5%. Only the top set in school did A-levels, everyone else left school at 16 and got a job or went into an apprenticeship, or to college to learn typing.

Now everybody and his dog has a degree, so it has pretty much debased the whole thing.