What is happening to starting salaries in this country?!

[user8636283901]

My starting salary in 2009 - so mid-GFC - was £30,000.

That was 16 years ago! And in one of the worlds worst global recessions since the Great Depression of the '30s.

I was casually looking at starting salaries in similar fields to mine and it seems like they're barely moved, all the while the cost of living is miles ahead of where it was 16 years ago.

Why are wages so low in this country?! Why haven't they moved up?!

My non Big 4 starting salary was £19,500 in 2012 as a grad. Would have been lower for apprentices so again seems about right.

But to be fair I think accounting starting salaries are relatively low because of the earning potential. 10 years after graduating I was earning just over £100k.

I'm looking at the moment and there are a huge number of jobs offering salaries c24 k full time but asking for skills and experience way above that rate. Crazy times

True, but you weren’t also starting life with c £45k in student debt.

In 2015 I took a step back from a management role due to having a baby and moved back into the entry level role
No special salary enhancements for my experience etc and full time that paid 18.5k. 9 years on I'm the manager again and recruiting the entry level staff, who now start on 24k that's a 30% not only that but there is a better incentive bonus scheme in place allowing the team to earn 30k+ easily. I'm recruiting some 19yo straight from college who work hard and are successful!

My starter graduate salary in banking was 37k in 2006. Currently the same bank pays c60k to 1st year graduate analysts.

Depends on the industry. Our starting salaries have increased hugely ove the past 15 years, but experienced salaries aren't keeping pace, so the value of experience isn't what you'd expect.

Just look at this Conveyancing Paralegal - LPC Graduate Role
🤷
Paralegal with at least 2:1

I saw 5+ year experience swith about 1k above NMW even in accounts jobs. And go forbid one looks at hospitality or retail salaries. Anyone fancies being Starbucks shop manager for spit above NMW?
Grad schemes have also stagnated.

It's abysmal

And don't forgot tax bands have been frozen so paying more tax

We never recovered from the crash in 2008.

Because UK productivity improvements have been next to non existent since the GFC. (Source for chart is the ONS)

I’m finding this too. And not just the crap wage for lengthy job descriptions – I swear my first job was maybe a 1/4 A4 bullet list of responsibilities – but the laughable benefits.

I’ve seen “auto-enrolment pension” as a benefit – so, mandatory pension, then? Also “half a day off for your birthday”, “free bananas in the office on Wednesdays”, and my personal favourite, “we believe in work/life balance, which is why we offer a 40-hour week” 😵‍💫

I saw a job ad where a masters degree was required. The starting salary was 22k. That was 2 weeks ago. It's less than minimum wage. Madness

well, minimum wage has increased quite a lot - my starting salary for a full time job (also in 2009) was £11995 whereas 40hrs a week on minimum wage is now about £25k.

It's just everything above that hasn't increased at the same level.
As an example, the minimum salary for a GP in 2009 was £53,249. If that had increased at the same rate as the minimum wage, it would be c. £110k. Instead it's £73k (less in wales, slightly more in scotland). Obviously still a good wage but not a huge increase over 15 years when you consider the cost of everything else has gone up.

There have been several threads on this and people start shouting at anyone pointing this out, accusing them of not thinking people on minimum wage deserve good pay, which completely misses the point - of course they do, but additional qualifications/responsibility/duties deserve commensurate additional pay, otherwise who how long will people bother doing them for?

My ex husband was in IT and he was on £45k 20 years ago as a common or garden IT consultant.

Same for me, 20 years ago I was at £45k. Crazy thing is, where I am now, I earn more than my manager who is a Director.

Nail on the head. You can't just compare wages, you need to consider the "Purchasing power" of the the wages, and as you rightly say, it's that gap which is widening.

There is also the differentials to think about as in the past "starting salaries" for professional/trainee roles was typically higher than basic admin wages etc. But now starting salaries are little more than minimum wage, which is what the basic admin level workers will also be on.

I agree. At the time, leading economists said that it would take a decade to recover and get the economy back to where it was pre 2008. Of course ten years later, we were on the cusp of Covid. Now leading economists are predicting a decade for the economy to recover from Covid, so that takes us to 2030, which is basically 22 years of economic stagnation!!!

My starting salary as a trainee QS in 2006 was £8k.

Nowadays trainees are starting at least double if not triple that.

As a graduate I was on £16k, now you'd need to be offering at least £30k to get any applicants.

Absolutely disgusting.

National minimum wage for full time hours is £25k, so it'd be surprising (if not illegal) if university leavers were not offered at least that amount!

It's mad isn't it. I'm a sahm but want to go back to work soon as my dc are teens. So I keep an eye on jobs...a basic admin job twenty years ago paid the same as a basic admin job today...so many jobs offering £23k for full time work...it's just unbelievable. Some of them even have the cheek to suggest it's a competitive salary 😂

Yes - the ubiquitous 'competitive' in place of salary and when it's queried, it turns out to be national minimum wage.

It's a scandal that benefits/taxes are topping up poor wages too.

We never recovered from the crash in 2008.

Absolutely, it was just masked with low rates which inflated assets & many people felt richer. We kicked the can down the road and unfortunately have now run out of road.

DD is about to graduate and is job hunting. Everything seems to require 2-3 years experience, has a myriad of essential requirements and is still only offering a salary of £26-28k. I have no idea how anyone actually gets 2-3 years experience, as there is so little out there in relevant areas - even at NMW.

Its a very valid point and not enough people are talking about this. Wage stagnation is real - I look around for jobs in my field and they pay less or the same. There is no incentive. The real answer is of course - the employers can get away with it - demand and supply. Not enough jobs and too many people.