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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To expect to be earning more now than I was five years ago?

22 replies

InelegantlyWasted · 02/08/2012 20:22

So, I returned from mat leave in 08 on a very much part time basis. Because I only wanted to work fifteen hours per week my employer could only offer me a more junior position than the one I was working in when I left.
I was fine with this, wanted a good work/life balance while DS was very young. Then in 2010 we had financial problems at home and I had to increase my hours back up to full time (40 hours per week). At that time there were no positions vacant in the senior role I had been doing before mat leave so I stayed in the junior role and my manager assured me that as soon as a vacancy came up I would be a shoe-in to get it.
So I spent two years working really hard, volunteering to go to different sites and taking on extra responsibilities to prove myself. Then finally a few months ago a vacancy came up in the senior role. I was interviewed and got it. All good very happy bunny. This week I finally got confirmation of my new salary. Only to find it is the same money I was earning doing the job back in 2007 before I went on maternity! I am pretty hacked off. Surely I should be worth more than I was five years ago? Five annual pay reviews would put my money up by at least 3 % if I had never gone away and had a baby! Essentially, because of inflation have I taken a pay cut?
I didn't say anything to my manager yesterday and I don't know if I should. AIBU to expect to be paid more today than I was five years ago, for doing the same job??

OP posts:
hermioneweasley · 02/08/2012 20:25

Wages have been very stagnant in the private sector over that period, and some have gone backwards. If you are being offered below the market (and you can evidence this) then dispute it, but if it's a feeling that surely it should have gone up, then you be being unreasonable.

ByGrabtharsHammer · 02/08/2012 20:34

I've not had a pay rise in years, thanks to private sector pay freezes. I'm now earning two-thirds the salary I had eleven years ago, in much the same job. That's how the market has changed. And my current employers take the complete piss.

MaryMotherOfCheeses · 02/08/2012 20:36

I would raise that. Do you have colleagues on the same level who are paid more? It may be that they're discriminating by offering you a low rate.

Original poster
InelegantlyWasted · 02/08/2012 20:41

Thanks for your replies. My employer awards annual pay rises based on performance ratings. Those at the highest rankings can receive pay rises of up to 6%. Is this unusual in the private sector since the recession?
I wish I knew what my colleagues in the same role as me were earning, but it varies so much from person to person according to different factors, and I daren't ask anyone - too scared of being told to
mind my own beeswax!

OP posts:
BonnieBumble · 02/08/2012 20:53

Dh took a 15 per cent decrease 5 years ago and was on a pay freeze until this year when he got 1.5 per cent.

I went for a job a couple of years ago. The job required a Masters degree and experience of dealing with complex cases. It was a part time role and the salary was £18k, not great but the role was only 3 days per week. It wasn't until the interview stage that I discovered that the salary quoted was the full time equivalent and I would only earn 3/5 of that, the job wouldn't even cover child care costs and I withdrew as I felt they were taking the piss. It was working for an oil company so they were not exactly struggling.

NagooingForGold · 02/08/2012 20:55

Can you show that others continuously employed have had their pay increased? Where I work the salary structure is transparent, I know other places are not like that.

headfairy · 02/08/2012 20:57

I can beat that, I'm earning less than I was 10 years ago... So that's what a decade's worth of hard work buys you. Nowt!

And I'm public sector (kind of).

ILiveInAPineapple · 02/08/2012 20:59

I'm earning less than I was 8 yrs ago because I left my disgustingly well paid private sector job and went into teaching on a third of the salary but I am happy in my life, I love my job, and I am proud of what I do. Yeah, I would like to be paid more, but it was not a job that I enjoyed and I was unhappy.

You sound like you made a trade off in order to have the time with your DC, and I suppose had you stayed you might well have had a more senior post on higher pay, but at least you had the time, and got back to where you left off. I know my SIL hasn't had a pay rise in 5 years and she holds a very senior financial post for a major multinational insurance company and is minted, so I guess it's a standard thing not to have had a pay rise.

I do hope that you enjoy your job though, I feel dreadful for people who don't as I have been there and was lucky I could afford to make the change.

deste · 02/08/2012 21:02

I am giving up the job I have done for he last 8.5 years because due to changes in contracts and I have been offered what I was paid 16 years ago. It's just not worth it.

Original poster
InelegantlyWasted · 02/08/2012 21:17

For the most part I do enjoy my job. It's not what I envisaged myself doing when I was younger but it has it's perks and is very flexible so I can manage to sort out childcare quite easily.
I can certainly see from what has been posted here that pay cuts and pay freezes are certainly common, and I am very grateful to have a secure job in the current financial climate.
I am going to ask around discreetly among my colleagues whether they have had consistent pay rises over the last five years and take it from there.
And for sure, I am very thankful for being able to have the time with my DS when he was very young, you don't get that time back and I enjoyed my time with my baby very much. It does make me think twice about having any more children though as the thought of not having progressed any further in the next five years doesn't thrill me at all!

OP posts:
VolAuVent · 02/08/2012 21:31

At the very least it should have kept in line with inflation.

PooPooInMyToes · 02/08/2012 21:36

It depends if the company has had difficulties and has been increasing the standard rate for that job. I know A LOT haven't.

You can't expect you wages to be what they would have been if you had worked for the last 5 years which is how it sounds to me that you had expected . . . because you haven't!

grumpykat · 02/08/2012 21:39

I'm public sector- we haven't had any increases for four years, and there are none in the pipeline either. With inflation running, that's a nifty pay cut of about 10% I believe.
It's shit all over at the moment.

JumpingThroughHoops · 02/08/2012 21:40

DH and myself have had 3 year pay freeze - he's private, I'm public.

foreverondiet · 02/08/2012 21:42

Wages haven't really kept up with inflation and for part of this period you were doing a more junior role so not the same as if you'd been working full time for 5 years in the same job. It depends I guess on how competitive the sector is (ie how easy it would be to replace you) - maybe speak to recruitment consultant to see if you are being paid market rates?

eurochick · 02/08/2012 21:45

I only in April this year got a raise that took me just above what I was earning in 2008. I changed jobs and took a pay cut and there have then been several pay freezes so it has taken this long to get back to where I was in 2008. Until April I was earning less than I was in 2008.

Loads of companies have been hit with pay freezes.

Spuddybean · 02/08/2012 21:46

It's so depressing. Wages going down and cost of living rocketing. 4 years ago i was on 38k managing a dept in a uni. Now due to cuts and redundancy I struggle to get work for 22k. I have been turned away from admin jobs in uni's because i am not qualified enough Confused

My hourly admin temping rate is less now than it was in 1998, before i went to uni.

Lizcat · 02/08/2012 22:03

I hadn't given my staff a pay rise for four years so gave them 3% last autumn as I am in a partnership so profit my earnings dropped. Times a really though we are happy that we are maintaining turnover and profit just about in these very tough times so no not surprised that since the bottom fell out of the world in late 2008 the pay hasn't increased.

Chattymummyhere · 02/08/2012 22:27

Are you all sure some company's are not taking the P*?? My Dh gets a pay rise every year, and bosses are already talking about big pay rises in Jan?

workshy · 02/08/2012 22:32

I've not had a pay rise, either performance or inflation related for 7 years, and the company I work for is closing sites

I'm thankfull I have a job

tinkertitonk · 02/08/2012 22:34

Depends what you do and how good you are at it. If you are very good at something difficult you can expect a rapid salary increase. If not, not.

ilovesooty · 02/08/2012 22:49

Are you all sure some company's are not taking the P*??

Mine certainly isn't: I've read their accounts on the charity commission website.

Pay frozen for 3 years, and there have been redundancies too.

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