To think that £15000 is NOT an attractive salary?

[INeedSomeSun]

I am being made redundant and feel like I should be looking for another job. I have been looking, but most are quite low paid and the ones for around £15000 are advertised as offering an 'attractive salary'.
It might be for some people, but not for people with childcare costs! Full time nursery for my 1 year old would be around £9000 and its around £2000 for my DS to attend before/after school club plus extra for school holidays.
So after all expenses, like travel costs etc, I will come out no better, if not worse than claiming job seekers!
AIBU in thinking that I might as well enjoy 6 months on job seekers with my kids & then get whatever job after that? The situation just seems nuts

We don't qualify for anything else as my DH earns over £26000

[Laquila]

NinaHeart has summed up my thoughts exactly. It's kind of a difficult question to answer when we don't know what you experience/qualifications/skills are. It's probably an attractive salary to a someone with none of the above - not so much to a heart surgeon.

[INeedSomeSun]

I will qualify for contributions based JSA.
Yes I am being grabby to some extent, but it doesn't make sense for me to work if I can get the same on JSA than I would get by working. That is the reality of it.
I do want to work and will continue to look, but they will have to be at least £18000 for it to be worth it. There don't seem to be many jobs paying that around here.
We do think of our salary as joint, but DHs salary just covers the expenses tbh. Everything else, so that would include childcare, would come from mine.
After 6 months I will have to take whatever I can get really. My DD will actually turn 2 by that time and will be able to go to playgroup for 3 hours a day, which is cheaper than nursery. Thinking that I could get a CM to pick her up from there. Its all so confusing.

[polishthisturd]

YANBU

[angelos02]

I have a degree, experience etc but due to redundancy, I've had to take a massive drop in salary. I'm not going to just sit on me arse at home though.

[YohedYoshoulderYonisandYotoes]

Oh dear, there are a lot of misconceptions here!

1. The more 'attractively' a salary is described, the more they are trying to sell you the position
   
2. The more 'ambitious' the person asked for is, the lower the salary ('ambitious' means 'are you stupid enough to believe that if you slog your guts out you might get more at an unspecified time in the future no matter what the indications are (the 'foxton' approach))
   
3. It is VERY rare that employers look at the market and make a fair assessment of the salary needed to attract the right candidate. normally its costs-and-hope driven (together with telling you a crap salary is 'market rate' or even 'generous' when it is as low as £11,000 a year)
   
4. Which is why so many employers have half-assed unengaged workers who don't give a shit.
   
5. But bad businesses will always blame the employee, the market, universities anything apart from the simple maslow-based sensibleness of paying a decent wage.
   

It is NOT an 'attractive wage' unless it is part time, or the work is mindnumbingly simple or its next door or something..

[INeedSomeSun]

To clarify me and DH have one joint account so we are paying for everything together.
If the job is good with prospects then that would be fair enough. Most are just customer service jobs that are crap. I don't think I would have a problem fetting one of those after 6 months - I do have ay least 15 years experience, I have worked non-stop since I was 21 (apart from mat leave)
Crappy cust service seems to be the only thing available! Oh and cleaner & leaflet distributor....

[catsmother]

Yes, it's subjective - dependent on job, skills asked for, local climate etc etc. You can't really say it's not attractive to you per se because you have this that or the other expense.

What really pisses me off however is that so many companies persist in describing low salaries as "attractive" when they're asking for the sort of skills, experience and qualifications which they'd never get, for example, from an 18 year old straight from school. Asking for stuff which would have taken several years to acquire - meaning that applicants are likely to be mid 20s at least, and therefore NOT "entry level" people. In those cases I think it's quite insulting to suggest applicants would find the salary attractive ..... but of course it's an employer's market right now and they know that they can more or less offer peanuts and some poor soul who has no other choice will take it. What I've also noticed is that the sort of jobs which were being advertised at c.£15k 15 years ago - e.g. call centre, general admin, bank clerk - are still being advertised at the same rate - despite the fact that as we all know the cost of living has rocketted in that time. So definitely not "attractive" - and unless employers are banking on only employing very young staff who still live with parents then clearly £15k probably isn't going to be very "attractive" to the vast majority of adult workers unless they're lucky enough to have a well paid partner and they are literally just looking for a "bit extra". For those who have to pay all the normal costs of living it's definitely not - and you then go back to the notion of a genuine living wage don't you .....

[Alibabaandthe40nappies]

YANBU

ssd in what way does the OP make you stabby? £15000 is significantly below average wage, and the OP has obviously been earning more than that in her current role.

[StrangeGlue]

You can of course claim jsa if your partner works but you do need to demonstrate you are seeking work.

£15,000 as an attractive salary... Well that depends what you're doing for that, the hours, other benefits in the package. If you do v little and get free accommodation then yeah it'd be attractive. If you have to work a 60 hour week and manage a team of 25 then no it wouldn't be.

[angelos02]

YY catsmother If I was single, there is no way I could afford to live on £15,000 & I'd make an effort to get a properly paid job. As it is, it is a lovely little easy job and due to DH's salary, it is my 'fun' money.

[OTTMummA]

I can see why it makes you feel stabby, because I have been in the position of, well it isn't worth me working for X when I would get the same sitting on my arse all day.
But,,, I can't do that, I just can not justify it to myself, so I would take the first suitable job that paid, and discuss the progression of salary and skills in the interview.
Or take the job and keep looking for a better position, the longer you are out of a job the harder it is to get back into employment.

These times are hard, and if you are whining about 15k not being enough when it is seemingly only 3k from what you would accept then you are not really wanting a job are you?
Its a long term plan you have to think about, not what you can get right now,, it doesn't work like that anymore.

[Vickibee]

OP I earn £15000 and take home £1082 pcm, which is OK but I only work 25 hours pw
What salary is your current job, is it a lot more? and you will have redundancy to live off for a bit

[angelos02]

It is a sad fact that due to so many people going for every job, employers can pay a lot less than they would in bouyant economy.

[lljkk]

If you go on JSA you'll have to document job hunting, it's not a jolly ime.

Agree the term attractive is silly.

[mumblechum1]

£15k for full time sounds outrageously low, and certainly not attractive!

[QuintessentialOHara]

My first salary in full time work was 15k. It was an attractive salary then, 15 years ago when I was a new graduate, and I had no children and no childcare costs. Life was good, as dh earned 27k then and our only commitment was a 1 bed flat and our travel cards!

15 k is not an attractive salary when you have a family and childcare costs to consider.

[BlackeyedSusan]

I agree with catsmother however, it is a job that fills the gap in a cv.

I lived on something equivalent in my 20's. i lived with my parents, paying a fair amount for board, but NO RENT, on the proviso that I saved for a deposit on a house. and be restrained with the amount of money I spent on luxuries

[Mintyy]

I don't think it is an attractive salary at all! I was earning £15,750 in 1989 and I earned an extremely average salary at the time. I know its different in London but I'm truly shocked that anyone can try and pass that off as an attractive salary .

[mummytime]

I think you'd probably do better on JSA, and use the time to look for the jobs which aren't advertised. Update your CV. Join LinkedIn and network like mad. Write to anyone you would like to work for. Update your skills if possible/necessary, and so on.

[toboldlygo]

It's not especially attractive but an improvement on most of the admin/customer service type jobs around here which are typically minimum wage or near enough, no more than 12-13k. And yes, some of these seem to have very great expectations for that salary. It's because they can get it - graduates, people with 10+ years experience, foreign languages, qualifications well above those required for the role are all going for the same jobs as school leavers would typically have done because there is sod all else.

I know because I'm doing one of them. 12k pa despite a degree, relevant experience in big name companies and excellent references. I've just interviewed for another 12k job but in a field I'd prefer to work in and with better hours (currently working nights) - they had over 100 applicants in three days. I applied for a job last week that is almost exactly what I am doing at the moment, only for the NHS with accompanying better salary, pension etc. - there were over 300 applicants for two posts and I didn't even get to interview.

Yes, I will take some salt for my chip...

[Vickibee]

NMW is a good thing in some ways but it is often seen as employers as a wage that they can pay for all jobs, there is no differentiation in that respect.
£15k is above NMW about £7.50 per hour but still not a lot for someone skilled.
I also have a degree and lots of experience and chose part time to fit in with school hours but could potentially earn more.

[Wishiwasanheiress]

Of course u can claim jsa if dh works. It just depends on the salary and if u can do it via your payments n last two years. It's not a true benefit but support.

There's two types: band a goes in educated, has worked, can get work which go via nat ins payments for last two years.

Band 2, all others which is from gov which is the side daily mail gets her up about.

Still jsa either way.

[Thisvehicleisreversing]

YABU

[Vickibee]

The job centre give you so long to seek your perfect role, and then expect you to apply for all that is suitable. they make allowances for having young children and don't expect you to work full time. At least this was the case for me in 2008
Better to take a bit of time IMO and find a job that's right for you unless you are really in need of the £