to think this company are asking for a huge amount for a miniscule salary!?

[Mintyy]

I'm really shocked see here.

When replying, please bear in mind that this is in London.

General office admin but "prepare training course material" as well?

Hmn, don't think I'd be doing one of their training courses then, if its put together by an office junior on 17k pa.

"Monopolies cannot develop in a free market economy"

Utter cobblers, elephantspoos. You appear to have forgotten that the purpose of competition is to win.

After one set of winners, competition will slowly arise again, as comparative advantage shifts or the third generation piss the money away, and then a new winner will emerge. Plus ça change for everyone else.

Perhaps I've lived in a few more countries than you, and have seen more economic variety.

(The rest of your post makes no sense at all. I haven't mentioned socialism at all, never mind comparing it to anything.)

Approx £8.50 - 10.10 ph seems pretty low to me.

The tasks related to research and training do not appear to be entry level or basic tasks and would seem to me to be under rewarded in this advert.

On a further note i would question if the job is actually doable? There are 33 tasks listed in the JD. If you were to do absolutely nothing outside of your JD you could spend an average of 1.2 hrs on each task per week. (i do of course understand that tasks will differ in complexity and frequency) but hardly sounds a breeze does it?

Of course the market will decide if they are offering enough (given the number of applicants it would appear that they are) But i wonder as to the calibre of those that they end up employing, but thats a matter for them obviously.

But it does seem pretty shit imo.

A lot of those applicants won't be suitable though, many will be applying to make up their numbers for the Job Centre like I did

Where I live that would be an attractive salary for a job description like that, but I'm guessing it's pretty crap in London. I mean, it's pretty crap here too tbh, but it's reality.

PausingFlatly - Competition precludes monopoly. Monopolies ONLY develop as a result of governments interfering in market conditions to favour one company or another. Pick any company that has a monopoly over a respource or service in any sector if the market, and you will see that that monopoly was gained through the actions of the government of the day, either legislating an advantage to that company, or contracting an advantage to that company. In both instances, negating the free market in favour of the company. If governments stay out of the free market, monopolies cannot form. Companies merely dominate for the period that their product/service is superior, and then succumb to the company with the newer. Better or cheaper service or product.

Apologies to all We really shouldn't hijack this thread further as we are off topic here. But I'd welcome a debate on this if a more relevant thread appears.

I don't know if I would agree with that ElephantsPoo. While I am not disputing the existing of state aided monopolies, monopolies are surely also an ultimate triumph of competition - the defeat by exclusion or foreclosure of all other competitors. Companies often strive to foreclose their competitors, and lack of merger control or abuse of dominance is present in just about all countries in the world to prevent that, and thats why it is triggered at certain levels of market share and not others.

Can you apply your reasoning to any of the current large merger cases? e.g. Microsoft, Google?

I took a year out between Alevels and university. For 6mths I worked as an office junior in the South but not London. This was 1991/1992. I was only qualified as far as my Alevels and had no admin or secretarial experience on joining. I was paid 12k and that is 22yrs ago!

You're welcome to start a new thread, and I will explain in detail to you, with real examples, how you're talking rubbish.

Rubbish in the real world, that is. You could always play in your mind in an imaginary free market utopia where there are never costs of entry to any market, no resources are ever very scarce, and no one ever forms a cartel.

Like those mechanics questions that begin "Ignoring friction..."

In the Midlands I get 13k for a similar role. I'm a graduate with five years of relevant experience. It's not a living wage and it's very, very depressing.

Our PA earns 28,000 but she manages a team if 6 staff- public sector so no bonuses or healthcare package or gym membership or any perks. It isn't London.

I know its a reasonably accepted criticism of competition law policy that its not actually necessary, that many instances of market dominance will actually self-resolve in an evolving market (particularly technological - look at whats happened to former market leaders from 15 years ago), but maybe we need a more specific thread!

I look forward to getting back to a time when there is more competition on the jobs market, and companies aren't inundated with applications for rubbish salaries such as this one. But I think most projections are that salaries won't recover to pre-crash (2008) levels until around 2018...

I think companies use it as an excuse to under-pay though, as director's remuneration doesn't seem to follow a similar trend...

It's what I'd expect my junior grade staff to do
Outside London they'd start on 15

Errrrr no! Seems fine! It's not like they will be doing all of it all the time evry day! Still seems like a fairly junior position and the salary seems appropriate!

Those wages are shocking. I earned 14k in London in 1991.

Seems pretty fair to me. they're not asking for anything difficult to be done and the perks are brilliant. Also, they don't seem to be asking for any particular qualifications.

I think those of us who find that salary shocking perhaps its because we remember earning that wage 20 years ago? When I first worked in recruitment in the mid 90's these are the kind of salaries I was working with - they haven't changed much in that time, it's appalling

It's true its appalling that wages haven't risen in line with how expensive life is (particularly housing). It's why a basic house may cost over 10x your income now which is nuts.

I'm finding it quite shocking that so many people weren't aware of this. I guess if you are a high earner and only move in circles with other high earners its easy to do?

There are far worse paid jobs than that (try care for one) I don't live in London, round here that would be a normal salary for that type of job.

I think the pay is actually pretty good but then I am in Yorkshire and not in London. I think it's probably low for there.

That's a long list of tasks for not a lot of money.

Looks a fair wage for that position in London. We live in Essex so the choice for jobs like this is to either work locally for around £15k (which would be hard to find anyway) or to do an hour's train commute to London and earn this kind of wage, taking in account that the train fare is about £4.5k which has to be paid from net wages.

I thought the salary looks normal, the tasks are pretty basic, I doubt they need any experience. Not many basic jobs in London allow people to live independently.