To think there’s no point earning more money

[Dimblebimble]

For context, I’m a 29 year old University lecturer with 4 years experience post-PhD. I work at a well regarded research intensive University (but not Oxford or Cambridge). Married but with no kids, hoping to start a family soon.

I earn £43,000. To earn more I will need to be promoted to Senior Lecturer, then Reader, then Professor, which will take me at least a decade (probably much longer as I’m planning on having children) and a huge amount of work (think evenings and weekends for the foreseeable future, progression is based on conducting and publishing high quality research). Speaking to a colleague who was recently promoted to professor, I found out that their starting salary for this role is £60,000. I can’t help but feel that this isn’t worth the tremendous effort it takes - once tax, NI, pension and student loan are deducted their monthly take home salary won’t be much different from mine. Not enough to make a huge difference to quality of life, surely?

AIBU to think screw it, it’s not worth it? I’ve always been very career oriented, hoping that this will provide a better life for me and my (future) family, but is it just me or is it completely not worth it? AIBU to just coast rather than pursue career progression? It seems a waste of all my hard work and study, but there’s very little incentive to progress.

(Before anyone says anything, I know none of these salaries are bad salaries, and that I’m very lucky, I’m more confused by how little difference there is between the salaries despite the huge difference in experience required)

YANBU, in my grade doing my job I actually earn more than some managers with considerably more responsibility.

DH earns over double my pay, considering the tax he pays and pension contributions to a pension not as good or generous as my own, he doesn't net that much more than me.

Just see how you feel. It sounds like you are ready to have a break from pursuing your career to enjoy your life.

After having DC etc you may then be ready to climb back into it for self fulfilment.

So YANBU

I've no practical advice but as a fellow academic who has busted my gut to achieve senior lecturer for a pay rise of £60 a month a feel your pain.

Totally agree I'd rather money than time and I'm slowly convincing my husband of the same.

You are 29 now OP, so you have nearly another 40 years of working life ahead of you. If you are happy to jog along at your current level for that length of time then that's fine, provided of course your university is prepared to keep paying someone who is not showing much enthusiasm or interest in developing themselves, their subject or their teaching. Which they might possibly decide they are not prepared to do,.

You might also peer into your crystal ball and try to see yourself in say your early forties, when younger, keener (though not necessarily better) people in your field are overtaking you professionally, getting whatever kudos is on offer , being published, invited to seminars as speakers rather than participants, getting recognition in your area and you are left on the sidelines.

at your stage in your career you have choices, don't leave making them too late.

*It would be a gain of 800quid or so a month

It would be nowhere near that much extra after tax/ pension/ NI*

Looking at the take home salary calculator: a salary of 43k is a take home pay of £2336 a month. This includes pension contributions to USS plus student loan repayments. A salary of 60k equals a take home pay of £3094 under the same conditions.

That's a difference of £758! Plus on 60k you'll repay the student loan a lot earlier and so have another £300+ to play with. Also you'll be contributing a lot more to your pension so will have a more comfortable retirement. Ok if you have kids you lose child benefit and if you have a lot of kids this could make the difference but even if OP decided to really push for promotion towards Professor it's unlikely to happen before she would want kids.

Whether you think the extra work is worth it is dependent on each person, but I can't see how anyone would say it's not a significant amount of money.

OP have you actually looked at the salary scales for your Uni? At mine professors start on a minimum of £67300. Looking at a number of other research intensive Unis, professors start between 65k and 78k so "only" earning 60k seems low.

Although it seems a unique situation I think many parents go through this, except their position is re the use of tax credits and part/full time. Is it worth going part time when you could be on the same money part time?
You have to decide how much it's going to add to your life.
I've taken a step out of academia for health and family reasons. Yes I could continue to stay up till 2 each morning and sacrifice weekends with my kids to rise the ladder but no, I'm not going to do that. I want to support them whilst they are young and enjoy my time outside the office.
If I can afford holidays and a few treats then I'm happy doing a basic level job.
Imagine when you are elderly. What will you look back and feel if you didn't continue? What will you enjoy more?

I always thought people who became a professor would do it for passion? Is it not something that you can commit when children are older?

Not climbing the career ladder also has a value. I teach at a university but don't research. I have all of the summer holidays free which means I save a lot on childcare (and have a nice time too!) I research in my free time - I don't have much status doing it this way but it works for me.

It is worth getting to senior lecturer, imo (I’m on £58k, at the top of the scale). What’s required to move to Professor is not reflected in the salary increase.

I would strive to get promoted and do good research work, research Universities often take the amount of published research Into account when looking at salary and promotion. If you study then no one can take this away from you.

I recently got a new job with a pay rise of £17k, that will make a huge difference to me.

We have a neighbour who found the same but found the years of experience and research made them more marketable as an international consultant and lecturer for universities in the USA, Asia and Europe where they would teach a short intensive course or subject (2 weeks-4 weeks with room & board provided) to full semesters usually with housing provided. They were able to schedule it around their work in the UK so taught abroad in holidays. Family either went with them or stayed at home and played. By age 50 they were making more in guest fees than in "full time" job in the UK but able to save large sums as all guest fees were put away for "upgrades and or savings (nicer stuff they wouldn't have been able to afford otherwise - house, car, education, etc).

I'm in a similar position to you OP, having to decide if putting in the extra hours is worth it for a pay rise when I'm already comfortable with my salary and happy with my current job.
I absolutely want to stay working (and I'm lucky to be able to with amazing family support) but ultimately I thought about in 40 years time when I'm about to retire, what would be my biggest regret? I decided that getting as much time with my family as possible is the most important thing to me, even if it means I might be less satisfied with my career in future and maybe not able to afford extra luxuries.

My mum made a similar decision when she had me and my sister, and I'm so glad she chose staying home to look after us rather than having a holiday every year.

Good luck with whatever decision you come to! I wish I had a crystal ball to know if I'm still happy with my decision later down the line.

It's not necessarily that I'm very comfortable and don't want more money - I'd love to buy a bigger house in a nicer area, for instance. And I know that a pay rise will help me to get a bigger mortgage. But not that much bigger, really. Not enough for my dream home/lifestyle

If you look at a "how much can I borrow" type mortgage calculator, that extra £17k will make a huge difference to the amount you can borrow. Probably around £75k difference, though I imagine how much impact that will have to the house type you can buy depends on where in the U.K. you are.

I tend to agree with you. Between 40k and 80k it doesn't really seem worth it if you have to put in extra effort unless you expect to be able to progress to a six figure salary. You could always look at American universities. They tend to pay better.

My mum made a similar decision when she had me and my sister, and I'm so glad she chose staying home to look after us rather than having a holiday every year.

Conversely, I am so glad my mother returned to work (actually as a lecturer...)

Do you not get paid in relation to the grants you secure? Most of our professors are paid departmentally but also have a large proportion paid by however many grants they hold.

The Professors I know earn six figures

I would get you career as far as you possibly can before children. It's much easier to afford good quality flexible childcare if you earn more. I also find more senior jobs actually seem more flexible . And part-time good jobs earn more than full time less good jobs.

I am one of the mum who gave up £500 extra a month after 2 x FT nursery fee + travel cost to become sahm at 31 and It was a career suicide for me.

Diamondangel8

But surely they won't have started anywhere near that and it will have taken a number of years to build up to that level?

I've worked in 4 universities and do not see how they're only being paid £60k...their pay grade will be visible online...the two universities up north I've worked professors easily £85k+ and in London all £100k+. I work in sciences. They should be minimum pay scale 9?

Without knowing your subject area, it is hard to comment. However, colleagues of my late husband, who were professors, picked up a lot of lucrative consultancy work, which greatly enhanced their salaries.

Dp is a lecturer (on £49k ) and we have been discussing the same thing op, though our circumstances are very different as we have 2 dc and he is older than you( you are very young to have a permanent lectureship!). He has decided to carry on going for promotion but accepted that it will take a little longer than he originally planned. One of his main issues is just how very hard it is to 'coast'. Just doing your job and fulfilling your basic contractual requirements is hard, especially for someone who has previously been quite ambitious. Those who have tried nd up taking on more teaching and doing less research, get no grants and consequently become in the firing line when there's talk of redundancy.

He was offered a chair about 18 months ago and didn't go for it. The pay was £13k more but after tax, NI, pensions and losing all cb (rightly or wrongly it is something you consider)plus having to move to a more expensive city we would have been about £200 a month better off. No way was it worth it to be away from family, uprooting our lives, disrupting the kids and the absolutely enormous workload he would have had to take on. We barely considered it.

I take it your subect isn't maths then? Most people would think another couple of hundred quid a week take-home pay a significant difference.

On the other hand, if tax rates were even lower...what do you think would happen to university salaries?