To be depressed at low level of wages?

[abacucat]

I am looking for a new job and wages where I live have fallen to what people used to be paid 10 plus years ago. Even qualified social worker jobs are starting at £24,000. I am not a qualified social worker by the way, just an example. But there are so many jobs asking for a high level of skills and experience, but a low level of pay. And the few jobs paying anywhere approaching decent wages, are inundated with candidates.

Agree. I got paid 21k as an administrator in 2004.
An administrator here now pays a max of 20k - 14 years later with crazy house price ratios.

It is so depressing.

Yanbu. It's absolutely disgusting when you consider that the level of executive pay has risen so much and so the gap between rich and poor has increased so much. No wonder half the country needs tax credits to top them up. It's so outrageous and I can't believe we aren't all rioting on the streets about it.

I will not be entitled to tax credits, no kids at home.

yanbu. I earn less now than I did 20 years ago. In a similar role too.

On a happier note, the quantity of sales of very expensive cars is sky-rocketing so some people somewhere are doing well. (sarky).

YANBU. My current job is skilled and I need a lot ok knowledge, be able to work with very vulnerable people and do complex calculations and give accurate advice for which they pay 18k full time ! A colleague left in the summer and since then they have been unable to find a suitable replacement. My boss was grumbling about this and I suggested that maybe it was because the wage was equivalent to an office junior type job wage. Its ridiculous.

And because of national minimum wage, which I support, there is often a small difference between cleaner jobs and skilled but lower paid jobs.

I was earning £22000 as a civil service executive officer in 2010, my new job as an EO in the same department is paying £25,550. I think public sector pay like nursing and teaching has also gone up although it’s still not keeping in line with inflation.

I am looking at civil service jobs at the moment and their pay does seem to have risen. I don't see the same in my local authority though. Pay except for very senior grades has definitely went down.

NHS pay has also risen if you look at starting salaries and the band maximum pay. When I started nurse training I think staff nurses were paid around £19000 and now the starting pay is around £23000.

Yes but a lot of the NHS admin roles have been downbanded.

Sorry! Therefore although the pay has risen in the bands, the jobs are no longer available at that band.

NHS band 3 admin here. The level of responsibility I have for the tiny amount I’m paid is laughable.

6 admin members have left in the last year. None of them replaced. We have soaked up there work so I’m now doing jobs which are band 4 and higher and still being paid band 3 wages

*their

My pay has only gone up from £800 per month to £950 in 15 years. Same local authority, same grade structure. I'm a full time TA but my job description now says no paid overtime, do the job of 2 or more people and teach the class for days on end whenever we say! I love my job but sometimes the mickey-taking gets a bit much!

Yes I am not looking at bands, but what the job actually involves. And I have been shocked at the skills and experience demanded for poorly paid jobs.

My friends rescently gone back to work after nearly 10yrs off being a sahm. She found her old job from before then where hiring. For less than she used to be on..!!! She worked as admim in hospital day clinic.

No wonder half the country needs tax credits to top them up.

And in the next year or so, those will be gone entirely. Replaced with UC, which means the top ups won't be there or be significantly less because of the ideology that if you are earning a low wage it's entirely due to your person and moral failing.

I haven't had a pay rise in 9 years.

Not just public sector.

I left an admin job in 2013 paying £27k and really decent benefits, holidays, pension, bonus etc.

Next admin job doing more hours, less holiday, £20 k

That was 2015. I had time off due to ill health hence the gap.

I see what you mean about NHS pay! I used to be a band 4 medical sec. Looking at NHS Jobs, all the admin jobs seem to be a band 2/3 and medical secs are band 3 now! Only a senior med sec and office manager is a band 4 it seems, they used to be a band 5.

Just seen a job for an imaging care assistant, band 2, starting salary £17,460. The job involves “significant amounts of physical and emotional effort” and “an exemplary work ethic and attitude are essential.”

I was shouted down 18 months ago when I pointed out that the job I was doing was nothing like my job description as they knew they’d have to pay substantially more. Now I’ve changed jobs they can’t get anyone to fill it at the wage offered (people are asking almost double!).
No shit, Sherlock!

I left an admin job in 2013 paying £27k and really decent benefits, holidays, pension, bonus etc.

^To me you were overpaid. A basic admin job for £27k? That is a joke

To the why aren’t we rioting on the streets argument. There is a school of thought that welfare provided actually keeps the peace as such. It may not mean people are living well and maybe not even well enough but it’s just enough, enough to actually stop the rioting.

YANBU
wages have been stagnant for years from what I can see - and employers' expectations get higher and higher.

I graduated in 2003. Got a job earning 18k. Now, 15 years later, I earn the grand total of 20k.