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.

I agree its grim that I get circa £24k as admin but when my partner starts as a foundation doctor he will get circa £23k. I feel very lucky to earn what I do given I have relatively minimal responsibility.

I worked at a government department a decade ago earning £17,000. Looking on their websites they now pay admin £24,470 rising to £26,464. So their pay has gone up quite a bit. That’s central London though so still quite low!

£24k as admin would be a very good wage where I live for this. There are lots of responsible and skilled jobs paying about this level which would once have been paid much more.

It is! I feel very, very lucky, the job has great perks too and ideal working hours for me, there is some specific compliance skills but they weren't required at the point of interview, I have picked them up as I've gone along. I am a very lucky exception to the rule in regards to wage and I do feel sad that I have fallen into this and my partner has worked so hard to go into medicine and will earn less to begin with for very taxing, often thankless work.

Adaisy1234. Your partner will progress and be paid a very good wage. His pension will be very good as well ( well supplemented by his employer).

Qualified social worker wages where I live are being advertised as £24k to £28k. No real progression beyond this for most. That is a low wage for qualification, skills and stress of the job.

This is why women need to carefully plan their careers. Having said that, people are still needed to do all these low paid jobs so not all people can be well paid. It just doesn’t work economically. But for your own loved ones, it’s worthwhile being bloody careful about what you choose to do.

Hideandgo - the job I have done for years used to be well paid. I am in my late 50s. It is impossible to plan for 40-50 years of work. Things can change dramatically over that time.

I started at my company as a redbrick graduate in 2011, and they were looking explicitly for redbrick graduates starting at 18k.

Now fair enough, we were just out of a recession. That was more or less the going rate in many areas of work (not all, before anyone tells me I should have been on minimum 30k), and all of those interviewed had 2.1 degrees from good universities.

I am now in senior management and have had to point out gently-then-not-so-gently that they really are expecting the moon on a stick for a fiver with their expectations these days at that amount.

Either pay better and attract better candidates, or accept what the wgae you're offering gets you.

That is so true abacucat. I did a Masters that qualified me as a Librarian 20 years ago. Have done some library work over the years plus plenty of other things. Currently working in university administration and outside of academia, the market for librarians does not exist.

I was on (pro-rata) 18k over 20 years ago as a secretary/admin in my uni holidays. It was a higher rate as it was London-weighting.

Now I see grad jobs on the same. In London. Fuck that.

There are very few jobs for librarians aren’t there these days? It’s much more common to see jobs for “library assistants” or “information advisers” paying under £20k and mostly part time work!

I think in a couple of decades there will be even fewer jobs as automation increases as Will electronic rescources.

@gromance that’s actually because of low interest rates. Cat finance is easy to access and quite cheap.

It usauotedepressing. And worrying. Makes you wonder why the jobs market is so saturated. Although it may actually be a reflection on greater uptake or higher education. What are thechabres in wages for jbskilledjobs?

@adaisy it’s a disgrace how underpaiddoctors are in Britain. Shocking. It’s the reason I refused my medical school place.

It is pretty disgusting. The type of jobs I was doing 15 years ago still have the same salary with a much higher cost of living.

YANBU
I couldnt earn now what I was earning 20 years ago. Given the price of property it's shocking, plus the gig economy and zero hours contracts. Meanwhile, the rich are getting richer...

Abacucat, part of career managment is upskilling and making moves. Roles and jobs do wear out, it’s our job to keep ourselves progressing and making changes when the salary or progression dries up.

Not unreasonable at all. I’ve been looking at jobs in my city (every single job listed, whether I’m qualified or not) and pretty much 90% are under £25,000 and probably 75% under £20,000. Wages vs cost of living are an absolute joke in this country.

And the thing that really gets me is that I bet a huge amount of these companies could easily afford to pay more, they just know they get can get away with paying like shit these days, as we’re supposed to feel ‘lucky’ and ‘grateful’ at whatever scraps the almighty job creators deign to toss us. I can tell you that the company I work for is making millions and millions (and is not shy about sharing this fact) in profit and deliberately hiring new graduates as they can, word for word “pay them fuck all”. They also have trouble hiring for higher positions as qualified people tend to want “too much money” ie a fair wage for all their experience and the responsibility of the role.

Problem is that companies now exist for shareholders not for staff anymore. That is base of this whole issue.

Exec pay needs to be capped and shareholder power needs to be diluted somehow.

Is that 24k with qualifications and no experience? That seems fairly standard for the professional sector.

I am on 28k. Analytical chemist, 20yr experience if it puts it into context.

Hideandgos post sums up perfectly what the problem is. How can it be changed though? Those at the top will want things to stay the same

^Problem is that companies now exist for shareholders not for staff anymore. That is base of this whole issue.

Exec pay needs to be capped and shareholder power needs to be diluted somehow.^

This.

Definitely agree. My starting salary in the Telecoms industry 25 years ago was 14k pa. The starting salary for similar roles now is less than 20k pa (plus less holiday entitlement, no share save scheme, no final salary pension, no yearly bonus etc etc). Completely disgusting.

I agree but how? Shareholders and execs aren't going to agree to this