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.

Definitely agree that the decline of the high st isn't just down to internet shopping. It's also because such a large number of people have very little money left once they've paid their bills.
I'm sure I read somewhere that the UK has the lowest living standards in Western Europe

I think some people just have no idea what 'a basic admin job' might actually involve. I really think some people think administrators just laminate and photocopy all day, certainly not in my industry. Oh and everyone under 40 in the admin team at my company has a first class degree.

Reading this thread, I do actually feel lucky in some respects. I started work 20 years ago with a degree and a post grad qualification, earning £14,700.

Now, I am doing the same job with no additions management responsibilities, and earn £39,000.

Sadly, the job is so hideous that I can’t work full time without it being massively detrimental to my emotional and mental wellbeing so, I am now part time and earning about what I did 20 years ago.

There needs to be a maximum multiplier in place so for eg the highest earner in a company cannot earn more than x25 the lowest paid earners. So if the CEOs wages rise, so do everyone else's.

^this
A very good solution.

One other new factor is, for those 'lucky' enough to earn over the thresholds, student loans eating into wages as well.
Household bills, travel, all living costs going up. Wages not going up.

@MotherOfMinions I went into our local B&M yesterday.

This time last year it was heaving. Yesterday? Tumbleweed.

UC went full service here 14 months ago. So it could be that more ppl are feeling the effects now than by last Christmas when it had only been in here for two months.

I don't agree with the CEO ratio thing at all. Work should be a meritocratic environment and people paid according to their productivity

For instance, there's an engineer at my work who should, imho be paid 10x what the rest of us are paid because he's that good. Life doesn't work like that though.

And one massive caveat - that everyone is paid a decent, living wage for their time.

That means being able to afford housing too, and that requires a functioning market that hasn't been over financialised.

Dh is NHS and takes home less now than he did 10 years ago - in the same job!! You couldn’t make it up

@backdraft to get that we need a Corbyn government and I don't think that'll happen

DH is civil service, in the last 10 years he has had one pay rise of 1%, meanwhile the mps get annual pay rises of 8% plus, we're all in it together though (not)

Those who say CEO salary should be capped at 25x the lowest salary, do you think the responsibility they assume is less than 25x the weight of responsibility on the lowest paid staff?

Also, setting housing aside, a £14k salary in 1993 adjusted for inflation is less than £20k now so it seems some people's idea of what salaries should be is out of sync with reality.

Unfortunately a lot of the reason wages seem low now is because of the dramatic change in lifestyles in the UK over the last 30 years.

I think it's fair to say goodness that 25 times as much is more than fair, even to reflect masses more responsibility. In any case, there are jobs with very high levels of responsibility, such as the emergency services, where pay is low.

Unfortunately a lot of the reason wages seem low now is because of the dramatic change in lifestyles in the UK over the last 30 years.
I disagree. Housing must be far and away the main factor. And wages in some jobs are the same or less than 15/20 years ago

Totally agree

I am looking currently and saw a job I liked the look of
It required specific qualifications, specialist skills to work with vulnerable people, drug and alcohol abuse experience of a minimum of theee years

The level of responsibility was fairly high

The wage was 9.00 an hour. I just scrolled past disgusted

Whilst I truly appreciate all the hard work the staff in the NHS, Police etc do, I also work very hard, not only do I work for less than I was on in a similar role 12 years ago, I also don't get a good pension, I don't get to retire at 55 and be well looked after as a lot of my friends do, one nursing friend will get a huge pension pot and nearly £800 month when she retires at 55, even my friends who are non clinical staff get a sizable pension too ...I can only dream

Public sector pensions are a drop in the ocean when you think about the vast sums earned by some people, CEOs, hedge fund managers, people in banking, law, tech, etc etc who are earning fortunes. Money being made at the top isn't filtering down. It would be nice if something sensible was done without resorting to JC style communism imo.

Unfortunately a lot of the reason wages seem low now is because of the dramatic change in lifestyles in the UK over the last 30 years.

Of course, you mean like the increased cost of housing and transport and power and gas, surely ? Or are you going to start in with the ol' victim-blaming bullshit of lattes and mobile phones and flatscreen tellies? That shit always makes me laugh. 'We didn't have all this back in 1988!' No, shit, Sherlock, I was there, no one did because it hadn't been invented, but we did have mod cons that were extant then, it's called progress. FFS.

@rockingthelook not sure of your age group we're in our forties and our original pension has long gone!!

We'll get half at 60 (having paid in for more than 15 years when change was made) the other half at state retirement age so likely to be 70 oh and not based on final salary anymore either... so he decades we have worked on really low wages compensated for by this amazing pension we're a complete lie in the end!

I nearly cried at DH pension statement this year. 25 years paying in for a pittance.

Yanbu
I'm a middle manager in an office for a well known international firm.
My annual salary is £32500
Take home is c£2100 after pension and deductions.
When I think about what nurses, teachers, police etc earn I honestly cringe.
My pay is high by default. I've been there so long. I'm grossly overpaid for what I do.
Public sector wages need a massive overhaul. These workers educate our children and keep us safe ffs. They should be paid double what they are getting!

Also, setting housing aside,

How on Earth can you do that and determine a realistic comparison of wage growth when it's a fact that the cost of housing is especially the one thing that has risen very dramatically in the past 30 years.

Economists have been arguing over why wages have stagnated both in the UK and US depsite relatively low unemployment.

One of the unusual things is there are a lot more part time workers who want to pick up more hours than they did before - so although there aren't more workers, the workers that exist are wanting to work more - which basically is the same as adding more available workers to the economy.

This seems to make some sense - women are required to seek work earlier after having children and there is more and more pressure from the benefits system that almost everyone should be working 16 hours a week at least.
Those part time workers aren't in a great position to negotiate for higher pay - if they walk away from the job, they also lose tax credit/benefits, not just salary. So they aren't switching jobs to try and get pay rises etc

But there is some indication that things may be changing - wages rose at their highest level for years in the third quarter of this year

www.ft.com/content/f63682b2-b5d5-11e8-b3ef-799c8613f4a1

UK wages are appalling compared to what they used to be. I started work in 1991 as a graduate trainee earning 13,660 pa. When I left the UK in 2003 I was earning 35k. I took a pay drop of 40% to move to Ireland, but after a few years caught up to my UK salary again. I'm now in Australia where minimum wage is $18.29 an hour (about 10.50 ukp), and you get 25% extra if you are working casual hours. The only people I know earning that little are teenagers.I have friends and family in the UK and their wages haven't increased in 20 years, its absolutely ridiculous! I have no idea how people manage. Even relatively poorly skilled jobs here can be well paid, a friend is a delivery driver and is on $75k (about 43k ukp). I expect wages here will fall like everywhere else in time, but for some reason they haven't yet, thank goodness.

@goodnessidontknow - responsibility on emergency call handlers is immense
You are hearing people dying, being killed, finding their child dead, hearing people's last words and babies first cry. Average life span of the job is 7 years before you burn out and PTSD isn't uncommon
Take home monthly pay after tax, pension and this is the very top with 10 years experience - £1600. It's similar for emergency medical technicians too

Don’t know if it’s much different it is in rep of Ireland but admin on average earn between 25-35k
Primary Teachers starting wage is over €36k
Nurses starting wage is just over 30k which is also funnily enough the same wage as a junior doc just out of bed school. But I presume they work up the increments faster.
Newly qualified solicitor between 40-50k

Min wage is 9.55 and living wage is 11.90

Med school

ROI is very different. You’re taxed to the hilt there too compared to the UK. So those salaries might look good but the net income is still shitty. Salaries are still stuck higher there after the Celtic tiger years though!

20% tax and 40% tax and usc charge I suppose (which has been lowered) but then again no council tax like in U.K.. we moved back to Ireland from the U.K. a couple of years ago and it’s much of a muchness to be honest. Child benefits is not means tested and doubled. No water bills, no gas bill for us. Mainly just electric and then oil in the winter.