Do you feel appropriately paid for your work?

[shivawn]

Do you feel that your wages fairly reflect your skills and labour?

I'm just curious how people generally feel after chatting with my own colleagues a few days ago. They were complaining that we're underpaid and that they will struggle to live on these wages as they get older and want to start families etc. We're all nurses on a public payscale so on the same or similar pay (working in Ireland where nurses are better paid than in the UK). I felt really surprised as I consider myself well paid for doing a job that I love, probably more than many of my friends in other professions.

Are you happy with your wage in relation to what you contribute to your employer or do you think you're worth more?

I work in early years as a practitioner and certainly don’t get paid appropriately for my work.

We are caring for and teaching our future generation and are paid just over minimum wage. I love my job but certainly don’t feel appreciated.

I can remember going to college to gain my qualification and was asked why I need a qualification to play with children ! Makes me mad. 😡

NHS ITU Sister and yes, I do. I didn't do this for the money.

No, but I have chosen to work in the charity retail sector which is notoriously badly paid, and inevitably I work far longer hours than I am paid for - but I absolutely love what I do, genuinely feel I am making a difference (profit at the shop I took over trebled in my first year), at my stage in life I don't have to work for the money, I can choose the hours I work (within reason) and it gives me great flexibility. So many people seem miserable in their jobs but I can honestly say I love going to work ... and can't wait to get back after being on furlough.

But I wouldn't have been able to do this job when I first started out in my career and end up with the lifestyle I have now - mortgage paid off, decent savings etc.

I thought I did, am in the private sector. But I get similar pay to tell nurses pay scale and I have to have more qualifications and get less pension and holiday then them and lots of. Yeses don’t seem to think they get paid enough so now I don’t think I get paid enough.

Yes. I am an NHS nurse, but work in an area with fairly low stress levels. I am about to go part time (3 days a week) and work with an agency one or two days a week, which will boost my income by quite a bit. Wish I'd done it years ago, but always felt guilty at the thought of working for a private agency. Not anymore.

@shivawn yes, admittedly it depends on where you start working and if you are willing to move team/area to progress, but band 6 is more than achievable within 18 months. Depending on the exact role you go into, it can be less, and in midwifery especially it tends to be a standard next step after having certain sign offs.

Band 5

Yes but I am self employed so I set my own hourly rate

Although like the military do retention bonuses after x years, perhaps a one off payment when you reach the top or a certain amount of years would be fair. Who knows.

@Frubecube the military have stopped retention bonuses, I think it ended for 2015 onwards entrants, and guess what, retention has been a continued issue...

Local authority here, I feel I earn well, but in reality I could earn double or triple in the private sector.

Sadly I have 20 years in the pension now and changing it in this climate would be completely unreasonable.

Maybe in a few years when I have my 30 year in my pension I will look into contracting and make some mega bucks before I retire. I want to retire at 55.

I'm in a profession where wages typically increase with every year of experience, however because of the pandemic this hasn't happened and I am still on the same salary as a couple of years ago. This would normally be ok, but it has also been crazily busy this past year and I have taken on a lot more responsibilities so I feel underpaid. Also despite my relatively good wage, being in the SE it doesn't go very far due to extortionate rents taking up over half of my take home pay. If I lived back in my hometown it would go much further, and I would feel more appropriately paid.

Yes, well paid job I love.

Yes. I work in the NHS, I'm on just under 50k to do a job I've worked the best part of a decade to be qualified for (3 university degrees inc a PhD), so lots of academic investment as well as working various lower paid roles to gain experience. I think I'm appropriately paid for what I do.

[quote namechange2547]@Frubecube the military have stopped retention bonuses, I think it ended for 2015 onwards entrants, and guess what, retention has been a continued issue... [/quote]
Oh that's a shame, DH joined prior to that and had his when the time rolled around. The crumbling accomodation, billet gaps meaning loads of time away from home probably doesn't help either, so sad.

@Frubecube yes my DH got it when it had been cut in half but before it was scrapped entirely thankfully.

I'm a teacher, I used to work in London and now work in Melbourne. I am at the top of the pay scale here and get paid about 10 000 pounds more than the top of the pay scale in London and the cost of living is much less so I have considerably more disposable income. For me it was the high cost of housing and childcare that made the salary feel low.

For me it all depends what I compare it to. For my industry and experience I feel underpaid and am job hunting atm. I definitely feel that there are people who are more deserving of a pay rise than me though as my industry is one that in general is quite well paid. (Financial services, private sector)

I work with the elderly. I feel valued by those I serve but the pay is rubbish despite being fully trained

@Hankunamatata

Yes I think my pay is fine. NHS worker (decent pension and holidays).

I'm totally embarrassed about people hammering on about 1% payrise and talk of industrial action. There are so many people out there who dont have jobs and being made homeless.

I take it you are not a nurse on the wards ?

Due to a company merger half the team I work in are on a much higher paid contract. The other half of the team are on a lower paid contract
We do exactly the same work
It is very unfair

Local authority here, I feel I earn well, but in reality I could earn double or triple in the private sector.

Not this nonsense again. I heard it all the time when I still worked in the public sector.

Why do people persist in trotting it out? Do they genuinely believe it?

I would work alongside people who were very well paid, comparatively, for doing not very much, delivering next to nothing and making excuses for why they couldn’t do things a different way (“nobody trained me to do this”/ “this is above my pay grade”).

They were, frankly, clowns. That didn’t stop the worst of them from bleating about how they could earn double or triple in the private sector. Of course, never having worked in the private sector they didn’t realise that incompetence, laziness, blocking and passive aggression tend to be an impediment to career progression because no sensible business would ever put up with it.

These were people on the thick end of £40k, plus defined benefit pension, who expected not to have to think for themselves, and to be told what to do every day. They would ever make a decision on anything, preferring somebody else to do it for them.

I called them out on the salary argument once: one of them was whinging about the pay settlement for the year and complaining that he was underpaid etc etc. He worked in finance but only had a basic qualification.

I suspect that he was comparing his salary to that of an ACA qualified, highly experienced, group financial controller in a big business, because he started giving it all the flannel about “I could earn three times as much”. Right, I said, why don’t you? Apply and earn an extra £75k a year, why wouldn’t you?

Predictably, he didn’t. The excuse was a combination of “pension” and “I do this job because I am public spirited”.

He could hardly say, “you’ve called my bluff and I know that if I tried to get a job in the outside world I’d be lucky to earn 70% of what I’m on now”. Too much of a blow to the ego.

I work in the public sector with the public, I'm definitely not paid enough. Especially when I was expected to work with the public when I was heavily pregnant late last year.

No.

I feel as though I do not deserve the money I earn. I feel as though I am an imposter.

My sister is a nurse started in london and her starting salary was around 28-30k, I had to work 6 years in the private sector to get upto that wage. Guess it depends on what you class as a good wage. There are some people who are well paid in the private and public sector and some people who aren’t. I don’t think the whole who has it worse helps anyone, the grass isn’t a always greener.

[quote Frubecube]@shivawn yes, admittedly it depends on where you start working and if you are willing to move team/area to progress, but band 6 is more than achievable within 18 months. Depending on the exact role you go into, it can be less, and in midwifery especially it tends to be a standard next step after having certain sign offs.

Band 5