To think this is a rubbish salary increase over 10 years?

[flyingtartar]

I found a payslip from 10 years ago this morning and it revealed the depressing news that my net take home pay is just £600 more now than it was then. During that time I have been promoted 3 times and reached the top of my grade. I had me children before then so there have been no gaps in that period. Of course my tax and pension contributions have increased, but £600??!! I am in a public sector career and have little prospect of further promotion as the next step up is a big one that few make and I’m not sure I would even want to. I feel better off as there’s no childcare costs anymore and no useless ex to support, but it seems such a paltry amount of progress over a long period.

AIBU or do I need a shake?

Unfortunately if you are at the top of your level on the public sector the only way to get a salary increase is a promotion or move job. Your current employer isnt going to gove you a significant increase for doing the same job.
So look into any training and try and get a different job, its unfortunate but the only option if this is very important to you.

Many people who have public sector jobs are well paid, compared to the private sector, especially when you take pensions into consideration. My friends who are teachers are on the highest salaries I know, with pensions to dream of. I actually think some don’t realise.

£600 increase? Is this a reverse?
Many people I know have had zero! So, not even an inflationary.

I posted about this at the time, but when I started a job in 2011 I was paid £19k. When I left 8 years later I was paid £21k. It made me feel like absolute shite.

I'm on almost twice as much now, though.

I think you need a shake.

Count yourself lucky with that salary to be honest! I haven't had a pay rise for 8 years.

@daisypond

Many people who have public sector jobs are well paid, compared to the private sector, especially when you take pensions into consideration. My friends who are teachers are on the highest salaries I know, with pensions to dream of. I actually think some don’t realise.

I’ve found this too. My public sector friends have relatively good salaries, better pensions and benefits, yet think they are badly paid and want better increases.

Doesn't sound that surprising to me. When I left my job in the third sector two years ago I'd undertaken massive amounts of responsibility and developed and taken charge of the entire education, training and employment service in the project. I was being paid much less than half your salary and hadn't had a rise of any kind since entering the project in 2012. I actually loved the job but the poor pay and lack of financial recognition, as well as realising that I could earn more while working for myself was the reason I left.

Erm what.

I thought you meant a year. YABU I'm afraid.

£600 extra a month is really good I think.

I really hate threads like this. You’re either completely disingenuous or utterly clueless. £600 per month is a massive difference, and I can’t believe you actually think otherwise.

That’s loads. I also thought you meant per year to start with. But per month that’s a lot.

I can’t help but resent you for that. 😂
Professional with qualifications here and haven’t had done in eight years.
Be grateful.

The narrative of ‘be grateful for what you’ve got’ is part of the problem - it’s a race to the bottom and here in the U.K. earning slightly above average is seen as something to almost be ashamed of.

Compare that to the US where professions are properly rewarded.

Look at the profits of the top companies in the U.K. - all have done extremely well over the last 10 years typically - with money going to make shareholders richer rather than raise wages. There’s a really good episode of ‘explained’ on Netflix which explores the problem. The rich are getting richer and middle classes are disappearing

I know where you are coming from, certain parts of the public sector are invisible when it comes to any form of recognition, financial or otherwise. Unless you are NHS, Prison or Police officers, you don't count. Personally I am grateful to be in secure full time employment at such an awful juncture in human affairs, the money bit is slightly aside compared to that.

It is quite good in comparison to most peoples experience although to you it doesn't seem much.
The reasons for it are deeply seated in our British way of life. So many jobs do not earn money. We still have serious problems with productivity.
The NHS is a huge nationalised industry that is financed by general taxation They set the standard or are an informal comparator for what is 'reasonable'.
If instead of thinking am I worth as much or more than a nurse or Sister they were to think "Do I have more responsibilities than a Police Inspector"? We would be wanting more.

Mine has gone up 1000 a month more in the last 5/6 years, however I started off on minimum wage after graduating and had about 3 promotions since then, working my way up in the same company. I expect it will get to a point where I choose not to progress any higher (the higher up the more it's stressful) and will make peace with a certain salary level.

I don't think 600 a month after that timescale is too bad. Could be better but certainly could be worse as others have pointed out.

Your salary is decent OP don't take the mick out of us on half of that

£49K up from £38k is pretty good even for a job needing a post grad. Bu it's not the same job. She's been promoted twice in that period.

If it's any consolation my salary is now 4K more than it was 33 years ago.

I haven't had even £600 a year increase in that time and the amount we pay for my job has actually gone down in the last 10 years, which means we can't recruit and people are leaving.

But I'm grateful to have a secure job, because a lot of people aren't in that position.

£600 pm net increase pm sounds like quite a lot to me.

I work in academia and our salaries really haven't increased much at all. In fact, if you go from one pay grade to another - that would probably only be about that much. It's rubbish as we live in London and the cost of living has shot up in the meantime. It's especially annoying as where I live people earning 6figure sums are the norm (we are all in our 40s) and even this morning I got the ....ah so you do get 30hrs free childcare....interesting....well I didn't realise

I think an extra £600 a month is great.

I think people who are saying it's great because they've had even less of an increase in the same time are missing the point. A 28% rise in ten years including a pay rise is just about ok and anything less is dismal. By contrast, the minimum wage has gone up by 45% in that time. Other wages ime have risen far more slowly, some barely at all. Nobody should be earning the same or less than they were ten years ago given the increase in the cost of living and in particular the cost of housing and council tax. But lots of people are thanks to periodic redundancies and job re-gradings as businesses struggle to cover the gap in productivity. We are moving towards being a low wage economy with a high cost of living which doesn't bode well for exit from a trading block and recovery from a pandemic.

Sorry including a promotion

@MereDintofPandiculation

£49K up from £38k is pretty good even for a job needing a post grad. Bu it's not the same job. She's been promoted twice in that period.

This.

She's not in the same job, she's been promoted 3 times!