Pay rises

[flounfer]

Hopefully this won't come across as insensitive but I am wondering what pay rises if any people are expecting this year? On the one hand we are told it will make inflation worse but then bankers have had record bonuses & Ive seen some posts on here taking about double digit % pay rises. Mine is 2%, better than nothing obviously but not much help.

4.5% here, legal profession. DP is however an FPGA engineer, supposedly highly in demand, private sector, but 13 years ago was earning 46k and now is on 56k, after years of 0, 0.5% and 1% pay rises. All talk of pay rises indicate that 1 - 1.5% is likely. That includes a job move for about 3% more, which was as much as he could negotiate. Every single job is in the city centre requiring a multitude of different buses to get to or an out of town business park with no public transport and massive traffic jams.

At the moment he is still wfh 3 days per week but has calculated that its not going to be financially worth it for him to continue once he is back in the office 4 or 5 days.

So the plan is to sell up here, buy without a mortgage in France and for him to do contracting, probably not in the UK. My job is much more flexible and I can wfh a lot. We both think that the UK isn't really giving us the standard of living worth working hard for in difficult, highly qualified and stressful jobs. eg the health service, the public transport links and costs, the basic infrastructure (the local authority don't even cut the grass verges around here - semi rural, so we can't even go out walking safely).

And why on earth aren't commuting to work expenses tax deductible in the UK as in many other countries? That would make a huge difference to our tax bills and make us feel rewarded for working, rather than punished.

@SucculentChalice

4.5% here, legal profession. DP is however an FPGA engineer, supposedly highly in demand, private sector, but 13 years ago was earning 46k and now is on 56k, after years of 0, 0.5% and 1% pay rises. All talk of pay rises indicate that 1 - 1.5% is likely. That includes a job move for about 3% more, which was as much as he could negotiate. Every single job is in the city centre requiring a multitude of different buses to get to or an out of town business park with no public transport and massive traffic jams.

At the moment he is still wfh 3 days per week but has calculated that its not going to be financially worth it for him to continue once he is back in the office 4 or 5 days.

So the plan is to sell up here, buy without a mortgage in France and for him to do contracting, probably not in the UK. My job is much more flexible and I can wfh a lot. We both think that the UK isn't really giving us the standard of living worth working hard for in difficult, highly qualified and stressful jobs. eg the health service, the public transport links and costs, the basic infrastructure (the local authority don't even cut the grass verges around here - semi rural, so we can't even go out walking safely).

And why on earth aren't commuting to work expenses tax deductible in the UK as in many other countries? That would make a huge difference to our tax bills and make us feel rewarded for working, rather than punished.

Agree with this.

In a way, I sometimes feel that I am paying Scandinavian level taxes, but not getting anything in return (from a UK pov)

I increasingly view the UK as providing a worse standard of living vs European countries.

Wages are lower in Europe for the most part, but the cost is also far lower. Childcare specially, which is downright extortionate in the UK.

The only benefit we get is the 3-5 year old EYE discount for our DD2.

So you pay tens of thousands of ££ in tax and NI every year for a very minor benefit.

I have no issue with paying taxes as a higher earner, but it increasingly feels in the UK that my group (£50k to £150k) are asked to shoulder more and more of the tax burden, while it is the people who are wealthy and don't work who benefit.

It would be 100% fine if my ££ in tax went to people at the bottom of the income distribution who work and have kids, as that is reasonable.

But in the UK, I just don't see that. More and more ££ gets siphoned off to older (and wealthier) folks simply for political reasons.

It leaves a bad taste. It really does.

It's an interesting perspective. I know the mantra used to be that people wanted to pay USA level taxes and receive Western European social benefits and public services. It will be interesting is an inflection approaches - with Western European taxes and American public services. I know some Western European nations taxes are higher though comparisons are difficult with complexity of regimes.

Charity sector so nothing of course!

2% but work in FE so as expected. I do miss the private sector 20%+ days sometimes but I get better holidays and pension etc in this sector so swings and roundabouts

Just over 20% - very lucky.

BambinaJAS Agree with this.

In a way, I sometimes feel that I am paying Scandinavian level taxes, but not getting anything in return (from a UK pov)

I increasingly view the UK as providing a worse standard of living vs European countries.

Wages are lower in Europe for the most part, but the cost is also far lower. Childcare specially, which is downright extortionate in the UK.

The only benefit we get is the 3-5 year old EYE discount for our DD2.

So you pay tens of thousands of ££ in tax and NI every year for a very minor benefit.

I have no issue with paying taxes as a higher earner, but it increasingly feels in the UK that my group (£50k to £150k) are asked to shoulder more and more of the tax burden, while it is the people who are wealthy and don't work who benefit.

I'm British but spent much of my childhood/early adulthood living in Switzerland and The Netherlands. So I might be more sensitive to value for tax than some who have lived all their lives here, and less reticent about moving countries to get a better settlement.

I personally think tax isn't that low here. Sure, there is a massive tax free personal allowance (the highest in Europe by far) but that just puts the burden more on the middle group of earners and, arguably, disenfranchises the lower paid somewhat because they have no stake to lose should taxes be raised.

But Council Tax is really high here, and you end up paying more for commuting to work due to the poor infrastructure (especially because its not tax deductible for ordinary employees), childcare costs a fortune, pensions are low and sometimes you end up paying twice for healthcare, which makes it one of the most expensive systems in the world - i.e. if you pay for the NHS in general taxation but then have to pay privately for an operation they won't provide within a reasonable time.

So overall, I'm finding it an increasingly depressing and expensive country to live in. I don't mind paying high taxes if I get a reasonable standard of living with things like good train services, footpaths to walk on, bridges to cross roads, good bin collection, etc but the UK doesn't seem to provide that.

You know how it used to be called the "sick man of Europe" - I think thats what the UK is going back to and I want to get out before they bring in some rule that you can't transfer capital sums out of the country or something.

The other thing is that the UK constantly changes the goalposts on major life things such as pensions and income tax, so its very difficult to plan ahead. The local authorities are also absolutely dreadful performers, who often seem to set out to make ordinary peoples' lives a misery rather than simply providing collective services.

@SucculentChalice I agree with you. I think we will see more younger people liking abroad for opportunity as the tax burden & what you get for it here is not attractive

1.75% for us, but they didn’t sort it in time for March’s pay so we’re getting taxed on April rates for it. Marvellous.