To ask if you have a wage/income that would shock people?

[Newmumatlast]

Inspired by the tipping hairdresser thread, and a post on there about people having no idea what some people earn with an anecdote about a London cabbie earning twice what his nurse wife did.

I just wondered if anyone does a job where people would actually be shocked to know their true earnings based on stereotype- either way. For example cleaner earning loads or lawyer earning very little.

@hiyaqwerty and @Newmumatlast

yes, he has his own business and a lot of his custom is from high end restaurants. He also has a shop which is more of an experience than sawdust on the floor! The hours are brutal though -3am starts.

If you are band 8a then you are surely in senior management. So you are not doing the job people imagine when you say you are a nurse. Where I work, the band 8a above me manages a whole surgical department and has overall responsibility for nursing staff on several wards. When compared with other sectors and some of the salaries on this thread, I think £60k is a shockingly low wage for that level of responsibility.

With all that’s happening with strikes etc I don’t think it’s helpful to make comments like yours without some context. You must have worked your way up and should therefore be well aware of what your colleagues on lower bands are earning. Of course you earn more than colleagues in junior roles on lowers bands. This shouldn’t be a surprise to you!

My husband and I are like this. We aren't mega rich but we are comfortable and have a very healthy combined income. We had to buy multiple products in Apple before Christmas and were ignored for ages. We eventually weren't ignored and the person who served us made apparently her second highest sale since working there in three years and was delighted. Don't judge a book by its cover I guess. We aren't ever going to be showy people in what we wear. I have young children and am time poor so don't tend to get my hair and a nails done much either. All the presumed overt signs of wealth won't be there with us.

I agree with this. An 8a won't do the kind of role most people would associate with the word 'nurse', and only a small minority of nursing roles would be a band 7 or above. You might be a nurse, but your actual job title is likely to be more informative about what you do.

As I’m sure you are well aware, Nurses and support staff have been fighting for years to get recognition and fair pay for the work that we do. To suggest a band two can do a couple of night and weekend shifts and earn upwards of £40k is ridiculous and undermines all our efforts. Yes, a band 2/3 can earn that money but, as @poppettypop has shown, it takes a HUGE amount of work including overtime and anti social hours to do so. NHS staff deserve a fair wage no matter their band and they shouldn’t have to work themselves into the ground to get it. That’s why I object to your initial comment (that you have now withdrawn). Please don’t imply that it’s easy.

I gave up a fantastic career to care for my eldest son who has complex needs and my DH took a step back from his £6-figure salary and job travelling away from home and halfway around the world on a regular basis to be there for us. (So much hospital time) I'm now on Carers allowance which is less than £70 a week and he's on less than half his previous salary supporting a family of 5. We cope but I'm glad that I was taught to be financially savvy!

I never said it was easy. I never sugested that a band 2 takes home 40k a year. I said - at the END OF THE MONTH take home i am taking home less than my friends who are band2 at top of their band and they have a lot less responsibility. Again, believe me or not🤷‍♀️ last month my Take home after tax was just shy of £1800 whilst i know of band 2 ( at top of band) who at the end of month took home just above that so the point stands. The reactions to the post were making me feel attacked and i do not need that in my life so yes i asked to be removed, do you hvae negative views about that too? 🤷‍♀️

I earnt £27k in one year working only 3 days a week as a childminder legitimately within my numbers. Do you even know what you’re talking about?! 😂
childminding can be very lucrative and I have always earned well while doing it. If you limit your outlay and work to capacity it’s easy to make good money. If I worked to full capacity 5 days a week, hired an assistant etc I could easily be over 50k in the year. I choose not to.
full time at full capacity for me 5 days a week would bring in £780 a week, with each child doing 40 hours a week. In reality they would actually do more. And that’s without any after school children. That would equal roughly 37k a year before expenses. Without any after school children and only working 8 hour days, so in reality I would earn much more if I went for full capacity 5 days a week and added in after school children too.
you don’t know what you’re talking about.

I wasn’t trying to attack you. I just think it’s important that posts around nursing salaries have some context given the current political situation. I’m sorry if I have upset you.

No need to be outraged at the lowly cleaner daring to earn so much - quit being a TA and start cleaning!

The NHS Pension contribution rate for someone on £40k is 9.8%, so how on earth are you taking home just under £1,800?

Even with student loan deductions, your take home pay would be at least £2.2k per mth, so I'm assuming you must have significant additional salary sacrifice deductions?

If your take home is low because you choose to enter salary sacrifice arrangements, it is disingenuous to point at a band 2 and claim they are earning as much or more than you.

For those unfamiliar with NHS pay bands, the top end of a band 2 is paid at £21,318 pa. Their gross pay before tax/NI/pension (assuming no additional hours/bank etc.) will only be £1,777 per month.

@Kaiserchief
Where did I say I was outraged?

But the renumeration is not just about immediate pay, is it? NHS staff have absolutely excellent pensions ( which would cost an absolute fortune to achieve for those on private pension, good contract conditions and other perks, working for a large employer which offers advancement and career progression, as well as being completely proofed against forced redundancy and extremely hard to sack.

The pressures in the job seem to be from understaffing and I know that stress is tough. But the contractual terms and conditions are really good, even compared to many other public sector employers.

That's a decent salary in my opinion. Band 2 is not a proper nurse position, it doesn't require nurse qualifications, does it?

That isn't a decent salary, no! It may not require a nurse qualification, but it's skilled and responsible work.

And whether it's a decent salary or not is not what's being debated. It's whether working a few extra weekends and nights will cause a band 2 to out-earn someone on £40k. And I can't see how that will be possible unless the £40k person is including deductions for optional salary sacrifice arrangements.

The tories have done a right number on the population is people think £21k is a decent salary for skilled and responsible work. Why are people's expectations so low?

At the bottom, people tell themselves that they're doing OK because they're not starving, while the wealth of the elite goes up at astronomical rates.

(I don't work for the NHS, and was never a band 2 btw, so this isn't on my own behalf)

Im a staff midwife working as a sonographer on just under 50k (euro), that includes a 2k location allowance. I’m in Ireland and qualified 10 years. It’s a nice (busy!) job and I work 8-4, Monday-Friday so can’t complain really

Also where is the tipping hairdressers thread please??

@DoodleDoo37 I want your job! Please tell us your industry… feel a very late change of career through job envy going on…

Vet and about 38k which isn’t a bad salary but my student loan is bigger than when it started and people seem to think I earn a fortune. Hate the whole “you’re only in it for the money” because I definitely could’ve been earning far more doing something else

Not necessarily, doesn’t need to do any overtime to reach that figure. AFC unsocial hours payments included in your contracted 37.5 hours a week are +60% for Sundays and public holidays and +30% for all hours between 20:00 - 08:00 and all day Saturday. So work nights/evenings/weekends and you’ll soon be above £50k!

Sister who is housing lawyer and earns a poor wage. She does amazing work too. Changes lives and yet can barely scrape by

nope just little old me with 2 kids, aware that I've no real clue about what different people earn having grown up around people who mainly had publicised hourly rate type jobs (public sector banding/retail supermarket etc) and given how the world is and cost of living wanting to know a bit more about the reality of areas of work to be more knowledgeable to guide my kids. When I was growing up we were guided to the professions but clearly that does not guarantee huge incomes compared to some things that would save uni cost and academic stressors/time wasted which could be used building a business.

I work 2 days a week in a senior professional role in Local government and bring home approx £1000 a month