Would you class £32,000 as a good salary?

[Poshpuppy]

I know there are so many variables. For a 21 year old living at home it's probably a very good salary!
For a single parent who owns a home maybe not.

For me, I'm 35 and I don't feel this is a good salary for me. I'm in the Civil Service, I have a degree and master's, it's my own fault for possibly doing qualifications that haven't led to anything higher paid/more specific.
I'm an EO/Executive Officer grade which is junior. There are not many HEO/Higher Officer grades that don't require very niche experience or line management, there are also few fewer HEOs than AOs or EOs so competition is tough.

I'm looking outwards at the local council, third sector and private sector. I know money isn't everything but when you have things to pay for and any chance of saving then it does help. I think I'd feel comfortable on closer to 40k, whether this will happen is another matter.

Of course there will be people on under 30k who manage perfectly fine, it's all relative. Just wondered what anyone thought!

Move to another civil service dept that has more progression opportunities.

who will applying for these roles? If
someone in your shoes can’t apply for a single role out of 153?

I voted yanbu because of your qualifications.
In reality, your situation is a stark reminder of getting too many qualifications too quickly without allowing opportunities for applying to roles and building on them before starting further qualifications.
I am saying this kindly. I know of so many graduates with excellent degrees who were expecting to be employed in 'good' jobs straight away.
People need a combination of experience and qualifications.
I hope you are able to progress up the career ladder OP

Exactly the same applies in the CS. OP is referring to entry level grades. I’m a “middle management” grade in the CS and the culture is that you work whatever needs to be worked to get the job done. Given the political drivers, it’s not unusual for me to have to work until 7, 8 or 9pm because a ministerial issue has cropped up, with no overtime or TOIL.

So leave the civil service?

My DH is in the CS and the pay is abysmal (even in London). But the flexibility he has is unbeatable. I don't know anyone in the private sector, even in entry level or "just admin"/low responsibility roles who work as few hours as my DH and his colleagues.

The whole deal with the CS is that the pay is shit but the non-salary benefits much better than private sector.

Based on the experience of my very recently graduated DD and DS, that seems to be a pretty typical starting salary for a graduate. Maybe just a bit better than average. So for a graduate more than a few years in, it seems pretty poor and I would aim to do better.

If you have no qualifications, then you might be paid a pittance in both public and private sector. Retail is not the only job to exist, Christ.

Most professionals, whether they are legal, medical, mathematicians, software engineers or whatever do earn more in private sector. That is common sense amongst those circles. If the only people you associate are those in retail or civil service you’re going to have a race to the bottom mindset.

Frankly, only people with no discernible skill or career, would see public sector as well paid. It is not intended to be well paid, it’s the bare minimum to keep the country running. The public isn’t paying for you to have a “good” life, merely an average one.

No, not a good salary for me. However, I'm on a different industry (private sector). A junior associate out of uni would probably be on more than that. I'm 45 and nearly on £200k

Only you can change your situation. If you don’t make yourself niche or adapt to line management then you will continue where you are. EO level you need to have a USP to progress, no one will hand it to you.

If your department isn’t offering you what you need then start researching places that do.

If other EOs in your office are able to get and pay a mortgage, run a home, go on holiday etc. then it depends what else you want from life. If you are permanent staff, you are also building up a pension.

It doesn’t sound a lot for your education but I guess also depends where you live. I’m in Surrey yet friends of mine are in the north where a similar home is a quarter of the price

also so you get the fanastic civil service pension? If so that’s worth another £10k

sadly for EAs there little progression. Could you consider a career change?

It's fine if you're outside London and in civil service. The pensions and benefits are not anywhere close to as good in private sector.

....and?

literally none of that makes it unbelievable! It just makes some of the 40million working people in the UK have different jobs than those of your immediate family!

Between you and the poster who doesn't understand the word literally I think a few people on this thread need to buy a dictionary.

Besides which you clearly don't understand what flexitime is or how it works - the whole point is that it compensates for extra time worked. Think about it logically - if everyone in the civil service/private sector 'clocked off at 5pm' (i.e. the second their working hours finished) instead of carrying on 'until the job was done' they wouldn't accrue toil/flexi in the first place, would they?

OP, I haven't read the thread past the first few responses, but would it be worth looking at other government depts that have a much higher ratio of HEO/SEO roles? If you scroll down on this page to the diagram called 'Grades of civil servant by department' you can see that depts like the MOJ, DWP, HMRC Home Office, etc, have a much higher quantity of AOs and EOs because they operate a lot of public-facing services, whereas depts like DEFRA, Culture and Education have more HEO/SEO/Grade 6 & 7 roles. Maybe there would be more opportunities for progression that way? Who knows. www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainer/civil-service-grades

By the way, I'm a grade 7 and I don't line manage anyone (yet - I will be soon, but only one person).

Also could you get a mentor? My dept has a mentoring scheme exactly for this sort of thing.

I’m 55 with a mortgage and a lot less income that £65K. I have a good life thanks.

I don't think you are being unreasonable, that does seem like a low salary for someone with your qualifications. That said how long have you been in the role? Do you have a lot of experience?

I would not be too quick to jump ship for an extra 8k, civil service pension is so much better than you will ever get in private sector. Can you apply for other role in civil service??

Good luck!

No not really, considering the qualifications you have

Well exactly. Older people don’t need as high an income as they aren’t saving deposits, buying houses, paying childcare and raising young families.

A lot of salaries are not much more than minimum wage nowadays

A good reason to have some skills

The North West is crap for pay in general. A lot of jobs probably.pay around that and a lot of ppl have to manage with it, however even here, like you say, it would be a basic standard of living. I have no suggestions unfortunately, trades ppl who work for themselves are the only ppl with money that I know.

You say it's not true at all but how can that be correct when my personal experience shows otherwise?

My DP was on a much higher salary than that.

There is an expectation that you stay to see the work done that needs doing on that day, not leaving on the dot.

Private companies have share holders to satisfy and have to work efficiently.

I can say it’s not true because we both work in a private company…so my experience is the opposite! We get overtime for all time over 39hours, we also have flexi time. If I have to leave at 4:30…then I’m leaving at 4:30. I also know plenty of people on higher salaries that get overtime and flexi time as we do.

It’s the flexibility that keep me in my CS job. Hours are logged and I take off a couple of Fridays a month by working some longer days. That and the hybrid working (2 days WFH) and the 27% pension contribution.

But I am old and don’t have high housing costs. I see the younger ones desperate to get promotions so they can afford to live. A 22 year old G7?! My G7 has been in the job 30 years and has a massively complex and responsible role. Can’t imagine a 22 year old coping with it.

Do the line management if that’s what’s needed in your sector. People skills are what get you ahead. Am slightly baffled by those who reach the higher grades without LM experience. (Maybe I’m just jealous as I had to manage teams of up to 10 at HO grade).

”Maybe I will get to HEO one day”

Not likely with that passive attitude. I entered the civil service at aged 30 as an SEO and was a G6 3 years later, promotion in the civil service is a proactive activity, it’s not just something that happens. You have to be strategic; you need to look at your skillset, the job market, training, work shadowing, I did mentoring as well. You also need to be flexible, I took on a role I wasn’t too keen on but knew it was a good step, and I was flexible with location, you have to be willing to move around organisations as it can get quite stagnant within organisations depending on profession and size.

But no I don’t think £32,000 is a good salary for someone who has higher education and over 10 years in the work place. I had children in my 20s spending time part time and I still managed to exceed £32k 10 years ago in the public sector before I was 30.

If you want more, you need to plan for it, not just expect it to happen. You haven’t got children so what’s stopping you?