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!

No. Our first jobbers are paid between 28-33k.

Back 20 years ago CS pay was equivalent to what I earnt in the private sector (I have a professional transferable skill that means I could work in either) but now the CS has fallen really far behind. The main attraction is of course the pension but how much longer that will last (esp. if Reform are elected and fulfil their promise of CS reduction) is anyone's guess.

That isn't correct.
There have been stats lately showing that local government and CS jobs have had more pay rises recently than the private sector.
The perk in the past was fewer hours and a bigger pension.
Now, they are on a par for salary but the public sector gets massive pensions.

I asked a straight-forward question, no need to be so rude.

And you appear to be ignorant of the fact that the C.S. pension scheme WAS non-contributory.

That’s not true at all. I tripled my salary by going into private sector recently.

Again, I literally tripled my salary by entering private sector recently.

I was a senior civil servant! It’s a dead end career.

If you had gone into the private sector, say a tax role in an accountancy firm you would be doing really badly not to be on double that at 35.

The civil service is notoriously badly paid but it does have other perks but I would consider a career change. As with many large organisations they will often pay greater respect to people coming from external roles or who have some experience outside the service.

For me it is a good salary and I assume you’ll get pay rises eventually/can move up the ladder.

But I live rurally and so my manager is only on £40k and so it does depend on where you live etc.

I think if it’s a job you would enjoy and has potential for progression then I would take it - you can always look for a better role.

I do feel for pain.
Unless I go into management for £40k then the highest I can expect in my role is £37k and I too have a masters degree.
My only option is to move area and retrain once my youngest has finished school - it’s just figuring out what direction to go in where I don’t need to start back at £24k again.

Biggest mistake I made in my time in the CS was not moving around to get promotions. And even while I stayed put I watched junior staff move and get promoted (often more than once) and still I didn't move on. Dumb.

No, but it’s average. You could earn more in the private sector but then your work life balance would be less flexible

The difference between the two is huge though.

I am self employed and made circa 47k for the last three years. I’m on track to make about 55k this year and I’m immediately feeling a massive difference in financial stress (reduced)

I work in the Civil Service. There are loads of HEO/SEO roles that dont require niche experience or qualifications. You will have to look outside your office/department maybe. But our EOs (Legal roles) are able to move across into HEO or SEO policy type roles easily without experience in those fields. I think you need to widen your search.

The thing I’ve learnt from mumsnet is that there will be some people saying that it’s a huge salary and they are raising a family of 6 on less and others who’ll say they spend more than that on dry cleaning. Without context it doesn’t really mean anything 🤷‍♀️ how does it relate in terms of your outgoings? Take home 3, outgoings 2? Great salary! Take home 3, outgoings 4? Definitely not enough!

Less holiday than the 25 days Civil Servants start on?

Having a masters and earning only £32k? That’s very low considering that you have been working for a number of years. I have a masters and that was my graduate scheme salary in 2013 plus bonus. It’s not fair for you to get paid that low. Everything is soo expensive these days. Maybe look at join private sector? Or public sector to a part that pays better?

Today's ONS stats on wage growth show that public sector wage growth is double that of the private sector. That's unsustainable really. If the private sector is struggling (which it definitely is, hospitality is on its knees with retail not far behind) then there's even less money than usual for the public sector, not more. The government is using the public sector to make UK PLC look more successful than it actually is.

There's a lot of disparity between departments. I'm two grades above you in CS and only earn £2k more. But you also have to factor in the best-in-market pension and excellent working conditions.
I wonder if you're looking at this the wrong way? Obviously you need enough to live on without worrying about money every two minutes. So of course it's not unreasonable for you to want to earn a bit more. But equally valid, to me, are questions like: do you want more responsibility? A bigger challenge? A completely new work area? A vocational role?
So, while money is of course important to your decision-making, job satisfaction should also play a big part.

It depends. If you have kids, a mortgage, car etc no way! If you’re in/around London 100k per adult is a salary where you can live comfortably and save.

That was an okay/good salary perhaps 20 years ago I would say.

Edited to say: not in a rude way - but just with the cost of living etc.

I haven’t read other responses.
if my dd secured this salary straight after Uni I would be very happy.
For any adult above the age of 30 I would say no, it’s very low, especially if you have qualifications above A levels.

If you can make more money doing a job you could do and enjoy then why not give it a go?

Yup this

It really depends on what your degree is in, what university it is. How well you do your job.
If you think that you are underpaid are there promotion routes? Can you apply for jobs elsewhere?
My impression of the Civil Service is that people tend to leave on time or if they work overtime they take time off in lieu. Elsewhere they might just be expected to work late for nothing. You probably get good leave and a good pension. These are part of the whole package.

Public sector wage growth only looks higher as it’s been behind for years and doctors got very large increases

OP - it's not a great salary but salaries are pretty shit at the moment tbh. Outside higher-paid jobs like financial services and highly skilled jobs like engineering and surgery, wages are pretty uniformly crap. It's not going to get any better this year either as there are loads of layoffs/hiring slowdown going on, so wages won't be boosted any day soon. The plus side (if there is one) is that inflation should go down.

If you don’t have a specialism then you will
need to lead a team to get over 40k in the public sector. I get just over that. I’m a specialist who leads a team of
9 with annual budget responsibility of over a million. Ops is a shit place to be right now though as recruitment is getting more
and more difficult right now.