Everything is going up - except my salary.

[nkf]

Just that really. True for everyone and at least u can take on extra work. But all last week, new rates were sent me in everything. Got me down. No pay rise for two years. Share your pain?

DH had had no pay rise for 9 years until he got a promotion last week. He works in a "dead man's shoes" organisation so promotions very hard to come by. They get non-consolidated performance related bonus if they tick all the boxes.

In real terms our standard of living has halved in 9 years. Everything has doubled in price and our income has stagnated. We used to be fairly well off, we now struggle to cover our bills.

Our gas bill alone was several thousand a year (we're in a rural area and were on LPG). We've now got rid of the LPG and installed a biomass boiler (logs) which living where we live means we can get a lot of free fuel. The boiler was expensive to fit but it's a fixed cost/month for ten years rather than the constantly rising cost of gas.

last week? *late last year

DH & I have had no pay rise since 2002. Last child was born in 2004, we thought things would get better.
I am freelance, I have taken on masses more work, but my rates have almost halved in some cases.
DH works for a big organisation, his pay band has stayed stagnant.
We have 3 teens and a younger one
Things are tough!

Wow, chickydoo, are you me? We have the same life! Yeay down to the three teens and a younger one! Except my younger one is 3.

(If you tell me you're a translator as well I'll know we are clones!)

DH had no pay rise for 2 years then last year he had a 4% pay cut. He I often works 3-4 hours a day unpaid overtime. We live in a seaside town with mostly seasonal work so his boss regularly reminds him how lucky he is to have a year round job

It's tough isn't it? Working harder to stand still. That's how it's seemed to me this last couple of years. Am so shocked to hear about no pay rises for nine years. That industry must be in a bad way.

We had 3 years of a pay freeze, then a 1% pay rise which was swallowed by tax.

Income compared to outgoings are down around 15%. There's nothing left to give and our contingency funds are gradually eroding due to necessity and a possibility DH could be made redundant due to huge budget cuts.

We are a seaside town too. Every day a company closes down here, it's becoming a ghost town with scary high unemployment rates.

Something has to change, people can't simply survive nowadays.

nfk- it's the much-maligned nose-in-the-trough civil service. If only people knew...

Ah, Yes. With the gilt edged pensions and safe jobs. Etc. If people only knew.

I work in an organisation associated with the civil service so I've had the same pay freeze as everyone else. We got a 1% increase but our pension contribution went up by more than that and it's going up again this year.

On the face of it, some things have only increased by a few pence, but it's on EVERYTHING so it adds up hugely over the month.

My salary has gone up by about 10k in the last 10 years but I feel far, far worse off. Seriously contemplating returning back home to N America. Britain used to feel so vibrant. Now it just feels grim and the conversation at the water cooler is pretty much about one thing - how broke everybody feels.