Graduate Salaries not keeping up with inflation

[sloaneydogge]

I know this is a problem that many workers face, but this discussion is for graduate jobs only.

But it seems that graduate salaries this year are staying at the same level in a few sectors that I know about. Some haven’t increased since 2020. In which time, inflation means things are 20% more expensive, and my dds rent this year alone has gone up 25%.

Has anyone else noticed this? When you don’t earn a huge amount, these sorts of sums mean that there isn’t money leftover for treats or niceities/eats into the ability to save.

Agree ,my son is an ecologist ,job very relevant to the world we live in,top Uni for ecology. Graduated 5 years ago and still only on about £30.000!

The Bank of England's target for inflation is 2%. If inflation in Britain falls to this level (unlikely in the near future), prices are increasing by 2% a year.

No, I would not expect that people would accept a decrease in salary in these circumstances. To accept a salary decrease while prices are increasing would result in an even further decrease in living standards.

(There is an odd contingent on Mumsnet that won't be satisfied until the general population has become significantly poorer.)

@Wellgoodforyou DH earns even less than that and graduated over 20 years ago!

My daughter is starting on the graduation scheme of one of the big 4 in September. When she was made the offer last summer she was told starting salary would be £36K and then the rate of inflation would be taken into account.

That's ridiculous isn't it ? . It is such a worthwhile occupation that the environment will benefit from.

@Wellgoodforyou Surely the issue is about who is paying the salary. If it’s a charity, earnings tend to be low. Ecology can be a job that doesn’t generate much money. It’s not often commercial. So salaries are fairly flat.

Graduate salaries in the Big 4 have fallen behind inflation but probably by not as much as you might think.

I started in London 30 years ago on £14k. Inflated by CPI over that time that would be just under £36.5k today. Actual graduate starting salary is c. £32-33k today - so c.10% behind where purchasing power suggests it should be.

Higher education participation rate was below 20% in the early 90's, and it's now around 37.5% - so graduate supply has almost doubled in that time. In number terms accepted applicants to higher education in 1994 were 271k and in 2022 563k.

Earlier this year I saw a job advertised for the legal department of the public sector organisation that I used to work for as a legal assistant before I qualified as a solicitor. I left that job in 2003. The salary scale was the same as when I left 20 YEARS AGO!

@sloaneydogge If you work in the public sector - as a HUGE number of graduates do - this has always been the case.
Become much worse since 2010, but you seem to be suggesting this is just a recent thing over the last couple of years ?

No one in the public sector had a pay cut to keep colleagues in jobs. This happened post 2008 in the private sector. Many salaries there have never fully recovered either. The public sector has better pensions. It also has better job security and it never has pay cuts. Grad starting salaries have stagnated more in the private sector overall.

Yes it's a charity job. No commercial gain so it's understandable why the salaries are low. But it's sad that it's undervalued. These people are highly skilled (environmental science degrees plus 20+ years' experience on the job gaining important practical skills and specific knowledge of the ecosystems where they're working and so on). They'd earn as much stacking beans in a supermarket with a handful of overtime shifts throughout the year.
Obviously a job done for the love of it and not the wage!

They haven't been for years. My grad salary in 2018 was apparently the same as my bosses in 2008!

I started in London as a trainee lawyer in 1983 no £6250. Allowing for inflation that is about £22k now. However today those people are paid double in real terms what I got in 1983 so they unlike some other jobs have done very well indeed. I assume the getting double than what i got in readl terms is because they have student loans today and rents have risen higher than inflation since 1983.

@cadetmumstress It’s far better to be an environmental engineer. These grad jobs are much better paid and there’s not enough of them. Environmental scientists are the bottom of the food chain. Environmental engineers are the solution finders. So that’s the difference. Plus they are often higher qualified than the scientists. So choose career wisely.