What’s been your biggest increase in salary?

[TheTonightShow]

I should add, but didn’t want the title to be too wordy, and what were the factors behind it?

The last couple of job changes I’ve had (over 8 years) have seen me with an extra £2k and £3k in salary jump. Not to be sniffed at by any means but can’t help but get a bit disgruntled I end up with much more stress/responsibility (and workload) for not a huge amount more money at the end of each month.

I know you shouldn’t go for jobs because of the salary they come with but now DP and I have a mortgage I can’t remain on my current salary going forward (if we are to start a family; not get into debt with unexpected outgoings such as car needing replacing/household maintenance you never can predict).

I’ve always worked in public sector roles so there’s no pay rises/bonuses based on performance. I’ve stayed in this field as it’s secure (usually). However the department I work in is clerical not clinical so there’s no set qualifications that once you obtain you would be eligible to apply for more senior roles.

Obviously it’s all on me to make this change (or just accept it, as I agreed to these salaries!) but just wondered if anyone had any stories they could share?

I think that as the market dictates salaries to some extent, it's either going to be an external change which makes the difference in salary, or having something the company is prepared to pay for.

My most recent salary increase was £12k. It was a combination of having a specialist skill they particularly wanted, along with being prepared to commute into central London where higher salaries are paid.

My biggest one before that was coming back off maternity leave - I negotiated a £7k payrise to come back a month earlier than intended as they needed my experience in a relatively inexperienced team.

There's a lot more flexibility in the private sector than there is in the public sector in terms of pay as well. A company is able to pay you what you're worth to them, rather than what 'they' say the job is worth.

”I’ve always worked in public sector roles so there’s no pay rises/bonuses based on performance”

I don’t work in the public sector but is there not a scale applicable to your role that you can progress up? Or is the issue that you are at the top of the scale?

If you don’t need set qualifications to apply for higher roles, that’s a good thing, isn’t it? Presumably that means selection criteria for more senior clerical roles is based on skills/experience?

I negotiated a 35% increase on basic salary and 50% increase on commission, and to become a manager with responsibility for an initial 1 other to be recruited when I changed companies (headhunted) within the same industry. Also a better car, & nearer home too. That job grew - obviously they knew I was good at the job so we increased the sales enormously, and changed (company changed hands, I ultimately moved divisions to a different industry within the new company to a much much bigger role) so I ended up doing rather well out of it.

However I think my biggest increase was going from employed on £2,200 per annum, to self employed (completely different job) at approx £5-600/week in the early 1980s.

26% when they ran a pay audit on the department. I had previously questioned my salary, and had had the response that discussing pay is a sackable offence. (This was before 2010.)

3x increase.
Required moving abroad and a big jump up the ladder but was worth it.

I’d expect 8-10% for a promotion within a company and slightly above that for a general move to a similar post in a different company.

Unfortunately if you stay with the same company and move up you’re unlikely to see similar increases - which is crazy because people who have seen how the company works at different levels are (if they’re good) very, very valuable resources and should be kept.

Mine goes up in quite large increments as you go one extra rung up the ladder:

Stage 1: 18,000
Stage 2: 25,000
Stage 3: 40,000
Stage 4: 60,000

I spent 2 years at stage 1, 2 and a half at 2, and 4 at 3 to reach stage 4.

It's unlikely mine will now increase behind a couple of thousand.

I've just got 11k in a recent promotion. Long overdue and I'm would earn more if I moved but I have a very flexible employer and can't afford to lose that at the moment.

My biggest increase was £21k but that was because I'd been headhunted for a more senior position with a competitor and my company promoted me and matched the salary in order to retain me. Most years it's £1.5k or £2k.

I like your comment LBOCS2 : There's a lot more flexibility in the private sector than there is in the public sector in terms of pay as well. A company is able to pay you what you're worth to them, rather than what 'they' say the job is worth

This definitely strikes a chord with me; I've worked in public sector departments that have lost staff and not replaced them. The remaining team members have picked up the extra work but obviously ours is not an industry where you can go into your appraisal and point out they've saved £X by not recruiting to a position that would cost £Y so you want a pay increase considered. A formal 'interim' post would have to come up and someone would have to formally apply for it to see a change in salary - which isn't necessarily permanent as if this role is recruited to you could easily go back.

"There's a lot more flexibility in the private sector than there is in the public sector in terms of pay as well. A company is able to pay you what you're worth to them, rather than what 'they' say the job is worth."

Absolutely! Of course, whether this is a good thing depends so much on the type of role, location you're working in, local supply and demand, what part of the private sector you're comparing with.

An admin role in a public sector organisation is defined by a job evaluation as being worth a certain scale, and that doesn't vary massively across the country. The local marketplace has only a restricted impact.

A similar role in a big financial services corporate in an economically vibrant area where there are loads of jobs, will probably pay significantly more.

A similar role in a struggling tiny local business in a deprived region with a shortage of jobs will probably pay significantly less.

Both are private sector, but the variance in private sector pay compared to public sector is huge. And the ability to 'pay what you're worth to them' can be great if the company has money and your skills are in demand, but it's pretty awful if it's a cash-strapped SME and your skills are easy to replace in a local economy with high unemployment, as that flexibility drives the salary down in that case, rather than up.

What's the answer to my query about your payscale OP? Unusual for a public sector role not to have a scale to progress up, and normally doesn't stagnation generally happen if you've reached the top of the scale?

£10k, because the previous job was a grad scheme with a lot of development involved so the salary was a bit lower, and I moved to London from up norf