Job interview tomorrow - money question

[ivegotflowersinthespring]

Hi I know you are not supposed to ask about money at an interview - would it be acceptable for me to ask before I go for the interview?
I have an interview tomorrow and I have been chatting to friends and they tell me that the grade of job I am going for is only paid around the minimum wage. Which is just not viable for me financially as I am on my own. The salary was not mentioned in the advert - probably why! The job is not without stress - it is in the NHS. Would it be wrong for me to phone today and ask - before the interview - I don't want to waste their time or mine?

Does the job advert give the grade? If so you could look it up on the pay-scale?

Or is it advertised on NHS jobs? My CCG puts all jobs on there and all have associated pay grades.

Nhs pays scales are easily found on the internet (it will be a numerical grade on the job ad and the salary will be a range Ie, £Xxx to £Xxx).

ok thank you - I will have a look - it is within a medical practice so not sure if it is strictly NHS if you know what i mean (ie doctor's surgery)

Is it a receptionist position ?

It is

Ah - that changes things as GP surgeries don't have to follow the national payscales for their staff. It would be fairly common for receptionists to be paid pretty poorly I'm afraid - although I think some practices are signed up to pay at least the Living Wage rather than NMW. This is a few years out of date but there was a report done on practice staff wages a few years ago which highlighted poor rates of pay:

gpsurgerymanager.co.uk/66-of-gp-receptionists-are-paid-below-the-nhs-minimum-wage/

I suppose if it is a total dealbreaker for you then I guess it would be better to find out now rather than waste everyone's time, but for the future the usual 'form' if the salary isn't on the advert is either to ask before you apply or after the interview when you've been offered the role. You may find the practice manager isn't really willing to discuss salary with you before you've been offered the role as in practice they may be willing to negotiate upwards for the right candidate but don't want to tell you that before the interview! Good luck with whatever you decide to do...

Yep...will be min wage or just over. GP receptionists are very poorly paid considering many triage calls and do a whole list of very in depth medical (admin) work.

I think it is pretty bad and sexist IMO. I am sure if more men did the role the pay would be more. No offense to anyone doing this role but I think it is too important a job to be paying just over the min wage so I have decided I won't be continuing with my application. Considering you are the front line in a surgery and have to deal with some pretty difficult and stressful situations. Is this not just greedy of GP's to pay their admin staff so poorly?