How do civil service salaries work?

[nameychange]

Looking at a job the Salary is advertised as £50,654 - £60,481 and is a Grade 7

What does this mean?

Does the salary increment each year is there a scale behind this or would you if successful demand a salary somewhere in the range and then have to ask for a pay rise?

New joiners are expected to join at the bottom of the band unless a business case is made for a higher offer.

Increments are sadly a thing of the past in most departments

Neither, I'm afraid - you start at the bottom of the range then stay there as it increases slightly each year with inflation. Unless your previous salary is higher and they really want you, then you can negotiate.

Thanks

so if the salary is the bottom one why advertise a range?

Would you only get the £60k if you were currently on this?

You nearly always start on the bottom of the pay scale. If you can make a case for more (matching existing salary, skills hard to find in Civil Service), do that on the way into the role before accepting. Once in your pay rises will be set centrally (negotiated with unions), there might be a differential based on performance but seems to be being phased out in most depts and even if introduced it would be at aggregate level not individual (e.g. all top performers get x, not you individually get x).

You should get a pay rise every year but for over a decade now they have generally been less than inflation (or not paid at all due to austerity pay freezes). So worth noting that lots of people stay on the minimum for their pay band and never get anywhere near the top. This might not be an issue if you are happy with the salary at the min rate but I have known a few people assume they’d get through the band over a few years’ service and then become very disillusioned that this is not how it has worked in practice for a very long time.

@nameychange

Thanks

so if the salary is the bottom one why advertise a range?

Would you only get the £60k if you were currently on this?

The bandings are there because: A) they are a hangover from when you moved up through the band each year. As @colgategirl says, this hasn't been the case for a long time now, and;

B) different depts have different bandings for the same grade. So a G7 in eg. HMT could be £45k-£55k but in MOD a G7 could be £55k-£65k (just two examples- i dont know the actual numbers). If you move on a level transfer between depts, either your salary follows you or you go to the top of the band of the new dept, if your salary is above their banding (eg in this case if you were bottom of MOD G7 and you moved to HMT, you would go to top of their banding).

Ok thanks, having been in another sector with a different pay structure it’s useful to know. Mumsnet at its best, someone always knows the answer.

I’ll give the job application a go and see what happens. Doubt I’ll get an interview but the roel looks interesting and if by some miracle I get it I could ask them to match my current salary.

It is a ridiculous system.

People have to move to get a pay rise and so jobs are constantly filled with new staff who dont have a clue. Very transient workforce as a result.

(not a civil servant but 15 years as a contractor)

Because the range is for staff who are internal and transfer in, and also you’d get more each year in the role so has to be a maximum.

Also there is some negotiation on salary at G7 level, so there might be some negotiation on the minimum

But as others have said the incremental steps are long gone now, they paid staff off to get rid of them so difficult for your salary to rise much in the grade. Largely for those transferring from other gov depts and for negotiation in small number of cases

You’ll go in on the bottom of the salary scale and sit there forever. You’ll occasionally get a pay rise of 1% which means they just change the minimum of the pay scale. Chances of moving up are currently zero.

I was told that there are performance based pay rises within your grade...so not everywhere is the same..