Making case for a pay rise - public sector

[Reluctantadult]

Has anyone in the public sector / civil service successfully made a case for a pay rise? Can you give me any tips?

I've been doing my role 6yrs and £400 off the bottom of the pay scale. Due to pay freezes and capped rises. I'm looking for other jobs but really I love what I do and don't want to leave.

Have you taken on additional responsibilities? Delivered exceptionally, or completed a nationally recognised projected?

It will be an uphill struggle to justify a pay increase for just doing the job, unless you can highlight that your skillset is in demand and you're prepared to walk away to a better offer elsewhere - even then they may decide to let the post lay absent.

I have negotiated once, but recieved an honorarium rather than pay rise, now I only plan to stay in a role for 18 months unless I can see a development opportunity to put on my cv for the next role, far easier to increase pay that way.

Yes I have. Got an in year award £200 for that. But yes realise I'm most likely on a road to nowhere.

You have more chance of hell freezing over. Even if you can evident going above and beyond, you'll be lucky to get a one off £500 quid that you'll lose most of to tax.

Do you not rise through increments every April?

I'm local authority and haven't had an increment rise for 14 years 😂

You're on a hiding to nowhere. There's an assumption once you reach the top of a band you promote having gained all the necessary skills and experience. Of course this can take you away from the parts of the job you actually enjoy.

14yrs for me too. I got a promotion 6yrs ago and nothing since then. Very galling that new starters come in on the same as me. So yes I know hell will probably freeze over. I still want to ask.

I am at the bottom of my band. There is no route up!

No @Lunadreamer and @Schooldil3ma we have no increments. I am still on the bottom of band. There is no route up.

Yes, civil service pay bands are a fiction really. In reality, you join at the bottom and there is no route up from there without changing jobs.

in the CS pay awards happen once a year and must be costed within the limit set by the govt. There is no scope for in-year increases unless you are promoted/ move to a new grade. Depressing but true. With years of pay freeze/ 1% increases so many people are on or near the bottom of the pay scale.

It’s why so many people go for promotion before they are ready.

I'm curious (I'm NHS, not CS) how do the pay bands work? How do they work out if you're on bottom / middle / top? I don't understand how they can have pay bands for each role but then not allow the employee to move through them

I'm curious too (also NHS 😄).

Have your duties or responsibilities changed a lot in that time? If so, you could ask for a job evaluation, which is a process to see if your role should actually be a different grade.

My experience of civil service is you get an annual pay rise, 2 or 3% and rest is done based on performance. So a pay rise and a bonus depending on what you are scored against objectives. I've never seen no pay increase at all

@jonathonjones @FlippertyGibberts CS used to have pay increments and you would move through every year. All depts have been told to remove them by a certain date (can't remember when). So now, you have the weird situation of bands assigned to roles but you join on the bottom and basically stay there until you get promoted. In our dept, it only seems to be those who are recruited from the private sector who seem to be able to negotiate coming in off the bottom of the band. Anyone internal gets the bottom as standard.

The answer is, they don't. And it is a massive bone of contention in the CS. Pay bands were frozen some time ago can't remember how long (10 years or so?) but if you had someone who had managed to get up a few increments before they were frozen you can have a situation where two people, exact same grade, exact same job and experience and one of them will have been earning a few grand a year more. Doesn't sound like much, but even if they only earned a few grand a year more, it adds up over a period of time, and when you can see that your colleague has managed to pay off a nice chunk of his mortgage and building up a bigger pension pot while you are putting in the same effort and output, it can really grip your shit!

I think it was about 2016 that the increments went.

If we're not on a pay freeze then we get a pay rise. Everyone gets the same. This year its 3%. But the bottom of the grade band also moves up with inflation. So you're not actually progressing from the bottom towards the top of the band at all.

@jonathonjones do you still have increments in the NHS then???

Oh and good performance gets you a one off bonus usually £200.

Yes, increments still exist in the NHS. They're awarded automatically, unless things are going very badly.

Oh really! That makes me more pissed off!!!

Although to temper that, the increment structure was changed recently, so increments can have 2, 3, or 5 years between them I think.