Warning: Numpty Question... Job advert salary description

[LenniEd]

So I'm applying for some jobs and having previously been a teacher I'm not used to the ouside world - what does it mean in a job advert when the salary is listed as £xxxx-£xxxxx (bar £x) - is the bar the average? or would they offer lowest? do you need qualifications/experience to go over the bar? Am confused as some of the jobs have a massive range - top salary is double bottom in some instances.

Thanks for your help

I've got no idea what 'bar' means tbh! So it's not a numpty question.

Where they would offer in the range depends on how salaries work at the organisation in question. In some places you would start at the bottom automatically, regardless of your level of experience and skills, in many other places the range is just that - a range, and where a person is in it will depend on the individual concerned and what they bring to the job.

What kind of organisation is it?

I think bar means the normal top of the scale - the point you would progress to incrementally each year. Once you had reached the 'bar', and additional increments to take you to the top of the scale are not automatic, but will be based on performance, funding, or some other criteria.

HTH

Thank you for allaying my numpty fears. Is a council job but there are bars on similar private sector jobs too, probably because they are drawing from the same labour pool.

Thank you both - would make sense to be a point that you progressed to automatically and above that performance/qualifications related.

We used to have bars at my place. For us it meant that although we all fell into one grade, we were efffectively either above the bar or below the bar depending on the jobs that we did within that grade, so like "A" or "B" staff, but within the same level. They got rid of the bars when they realised that most of the people below the bar were women and most above were men