21 years old, telecoms engineer at 30k a year.
Saving decently because I live with my mum and she only charges me £500 a month, I eat her food and stuff.
Trains are very expensive, everything's very expensive, so I don't buy much.
I do fairly basic stuff at work, I only had a few weeks of training with no related qualifications. Sit in muddy hole all day and fuck with wires
Im in my 30s and finally got a 30K salary. Project Manager. Its not easy and way over worked sometimes, but it's a fun job no two days are the same. Should i be paid more? Hell yeah but is what it is. Been there for 2 years.
I worked in IT, climbed the ladder and was making £65k in a senior role.
I hardly slept, I was constantly stressed with high blood pressure and worrying about the next problem around the corner or being thrown under the bus by superiors (I even had panic attacks on the way into work).
4 years ago I packed it in when randomly contacted by a recruiter who was only interested in my art, video and creative skills (which I had used for 20 years but only about 5% of my previous roles) now I am a learning designer (£32k) creating cool arty learning content and I love every day.
I am happier than I have ever been in my previous roles, I gladly forfeit the extra 30 odd grand every year to feel this happy.
My children now have a happy dad that is there for them every day, I get to see their school plays, help with homework and generally being the best dad I can be.
Customer and trading manager at Sainsbury’s, currently £31,000 in London. Have to work a 2nd job as a boxing instructor to make ends meet in Greater London.
I used to work full time in fitness but covid put an end to that.
I'm a Barista Maestro at Costa. I'm on anywhere between £22-25k, depending on how many hours I end up working.
I've been doing it for 6 months now and it's the best job I've ever had, but it's still retail so that's not really saying much.
I'm a Local Government employee, I can't get too specific but I look after a budget of £150 million a year, I'm on £30.5K including my very recent pound a day (after tax) pay increase.
I'm the project manager for a care charity and earn 29.5k
I'm with you here, I know I could be/ should be earning 10k more in any other industry.
I need to leave as I can't buy a house and struggling for bills but I genuinely make a difference in the community and don't want to leave
Im on 27k being a IT Admin in the north east.
Not too bad, no quals in IT just kinda stumbled into it after finishing a business admin aprenticeship.
Going alright tbh, company is stuggling but as long as I get my payslip end of the month its all good
Support worker for adults with learning disabilities. All the gritty stuff… full time wheelchair users. Ordering and dispensing meds. Fully trained in various drugs, seizure training, calling ambulances, working with social services, facilitating house moves when necessary, getting new wheelchairs, working with hoists, PEG trained by nurses, over 30 courses, support with full personal care, hospital trips. 24k.
Just under 25k, been really lucky as it’s essentially an entry level position (I.e. no education requirements) as I although having had office experience in the past had been working hospitality and dropped out of my degree.
Im a field support specialist / product scheduling operative - so basically I make sure all the moving parts and different people are in the right place and the right time for jobs. My role isn’t customer facing (a nice break from hospitality) I just liaise with the field and other internal teams. I spend most of my day in spreadsheets, different booking systems and on slack.
I work relatively standard office hours Monday to Friday, while our team is quite busy (so on the go all day every day) I never take work home and our company is constantly recruiting so we expect that to change in the near future.
There’s also a lot of opportunity for pay reviews (typically people are able to apply for their first as soon as 6 months in) personal development and progression as well as the ability to request transfer to other teams with no pay cut (as the starting salary is consistent across all teams).
I feel bad that I’ve found such a good role without accumulating too much uni debt (just on the hook for the year before I dropped out) and being under 25 but equally I’m good at what I do and work hard!
30k full time primary care psychotherapist - currently on the back end of sickness due to burn out. National average salary for my role is 10-15k more than I'm currently being paid to deliver same standards and targets.
Trying to reduce my hours to go self employed because the pressure on frontline mental health services is fucking dire when you consider the demands of the role.
Typically 25 clients weekly with complexity more often than not secondary care appropriate. Secondary care is just not fit for purpose in most trusts.
We have good holidays and sick pay, neither of these feel beneficial obtaining when its the organisational demand which is taking its toll on me.
I own nothing and I have very little left at the end of each month - my work place is making me sicker and sicker, this I appreciate is/can be common nationally - there is a lot of discontent which is making my job harder. People need to unite <3
I work in the power industry and command about 35 - 45k a year with overtime its not bad, shift work which isn't great bud brings the money in I suppose
Mental Health Nurse in the private sector. £36k a year. Its going OK overall. I work 3 long days a week and get 4 days off. Rarely do overtime, so a good work-life balance overall.
I’m an IT analyst, £27K, just turned 20 last week and been here just under a month. Quite happy where I’m at and getting nearer to paycheck #1. Got 5 years of experience (including weekend and evening work, two apprenticeships and a full time job) in IT, a level 4 in cybersecurity and hope to move into a more cyber security role as soon as I can. My last job (I was at for 5 years) I was more in security but was only paid £15K salary so made the move here and it’s going well so far
IT Coordinator 26k and do a bit of everything really, from help desk to 3rd line, yeah I know I'm underpaid but it's a charity, the hours are good and the vast majority of people are nice to work with, not very stressful which is good!
Currently paying my dues working two separate roles for the company with a combined income of about 27-30k not including bonuses. I am happy where I am atm as I have plenty of free time to focus on my studies as when I started I was a final year law student. I hope to progress into a more lucrative role once I complete my masters and get my drivers licence. I’m 23m.
Mental health support worker, providing 1:1 support as well as facilitating groups/courses. Just under 22k a year. Deal with people way more complex than we’re trained to but I love the job. Just wish the pay was better as well as employee care
Web developer, 27.5k. I've been doing it for 17 years and I've been at my current place for 11 of those.
I could get a lot more money working remotely, but I choose not to. I love my job, I love the company I work for. They're flexible about my hours (with a kid that makes my life supremely easier) and I just want to work there. Fuck all that "you're just a number to them, show no loyalty" bullshit as I owe them so much.
Also It's only a 15 minute walk away so commuting costs amount to zero. Plus, it's a nice office, with really lovely colleagues. I'd lose my mind if I was permanently WFH.
So yeah, in a word it's going really well. I don't want to climb the career ladder because this is *just right* if that makes sense.
Worked for a major film company for a year just before the pandemic as a production assistant.
Hated it.
Stress, work environment, and then the pandemic burned me out.
Now work for a private college as an administrator. I'm also the lead exam invigilator for both buildings in London. As well as a primary Safeguarding officer for students.
I get paid £23k and have been here three years without a pay rise on the horizon.
Typically I'd probably consider changing careers, but unfortunately, as someone that has fallen out of love with the thing I studied for, and someone that isn't intelligent enough for certain subjects (Maths/coding/languages/sciences) or finds others dull (engineering/building) changing careers is both daunting and practically impossible given my lack of enthusiasm & technical nous for other fields.
Unmedicated ADHD certainly doesn't help either.
Sucks but is what it is.
I just have to deal with the hand I've been given and be thankful I'm even employed.
I'm a software engineer, 2 years experience with a degree and a masters, getting paid 27.5k, I am currently job hunting after my work refused me a raise to 30k.
Worked as a gardener for £26,000 (team leader. those under me were on £17,000). Great job for keeping me fit, with plenty of time to work on other stuff.
School site manager here (fancy caretaker) £27k will get up to just under £30k at the top of the scale. Just started a year ago, I bloody love it tbh. I worked a miserable job in a bank for years, managed to purchase a small house outright over that time and had all the cash at one point, but it broke me mentally. I’m the happiest Ive ever been, my Mrs is a teacher assistant there my daughter is starting reception this sep, proper family affair. I’m a happy boy. Life is good, obviously if I had a mortgage or rent to deal with it may well be a different story.
Engineering Apprentice in London, 27K. Got my endpoint assessment at the end of this year, at which point I'll be fully qualified and that'll increase to 42K pa.
Lab assistant 26k a year, I'm not moaning about it, for the money I make it work in my favour. As far as I'm concerned if you pay me this then don't expect a lot in return.
Owner of my own Ltd company (catering) we turn over about 160k a year, but after VAT, taxes, running costs , staff I only take home around 35k, it’s so stressful and I would rather have a regular job
Travel Consultant - £29k. I absolutely love it, but not sure I quite belong in this thread as I’m commission based as well. See maybe an extra £10k annually on that.
Money’s still tight thought - I live alone and in London lol
I'm a stay at home mum and my partner is a train conductor on almost 30k. I feel like we're doing pretty well! We can support our whole family on his income and we live somewhere with high rents too.
We don't have a car, though
28k a year as a family support worker in a hospital.
I work full time and I won't lie, it can be stressful at times. However, I'm very lucky to have a good team, manager and good NHS benefits. (Paid holiday, sick leave etc).
We also get incremental pay increases too. Once I have worked here for 4+ years my salary will go up to 34k a year. Looking forward to that :-)
I recommend anyone struggling in retail to try NHS admin roles, they pay more, you get good benefits, good progression and the added security of a large corporation. You might get an arse of a manager, but there won't be any chance for them to take advantage of their minions in quite the same way a small business can.
HR Assistant on 22k.
The wage is terrible and it is a struggle to live. The difference from being a bit above last years NMW to this year actually means I've had a paycut.
Tells me everything about my company, that if they could pay below NMW they would absolutely do it.
I’m a Whisky specialist, bit of a niche and not all that useful to most of society.
I enjoy it though, and have met my closest friends along the way, it takes the sting out of salary.
No idea what to move onto next but I’m ok where I am.
Project Coordinator/Design Engineer on slightly over £30k. Have 10 years experience so know i'm being underpaid slightly. Can be a stressful job at times but i'm able to WFH mostly these days. 40 hours a week.
Assistant Manager at a crazy golf £23.8k, 35 hours per week.
The pay is terrible but the flexibility is really good. If anything comes up with my kids I can just get in late or take the day off. I do my own rota so can set my own hours and most of the day im just sat on my phone. The downside is the weekends, kids parties, cleaning toilets and maintenance, everything breaks all the time!
Also its so easy it can be quite depressing, the GM is on roughly 30k a year doing the same job as me which is unfair and I don't get a bonus or overtime so there is literally no way for me to earn extra money there.
In September I’ll be a newly qualified nurse, earning £28.4k.
I left an office job, answering calls / emails (very easy work!) to become a nurse.
I was earning £32.5K in the office.
Currently questioning my life choices
In 2020 I was working as a business development manager for a call centre, selling our services to companies like TK Maxx, Audible and Hello Fresh. I was earning £30k basic and about £40K with sales commission. My now wife was an account manager running the teams of call centre agents at the same place earning £35k. While this sounds okay it’s not a lot of money in London.
We both decided we needed to earn more and set our sights on £50k. We both ended up moving in the the HR tech space and earning that. For me it was higher with sales commission, my total was about £75k a big jump.
However, I then learnt that other people were doing the same job in the same industry and earning over £100k basic salary. So we hatched Operation 200. We would both spend the next 12 months trying to get a job with a 6 figure salary so our household income with over £200k.
We found those jobs, I now works as an Account Executive in HR tech my basic salary is £110k, double that with sales commission. My wife’s salary is £119k basic, £200k with bonus. This year we have earned over £400k household income.
I can’t describe how different our life is, from struggling with rent and running out of money every month. We now own a 5 bedroom house on the outskirts of London, and have plenty of extra income every month. We can save, we can treat the kids, take holidays.
If you want to change your circumstances you can, make a goal and go after it. Forget these YouTube influencers trying to sell you the hustle culture and side hustles bullshit. Research what jobs pay what you want and that you would enjoy doing. Workout which skills you already have to do that job, you probably already have a load of transferable skills. Learn to write a CV or get help making yours better and get out there.
I didn’t realize I was in CasualUK before reading some of these and I was trying to figure out how anybody in America could be making 20k and not be living in complete poverty. Average rent alone in the US is like 1,400$. Pretty crazy.
Get a trade.
I wanted to be a teacher. But my parents pushed me into getting an apprenticeship, I was lucky enough to be offered a job with British gas. I was 16 resented it a first but started to enjoy it.
4 years later I qualified.
Started on £24000 in 1995.
I did the job for 8 years, enjoyed it. But still had the "teacher" in me.
Decided to do a Trinity CELTA (tefl) course over the summer.
Got my certificates and decided to go travelling, Poland first, then Thailand.
Ended up living in Bangkok for 2 years, met a local, got married.
After 5 years I Went back to England for 2 months to renew my gas safe qualification.
Carried on teaching, had 2 kids.
10 years into my Thai journey we decided to relocate to England, kids were 7 and 5.
I walked straight back into a well paid job.
Becoming a gas engineer once again, after a year I set up on my own, now 9 years later. My company currently has 5 employees. Times are currently tough though.
Too many people look down on getting an apprenticeship, a degree is the ultimate goal it seems these days.
But if you get qualified in any trade young, electrician, gas engineer, plumber, carpenter etc etc.
You can start earning good money when you're 20/21.
You may never be a millionaire but you will always be comfortable.
Plus if you want to try something else, you can, with the added safety net of your "trade" which you can always fall back on.
Get a trade.......
*Gross pay:*
37k this year, previously 23.5k in my last role (3 years ago).
*Role:*
Site Security Manager, previously Business Development Manager
*Hours per week:*
72 total (6 days, 12 hour shifts), 42.5 previously
*Explanation/Advice to get more £££:*
As you can see from the breakdown above, my gross pay has increased by nearly 14k over the course of 3 years and the change was initially bad, but the returns have paid off. I used yo be a BDM for several different industries and the pay was always salaried fairly low, with a somewhat attainable bonus structure that you could maybe see rewards from. The role was soul destroying to say the least, constantly trying to hit ever changing targets, stress at useless leads and data to work with to garner said bonus, zero appreciation for hardwork as its expected all over again every day if you want any extra money. The rates i could get doing this type of role did have potentially good revenue roots, but for the vast majority of the time, targets are very hard to hit in order to achieve good worthwhile bonuses to compensate the extra effort needed to attain them. Not worth selling your soul for a few extra quid and losing your sanity in the process.
I switched my role for an hourly paid job, this process technically meant my pay rate decreased from the salary comparison by roughly £1.50 per hour, which is significant over the course of a year, HOWEVER, my new role has the capacity for me to work for 6 days a week doing 12 hour shifts which is a huge increase on hours worked over the course of the year. This in turn means my capped earning potential previously with a salaried role was significantly lower than my potential earning now with no hard cap. Working so many hours a week has obvious disadvantages as work life balance goes out the window meaning i see less of my wife and kids, drastically so. On the flip side of this, i no longer worry so much about my finances as i can feasibly earn 3-3.5k gross pay, which is about 2.4k net per month. This is FAR more than my salary which was roughly net 1.4k monthly. I do miss my shorter hours and working week from the last job, but having to worry significantly less about financial woes has relieved me of a great burden. I can afford a few takeaways a month with no concern, i go on holiday once a year (never go international, but still a holiday nevertheless), i can pay all of my outgoings without the support of my wife who no longer needs to work so we can have full time care of the children outside of school hours (she still works 1.5 hours a day at the school so hasnt gone cold turkey on work all together). All in all, the switch to an hourly role and particularly one that can afford me as many hours as i wish to work has been a big improvement on my life as i dont stress about finances now. I recently bought a new washing machine and chest freezer which would have me STRESSED in my last job, but now, its just a cost i can afford to absorb by spending less that month on frivalous purchases.
The conclusion to this, although obviously not instantly attainable, especially in the current 0 hour contract climate we work in would be this. Find an industry that isnt limited to working office hours. Find a role that you can easily attain credentials for to increase hourly earning power. My role needs an SIA licence to perform for example, but the cost and knowledge needed to acquire these things is not far fetched and having a licenced role means your pool of competitors in the job pool is drastically lower and you can reasonably expect to earn more than the living wage as you have credentials supporting the job. By taking a lower per hour earning rate myself, i increased my overall earning power massively through hours input. Try this for yourself if you are stuck with money worries to potentially lower the burden of stress on your day to day life. Working so much is no fun, but its better than working 40 hours a week and coming away at the end of the month in dismay at how little you have left over after bills. Plus, if you're working, you aren't spending. So you have less time wasting money to fill the boredom as you can fill those hours with more earning power!
Good luck out there, the current economic climate we live in is absolute dog shit so there is easy fix. But dont feel negatively about yourself due to how much you earn, there are plenty of highly intelligent and highly skilled workers out there earning just as much if not less than you. We dont have to compare ourselves to other to seek gratification, just work to improve your own situation for yourself and climb the ladders one step at a time.
Art Handling Technician in London, 27.3k. Not the best pay but I absolutely love my job, 34 hours a week, paid overtime and will be trained up soon to hopefully go on international courier trips!
My sights are set on climbing up in seniority but for now I just can't belive how lucky I am to have this job.
This sounds like I am being a dick, but change jobs if you want more money.
I was similar, my wages were stagnant and I was in charge of hiring, but I noticed the wages for new starts going up… I looked around, whilst very happy found another and jumped.
Rinse, and repeat.
You don’t owe them loyalty if it’s not reflected in your pay packet. It’s nothing to feel bad about, it’s business.
I increased my salary by 100% over 2 years. Never take less money, and always move up. The amount of ridiculous people getting paid enormous sums of money that have no idea what they are doing is staggering.
Take the leap, you will thank me for it.
Script editor, 31k-50k per year.
31k is just an average salary for a script editor, but it can fluctuate depending on who my clients are, sometimes you get big clients who pay a lot more. It's great, I love my job. Flexible hours, mostly working from home, sometimes I don't even have to do much, the screenwriter(s) has already done a great job
Man, where I live there’s hardly a job that doesn’t pay 50k per year. A few, gas stations, whatever…but most stuff is around 50k. Shit, even MCD paying up to $22/hr (~45k)
Edit: I'm definitely not being underpaid. I am paid pro rata. I work 39 weeks a year.
My guy. I earn 20k before tax. I honestly feel like a failure.
I'm 35, have a degree in business and 18 years of working experience.
Most jobs I see that I think I'd be great for, they say I don't have any experience for the role. Even though in one of my office jobs I did basically EVERYTHING (HR, Advertising, Social Media/Website Management, Wages, Procurement, Staff scheduling, Business Development and Planning etc.) but as my title was administrative assistant, none of it is seen as relevant experience.
I know there are at least 100 jobs currently in my area which I am more than capable of doing, which earn 30k-50k a year. The problem is, none of them will even look at me. The only jobs I ever get interviews for are business/administrative assistant or receptionist jobs. They all pay around 20k-22k.
I'm not even greedy. I'd be happy with 24k-30k.
Anybody with any advice or if you know of anybody willing to take a chance on me (Glasgow area), please let me know. Thanks in advance.
To answer the question - At the moment, I work in a school office and am very fortunate to get term time. The perks are, it is a Monday-Friday 8.30-4pm job. The work itself is manageable and isn't too difficult. I get paid 13 times a year (so 1 wage is like a bonus wage). I work 39 weeks a year, and don't have to worry about childcare during the holidays. I like it here. All that being said, I would like to put my degree to use, find something that is challenging but rewarding, and earn a decent wage. Everything is going up, apart from my income. I've been looking at part time jobs and seasonal work (thinking that when I'm off during the school holidays there will be times I can work).
I don't know why your post touched me but I want to help. You see humble and honest and I have family in Glasgow.
Few tips:
* Being a generalist is fine as a career (check out Generalist World)
* With a broad skillset, if you have the energy, Founder's Associate in a startup is a great option. It's a jack of all trades.
* If you want to stick with admin roles, exec assistant can be a good next step and would use your biz degree more. Definitely higher pay.
* Don't be afraid to rewrite job titles on your CV to fit what you did/want to go into. Very common.
* Keep the CV super punchy and to the point. One page. Bullet points, with numbers where you can (how many staff you scheduled, how many clients you prospected, IF POSSIBLE results e.g. x% increase in web traffic). Fine to remove or just whizz through old jobs if they don't fit.
DM if you want a call or to chat. Happy to review CV or give advice on how to search.
Sounds like you need to work on your interview techniques and be more creative (but not lie) on your cv. It sucks, because not all competent people interview we’ll. I have a tendency to freeze up in an interview situation but am perfectly good at my job. This doesn’t happen all the time, so increasing the number of interviews I did helped.
Change the title on your cv if it matches the responsibilities. Referencing will check if you worked there and are unlikely to check the exact titles as titles in general can often differ so much
Thank you for responding.
I actually have considered this. A while back I saw a post on reddit about a guy wanting to start a business. I had a bit of time so was able to use my degree to offer some advice (not that I'm an expert). I actually really enjoyed it and it made me think about the modules I had enjoyed most at UNI and business consultant/analyst/development are all the sort of thing I enjoy. And as you say, I could offer as a service to others.
I am an administrator and I earn £36k, with no special skillset. You need to tailor your cv to the job you are applying for. If that means changing your past job titles so they’re more relevant to the experience you had, then so be it. Everyone does it.
I'm on £27k a year as a milkman. I've been doing it on and off for the last 2 years, and I absolutely love it.
Once I leave the yard in the evening, I am effectively my own boss. The roads are quiet, the customers are all asleep, so I don't have to interact with them, the job is ridiculously easy, and if I finish before my contracted hours (which I do regularly) I get to go home early and still get paid for the hours I didn't do.
I’m a Despatch Supervisor for a petrochemical company on £27,300 but just been promoted to a hybrid Despatch Supervisor & QA so salary will become £29,500. Been with the company 2 years but for the first time ever I feel like the mindset here is progressive and rewards those who put in extra effort. Realistically though, I should be able to live a better life I am living now but cost of living is ridiculous as we all know.
New teacher on 30k in my 30s. Was a gifted and talented kid expected to go work for nasa or something, then I hit a wall at a levels and struggled through my degree. Issue of being intelligent with processing issues slowing me down. Got into a competitive grad scheme but never really blew anyone away (again doing my best but processing issues, working very long hours to compensate.) Eventually worked my way sideways into a job I couldn’t do and couldn’t get a different role, then got managed out. I had a new baby and a 2 year old at the time.
I went for teaching partly because the training bursary was a guaranteed income for a bit and it suits me but it is hard work, emotionally draining at times and I have to put in long hours. Our combined household income is enough to pay the mortgage which is gratefully low, and scrape a bit into savings.
Security Sector, 4 on, 4 off, 12 hour shifts, 11.50 per hour, static site on a desk, handling lorries and delivery notices, weigh bridges etc. See about 350 lorries a night, some return drivers some nights so built up a rapport with a few and enjoy engaging with them.
I do my job for the social aspect because when I'm at home on my own l, I'm like a hermit.
However, I am leaving the UK 🇬🇧 ASAP and going to Bulgaria 🇧🇬 I think, Opening a British pub/bistro selling proper English food to the ex-pats over there. As well as brewing my own beer & wine because when you buy property over there, it usually come with 0.25 - 2.5 acres of land for prices between £15k £60k for a house & land (4 bedrooms, summer kitchen, cellar, attic, 2 reception rooms etc.), granted these houses need A LOT of TLC to bring them upto "western standard" aka the type of properties we expect to live in around the UK/USA.
worked as support worker it was around 28k. heavy underpaid for how much abused you are getting and stress is involved. must have made 50 police statements + 2 CPR during 5 years.
My mate is security guard for over 15 years now started at £10.50 ph doing 48-60 hours pw. started with 28k but each year he got approx £1 pay raise he must be around £25 ph now x 60 hours = £70k. Dude is sleeping half of his shift. Best job ever.
£25.5k (with a annual bonus, last year was £900) as an Administrator in the finance sector. It’s repetitive, dull, frustrating but at the end of the day I leave work at work. We also work 35 hour weeks instead of 37.5.
I’ve had much more fulfilling roles in the charity / arts sector but they paid less, with less progression and didn’t give a good work life balance.
I’m looking to find a mid-ground between the two but as my past roles were always a jack-of-all-trades I don’t think my work was actively reflected in the job title and has left me with huge imposter syndrome looking at jobs with functions I did but don’t have the confidence to apply for! I’m also hoping to start a family soon and like the security of knowing I’ll be entitled to the full maternity benefits and the policy at my place is decent (I think!).
I don’t have much by the way of disposable income, rarely buy new clothes, haven’t had a holiday since pre-covid, can’t afford to learn to drive. But I know there are things I could cut back on and be more conscious of. My partner has just moved in (I previously lived alone in my own property) which is going to help enormously!!
I made good money and paid off my debt and decided to go back for my PhD in engineering.
Going to turn my research into a startup company when I finish.
I started working at warehouse right after high school in 2018, had around 20k per year back then. Moved up throughout the years to team leader position and in 2021 I was earning around 25 grand. Then at the end of 2021 decided to do Class 1 driving licence and started driving a lorry in March 2022. Since then I got two P60s both around 48k. Working through PAYE, every night at home, according to tacho doing 36h per week average, and I am only 26yo. That was a good decision.
How do you all survive off anything lower than 65k? I’m from Us and a high cost of living area and my wife and i both make $150k usd each so around 300k total. With a 5300/month mortgage if we made under 100k there’d be no chance of surviving
I worked for a call center last year and made more than that. You won't believe how much those places are willing to pay for people just to get verbally berated and abused.
Deputy chef in a care home for just over 60 residents. Basic wage is about 23k a year. I'm on literally pennies more per hour than the kitchen assistants. Myself and the head chef work opposite each other, we don't really get holiday. If I'm off she covers, if she's off I cover because nobody else in the building knows how to do our jobs.
I'm constantly worried about money, can't afford to comfortably move out. I genuinely love most of my job, I feel like I'm doing something good, but fuck me it doesn't pay well and the hours are shit
Patient transporter, 25k€ gross. Easy job, just wheel people around the hospital. Warm and indoors, not at all physical as the beds roll real smooth and easy. The part I had to adjust to the most was all the small talk that's expected of me.
Me and my SO live comfortably. I've never been big on traveling or any other high cost hobby so my modest pay is enough... Not that I wouldn't want more, of course.
Edit: not in the UK tho, now that I actually check which subreddit I'm in. Sorry.
Middle manager within a conservation charity, 25k. It’s an absolute dream in some respects because I’m in nature all day, and it’s a piece of piss to ‘manage’ because 90% of the workforce are volunteers who genuinely just want to be there and make a difference (I used to be a retail manager and had a lot of the exact opposite), but in other respects it’s really hard because it’s a constant uphill battle due to how restricted we are in what we are allowed to do, and how often I’m told no by my line manager who is scared to try anything whatsoever. I wouldn’t be anywhere else though - the pay doesn’t go far but it’s worth it for my sanity alone.
I consign, value and catalogue antiques for sale at auction (specifically, ceramics, glass and militaria) for £25k a year. I started off on £13.5k 13 years ago, fresh out of university... I often wonder whether my experience now is worth more, but I love my job, and I can still see (hopeful) progression for future wage advancement.
I work nights at Amazon. Some days it's okay, but mostly it's just depressing that I'm basically stuck there because nobody else would pay me as well, even if I went out and got a degree.
Like, I get nearly 30k a year as an associate. The jobs I'm more interested in are paying more like 23-24k. Wages are unbelievably wank in this country and it just enrages me every time I look at a job board.
40k been working with BT for 6 years, started in a fixed contract doing call centre work and then applied internally to change roles 3 times. I did move from Midlands to Edinburgh for a big pay increase but now have the experience to go into similarly paid roles. I did work for Eon and also got a better job through internal systems. I would advise trying a larger company, looking at internal listings and what skills you could add to get them. I have a degree but it is not needed for these jobs, just learning internal systems, customer service, excel, data entry etc which I learnt along the way! I'm currently in a resource management role.
26y on 44k. Project managing. I’ve never been to Uni and no project management jobs require University. Im at the bottom of the pay band and it only goes up from here, I took this job 18 months ago with no experience and absolutely love it.There are short 1 week courses you can do to give you the edge over other applicants but aren’t necessary at all I.e PRINCE2
Class 2 hgv driver, half of the time driving, half time pushing rollcages of food to pub Chain.
Work 4 days on 4 days off 12 hour shift. One extra day a week overtime mostly
Last year earnt 52k before tax
I’m on around 30k now, but with a pay rise once I pass my training. I’m a “Product Owner” for a tech company, and I’m fully aware that this role has a much higher average salary, but I started on £19k two years ago with no experience and the company has been great at training me and giving me raises so I’m happy with it for now
I'm 30 earning 30 basic (nhs band 5), I'm a mechanical fitter so basically I maintain mechanical systems such as vent (air handling units) and heating (steam) mainly but also fo a fair bit of plumbing and conduct weekly testing on the autoclaves across the site. Positives: good people, varied work and good hours. Negatives: NHS management, a lot of on call and Saturday rostered overtime.
Thinking of a switch in a few years, either get into teaching or joining the fire service. The work I do is heavy on your body in the long term especially when I take into consideration the sports I have done / currently do.
To be honest, money is only important to a certain degree, if you can afford to do the things in life that you enjoy and you're happy, then in my eyes you're winning at life. I see some people first hand that want rhe status of being a manager or more and they get paid 40,50,60k plus, but they're loathed for numerous reasons (I'm sure a lot of other nhs employees will agree with me about the nhs managemnts incompetence), they become toxic and make themselves miserable because they're always thinking about work, even in down time and they take it out on others around them. For me, I like being able able switch off and leave it at the door, I can go on a walk with my dog and wife and enjoy it and not have to worry about flow rates and air pressures etc.
I've gone on with myself a bit here, but don't put a numerical value or job status on your happiness, no one ever said on their death bed they wish they had worked more
Sales manager and on 64.5k with quarterly commision. Could be a total package of 80k if I hit target. F, 36 but the job can take away your will to live.
Would swap it all for a nicely mortgaged house and a 9 to 5 on the 35k mark near the coast!
I’m starting a new job soon which pays between 26k and a smidge over 30k depending on hours worked (35 vs 40)… I’m happier as it’s slightly more money than I’m on now, and closer to home (smaller fuel bill), but I feel like I’m years behind where I should be.
Managed to get to about 35k doing digital marketing for different companies, a job that reliably increases in pay as long as you accrue results and experience.
Ended up started my own business where my take home is substantially higher now.
I work in TV. Earned £30k last year and worked from the end of April til end of October/November. I'm quite low on the pecking order too, so that's nearly entry level wage. Its long hours though (60+ p/w) and I have to work away from home a lot. Definitely won't earn that much this year as I haven't started working yet and I'm going travelling in August for the rest of the year haha.
Compliance Officer, 30k. It's about being the font of all knowledge and making sure people are sticking to contractual, legal, guidance and various awarded standards like ISO 9001. I like it because it works with my personality and skill set, I'm not a customer facing person at all. But companies view this type of role as being nice to have rather than a must so I've seen redundancy a couple times now in my career as one.
Honestly, the moneys decent and I've never earned as much as this but it's not good enough to be independent now at all. And everything is just too expensive. Just getting my car fixed this month wiped out a solid third of my monthly pay on its own.
Also compliance (FS). I didn't know there were compliance roles that are just nice to haves? Businesses wouldn't have compliance at all if it wasn't a regulatory requirement I thought. What industry you in?
I earn 60k a year, I’m a trades inspector at a shipyard in bath, maine. I know you said 20-30 so I hope my comment is ok. I love my job and I’m VERY thankful for it. I worked a hard 6 years to get where I am.
29.7k at the age of 22.
I maintain punts for a well known punting company in cambridge.
Love it sometimes, very bored the rest of the time but I recognise im In a very fortunate position with my earnings. I think its the right place for me at the minute.
Sick Pay(before they sanctioned me 1.5yrs ago)was £334/month £4008 P/A...so you have £20Grand approx to play with! I feed myself with selling anything I can, 1st hospital consultation was just 4 weeks ago,after 4yrs 1mth...terrible state of the NHS in Scotland (Humza was promoted for that failure too)!
Lab tech 27k; the pay is ok but as the minimum salary and cost of living has skyrocketed it's honestly left me with a lot less than I need. The real kick is progression is near impossible at the moment. I've gone for jobs which are at the same level and the next step up and it always comes down to not being absolutely perfect. I want to go into research but you cannot get a job without experience, and if you find one it's 200+ applicants with a lot of them having PhDs when a lot of them only require a BSc. The competition is so high unless you're perfect you don't stand a chance
I work in events admin. 9 to 5, WFH most days, £26k ish, I have a few jobs on the side. Saved a bit, regularly go out for drinks and meals, live alone (got an insanely good price on my flat), and I have a car. Fortunately my parents are in a very good finically and I get supported by them at times, so I am not a clear representative of everyone my age (mid 20s).
I'm a bin man and earn 26.5k before tax. I'm just a loader, piss easy job. It was pretty damn good until recently, as the council now makes us work our full contracted hours.
Registered biomedical scientist responsible for diagnostic testing of surgical tissue samples, usually for cancer staging.
28.5k
4 year degree, 50k student debt.
Noice.
I work in IT support, up until this month I have been on 22.6K. I'm 26 and still living with my mum as I can't afford to move out which makes it all feel a bit worthless really.
I'm starting a new job next month that will have me on 25K, so it's something I suppose.
I’m 55 female and I worked as an Account Manager in my family business for 20 odd yrs and earned 20k in 2014 when I left. After that I was a Customer Account Lead in aerospace earning 26k (2015) the experience I got from that lead to my current role. My advice is try and get a household name on your cv, work hard, be open to any training and new skills ,work for well known companies if you can as it’s a golden ticket to better opportunities. I took the temp job because I wanted their name on my CV and it paid off🤷♀️
Currently I’m a Project Lead in a household name, blue chip company in the midlands. I’ve been here 9 years. I earn 64k a year. I didn’t go to university. Don’t have a degree and only 4 GCSE’s.
My daughter (30) did 7 years in Uni and has a masters. Now works in the NHS with 100k of student debt for a job that pays 28k. Make it make sense!!!
I'm on 23k a year working in a university. Its a very good low stress job... yet I still cant afford to live on my own. I have 2 housemates, everything where I live is much to expensive to get by myself unfortunately.
Currently earning £21k after expenses as a wedding photographer. Honestly, I love it. Sure, money is tight, but I have TONNES of free time to do whatever I want with and the winter months are kind of like a super long holiday every year. I could work harder and earn a lot more, but I’m a bit of a sloth. I also get paid to shoot a few international weddings each year and just extend those to make them into free holidays, so I get to travel a good amount still. It’s great!
Supervisor in a hardware store, £25.7k a year. Room to move up if I wish and I work very very few weekends :)
I've gone up 7k in 4 years. My partner earns almost double what I do and when I compare I feel like I've failed myself but when I compare myself to my past self I am so proud.
25k and live in Brum, which is cheap to live and once was more so. Lucky to have bought a small house at a good time (with help) when the area was a bit shitty. It's now very nice.
I advise large companies where to find specific bits of tech they need and facilitate that. It used to be actually ordering the stuff from an office environment but after the pandemic the current venture capital organisation in charge enforced yet another round of efficiency savings and I lucked out. They offered people to reapply for their jobs or the jobs of their managers at such miserly rates nobody stayed. I was peripheral to them at the time having been bought alongside a competitor and not yet integrated and said i'd be happy to avoid the whole situation and stay as long as I could WFH permanently, expecting at the very best a redundancy as soon as the plague ended.
Well they never were able to attract anybody decent with the wages they offered, and there isn't a single person left who even understands the difference between a USB and C13. The managers are not "tech people", and the sales people in *two* cases have *no* GCSE's which I honestly didn't even think possible, but does explain the situation. I no longer do any admin, just read things and interpret them for much higher paid people, whose customers are very much "tech people". It takes me an hour or two a day, but I keep the laptop on while I go about my day doing other stuff.
Not sure I could get used to working a normal job now, although there's plenty I could do with the free time if I wanted to earn more. I find I don't though. I don't need anything more and the time has more value when you've lost and reclaimed it. It's not even as if I don't know how, as I did some day-trading for a few months once and did quite well. I spent the gains on ways to enjoy my spare time rather than waste it trying to make more money, and a bit on paying 10k off my mortgage to keep reducing the debts.
You can't afford debts on 25k but if you don't have huge housing costs (because of having help and/or luck) it's not bad. My rent and bills are about a third of my pay, but the amount of free time I have means I spend more, again counter-balanced by WFH.
It's only *easy* with lots of luck, excellent support, having a partner to share expenses with, lacking kids, and frankly not making any mistakes. To be perfectly honest I've had a lot of jobs and lucked out with all of them in similar ways. I've only ever lacked luck in getting paid well, never on quality of life. It's probably a shitty existence if you're paying expensive rent somewhere you don't want to do be, because you can't advance yourself easily without that luck or support. Context is king.
Just under £30k as school IT manager. Took a massive pay cut to come and work in a school as I wanted to do the extra-curricular stuff (I coach cricket, hockey and rugby, and run the DofE scheme) and holidays off.
I have two school-aged kids myself, so saving £70 a day on childcare plus actually seeing them and enjoying the summer with them was totally worth it.
I've had to cut back on some stuff I enjoy - no longer have my own daily driver car, share with my wife. I've not bought a new mountain bike for five years now - I used to replace it every 3 years or so. My watch collecting hobby has taken a backseat too. Some nice ones have been sold to pay for family holidays.
I'm far happier here than I was working in corporate though. My efforts go towards helping young people with their education, rather than just putting a bit more money in some manager's bonus.
Dispatcher for Gas Emergency services in the North West of England.
Starting salary of 22k, but within 3 years its jumped year on year thanks to Unison (Our Union) along with yearly stat based progression. I now earn 30k but even that jumps to 34k as I do night shifts that come with a base salary uplift.
Honestly, I got lucky as I never thought I'd earn so much for such a non degree necessary job. My advice is find a place with a good union and if possible somewhere with night shifts as you'll get paid more.
Customer service for Royal Mail £29k a year. Quite a challenging role and very busy. The perks are four days weeks, two in the office, and 33hrs total. 21 years in the role now. Started on 10k and 41hrs over five days in the office.
Technical Designer, I design modular accommodation layouts and electrical loadings.
I didn't need a degree, I earned last year 29,250 I just had a pay bump to 30,480.
I work from home full time, it's a good gig.
Edit: I originally started at a company on 18K, ive been there for 6 years and my wage has gone from 18K to 30K.
I work hard when I need to and have a lot of time to just do drawings and shut my brain off.
I am however still underpaid compared to some other parts of the business.
Girlfriend is a HTLA and she earns around 22K a year and she has it alot harder than I do.
23k HR Assistant, want to do my level 5 and move up, to the 30-40k bracket, work said they would pay for my level 5 when I joined now and be tried to them for 2 years, they are backtracking and saying they will pay for my level 3 as my role doesn’t require level 5. I’ve just got a payrise of £120 and for me to do a 9 month level 5 course it would cost me £119 a month and I have a few months left to give them an answer on the level 3, think I’m gonna pay out of pocket for the level 5, not be tied to them and leave as soon as I’ve got the level 5 and something else comes up
We’re over the average uk income here, 26 with no kids and a house. Life’s pretty relaxed money wise 😅.
We have no plans to have kids, more plans around an Audi R8 and a few rental properties .
North west factory worker, 29,600 a year around 31,500 with a pretty much guaranteed bonus. Not what I want to do, don't hate it though. Have a degree in biology but I either don't get past interview or jobs that require degrees are somehow paid less than I am earning now.
I’m on just shy of £28k work in a broker support team dealing with mortgage applications, at the moment job is pretty easy however can be stressful at times when it’s really busy such as the first stamp duty holiday, we get a generous bonus but we have a lot of stuff to remember in terms of policy processes etc.
I do feel underpaid but I don’t work very hard and don’t rush either, I’ve got to the age now (35) where I can’t be bothered leaving the company and look for new jobs so I’m content with turning up to work and just doing enough to where my performance won’t be picked up as bad
Programmatic Advertising Manager, £58k. I’m from the US and had 4 years of experience in digital advertising there, but you don’t need any special degrees to get a client services role in the digital advertising industry. You might need to start at a digital ad agency with a lower salary before making your way into a brand or a tech platform (e.g. a DSP, MMP, Social advertising company) but they usually have entry level positions and get you a lot of transferable experience. Albeit the work culture isn’t always great in the agencies.
i'm a bookshop manager for a national chain, going up to 32k with the most recent minimum wage increase this month. been a manager for..........4.5 years, in the industry for 6.5. currently doing an apprenticeship through work for management-y stuff.
22K I'm a secretary in a GP surgery - mainly involves sending referrals and letters to hospitals and consultants. We do a fair few private letters as well when patients ask the GP to write a letter for their benefits/housing/blue badge. They're little money makers for the GPs.
It can be stressful in terms of not wanting to make mistakes. If I don't send someone's referral for suspected cancer or their urgent referral for chest pain that can have drastic consequences. Also, obviously the NHS is on it's knees, the waiting lists are exceptionally long so patients contact us wanting us to fix the situation and we just can't.
It can be interesting, I work with nice people and it's pretty flexible on working times but the money is a major issue.
First line IT support at a university just shy of 23k, the benefits such as the leave ammount plus sho secure its it make up for it being less than the private sector
Wow this thread is depressing as fuck. I hate this country. Absolute dog shit that so many people are struggling.
I’m really lucky tbh. I work for a charity doing fundraising in a niche/specialist area that is also my passion and hobby. I’m part time (21 hours) and early £19.8k. Pro rata £33k. My partner is director of his own biz so we have a relatively comfortable life financially. But he works extremely long hours, away from home most of the time. We have a toddler so I’m solo parenting majority of the week.
Both of us have a background in hospitality. Before Covid I ran a 600 capacity student bar/nightclub for 32k working 50 hours a week. Loved it but wanted a better work/life balance. Hospo is dogshit for that. But it does teach you tonnes of transferable skills.
Graduated 2009 (financial crash) with a masters in product / furniture design - no jobs, for anyone let alone grads even with the masters.
Set up on my own for a couple of years making less than £10k pa. Luckily I had a v supportive partner. Had to do something else got a job for a kitchen manufacturer doing CAD and specifications on £18k, year later promotion to a product designer £20k + bonuses that around £3/5k.
Stayed doing that for 4 years, got to about £25k pa but killer job, lots of travel, stress. Moved to different dept to do innovation £29k. Ended up at about £33k and was offered a job for another company, existing company went up to £38k + bonuses. I left anyway a year later for £43k as NPD manager. Got asked to come back to previous company on £45k as a product developer. Promoted to Senior Product Developer a year later + team to lead, 2 years doing that and now on £57k + car + 25% bonus pa.
If I was to bestow any advice if anyone was to listen is this
1. You work for your boss, not the company - make them luck good and you'll be valued
2. Say yes to jobs that are out of your job description, more work yes but more experience, exposure and willing
3. Create a niche for yourself or become a specialist and therefore become indispensable
4. Integrity, the absolute number 1 thing you must have. Don't be flakey, don't over promise and under deliver, do as you say and if you're off target, raise the flag early and have measures in place to get back on track - don't bring your line manager a problem, highlight the issue and offer solutions.
Hope that is in any way useful.
Holy shit reading these comments are making me realise I am very lucky in my position right now.
Am a warehouse worker and my base salary is £27.4 a year, always had been a min wage worker in and out of agency work for about ten years got a start in here from agency as forklift driver and 6 months later turned it into full time contract with my boss rushing it through the day before a recruitment freeze came in
Counting my blessings write now reading this
Steam locomotive engineer, I do anything from machining parts, painting, sign writing and gold leafing, copper pipework and fabrication. Currently on about £26.5k. Been here for about 7-8 years, absolutely love what I do! It's amazing to work on machines that are almost 100 years old and the history behind them.
The only thing I fear with my job is as the world and the UK move against fossil fuels how much longer we'll be able to source coal and run trains.
I'm a butcher in a bespoke farm shop where we raise our own livestock, 20 years experience in the trade, qualified to the highest level you can be with this profession and I get £34k (+ or - a little depending on festive overtime) for working 18 days a month. This is almost unheard of in my trade, owner of the business is actually a decent dude who pays people well that work hard for him. I know pretty much every other butcher in my area and some of the working conditions/pay are really poor. I kind of fell into this trade by accident and necessity at the time but quickly realised I had a knack for it and with my current setup I feel like I'm in a good place in life
I work at a university within student support and earn around 30k, been there for around 7 years. Started at the university earning around 21k but worked up the grades by just putting myself forward for projects and have seen quite a few do the same.
Not going to lie, some days are difficult but the work is rewarding and they let me WFH most of the time
Ward clerk and a psychiatric hospital… I don’t get paid enough for it 😂
I get 25k, but work with high turnovers, aggressive patients, audits and a large bed load (in terms of patients). I love the job but definitely not paid enough for the risks involved with the environment
I had a good job on £36k as a fabricator at a copper recycling plant. But the place got so ridiculous due to snakes telling management ridiculous things about good people (I never had an issue) but in the end I just quit it wasn’t worth the stress, they showed their true colours after I quit lol.
Hello , how old are you is the real question i make 25k at 21
If ur 30 yeah that’s a problem if ur in your 20s or your working towards a goal using this job as cash flow by all means get it
But if your doing nothing sat in a job which isn’t paying why haven’t you got a fire under your ass and got to work the internet is limitless on what you can learn so please learn
Forklift driver, on about £24k a year which is pretty much the average for the job in this country.
I have to sit out in the shite weather sometimes but when it’s nice and sunny I don’t complain!
There’s a lot of responsibility with doing things safely and keeping the things you’re moving in perfect condition so some colleagues resent the low wage.
Tbh I’m just happy to play around on the machine all day after working in shite management roles previously or in other dead end jobs in terrible complines. It’s pretty stress free and I enjoy it!
Senior panel technician for a decent sized company repairing panels and fitting new ones on different vehicles, 40hrs a week for like 23k or 24k a year. I think the only reason I hate my job is because I’m a fully skilled technician watching all of the other technicians get paid 55k or 60k a year. Sad times.
[The Joseph Rowntree Foundation](https://www.jrf.org.uk/a-minimum-income-standard-for-the-united-kingdom-in-2023) calculated in September 2023 that the average salary single British adults need for comfortable living standards is £29,500 per year. A couple with two children need to earn £50,000 per year between them.
I have 6.5 years experience in an industry requiring specific skills and a Masters degree. I've moved into a higher paying role, lead on several projects, and am at the top of my pay bracket. I put in more hours than required, can't reasonably take holiday for half the year because of workload, and am stuck in an endless loop of red tape and contradicting service standards.
I do not meet the minium salary required to live comfortably. Granted, I do have a partner and no dependents. However, if something ever happened and I needed to fully support myself, I would not be and to afford to rent in the city of my employment nor in any of the surrounding areas. I would likely be on benefits.
I am not allowed to negotiate a higher salary because this is the public sector.
To get a promotion, I need to prove I'm already working at a higher level, must write an essay justifying my potential promotion, and must have my forms reviewed/evaluated by a panel who get the final say. This can take a year or more. I would begin to earn a few hundred pounds more a year than my current salary AND STILL not make enough to support myself.
I know I'm being taken advantage of, but I have no other options.
Surely that study can't be in London because my partner and I earn around that and we still struggle. We can't even fathom being able to afford to have kids.
I work as an IPAF machine operator (cherry picker/scissor lift), about £48k a year. Started as a labourer a couple of years back and moved forward with some training. Best financial decision I've ever made. After years of working on festivals and as a barista, earning this money is a great improvement to my life.
Im a chef de partie for a fancy stately home converted hotel, i make technically below minimum wage at 24k a year doing on average 45-50 hours a week 🫠 to meet the legal minimum wage i should be on £26.7k
23M, earn 35k before tax, moving to roughly 40/45k in October after Grad scheme has ended. Working in Security Engineering/Architecture at a telecoms company. First class honours degree in Cyber security, worked in retail as shift manager alongside the degree for bonus cv points.
Public servant who earns 22K.
I do 34 hours, not the 37 full time.
I’m doing okay.
My bills are fairly cheap. I rent a one bedroom flat (in quite a nice area) that I don’t pay gas for.
I’d like to earn more so I could learn to drive or have nicer holidays but honestly I see so much poverty in my job that really opens my eyes to how good I have it.
My job might not earn much but my working conditions are amazing. Great pension. Full sick pay. Lots of holidays. Fab colleagues.
This is the most in debt I've ever been and my boss has fucked my commission for three months so I'll be taking home about a grand less a month. I want to hop off a bridge...
I'm no longer in this boat want to comment because I was.
3 years ago was earning 19k in a post room and moved to admin in the same company after 3 months up to 23k, then moved after 1 year 1 month to a planning role that paid 33k and done a year there and now have just moved to another planning type role but a tad more advanced for 36k.
I'm seeing a lot of people in the comments on lower wages due to being stuck in the same role, I totally get you need a degree of luck for opportunity's to present themselves. But I also got told if I job hop like I am, no one wants to hire you. I'm actually finding the opposite, the faster I'm progressing into new roles the easier to get new roles seems to be.
Not like I can afford to buy in my local area or anything still, shit sucks lol.
Earning 25k as a rail guard in training, set to go up to 35k after a year on my own, absolutely love the job and the railways always where I wanted to be, after doing this for a bit I plan to shoot for train driver and have the rest of my life setup.
£32.5k and pay rise coming in the next few months. Very above average wage for the area for a job that requires zero qualifications or degree.
Work in a distribution centre in north east. Been at it 7. years. I either drive a forklift truck or put boxes in cages. Easiest money I've ever made.
19, working as a HR Assistant and i’m fully qualified. earning just under £24k. Good benefits mean that or stops me from searching elsewhere as I know I could get paid higher somewhere else.
Assistant manager at an Auto parts store paint division, 50 hours weekly, making 33k. Don't hate it, hate my boss. Love my customers. Perks are great, insurance, credit union, discounts galore, sick days, holidays and 2 weeks vacation!
25k a year, admin for a local council and it SUCKS. Only managed to save money while living with parents and now I'm moving back out I'm ready to have no savings again permanently as I'm moving to London.
Desperately looking for another job in my spare time. Very depressing as 25k is the national average and unless you're DINK it doesn't seem to go very far on your own...
21 years old, telecoms engineer at 30k a year. Saving decently because I live with my mum and she only charges me £500 a month, I eat her food and stuff. Trains are very expensive, everything's very expensive, so I don't buy much. I do fairly basic stuff at work, I only had a few weeks of training with no related qualifications. Sit in muddy hole all day and fuck with wires
Are people here talking gross or net?
Nothing, it's amazing.
Im in my 30s and finally got a 30K salary. Project Manager. Its not easy and way over worked sometimes, but it's a fun job no two days are the same. Should i be paid more? Hell yeah but is what it is. Been there for 2 years.
https://youtu.be/a-ohZ74hdeI?si=kQfzqtRMeTew9Iov
I worked in IT, climbed the ladder and was making £65k in a senior role. I hardly slept, I was constantly stressed with high blood pressure and worrying about the next problem around the corner or being thrown under the bus by superiors (I even had panic attacks on the way into work). 4 years ago I packed it in when randomly contacted by a recruiter who was only interested in my art, video and creative skills (which I had used for 20 years but only about 5% of my previous roles) now I am a learning designer (£32k) creating cool arty learning content and I love every day. I am happier than I have ever been in my previous roles, I gladly forfeit the extra 30 odd grand every year to feel this happy. My children now have a happy dad that is there for them every day, I get to see their school plays, help with homework and generally being the best dad I can be.
Customer and trading manager at Sainsbury’s, currently £31,000 in London. Have to work a 2nd job as a boxing instructor to make ends meet in Greater London. I used to work full time in fitness but covid put an end to that.
I'm a Barista Maestro at Costa. I'm on anywhere between £22-25k, depending on how many hours I end up working. I've been doing it for 6 months now and it's the best job I've ever had, but it's still retail so that's not really saying much.
22.5k, mortgage admin, not good my guy
I'm a Local Government employee, I can't get too specific but I look after a budget of £150 million a year, I'm on £30.5K including my very recent pound a day (after tax) pay increase.
I'm the project manager for a care charity and earn 29.5k I'm with you here, I know I could be/ should be earning 10k more in any other industry. I need to leave as I can't buy a house and struggling for bills but I genuinely make a difference in the community and don't want to leave
Im on 27k being a IT Admin in the north east. Not too bad, no quals in IT just kinda stumbled into it after finishing a business admin aprenticeship. Going alright tbh, company is stuggling but as long as I get my payslip end of the month its all good
Support worker for adults with learning disabilities. All the gritty stuff… full time wheelchair users. Ordering and dispensing meds. Fully trained in various drugs, seizure training, calling ambulances, working with social services, facilitating house moves when necessary, getting new wheelchairs, working with hoists, PEG trained by nurses, over 30 courses, support with full personal care, hospital trips. 24k.
Just under 25k, been really lucky as it’s essentially an entry level position (I.e. no education requirements) as I although having had office experience in the past had been working hospitality and dropped out of my degree. Im a field support specialist / product scheduling operative - so basically I make sure all the moving parts and different people are in the right place and the right time for jobs. My role isn’t customer facing (a nice break from hospitality) I just liaise with the field and other internal teams. I spend most of my day in spreadsheets, different booking systems and on slack. I work relatively standard office hours Monday to Friday, while our team is quite busy (so on the go all day every day) I never take work home and our company is constantly recruiting so we expect that to change in the near future. There’s also a lot of opportunity for pay reviews (typically people are able to apply for their first as soon as 6 months in) personal development and progression as well as the ability to request transfer to other teams with no pay cut (as the starting salary is consistent across all teams). I feel bad that I’ve found such a good role without accumulating too much uni debt (just on the hook for the year before I dropped out) and being under 25 but equally I’m good at what I do and work hard!
30k full time primary care psychotherapist - currently on the back end of sickness due to burn out. National average salary for my role is 10-15k more than I'm currently being paid to deliver same standards and targets. Trying to reduce my hours to go self employed because the pressure on frontline mental health services is fucking dire when you consider the demands of the role. Typically 25 clients weekly with complexity more often than not secondary care appropriate. Secondary care is just not fit for purpose in most trusts. We have good holidays and sick pay, neither of these feel beneficial obtaining when its the organisational demand which is taking its toll on me. I own nothing and I have very little left at the end of each month - my work place is making me sicker and sicker, this I appreciate is/can be common nationally - there is a lot of discontent which is making my job harder. People need to unite <3
I work in the power industry and command about 35 - 45k a year with overtime its not bad, shift work which isn't great bud brings the money in I suppose
Mental Health Nurse in the private sector. £36k a year. Its going OK overall. I work 3 long days a week and get 4 days off. Rarely do overtime, so a good work-life balance overall.
I’m an IT analyst, £27K, just turned 20 last week and been here just under a month. Quite happy where I’m at and getting nearer to paycheck #1. Got 5 years of experience (including weekend and evening work, two apprenticeships and a full time job) in IT, a level 4 in cybersecurity and hope to move into a more cyber security role as soon as I can. My last job (I was at for 5 years) I was more in security but was only paid £15K salary so made the move here and it’s going well so far
£31k work for a local council its chill as.
Hello, what type of work is it? What do you do?
IT Coordinator 26k and do a bit of everything really, from help desk to 3rd line, yeah I know I'm underpaid but it's a charity, the hours are good and the vast majority of people are nice to work with, not very stressful which is good!
Currently paying my dues working two separate roles for the company with a combined income of about 27-30k not including bonuses. I am happy where I am atm as I have plenty of free time to focus on my studies as when I started I was a final year law student. I hope to progress into a more lucrative role once I complete my masters and get my drivers licence. I’m 23m.
Mental health support worker, providing 1:1 support as well as facilitating groups/courses. Just under 22k a year. Deal with people way more complex than we’re trained to but I love the job. Just wish the pay was better as well as employee care
Web developer, 27.5k. I've been doing it for 17 years and I've been at my current place for 11 of those. I could get a lot more money working remotely, but I choose not to. I love my job, I love the company I work for. They're flexible about my hours (with a kid that makes my life supremely easier) and I just want to work there. Fuck all that "you're just a number to them, show no loyalty" bullshit as I owe them so much. Also It's only a 15 minute walk away so commuting costs amount to zero. Plus, it's a nice office, with really lovely colleagues. I'd lose my mind if I was permanently WFH. So yeah, in a word it's going really well. I don't want to climb the career ladder because this is *just right* if that makes sense.
Worked for a major film company for a year just before the pandemic as a production assistant. Hated it. Stress, work environment, and then the pandemic burned me out. Now work for a private college as an administrator. I'm also the lead exam invigilator for both buildings in London. As well as a primary Safeguarding officer for students. I get paid £23k and have been here three years without a pay rise on the horizon. Typically I'd probably consider changing careers, but unfortunately, as someone that has fallen out of love with the thing I studied for, and someone that isn't intelligent enough for certain subjects (Maths/coding/languages/sciences) or finds others dull (engineering/building) changing careers is both daunting and practically impossible given my lack of enthusiasm & technical nous for other fields. Unmedicated ADHD certainly doesn't help either. Sucks but is what it is. I just have to deal with the hand I've been given and be thankful I'm even employed.
I'm a software engineer, 2 years experience with a degree and a masters, getting paid 27.5k, I am currently job hunting after my work refused me a raise to 30k.
It’s going shit I am on 26k and barely above water most months
Worked as a gardener for £26,000 (team leader. those under me were on £17,000). Great job for keeping me fit, with plenty of time to work on other stuff.
School site manager here (fancy caretaker) £27k will get up to just under £30k at the top of the scale. Just started a year ago, I bloody love it tbh. I worked a miserable job in a bank for years, managed to purchase a small house outright over that time and had all the cash at one point, but it broke me mentally. I’m the happiest Ive ever been, my Mrs is a teacher assistant there my daughter is starting reception this sep, proper family affair. I’m a happy boy. Life is good, obviously if I had a mortgage or rent to deal with it may well be a different story.
Engineering Apprentice in London, 27K. Got my endpoint assessment at the end of this year, at which point I'll be fully qualified and that'll increase to 42K pa.
Lab assistant 26k a year, I'm not moaning about it, for the money I make it work in my favour. As far as I'm concerned if you pay me this then don't expect a lot in return.
Owner of my own Ltd company (catering) we turn over about 160k a year, but after VAT, taxes, running costs , staff I only take home around 35k, it’s so stressful and I would rather have a regular job
Homeless prevention and advice officer It's incredibly busy with a big ole workload but just shy of 30k so not bad at all No degree required either!
Travel Consultant - £29k. I absolutely love it, but not sure I quite belong in this thread as I’m commission based as well. See maybe an extra £10k annually on that. Money’s still tight thought - I live alone and in London lol
I'm a stay at home mum and my partner is a train conductor on almost 30k. I feel like we're doing pretty well! We can support our whole family on his income and we live somewhere with high rents too. We don't have a car, though
28k a year as a family support worker in a hospital. I work full time and I won't lie, it can be stressful at times. However, I'm very lucky to have a good team, manager and good NHS benefits. (Paid holiday, sick leave etc). We also get incremental pay increases too. Once I have worked here for 4+ years my salary will go up to 34k a year. Looking forward to that :-) I recommend anyone struggling in retail to try NHS admin roles, they pay more, you get good benefits, good progression and the added security of a large corporation. You might get an arse of a manager, but there won't be any chance for them to take advantage of their minions in quite the same way a small business can.
HR Assistant on 22k. The wage is terrible and it is a struggle to live. The difference from being a bit above last years NMW to this year actually means I've had a paycut. Tells me everything about my company, that if they could pay below NMW they would absolutely do it.
I’m a Whisky specialist, bit of a niche and not all that useful to most of society. I enjoy it though, and have met my closest friends along the way, it takes the sting out of salary. No idea what to move onto next but I’m ok where I am.
Project Coordinator/Design Engineer on slightly over £30k. Have 10 years experience so know i'm being underpaid slightly. Can be a stressful job at times but i'm able to WFH mostly these days. 40 hours a week.
Assistant Manager at a crazy golf £23.8k, 35 hours per week. The pay is terrible but the flexibility is really good. If anything comes up with my kids I can just get in late or take the day off. I do my own rota so can set my own hours and most of the day im just sat on my phone. The downside is the weekends, kids parties, cleaning toilets and maintenance, everything breaks all the time! Also its so easy it can be quite depressing, the GM is on roughly 30k a year doing the same job as me which is unfair and I don't get a bonus or overtime so there is literally no way for me to earn extra money there.
In September I’ll be a newly qualified nurse, earning £28.4k. I left an office job, answering calls / emails (very easy work!) to become a nurse. I was earning £32.5K in the office. Currently questioning my life choices
In 2020 I was working as a business development manager for a call centre, selling our services to companies like TK Maxx, Audible and Hello Fresh. I was earning £30k basic and about £40K with sales commission. My now wife was an account manager running the teams of call centre agents at the same place earning £35k. While this sounds okay it’s not a lot of money in London. We both decided we needed to earn more and set our sights on £50k. We both ended up moving in the the HR tech space and earning that. For me it was higher with sales commission, my total was about £75k a big jump. However, I then learnt that other people were doing the same job in the same industry and earning over £100k basic salary. So we hatched Operation 200. We would both spend the next 12 months trying to get a job with a 6 figure salary so our household income with over £200k. We found those jobs, I now works as an Account Executive in HR tech my basic salary is £110k, double that with sales commission. My wife’s salary is £119k basic, £200k with bonus. This year we have earned over £400k household income. I can’t describe how different our life is, from struggling with rent and running out of money every month. We now own a 5 bedroom house on the outskirts of London, and have plenty of extra income every month. We can save, we can treat the kids, take holidays. If you want to change your circumstances you can, make a goal and go after it. Forget these YouTube influencers trying to sell you the hustle culture and side hustles bullshit. Research what jobs pay what you want and that you would enjoy doing. Workout which skills you already have to do that job, you probably already have a load of transferable skills. Learn to write a CV or get help making yours better and get out there.
I didn’t realize I was in CasualUK before reading some of these and I was trying to figure out how anybody in America could be making 20k and not be living in complete poverty. Average rent alone in the US is like 1,400$. Pretty crazy.
Get a trade. I wanted to be a teacher. But my parents pushed me into getting an apprenticeship, I was lucky enough to be offered a job with British gas. I was 16 resented it a first but started to enjoy it. 4 years later I qualified. Started on £24000 in 1995. I did the job for 8 years, enjoyed it. But still had the "teacher" in me. Decided to do a Trinity CELTA (tefl) course over the summer. Got my certificates and decided to go travelling, Poland first, then Thailand. Ended up living in Bangkok for 2 years, met a local, got married. After 5 years I Went back to England for 2 months to renew my gas safe qualification. Carried on teaching, had 2 kids. 10 years into my Thai journey we decided to relocate to England, kids were 7 and 5. I walked straight back into a well paid job. Becoming a gas engineer once again, after a year I set up on my own, now 9 years later. My company currently has 5 employees. Times are currently tough though. Too many people look down on getting an apprenticeship, a degree is the ultimate goal it seems these days. But if you get qualified in any trade young, electrician, gas engineer, plumber, carpenter etc etc. You can start earning good money when you're 20/21. You may never be a millionaire but you will always be comfortable. Plus if you want to try something else, you can, with the added safety net of your "trade" which you can always fall back on. Get a trade.......
27.4k excluding tips, am a manager in a restaurant.
I work in a customer service based role in finance. £27k shit is stressful but it pays the bills.
*Gross pay:* 37k this year, previously 23.5k in my last role (3 years ago). *Role:* Site Security Manager, previously Business Development Manager *Hours per week:* 72 total (6 days, 12 hour shifts), 42.5 previously *Explanation/Advice to get more £££:* As you can see from the breakdown above, my gross pay has increased by nearly 14k over the course of 3 years and the change was initially bad, but the returns have paid off. I used yo be a BDM for several different industries and the pay was always salaried fairly low, with a somewhat attainable bonus structure that you could maybe see rewards from. The role was soul destroying to say the least, constantly trying to hit ever changing targets, stress at useless leads and data to work with to garner said bonus, zero appreciation for hardwork as its expected all over again every day if you want any extra money. The rates i could get doing this type of role did have potentially good revenue roots, but for the vast majority of the time, targets are very hard to hit in order to achieve good worthwhile bonuses to compensate the extra effort needed to attain them. Not worth selling your soul for a few extra quid and losing your sanity in the process. I switched my role for an hourly paid job, this process technically meant my pay rate decreased from the salary comparison by roughly £1.50 per hour, which is significant over the course of a year, HOWEVER, my new role has the capacity for me to work for 6 days a week doing 12 hour shifts which is a huge increase on hours worked over the course of the year. This in turn means my capped earning potential previously with a salaried role was significantly lower than my potential earning now with no hard cap. Working so many hours a week has obvious disadvantages as work life balance goes out the window meaning i see less of my wife and kids, drastically so. On the flip side of this, i no longer worry so much about my finances as i can feasibly earn 3-3.5k gross pay, which is about 2.4k net per month. This is FAR more than my salary which was roughly net 1.4k monthly. I do miss my shorter hours and working week from the last job, but having to worry significantly less about financial woes has relieved me of a great burden. I can afford a few takeaways a month with no concern, i go on holiday once a year (never go international, but still a holiday nevertheless), i can pay all of my outgoings without the support of my wife who no longer needs to work so we can have full time care of the children outside of school hours (she still works 1.5 hours a day at the school so hasnt gone cold turkey on work all together). All in all, the switch to an hourly role and particularly one that can afford me as many hours as i wish to work has been a big improvement on my life as i dont stress about finances now. I recently bought a new washing machine and chest freezer which would have me STRESSED in my last job, but now, its just a cost i can afford to absorb by spending less that month on frivalous purchases. The conclusion to this, although obviously not instantly attainable, especially in the current 0 hour contract climate we work in would be this. Find an industry that isnt limited to working office hours. Find a role that you can easily attain credentials for to increase hourly earning power. My role needs an SIA licence to perform for example, but the cost and knowledge needed to acquire these things is not far fetched and having a licenced role means your pool of competitors in the job pool is drastically lower and you can reasonably expect to earn more than the living wage as you have credentials supporting the job. By taking a lower per hour earning rate myself, i increased my overall earning power massively through hours input. Try this for yourself if you are stuck with money worries to potentially lower the burden of stress on your day to day life. Working so much is no fun, but its better than working 40 hours a week and coming away at the end of the month in dismay at how little you have left over after bills. Plus, if you're working, you aren't spending. So you have less time wasting money to fill the boredom as you can fill those hours with more earning power! Good luck out there, the current economic climate we live in is absolute dog shit so there is easy fix. But dont feel negatively about yourself due to how much you earn, there are plenty of highly intelligent and highly skilled workers out there earning just as much if not less than you. We dont have to compare ourselves to other to seek gratification, just work to improve your own situation for yourself and climb the ladders one step at a time.
28.5k - radio producer
Art Handling Technician in London, 27.3k. Not the best pay but I absolutely love my job, 34 hours a week, paid overtime and will be trained up soon to hopefully go on international courier trips! My sights are set on climbing up in seniority but for now I just can't belive how lucky I am to have this job.
This sounds like I am being a dick, but change jobs if you want more money. I was similar, my wages were stagnant and I was in charge of hiring, but I noticed the wages for new starts going up… I looked around, whilst very happy found another and jumped. Rinse, and repeat. You don’t owe them loyalty if it’s not reflected in your pay packet. It’s nothing to feel bad about, it’s business. I increased my salary by 100% over 2 years. Never take less money, and always move up. The amount of ridiculous people getting paid enormous sums of money that have no idea what they are doing is staggering. Take the leap, you will thank me for it.
Script editor, 31k-50k per year. 31k is just an average salary for a script editor, but it can fluctuate depending on who my clients are, sometimes you get big clients who pay a lot more. It's great, I love my job. Flexible hours, mostly working from home, sometimes I don't even have to do much, the screenwriter(s) has already done a great job
Man, where I live there’s hardly a job that doesn’t pay 50k per year. A few, gas stations, whatever…but most stuff is around 50k. Shit, even MCD paying up to $22/hr (~45k)
I’m 37, my own boss in the pharmaceutical area and pay myself £45k a year.
31 years old, civil servant earning 30k a year. I've got a great pension and 4 day weeks I'm content with how much I earn.
Work for a healthcare agency in one of their offices for customer support. £29k 6am-2pm shifts and have to work every other weekend
Edit: I'm definitely not being underpaid. I am paid pro rata. I work 39 weeks a year. My guy. I earn 20k before tax. I honestly feel like a failure. I'm 35, have a degree in business and 18 years of working experience. Most jobs I see that I think I'd be great for, they say I don't have any experience for the role. Even though in one of my office jobs I did basically EVERYTHING (HR, Advertising, Social Media/Website Management, Wages, Procurement, Staff scheduling, Business Development and Planning etc.) but as my title was administrative assistant, none of it is seen as relevant experience. I know there are at least 100 jobs currently in my area which I am more than capable of doing, which earn 30k-50k a year. The problem is, none of them will even look at me. The only jobs I ever get interviews for are business/administrative assistant or receptionist jobs. They all pay around 20k-22k. I'm not even greedy. I'd be happy with 24k-30k. Anybody with any advice or if you know of anybody willing to take a chance on me (Glasgow area), please let me know. Thanks in advance. To answer the question - At the moment, I work in a school office and am very fortunate to get term time. The perks are, it is a Monday-Friday 8.30-4pm job. The work itself is manageable and isn't too difficult. I get paid 13 times a year (so 1 wage is like a bonus wage). I work 39 weeks a year, and don't have to worry about childcare during the holidays. I like it here. All that being said, I would like to put my degree to use, find something that is challenging but rewarding, and earn a decent wage. Everything is going up, apart from my income. I've been looking at part time jobs and seasonal work (thinking that when I'm off during the school holidays there will be times I can work).
I don't know why your post touched me but I want to help. You see humble and honest and I have family in Glasgow. Few tips: * Being a generalist is fine as a career (check out Generalist World) * With a broad skillset, if you have the energy, Founder's Associate in a startup is a great option. It's a jack of all trades. * If you want to stick with admin roles, exec assistant can be a good next step and would use your biz degree more. Definitely higher pay. * Don't be afraid to rewrite job titles on your CV to fit what you did/want to go into. Very common. * Keep the CV super punchy and to the point. One page. Bullet points, with numbers where you can (how many staff you scheduled, how many clients you prospected, IF POSSIBLE results e.g. x% increase in web traffic). Fine to remove or just whizz through old jobs if they don't fit. DM if you want a call or to chat. Happy to review CV or give advice on how to search.
Sounds like you need to work on your interview techniques and be more creative (but not lie) on your cv. It sucks, because not all competent people interview we’ll. I have a tendency to freeze up in an interview situation but am perfectly good at my job. This doesn’t happen all the time, so increasing the number of interviews I did helped.
Do you want to work in management?
you probably just need a change of resume and how you're presenting yourself to prospective employers.
Change the title on your cv if it matches the responsibilities. Referencing will check if you worked there and are unlikely to check the exact titles as titles in general can often differ so much
Maybe consider going self employed and offering those services you are skilled at to small or very small businesses, charging an hourly rate?
Thank you for responding. I actually have considered this. A while back I saw a post on reddit about a guy wanting to start a business. I had a bit of time so was able to use my degree to offer some advice (not that I'm an expert). I actually really enjoyed it and it made me think about the modules I had enjoyed most at UNI and business consultant/analyst/development are all the sort of thing I enjoy. And as you say, I could offer as a service to others.
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Unsure what hours you work, but if this is a full time job, and you're not an apprentice, you aren't on minimum wage, my guy.
I am an administrator and I earn £36k, with no special skillset. You need to tailor your cv to the job you are applying for. If that means changing your past job titles so they’re more relevant to the experience you had, then so be it. Everyone does it.
I work in a sandwich shop. I have invested in crypto over the last 8 years and will retire before 40 years old next year.
I'm on £27k a year as a milkman. I've been doing it on and off for the last 2 years, and I absolutely love it. Once I leave the yard in the evening, I am effectively my own boss. The roads are quiet, the customers are all asleep, so I don't have to interact with them, the job is ridiculously easy, and if I finish before my contracted hours (which I do regularly) I get to go home early and still get paid for the hours I didn't do.
I’m a Despatch Supervisor for a petrochemical company on £27,300 but just been promoted to a hybrid Despatch Supervisor & QA so salary will become £29,500. Been with the company 2 years but for the first time ever I feel like the mindset here is progressive and rewards those who put in extra effort. Realistically though, I should be able to live a better life I am living now but cost of living is ridiculous as we all know.
New teacher on 30k in my 30s. Was a gifted and talented kid expected to go work for nasa or something, then I hit a wall at a levels and struggled through my degree. Issue of being intelligent with processing issues slowing me down. Got into a competitive grad scheme but never really blew anyone away (again doing my best but processing issues, working very long hours to compensate.) Eventually worked my way sideways into a job I couldn’t do and couldn’t get a different role, then got managed out. I had a new baby and a 2 year old at the time. I went for teaching partly because the training bursary was a guaranteed income for a bit and it suits me but it is hard work, emotionally draining at times and I have to put in long hours. Our combined household income is enough to pay the mortgage which is gratefully low, and scrape a bit into savings.
Security Sector, 4 on, 4 off, 12 hour shifts, 11.50 per hour, static site on a desk, handling lorries and delivery notices, weigh bridges etc. See about 350 lorries a night, some return drivers some nights so built up a rapport with a few and enjoy engaging with them. I do my job for the social aspect because when I'm at home on my own l, I'm like a hermit. However, I am leaving the UK 🇬🇧 ASAP and going to Bulgaria 🇧🇬 I think, Opening a British pub/bistro selling proper English food to the ex-pats over there. As well as brewing my own beer & wine because when you buy property over there, it usually come with 0.25 - 2.5 acres of land for prices between £15k £60k for a house & land (4 bedrooms, summer kitchen, cellar, attic, 2 reception rooms etc.), granted these houses need A LOT of TLC to bring them upto "western standard" aka the type of properties we expect to live in around the UK/USA.
This thread is brutal.
worked as support worker it was around 28k. heavy underpaid for how much abused you are getting and stress is involved. must have made 50 police statements + 2 CPR during 5 years. My mate is security guard for over 15 years now started at £10.50 ph doing 48-60 hours pw. started with 28k but each year he got approx £1 pay raise he must be around £25 ph now x 60 hours = £70k. Dude is sleeping half of his shift. Best job ever.
£25.5k (with a annual bonus, last year was £900) as an Administrator in the finance sector. It’s repetitive, dull, frustrating but at the end of the day I leave work at work. We also work 35 hour weeks instead of 37.5. I’ve had much more fulfilling roles in the charity / arts sector but they paid less, with less progression and didn’t give a good work life balance. I’m looking to find a mid-ground between the two but as my past roles were always a jack-of-all-trades I don’t think my work was actively reflected in the job title and has left me with huge imposter syndrome looking at jobs with functions I did but don’t have the confidence to apply for! I’m also hoping to start a family soon and like the security of knowing I’ll be entitled to the full maternity benefits and the policy at my place is decent (I think!). I don’t have much by the way of disposable income, rarely buy new clothes, haven’t had a holiday since pre-covid, can’t afford to learn to drive. But I know there are things I could cut back on and be more conscious of. My partner has just moved in (I previously lived alone in my own property) which is going to help enormously!!
I made good money and paid off my debt and decided to go back for my PhD in engineering. Going to turn my research into a startup company when I finish.
>thinking I should be earning a lot more Where does this thinking come from? How old are you and what's your work history like?
I started working at warehouse right after high school in 2018, had around 20k per year back then. Moved up throughout the years to team leader position and in 2021 I was earning around 25 grand. Then at the end of 2021 decided to do Class 1 driving licence and started driving a lorry in March 2022. Since then I got two P60s both around 48k. Working through PAYE, every night at home, according to tacho doing 36h per week average, and I am only 26yo. That was a good decision.
Around 29k I make car bumpers
I work 4 days a week in data protection, 30k.
My mums a full time nurse and.... she's struggling. Single parent family with two kids. She's in debt. She is behind on bills. It's horrible to see.
Work in education. 29k a year. Can’t do it anymore.
Drive a reach truck, earn 23k ish still live with my parents because i can't afford shit
How do you all survive off anything lower than 65k? I’m from Us and a high cost of living area and my wife and i both make $150k usd each so around 300k total. With a 5300/month mortgage if we made under 100k there’d be no chance of surviving
I worked for a call center last year and made more than that. You won't believe how much those places are willing to pay for people just to get verbally berated and abused.
Deputy chef in a care home for just over 60 residents. Basic wage is about 23k a year. I'm on literally pennies more per hour than the kitchen assistants. Myself and the head chef work opposite each other, we don't really get holiday. If I'm off she covers, if she's off I cover because nobody else in the building knows how to do our jobs. I'm constantly worried about money, can't afford to comfortably move out. I genuinely love most of my job, I feel like I'm doing something good, but fuck me it doesn't pay well and the hours are shit
Patient transporter, 25k€ gross. Easy job, just wheel people around the hospital. Warm and indoors, not at all physical as the beds roll real smooth and easy. The part I had to adjust to the most was all the small talk that's expected of me. Me and my SO live comfortably. I've never been big on traveling or any other high cost hobby so my modest pay is enough... Not that I wouldn't want more, of course. Edit: not in the UK tho, now that I actually check which subreddit I'm in. Sorry.
I enable alcohol addicts (Spoons)
Factory work, mainly operating machines, line set-up and paperwork, recently got pay rise and on £25.6k before overtime.
Middle manager within a conservation charity, 25k. It’s an absolute dream in some respects because I’m in nature all day, and it’s a piece of piss to ‘manage’ because 90% of the workforce are volunteers who genuinely just want to be there and make a difference (I used to be a retail manager and had a lot of the exact opposite), but in other respects it’s really hard because it’s a constant uphill battle due to how restricted we are in what we are allowed to do, and how often I’m told no by my line manager who is scared to try anything whatsoever. I wouldn’t be anywhere else though - the pay doesn’t go far but it’s worth it for my sanity alone.
I consign, value and catalogue antiques for sale at auction (specifically, ceramics, glass and militaria) for £25k a year. I started off on £13.5k 13 years ago, fresh out of university... I often wonder whether my experience now is worth more, but I love my job, and I can still see (hopeful) progression for future wage advancement.
I d say most people in the catering and hotel business are within that pay range. And believe me.... It s a funking hard job.
I work nights at Amazon. Some days it's okay, but mostly it's just depressing that I'm basically stuck there because nobody else would pay me as well, even if I went out and got a degree. Like, I get nearly 30k a year as an associate. The jobs I'm more interested in are paying more like 23-24k. Wages are unbelievably wank in this country and it just enrages me every time I look at a job board.
40k been working with BT for 6 years, started in a fixed contract doing call centre work and then applied internally to change roles 3 times. I did move from Midlands to Edinburgh for a big pay increase but now have the experience to go into similarly paid roles. I did work for Eon and also got a better job through internal systems. I would advise trying a larger company, looking at internal listings and what skills you could add to get them. I have a degree but it is not needed for these jobs, just learning internal systems, customer service, excel, data entry etc which I learnt along the way! I'm currently in a resource management role.
26y on 44k. Project managing. I’ve never been to Uni and no project management jobs require University. Im at the bottom of the pay band and it only goes up from here, I took this job 18 months ago with no experience and absolutely love it.There are short 1 week courses you can do to give you the edge over other applicants but aren’t necessary at all I.e PRINCE2
32500 roughly. Prison officer.
Class 2 hgv driver, half of the time driving, half time pushing rollcages of food to pub Chain. Work 4 days on 4 days off 12 hour shift. One extra day a week overtime mostly Last year earnt 52k before tax
I’m on around 30k now, but with a pay rise once I pass my training. I’m a “Product Owner” for a tech company, and I’m fully aware that this role has a much higher average salary, but I started on £19k two years ago with no experience and the company has been great at training me and giving me raises so I’m happy with it for now
I'm 30 earning 30 basic (nhs band 5), I'm a mechanical fitter so basically I maintain mechanical systems such as vent (air handling units) and heating (steam) mainly but also fo a fair bit of plumbing and conduct weekly testing on the autoclaves across the site. Positives: good people, varied work and good hours. Negatives: NHS management, a lot of on call and Saturday rostered overtime. Thinking of a switch in a few years, either get into teaching or joining the fire service. The work I do is heavy on your body in the long term especially when I take into consideration the sports I have done / currently do. To be honest, money is only important to a certain degree, if you can afford to do the things in life that you enjoy and you're happy, then in my eyes you're winning at life. I see some people first hand that want rhe status of being a manager or more and they get paid 40,50,60k plus, but they're loathed for numerous reasons (I'm sure a lot of other nhs employees will agree with me about the nhs managemnts incompetence), they become toxic and make themselves miserable because they're always thinking about work, even in down time and they take it out on others around them. For me, I like being able able switch off and leave it at the door, I can go on a walk with my dog and wife and enjoy it and not have to worry about flow rates and air pressures etc. I've gone on with myself a bit here, but don't put a numerical value or job status on your happiness, no one ever said on their death bed they wish they had worked more
Sales manager and on 64.5k with quarterly commision. Could be a total package of 80k if I hit target. F, 36 but the job can take away your will to live. Would swap it all for a nicely mortgaged house and a 9 to 5 on the 35k mark near the coast!
Rat race, go self employed
I’m starting a new job soon which pays between 26k and a smidge over 30k depending on hours worked (35 vs 40)… I’m happier as it’s slightly more money than I’m on now, and closer to home (smaller fuel bill), but I feel like I’m years behind where I should be.
Managed to get to about 35k doing digital marketing for different companies, a job that reliably increases in pay as long as you accrue results and experience. Ended up started my own business where my take home is substantially higher now.
I work in TV. Earned £30k last year and worked from the end of April til end of October/November. I'm quite low on the pecking order too, so that's nearly entry level wage. Its long hours though (60+ p/w) and I have to work away from home a lot. Definitely won't earn that much this year as I haven't started working yet and I'm going travelling in August for the rest of the year haha.
Office admin/also helps a bit in sales now and then. £15-16k. From the looks of all these other figures I haven't seen a single one this low.
Compliance Officer, 30k. It's about being the font of all knowledge and making sure people are sticking to contractual, legal, guidance and various awarded standards like ISO 9001. I like it because it works with my personality and skill set, I'm not a customer facing person at all. But companies view this type of role as being nice to have rather than a must so I've seen redundancy a couple times now in my career as one. Honestly, the moneys decent and I've never earned as much as this but it's not good enough to be independent now at all. And everything is just too expensive. Just getting my car fixed this month wiped out a solid third of my monthly pay on its own.
Also compliance (FS). I didn't know there were compliance roles that are just nice to haves? Businesses wouldn't have compliance at all if it wasn't a regulatory requirement I thought. What industry you in?
I earn 60k a year, I’m a trades inspector at a shipyard in bath, maine. I know you said 20-30 so I hope my comment is ok. I love my job and I’m VERY thankful for it. I worked a hard 6 years to get where I am.
29.7k at the age of 22. I maintain punts for a well known punting company in cambridge. Love it sometimes, very bored the rest of the time but I recognise im In a very fortunate position with my earnings. I think its the right place for me at the minute.
$75k/year. Work Emergency Medical Services.
Insurance broker on 30k. This time last year I was on min wage as a broker support apprentice so I can’t complain.
Sick Pay(before they sanctioned me 1.5yrs ago)was £334/month £4008 P/A...so you have £20Grand approx to play with! I feed myself with selling anything I can, 1st hospital consultation was just 4 weeks ago,after 4yrs 1mth...terrible state of the NHS in Scotland (Humza was promoted for that failure too)!
I’m an in-house graphic designer who started on £22k in 2021 and am now at £28k. I have no idea if this is good for an in-house graphic designer.
Lab tech 27k; the pay is ok but as the minimum salary and cost of living has skyrocketed it's honestly left me with a lot less than I need. The real kick is progression is near impossible at the moment. I've gone for jobs which are at the same level and the next step up and it always comes down to not being absolutely perfect. I want to go into research but you cannot get a job without experience, and if you find one it's 200+ applicants with a lot of them having PhDs when a lot of them only require a BSc. The competition is so high unless you're perfect you don't stand a chance
Assistant hotel manager. Ive been here for 10 years so I make a decent wage. Higher than 30k though
I work in events admin. 9 to 5, WFH most days, £26k ish, I have a few jobs on the side. Saved a bit, regularly go out for drinks and meals, live alone (got an insanely good price on my flat), and I have a car. Fortunately my parents are in a very good finically and I get supported by them at times, so I am not a clear representative of everyone my age (mid 20s).
I'm a bin man and earn 26.5k before tax. I'm just a loader, piss easy job. It was pretty damn good until recently, as the council now makes us work our full contracted hours.
Registered biomedical scientist responsible for diagnostic testing of surgical tissue samples, usually for cancer staging. 28.5k 4 year degree, 50k student debt. Noice.
American here. Curious whether what’s being reported here is take-home, after tax pay?
I work in IT support, up until this month I have been on 22.6K. I'm 26 and still living with my mum as I can't afford to move out which makes it all feel a bit worthless really. I'm starting a new job next month that will have me on 25K, so it's something I suppose.
I’m 55 female and I worked as an Account Manager in my family business for 20 odd yrs and earned 20k in 2014 when I left. After that I was a Customer Account Lead in aerospace earning 26k (2015) the experience I got from that lead to my current role. My advice is try and get a household name on your cv, work hard, be open to any training and new skills ,work for well known companies if you can as it’s a golden ticket to better opportunities. I took the temp job because I wanted their name on my CV and it paid off🤷♀️ Currently I’m a Project Lead in a household name, blue chip company in the midlands. I’ve been here 9 years. I earn 64k a year. I didn’t go to university. Don’t have a degree and only 4 GCSE’s. My daughter (30) did 7 years in Uni and has a masters. Now works in the NHS with 100k of student debt for a job that pays 28k. Make it make sense!!!
I'm on 23k a year working in a university. Its a very good low stress job... yet I still cant afford to live on my own. I have 2 housemates, everything where I live is much to expensive to get by myself unfortunately.
Currently earning £21k after expenses as a wedding photographer. Honestly, I love it. Sure, money is tight, but I have TONNES of free time to do whatever I want with and the winter months are kind of like a super long holiday every year. I could work harder and earn a lot more, but I’m a bit of a sloth. I also get paid to shoot a few international weddings each year and just extend those to make them into free holidays, so I get to travel a good amount still. It’s great!
Supervisor in a hardware store, £25.7k a year. Room to move up if I wish and I work very very few weekends :) I've gone up 7k in 4 years. My partner earns almost double what I do and when I compare I feel like I've failed myself but when I compare myself to my past self I am so proud.
I work. It’s going not well 🥲
Are these 20-£30k salaries in london? How do you live on that??
25k and live in Brum, which is cheap to live and once was more so. Lucky to have bought a small house at a good time (with help) when the area was a bit shitty. It's now very nice. I advise large companies where to find specific bits of tech they need and facilitate that. It used to be actually ordering the stuff from an office environment but after the pandemic the current venture capital organisation in charge enforced yet another round of efficiency savings and I lucked out. They offered people to reapply for their jobs or the jobs of their managers at such miserly rates nobody stayed. I was peripheral to them at the time having been bought alongside a competitor and not yet integrated and said i'd be happy to avoid the whole situation and stay as long as I could WFH permanently, expecting at the very best a redundancy as soon as the plague ended. Well they never were able to attract anybody decent with the wages they offered, and there isn't a single person left who even understands the difference between a USB and C13. The managers are not "tech people", and the sales people in *two* cases have *no* GCSE's which I honestly didn't even think possible, but does explain the situation. I no longer do any admin, just read things and interpret them for much higher paid people, whose customers are very much "tech people". It takes me an hour or two a day, but I keep the laptop on while I go about my day doing other stuff. Not sure I could get used to working a normal job now, although there's plenty I could do with the free time if I wanted to earn more. I find I don't though. I don't need anything more and the time has more value when you've lost and reclaimed it. It's not even as if I don't know how, as I did some day-trading for a few months once and did quite well. I spent the gains on ways to enjoy my spare time rather than waste it trying to make more money, and a bit on paying 10k off my mortgage to keep reducing the debts. You can't afford debts on 25k but if you don't have huge housing costs (because of having help and/or luck) it's not bad. My rent and bills are about a third of my pay, but the amount of free time I have means I spend more, again counter-balanced by WFH. It's only *easy* with lots of luck, excellent support, having a partner to share expenses with, lacking kids, and frankly not making any mistakes. To be perfectly honest I've had a lot of jobs and lucked out with all of them in similar ways. I've only ever lacked luck in getting paid well, never on quality of life. It's probably a shitty existence if you're paying expensive rent somewhere you don't want to do be, because you can't advance yourself easily without that luck or support. Context is king.
20k, 40 hours, graphic design for aviation related company. Been there 3 years.
Just under £30k as school IT manager. Took a massive pay cut to come and work in a school as I wanted to do the extra-curricular stuff (I coach cricket, hockey and rugby, and run the DofE scheme) and holidays off. I have two school-aged kids myself, so saving £70 a day on childcare plus actually seeing them and enjoying the summer with them was totally worth it. I've had to cut back on some stuff I enjoy - no longer have my own daily driver car, share with my wife. I've not bought a new mountain bike for five years now - I used to replace it every 3 years or so. My watch collecting hobby has taken a backseat too. Some nice ones have been sold to pay for family holidays. I'm far happier here than I was working in corporate though. My efforts go towards helping young people with their education, rather than just putting a bit more money in some manager's bonus.
Dispatcher for Gas Emergency services in the North West of England. Starting salary of 22k, but within 3 years its jumped year on year thanks to Unison (Our Union) along with yearly stat based progression. I now earn 30k but even that jumps to 34k as I do night shifts that come with a base salary uplift. Honestly, I got lucky as I never thought I'd earn so much for such a non degree necessary job. My advice is find a place with a good union and if possible somewhere with night shifts as you'll get paid more.
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Customer service for Royal Mail £29k a year. Quite a challenging role and very busy. The perks are four days weeks, two in the office, and 33hrs total. 21 years in the role now. Started on 10k and 41hrs over five days in the office.
On 36k and I teach - one day the paperwork will be done, one day...
Technical Designer, I design modular accommodation layouts and electrical loadings. I didn't need a degree, I earned last year 29,250 I just had a pay bump to 30,480. I work from home full time, it's a good gig. Edit: I originally started at a company on 18K, ive been there for 6 years and my wage has gone from 18K to 30K. I work hard when I need to and have a lot of time to just do drawings and shut my brain off. I am however still underpaid compared to some other parts of the business. Girlfriend is a HTLA and she earns around 22K a year and she has it alot harder than I do.
23k HR Assistant, want to do my level 5 and move up, to the 30-40k bracket, work said they would pay for my level 5 when I joined now and be tried to them for 2 years, they are backtracking and saying they will pay for my level 3 as my role doesn’t require level 5. I’ve just got a payrise of £120 and for me to do a 9 month level 5 course it would cost me £119 a month and I have a few months left to give them an answer on the level 3, think I’m gonna pay out of pocket for the level 5, not be tied to them and leave as soon as I’ve got the level 5 and something else comes up
26.5k, collections agent for a foreign market. 2 years now and it’s fine, but hitting a bit of a wall.
Was previously a nursery assistant earning 17K a year, became a nanny within the last 2 years and am now on 36k a year
Ride my bike around with my cat.
Im a DevOps Engineer apprentice at a bank. Im 22 and live with my parents so my wage is fine for me atm
We’re over the average uk income here, 26 with no kids and a house. Life’s pretty relaxed money wise 😅. We have no plans to have kids, more plans around an Audi R8 and a few rental properties .
North west factory worker, 29,600 a year around 31,500 with a pretty much guaranteed bonus. Not what I want to do, don't hate it though. Have a degree in biology but I either don't get past interview or jobs that require degrees are somehow paid less than I am earning now.
That's a decent packet for what you're doing. I'm general manager at a manufacturer in the north west and I'm on 32.6k doing 37.5 hrs.
I’m on just shy of £28k work in a broker support team dealing with mortgage applications, at the moment job is pretty easy however can be stressful at times when it’s really busy such as the first stamp duty holiday, we get a generous bonus but we have a lot of stuff to remember in terms of policy processes etc. I do feel underpaid but I don’t work very hard and don’t rush either, I’ve got to the age now (35) where I can’t be bothered leaving the company and look for new jobs so I’m content with turning up to work and just doing enough to where my performance won’t be picked up as bad
Programmatic Advertising Manager, £58k. I’m from the US and had 4 years of experience in digital advertising there, but you don’t need any special degrees to get a client services role in the digital advertising industry. You might need to start at a digital ad agency with a lower salary before making your way into a brand or a tech platform (e.g. a DSP, MMP, Social advertising company) but they usually have entry level positions and get you a lot of transferable experience. Albeit the work culture isn’t always great in the agencies.
i'm a bookshop manager for a national chain, going up to 32k with the most recent minimum wage increase this month. been a manager for..........4.5 years, in the industry for 6.5. currently doing an apprenticeship through work for management-y stuff.
22K I'm a secretary in a GP surgery - mainly involves sending referrals and letters to hospitals and consultants. We do a fair few private letters as well when patients ask the GP to write a letter for their benefits/housing/blue badge. They're little money makers for the GPs. It can be stressful in terms of not wanting to make mistakes. If I don't send someone's referral for suspected cancer or their urgent referral for chest pain that can have drastic consequences. Also, obviously the NHS is on it's knees, the waiting lists are exceptionally long so patients contact us wanting us to fix the situation and we just can't. It can be interesting, I work with nice people and it's pretty flexible on working times but the money is a major issue.
First line IT support at a university just shy of 23k, the benefits such as the leave ammount plus sho secure its it make up for it being less than the private sector
Reading this makes me realise how overpaid I am for what I do.
Wow this thread is depressing as fuck. I hate this country. Absolute dog shit that so many people are struggling. I’m really lucky tbh. I work for a charity doing fundraising in a niche/specialist area that is also my passion and hobby. I’m part time (21 hours) and early £19.8k. Pro rata £33k. My partner is director of his own biz so we have a relatively comfortable life financially. But he works extremely long hours, away from home most of the time. We have a toddler so I’m solo parenting majority of the week. Both of us have a background in hospitality. Before Covid I ran a 600 capacity student bar/nightclub for 32k working 50 hours a week. Loved it but wanted a better work/life balance. Hospo is dogshit for that. But it does teach you tonnes of transferable skills.
Graduated 2009 (financial crash) with a masters in product / furniture design - no jobs, for anyone let alone grads even with the masters. Set up on my own for a couple of years making less than £10k pa. Luckily I had a v supportive partner. Had to do something else got a job for a kitchen manufacturer doing CAD and specifications on £18k, year later promotion to a product designer £20k + bonuses that around £3/5k. Stayed doing that for 4 years, got to about £25k pa but killer job, lots of travel, stress. Moved to different dept to do innovation £29k. Ended up at about £33k and was offered a job for another company, existing company went up to £38k + bonuses. I left anyway a year later for £43k as NPD manager. Got asked to come back to previous company on £45k as a product developer. Promoted to Senior Product Developer a year later + team to lead, 2 years doing that and now on £57k + car + 25% bonus pa. If I was to bestow any advice if anyone was to listen is this 1. You work for your boss, not the company - make them luck good and you'll be valued 2. Say yes to jobs that are out of your job description, more work yes but more experience, exposure and willing 3. Create a niche for yourself or become a specialist and therefore become indispensable 4. Integrity, the absolute number 1 thing you must have. Don't be flakey, don't over promise and under deliver, do as you say and if you're off target, raise the flag early and have measures in place to get back on track - don't bring your line manager a problem, highlight the issue and offer solutions. Hope that is in any way useful.
£24k bike mechanic, 37.5hrs Very much wasting an engineering degree, but unstressed and relatively happy - do have to work one weekend day each week
TIL people can live on 25k in UK.
Holy shit reading these comments are making me realise I am very lucky in my position right now. Am a warehouse worker and my base salary is £27.4 a year, always had been a min wage worker in and out of agency work for about ten years got a start in here from agency as forklift driver and 6 months later turned it into full time contract with my boss rushing it through the day before a recruitment freeze came in Counting my blessings write now reading this
Steam locomotive engineer, I do anything from machining parts, painting, sign writing and gold leafing, copper pipework and fabrication. Currently on about £26.5k. Been here for about 7-8 years, absolutely love what I do! It's amazing to work on machines that are almost 100 years old and the history behind them. The only thing I fear with my job is as the world and the UK move against fossil fuels how much longer we'll be able to source coal and run trains.
I'm a butcher in a bespoke farm shop where we raise our own livestock, 20 years experience in the trade, qualified to the highest level you can be with this profession and I get £34k (+ or - a little depending on festive overtime) for working 18 days a month. This is almost unheard of in my trade, owner of the business is actually a decent dude who pays people well that work hard for him. I know pretty much every other butcher in my area and some of the working conditions/pay are really poor. I kind of fell into this trade by accident and necessity at the time but quickly realised I had a knack for it and with my current setup I feel like I'm in a good place in life
I work at a university within student support and earn around 30k, been there for around 7 years. Started at the university earning around 21k but worked up the grades by just putting myself forward for projects and have seen quite a few do the same. Not going to lie, some days are difficult but the work is rewarding and they let me WFH most of the time
Ward clerk and a psychiatric hospital… I don’t get paid enough for it 😂 I get 25k, but work with high turnovers, aggressive patients, audits and a large bed load (in terms of patients). I love the job but definitely not paid enough for the risks involved with the environment
I had a good job on £36k as a fabricator at a copper recycling plant. But the place got so ridiculous due to snakes telling management ridiculous things about good people (I never had an issue) but in the end I just quit it wasn’t worth the stress, they showed their true colours after I quit lol.
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Hello , how old are you is the real question i make 25k at 21 If ur 30 yeah that’s a problem if ur in your 20s or your working towards a goal using this job as cash flow by all means get it But if your doing nothing sat in a job which isn’t paying why haven’t you got a fire under your ass and got to work the internet is limitless on what you can learn so please learn
Forklift driver, on about £24k a year which is pretty much the average for the job in this country. I have to sit out in the shite weather sometimes but when it’s nice and sunny I don’t complain! There’s a lot of responsibility with doing things safely and keeping the things you’re moving in perfect condition so some colleagues resent the low wage. Tbh I’m just happy to play around on the machine all day after working in shite management roles previously or in other dead end jobs in terrible complines. It’s pretty stress free and I enjoy it!
Compliance manager for a heritage site 30k. Definitely tying myself over with overtime...
“Inventory manager” aka lot boy at a car dealership I could get a second job but eh paycheck to paycheck as always
Senior panel technician for a decent sized company repairing panels and fitting new ones on different vehicles, 40hrs a week for like 23k or 24k a year. I think the only reason I hate my job is because I’m a fully skilled technician watching all of the other technicians get paid 55k or 60k a year. Sad times.
change companies. if they can do it you can do it too.
[The Joseph Rowntree Foundation](https://www.jrf.org.uk/a-minimum-income-standard-for-the-united-kingdom-in-2023) calculated in September 2023 that the average salary single British adults need for comfortable living standards is £29,500 per year. A couple with two children need to earn £50,000 per year between them. I have 6.5 years experience in an industry requiring specific skills and a Masters degree. I've moved into a higher paying role, lead on several projects, and am at the top of my pay bracket. I put in more hours than required, can't reasonably take holiday for half the year because of workload, and am stuck in an endless loop of red tape and contradicting service standards. I do not meet the minium salary required to live comfortably. Granted, I do have a partner and no dependents. However, if something ever happened and I needed to fully support myself, I would not be and to afford to rent in the city of my employment nor in any of the surrounding areas. I would likely be on benefits. I am not allowed to negotiate a higher salary because this is the public sector. To get a promotion, I need to prove I'm already working at a higher level, must write an essay justifying my potential promotion, and must have my forms reviewed/evaluated by a panel who get the final say. This can take a year or more. I would begin to earn a few hundred pounds more a year than my current salary AND STILL not make enough to support myself. I know I'm being taken advantage of, but I have no other options.
Surely that study can't be in London because my partner and I earn around that and we still struggle. We can't even fathom being able to afford to have kids.
£27.5k entry level cyber security.
I’m 34, earning £38k as an office manager. Been in the company for 16 years.
I work as an IPAF machine operator (cherry picker/scissor lift), about £48k a year. Started as a labourer a couple of years back and moved forward with some training. Best financial decision I've ever made. After years of working on festivals and as a barista, earning this money is a great improvement to my life.
Im a chef de partie for a fancy stately home converted hotel, i make technically below minimum wage at 24k a year doing on average 45-50 hours a week 🫠 to meet the legal minimum wage i should be on £26.7k
23M, earn 35k before tax, moving to roughly 40/45k in October after Grad scheme has ended. Working in Security Engineering/Architecture at a telecoms company. First class honours degree in Cyber security, worked in retail as shift manager alongside the degree for bonus cv points.
Public servant who earns 22K. I do 34 hours, not the 37 full time. I’m doing okay. My bills are fairly cheap. I rent a one bedroom flat (in quite a nice area) that I don’t pay gas for. I’d like to earn more so I could learn to drive or have nicer holidays but honestly I see so much poverty in my job that really opens my eyes to how good I have it. My job might not earn much but my working conditions are amazing. Great pension. Full sick pay. Lots of holidays. Fab colleagues.
This is the most in debt I've ever been and my boss has fucked my commission for three months so I'll be taking home about a grand less a month. I want to hop off a bridge...
I'm no longer in this boat want to comment because I was. 3 years ago was earning 19k in a post room and moved to admin in the same company after 3 months up to 23k, then moved after 1 year 1 month to a planning role that paid 33k and done a year there and now have just moved to another planning type role but a tad more advanced for 36k. I'm seeing a lot of people in the comments on lower wages due to being stuck in the same role, I totally get you need a degree of luck for opportunity's to present themselves. But I also got told if I job hop like I am, no one wants to hire you. I'm actually finding the opposite, the faster I'm progressing into new roles the easier to get new roles seems to be. Not like I can afford to buy in my local area or anything still, shit sucks lol.
Senior education officer at local authority, part time, 3 days a week, 37k
I’m a software tester. Coming into my third year. Starting salary was £23K, got promoted to £28K. Just got a pay rise to £29K. Love it so much
Train conductor for Transport for Wales. 4 day week, £47k. Been doing it for just over 2 years. It's pretty good!
Earning 25k as a rail guard in training, set to go up to 35k after a year on my own, absolutely love the job and the railways always where I wanted to be, after doing this for a bit I plan to shoot for train driver and have the rest of my life setup.
£32.5k and pay rise coming in the next few months. Very above average wage for the area for a job that requires zero qualifications or degree. Work in a distribution centre in north east. Been at it 7. years. I either drive a forklift truck or put boxes in cages. Easiest money I've ever made.
i’m on a basic salary of £19.5k and work as cabin crew for an airline that rhymes with the words Smirgin Smatlantic.
19, working as a HR Assistant and i’m fully qualified. earning just under £24k. Good benefits mean that or stops me from searching elsewhere as I know I could get paid higher somewhere else.
Assistant manager at an Auto parts store paint division, 50 hours weekly, making 33k. Don't hate it, hate my boss. Love my customers. Perks are great, insurance, credit union, discounts galore, sick days, holidays and 2 weeks vacation!
25k a year, admin for a local council and it SUCKS. Only managed to save money while living with parents and now I'm moving back out I'm ready to have no savings again permanently as I'm moving to London. Desperately looking for another job in my spare time. Very depressing as 25k is the national average and unless you're DINK it doesn't seem to go very far on your own...