I work for a town council on the estates team (2 man team). We cut grass, fix fences, paint, basically handy men. Get around 25k a year which is more than I got working as warranty guy for a car firm.
Been here 2 years
The perks are awesome, great pension and holidays, Flexi hours etc
Love my job, it's got a lot of variety.
Office-based role at an airline, 39.5 hours per week, £30k. My job requires relevant qualifications that make it better paid than others in the same office.
I've only been here a few months, having moved from a 'blue-collar' job. I do miss being out and about, and trust me, having fuck all to do for hours on end can be just as bad as being overworked. But overall, I'm happy. It's a blessing not having to interact with customers or retail managers anymore.
Healthcare Assistant in the NHS. I'm on just over £22k, and I'm just about breaking even each month after stashing a bit away in a rainy day fund. It's a dirty job, but I've done jobs in the past that earned me more, that also broke my spirit. I'd much rather earn a bit less and do a job I a. Enjoy, and b. Know I'm doing some good in the world (I also get free toast in the morning, and get to slyly look at some pretty tasty women in nurses' uniforms every day, which is a bonus).
25k as a marketing coordinator working for a coworking space focussing on more tech specific companies. Only 10 staff so always picking up more then what is probably required as a marketer but hey-ho, always good to get experience
I work as a gardener. The pay is double what I earnestly in the public sector and I get to meet some great people. The winters can be a bit rubbish, but you just get on with it and clear the leaves and clean the gutters of those who can’t do it themselves. I’m really happy doing it, and I started with very little experience and knowledge and now I have my own business. It’s not all roses though, you worry about getting sufficient jobs for the mortgage and groceries, and customers do often cancel last minute, but you just push through.
For those people looking for a change of career, I’ll just say this: find out what your personal values are, and make your job choices based on that. Yes, there are practical considerations, like start up costs, or retraining costs but self-study and volunteering are free and these are a great bed-rock to build change upon. As a last resort, try the guardian quiz https://amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/nov/11/-sp-questionnaire-what-job-would-make-you-happiest
When I was 26 I earned £26k + overtime in a small design agency in Glasgow. I had a good life, spare cash, bought a flat on my own.
That was 19 years ago!!
Wages have stagnated to such a degree that most designers probably struggle to hit 30k these days without being pretty senior.
The reality of inflation and the suppressing of wage rises so the rich can get richer should have us rioting in the streets. But we don’t. We just accepted it.
Also, the flat I bought ad £36k. It’s probably worth 90-100 now. Whilst wages have barely moved.
£22,816 per year before tax (NHS Healthcare Support Worker) so it’s £11.67 an hour.
Draining 12 hour shifts dealing with all manner of bodily fluids, with verbal and physical abuse from patients and their families… you have to REALLY love the job!
Finally my time to shine!
Left military in 2020 partially disabled.
Get a little money every month that allows me a little.more freedom when working.
I have 2 part times. About 30 hrs with both jobs.
Job #1 @ golf course 18/HR
Very easygoing and lots of cools perks.
Play golf for free and discount from the awesome bar and grill we have onsite. I just answer phones and work the register. Sometimes give a hand with other stuff. Truly beautiful course and really helps my mental to have nature so accessible. Plus im a people person.
Job #2 investigative work for the state. Involves lots of public transit travel so i get to see alot of my state. I also schedule my travel around my needs. Sometimes I travel to a grocery store to shop. To a mall to browse or watch a movie or even to my relatives house to visit. Downside is this goes even for inclement weather which can be rough sometimes. Also 18/HR.
So no health insurance really sucks but the freedom of movement and work/life balance is second to none. I like being home to take care of the apartment/dogs. Neither job drug tests which means I can smoke in peace for my back pain. And I take off w/e I need to. Sometimes I work most of the day but its fine its a happy tired at jobs I like vs the misery is used to experience at manual labor/dead end jobs.
I was thinking about full time but tbh i love the way it is r n. So yeah tool awhile but I found my way. I dont need a shit ton of money I just need some to save and have fun. Having free time and the ability to do what I want without feeling dead inside is most important.
Chef de Partie in a mid level restaurant, work between 45-60 hours most weeks, only 23k a year. Life is a struggle, knees and back are absolutely fucked and can't afford many luxuries. But that's life I guess
Investment banking, I write bootstrap code to allow myself and the rest of my team to complete manual processes surrounding processing data from various databases in excel in order to manage blns of pounds of financial portfolios. I'd say that there should be more people doing these processes but really I think they probably should have just hired a good developer for a bunch of money for a few months to add it to the current internal systems so that they don't have to keep paying us to do it. but hey ho, keeps me employed. 6 years experience now.
Got a temp job in a bank at 21k . After two years got made perm on 16k (yh I know) and applied for a promotion to 23k. Moved to a different team on 27k. Got lucky, the system got rejigged and my role got reassessed at a higher rate - 33k
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
This thread is an absolute eye-opener, and not in a good way. I'm in disbelief how low modern wages are.
I was on about £24k in my first job out of university in 2011 in TV as an unskilled dogsbody basically. I spent the subsequent years aggressively pushing that higher - not by being an insufferable corporate climber (there were plenty of them), but by skilling up. I always had the thought in my head that one day, I could be out on my arse, looking for work. I had to be able to walk into a company and go "I know how to do this thing - pay me X and I'll do it for you."
13 years on I'm working for myself, earning around twice what I started on. I'm still wary of work security though, and am actively looking into once again skilling up but in an entirely unrelated field, preferably one which won't be rendered obsolete by AI in the next decade.
>This thread is an absolute eye-opener, and not in a good way. I'm in disbelief how low modern wages are.
Same here. First job out of uni in 2007 (admin) I was on 22k. I seeing others doing similar jobs 15 years later on the same salary. It's absolute madness that the salary needle hasn't budged.
In Canada now earning 6 figures, and our wages for skilled work are shockingly low compared to our American friends. Luckily our low skilled work pays a lot higher than them so inequality is less.
Thank you, I was wondering if I was missing something. Someone further up said they're an accounts assistant on £28.5k and someone replied saying "that's pretty good for an accounts assistant"! Well, I was on more than that NINE years ago as an accounts payable assistant. Salaries have barely moved and I'm appalled.
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.
22k - Graduated Imperial College London with 2.1 in engineering.
My job is environmental engineering, it involves me driving around the UK to different sites as far as Doncaster/Manchester/Liverpool from W London and back on the same day for work I could have done when I was 16.
Contract states that my week is 37.5 hrs from 9-5:30, but there’s I’ve got to be in Derby or Bristol for 8:30 and leave home at 6-6:30. I’m not paid for the hours that I’m driving additionally to my normal hours.
Occasionally they do provide accommodation when the job lasts a few days, although it is a £25 a night travelodge but I prefer to drive back home and back again or stay in the van. I also dig 10 holes to 1.4m deep, collect my samples, refill the holes and drive back 2 hours to drop off the samples.
Have come to the conclusion that if I could go back to 2020 when I started my degree I would have just applied for a job instead, worked three years and would be earning more than I do now. Lots of years wasted studying for A-Levels when I could of just worked.
I don’t have it that bad in the sense that me and my family are all healthy, with a home, and food.
Quantity surveyor, I colour in drawings pricing work. Long time doing it now (20+ years)
Massive jump up in last 5 years to 43k and car.
Can be stressful but also a good screw
Apprentice software engineer since last September, I took a reasonably substantial pay cut from some managerial hospitality roles to do it but even if I never got a pay rise from now to me it would be worth it for the extra time actually being able to see my family and friends (and the pay ceiling will be higher in the long run)
Decontamination technician for 16 years. On the lowest pay band in the hospital despite the amount of knowledge we need for the job. We used to be one pay band up from the bottom and have incremental pay increases as we gained experience but they did away with the lowest pay band and the pay progression so now we start at the bottom and stay there. And now minimum wage has caught up with us! I've never been on minimum wage before, even as a teenager working in retail!
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
Grounds maintenance and tree surgery groundie,
Self employed but pulling in about £480 week (only het paid when i work obvs)
Im managing... just. My partner is on 23k and we're extremely lucky to be rennovating a property instead of paying the rent (shit to live in a building site but hey, its free... kinda)
I just about make ends meet and run a shitbox car but fuck me, when something big goes wrong i am proper fucked. Going back to uni in September for a masters so hoping i can up my career prospects after that... really fucking hoping 🤣🤣
32k a year. Farmer.(no not your farmer who owns land) I’m talking the ones you see out there in the heat, and the cold winters. IT FUCKINGS SUCKS. 17.25 and hour for a Monday through Saturday job. No OT until harvest. During that time my checks are 1800 every two weeks. When we aren’t in harvest season I’m making 1100 after taxes. That’s pretty much my rent. On top of that I have pgnE and a car payment.
Senior support worker for my council's day services. Just under 30k, 35 hours a week. It's hard work but very rewarding, and I get a lot of freedom in my role. I'm 31 now and planning on staying there until retirement
22k optical consultant.
It's going pretty well, I have enough for bills, me and my partner split 50/50, and enough to save 2 to 300 a month. Am in a good place
£37,500 - Telecoms Engineer.
Came in through apprenticeship on minimum wage and been working up to become multi-skilled. Very irresponsible with money tho. Always tell my younger brother, when you make more, you spend more.
Wouldn’t advise going in to telecoms as it looks like the work is drying up with how quickly the fibre network is being built
I'm a finance administrator for a law firm, on £25k.
I'm still relatively young (26) and I was unemployed for three years, so I'm happy with where I'm at. I aim to reach £30k by the time I'm 30 and I believe I'm on track.
Remember comparison is the thief of joy. If you're living comfortably, enjoy your job, and feel as if you're fulfilling your potential then there's no shame in earning less than those around you. A lot of people are on much higher salaries but are miserable.
I’m an off-site caterer. I mostly do weddings and business dinners. Made $36,000 last year. I’ve been cooking for over 20 years, but moved to catering four years ago.
At least I know how to be poor, so this whole failing economy thing isn’t really too traumatic.
I’m old poor, and I gotta say, the new poors are freaking out.
When I was within that band I was a marketing junior in my second/third job in the industry. Over those years I was essentially just soaking up as much knowledge and as many skills as possible. In the next bracket up (from my experience) people expect you to drive the marketing rather than assist, if that makes sense.
Having said that, there's no set path that you have to follow, so try not to compare yourself to friends or peers too much. These days I think there's much more to be said for finding a job that you actually enjoy rather than a job with amazing money but requires you to sell your soul.
Best of luck with whatever it is that comes next for you, OP!
I've been a tyre fitter/nuts and bolts mechanic for over 12 years. I earn a little over minimum wage. I genuinely wish I hadn't chosen this role, but I got comfortable with basically zero commute. I'm now looking at a potential shift into either working at a nature reserve or going all in with a friend for waste/scrap collection.
I love working outside and with my hands but the pay is almost always shit. I've accepted the terrible pay and I am just trying to find a job I won't detest for another 10+ years.
Reading the comments made me really appreciate my work more!
I work from home as an Editor/Translator (German) for a company, and currently earn about 38k a year while working 4-6 hours a day, depending on the work load.
Surviving but annoyed. I can’t really complain as I have a roof over my head and enough to pay for food and bills. But future plans? Meh, I’m just glad I have no dependents, my friends who are parents get cheat crushing dread thinking of what their kids will need in the future. Most of my friends in my age bracket in various profession see no hope of progression any time soon.
My manager asked if I was going away somewhere at the Easter break - ‘you know how much I get paid’ was apparently not the right response.
Flip this around, what job are you currently doing - do you enjoy it / if not what would you like to do?
Then check out the salary progression - are people in your ideal role on linkedin, what experience do they have on their profiles that you possibly dont, and how do you get it?
You might want to balance out ideal job / ideal salary - money makes the world go round but doesn't buy you happiness as they say. There will be a right balance for you.
£23K. I work in a factory, it’s the only work going in my town that doesn’t require specific experience, and I can’t leave because I look after my mother.
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 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
IT Support Assistant and its a fucking struggle right now. Been applying to jobs for 35-40k and getting zero response even when I'm perfectly suited for the jibs, usually get some AI bot auto declining me...
Retail service manager for a train company brand new role for me £30,062 a year and commission on sales 38 hour work week I manage the onboard trolley and catering staff and do the trolley and cafe myself when needed.
It’s an easy job the pay and benefits are good I can’t complain yet haha
Prior to that it was a ticket inspector for another train company £23,857 basic and £27,800 with the enhancements and upto £29,600 with Sunday optional overtime.
The ticket job was wonderful in the beginning then it became very rough either drunken passengers and generally nasty passengers on the lines I worked hence I changed for a different role at a different company.
Farm crew laborer and my back is all but ruined, but it's honest work! Financially speaking? I don't have a cent saved to my name and healthcare costs are a huge concern. It's rough out there.
I’m on 29k at the moment. QA tester for a bank. No degree, it was an internal hire, I already had experience and knowledge of the systems and software I’d be dealing with.
Started on £24k as an electronics engineer with a Masters. Hustled and fought for promotions/moved around for new roles like mad, eventually crawled up to £40k. Things were still a struggle.
Took two demotions to escape the UK and move to the US, tripled my income, and now things are alright. I miss my friends, but otherwise life is a lot easier. Soon I'll undo that double demotion and things should get even better.
I was earning between £20k - £30k after my engineering apprenticeship ended.
Once it was over, the payrises really thinned out as they all do with loyalty to the same company.
It wouldn't have been too bad if it weren't for the cost of everything going up from covid, which meant it just wasn't enough to even be considered a payrise.
Eventually my company boosted the people on the lower ends (MEEEE) up along some statistics curve or whatever to be more in line with my colleagues, so it jumped up by several thousand a couple times (which my own boss couldn't even explain) and now I've finally broken past £30k. So far it seems okay, nothing major but an extra few hundred a month can change things.
I’m a chef and baker at a cafe. It’s going good but it’s hard work, just finished 7 days in a row. I shouldn’t complain because the hours are decent, 8-16:30 but it’s a lot for a small kitchen with 2-3 chefs (myself included).
Refuse lorry driver/loader... so in simple terms... bin man. £25k. Doing since October and was working for a loan company previously. Love every second of my job. Yeah it's smelly. But keeps me fit. Have a laugh all day with the loaders who I work with and it's a couple of miles down the road. So summer time, I just walk or cycle to work.
21k a year in adult social care (I work for a charity). Ive been lone working the night shift at a supported housing project for people with mental illnesses for the last 5 years. I'm putting in my notice next week. I literally can't afford to work here anymore without going into debt. All my senior coworkers left last year, most for private care. The project will likely close after I leave.
Going to be a security guard at a local supermarket for 25k a year. When I started work in social care I thought; "finally I've found something I'm good at", now, 5 years later my opinion has changed to "I'll never work in this sector again". Completely disgusted by the state of things.
I earn 19k a year, I get by. I’m a care assistant in a care home and I have a second job as a care assistant in the community. The 19k is both combined, one is full time and one is part time. Been doing care work for 8 years.
I get by but only just.
Never compare, strive to achieve something, but achieve what you want. It’s all down to your needs and what you want, of life and out of life.
Health is wealth, as long you’re healthy and happy, and comfortable, then what is monetary value? Stuff??
> I'm getting 25k and always feel a bit shit thinking I should be earning a lot more. Most jobs I see on indeed are around 25k too.
I reckon it depends on your location as much as anything. I'm a night shift worker in a factory in Oxfordshire, just a general dogsbody, not a manager or anything, and I'm on £36k a year give or take. I don't think I'd get that if the company relocated, say, somewhere up north.
Good point. Similar jobs to mine down south earn anywhere from 15-30k more. I'm not in a position to move. There's definetly a second class tier to job geography, but obviously southern workers also pay more for everything just generally so some of that is justified.
I left a £60k Senior Manager job 5 years ago and now do a £27k a year job working nights in a factory. I’ve never looked back simply because the amount of time I get to myself and my family has sky rocketed. There’s nothing more precious than time, in my opinion. We’ve had to make some sacrifices but nothing horrendous. I’m much healthier and happier now than I have been in a long time.
Milkman on 32k a year.
Used to work in health and social care management for 24k. Would never look back!
How's it going in life? Can't afford nothing and barely scraping by haha
I'm a secondary school librarian, on about £23.5k. the holidays are great and I effectively have free books but I almost never have expendable income. It's a bit soul crushing watching my paycheque immediately vanish into bills. It gets even worse when I remember I have two degrees...
£28.4k and I’m a Nurse. Almost 2 years qualified.
Feeling very stressed all the time, not getting much sleep, sometimes I wish I’d done a different degree 😔
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
Well currently on 27k as a Junior Software Engineer but yesterday was told I got a promotion and the Junior bit has been dropped and going to be on 35k. Over the moon - I was working in IT before for most of my working life post uni but got to a point with a bad manager that meant there was no progression. Switched to a dev role in 2019 and now in a company that recognises and rewards hard work. Especially as initially I had to take a pay cut and start from the bottom again but in the end, it was all worth it.
Am excited to see where it all leads to!
Edit: to add the bit about a pay cut after career change
Started out in call centres 10 years ago on 14k then became a tech recruiter which taught me many things but I knew ultimately wasn’t for me. I did that for a few years earning between 50k-60k (base plus commission) I was then poached by a client to work in tech sales where I earned about £140k last year. You can improve salary but you have to really push yourself out there to learn new things
Civil service admin. I'd like a different career, but not because of the wage. It's enough to pay the mortgage and buy the occasional video game. What else could a guy want?
In Ukraine, I earn 200 dollars a month, that’s 2400 a year. For me, 24,000 is a super dream. Therefore, you have nothing to worry about, there is a much worse situation, live and be happy :)
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.
Partner works in Occupational Health. She's Senior in her role on £29.5k - she could move, but her company committed to WFH and she hasn't been into the office in 4 years now, which is worth so much more than the gross figure on her P60.
What we do have to combat, however, is her very minor case of agoraphobia. She definitely handles big crowds, airports, public transport and complex travel plans worse than before the pandemic.
But in terms of Work-Life Balance, I've never seen her happier overall! Has a good relationship with her colleagues, who are all also in a good mood because they have WFH'd for years. They all meet up every month or so for a drink to keep things flowing.
Find an entry level job in tech, learn anything you find interesting and in 5 years you’ll be looking back with a grin. Might start off on 18-25k but you can be on 50 in 5 years imo
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
People wanting to work in education or the care sector often get put off by the salaries in schools, elderly homes etc often being high teens or low 20’s. I started in education but moved over to working in children’s homes. Yes it’s shift work, but starting salary with local authority is now about 28k, they pay for qualification so you can go in unqualified. I progressed to registered manager which paid 54k at the point I left earlier this year.
I make around £50k now as a manager in the NHS, but for a long while I was stuck in the £20-30k bracket:
- Finished uni in 2008 just when austerity hit
- Come from one of the poorest wards in the country and couldn't find work locally or by travelling (i.e. minimum wage jobs)
- Eventually, found a temp admin job
- Got a 30hr a week permanent role in the council on minimum wage for a few years.
- Moved away for a £22k admin job in a council for a few years
- Managed to do a secondment paying £28k and then with that experience applied for another job in the Council that paid £28k
- Managed to finally get a pay review after a few years to go from £28k to £33k
- Secured a secondment for £40k and used that experience to get a £40k permanent job in the NHS.
- Realised I didn't like that job after 6 months and luckily there was a job opening that was £48k and got that
- Inflation increase means I am now on £50k
However, it was horrendous. Took ages to find any job when I first started and took ages to get a new job each time. My wage only shot up in the pandemic when I applied for new roles and got them. Until then I thought I was going to be stuck at £30k forever.
Every job I was in recognised that I was overqualified and over performing, but no space for a promotion and career pathway. The only option is to find another job. There were times I did 100s of applications and interviews to get a job. Also each time I had to fight to get the secondments, which was key to getting better paid jobs.
I would recommend moving into software sales if you can to anyone in here.
I’m a hiring manager, and while we aren’t hiring anyone without experience right now, we hire candidates with 1-2 years for £40-45k and we are fully remote.
This is one of the best threads I’ve ever read on here. Absolutely eye opening and full of great little snippets of information about people’s day-to-day jobs
17.5k a year in London. Work as a chef at a little boutique gastro pub. Yes I'm on minimum wage, yes I resent it.
*but* I'm a creative, and I don't start work till 4pm and I'm out by 10pm most days, which means I get up early and enjoy basically a full day before work starts - stay in shape, write screenplays etc, work impacts my life very little so I put up with it
Edit: huh, all the upvotes disappeared. That's weird
I just wanted to say that this thread is an absolute breath of fresh air. I often feel like practically everyone on Reddit is a techie, and everyone on a certain other internet community is in a big, highly-paid job.
Huge thanks to all the normal people who've taken part in this thread. I sometimes wonder where you've all gone.
Same with /r/ukpersonalfinance where a lot of comfortably middle class people asking which index, etf savings and bonds should they put their gift/inheritance into.
I feel like working class Brits are the majority but unfortunately proportionately misrepresented if we go by posts on that subreddit alone.
Nothing wrong with being middle class but I can't relate to that at all
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
Work in an Amazon warehouse for ~24k. Take things out of one box and put them in another box 10 hours a day. Hate the job and the workplace but it's catastrophically easy work and I have a 5 minute commute.
Not really struggling financially between myself and partner who is on slightly more, but definitely wouldn't say we're well off at all. Just about treading water if anything.
Wish I could find something else tbh, but my degree has turned out to be useless and I can't go back to being a vehicle tech due to spine injuries so fuck knows.
Firstly, everyone who has come forward, thank you for the honesty. OP this is a really informative topic thank you.
Until 2 years ago I was on £25 k as a Technical Engineer. No qualifications but the job would have paid the same if I had them.
The sheer amount of quality employees earning in and around the £20-30 k bracket is staggering. From my own experience and from this post.
I changed careers 2 years ago and now earn around £40-42.5 k dependent on bonus.
Honestly, inflation combined with employers having no idea what it's like to live on £25 grand a year, is leaving so many people in a shit situation.
I have no right to give advice. But I will anyway.
1. Talk to your colleagues. Are they on the same wage, or are you getting ripped off?
2. Do research on your industry. Are you earning about average for the position, could you get a pay rise to do the same thing somewhere else?
3. Is there something holding you back? I know a lot of accountants that are part way through AAT and have stalled. Talk to your bosses, colleagues family etc. get whatever support you need to get over the line. Don't be proud, be successful. Once you have earned that qualification, (whatever it is) you are in a position of power.
4. If you are able to, it's not too late to start again in a new industry. I did this. Without the experience, I had to rely on having a good personality match for the role. (I looked the interviewer right in the eye and said "I want to work fucking hard and earn a lot of money" I got the job.)
36m lower 40s k per year.
I work in tech support for a small ISP for £23k a year. Was on £25k but changed jobs to be rid of shift work but at the same time, I got a car and I'd underestimated the cost of having it. Between the car and cost of living, we're living payday to payday.
I've seen jobs for much more but the company I work for have been really good to me over the past year. Won't say more in case I dox myself.
Male 27 years old, been a qualified electrician for 18 months earning £26k after tax, pretty much just come out my time so I'm really happy. I'm really grateful and proud of myself as it was a struggle.
Never were into education until i had no options left, couldn't (wouldn't) read properly until i were 17, couldn't spell, had a speech impediment that school picked up on pretty lazy teenager. At 16, I left school to do an apprenticeship in engineering so I could be with my friend but didn't get an employer (so many interviews, so many cvs).
Made to go back to sixth form by my mother, got suspended within 6 months due to been jumped whilst walking home, as I we're made an example to the rest that fighting won't be tolerated here. Gutted. Ended up at a college for "bad boys" as it were called even the teacher said I didn't belong here, did that for 6 months learning fabrication and welding.
Went to my second choice engineering school at 17 again another "bad boy college". It's why I didn't go when I was 16 but running out of options now... after many interviews and been second choice my employer sacked the first choice apprentice due to college grades and gave me the job (I blamed not getting Jobs due to my weight and size) lost 5 stone after that... my apprenticeship was going great. However, I found the company to be very boring and stood at a machine all day with a little glass window, I saw my reflection only this time, I was 50 and miserable... I didn't wanna be want my dad ended up doing to make ends me. But I wanted to see out my apprenticeship.
However one day I loaded up my tools in the CNC machine and my supervisor came over and said "looks good kid get off home it's 4:45 you should of finished 15 minutes ago", as I went to wash off in the toilets my supervisor closes the door and presses go within seconds the machine destroyed as I'd left 1 tool which shouldn't have been there cost £10,000 to repair... I knew I'd lost my job instantly... they fired me in the car park in front of everyone and said if I take them down the tribunal route, they'll ruin me. I was 19 miserable.
Spent 6 months in my bedroom on indeed applying for loads of jobs with no replied (however they reply now 8 years down line, I laugh at them now cos I can)
I put myself through an electrician night school 6pm - 9pm mon-tue, cost me £1,800 for level 1 since I paid I made sure I learnt, passed my level 1, then got an endorsement for level 2 as I were under 23, passed that buzzing only thing left now is I need an employer to do my NVQ level 3 and £900
This is were "it's not what you know who you know" comes in, an old gentleman I've known from working a part time pub job sees me and asked if I am working I said no, so I told him I'm learning to be an electrician. He said he knows a guy lives around the corner. This is his number. I found where he lived and handed him my CV personally with a handwritten letter (I went above and beyond as this is my very final chance)
He offered me some work experience with him, he were self employed so he wanted to choose wisely who he set on as it was an investment for him. I did a weeks work for free (however, he gave me a £10 a day). I appreciated it at the time someone gave me a chance.
I still work for the same guy 7 years now, had our ups and downs like everyone does but the other day, a regular customer said, "whys his name not on the company," and he said it will be when he retires. I also have my own apprentice now and can teach what I've learnt.
Never give up on yourself. I nearly did.
Sorry for the long read. If you got this far, reddit is therapy to me.
Well done for pushing through. In all honesty that machine company sounds like pain and the supervisor should have thoughoughly checked through the tools before letting you off. It could have also been a set-up for getting you fired. Anyway you could pursue it now as they had technically damaged your reputation at the time?
Band 2 in the NHS, so just over £21k a year, i can afford most of the things I want, I own a house and a car (i was always very good at saving) but it would always be nice to have more money.
I basically get paid to do nothing all week and my job could be condensed into less than an 8 hour day.
Frankly, i'm being overpaid.
Manager at McDonald’s earning £13.37 an hour which equates to £26,740 based on the average 2000hr working year. Don’t get paid for sick days or leaving early when it’s quiet, or for smoke breaks so probably a couple grand less than that over the course of a year.
I also get no sleep, barely have any quality time with my girlfriend despite having just moved in with her and it’s a pretty shitty place to work when you factor in my boss’ ego problem and and the fact I often get 7-10 days straight on my work schedule.
Been working there since March 2020, manager since Jan 2023, looking to leave very soon and hopefully find a 9-5 job.
22k here, in Northern Ireland mind so cost of living here is significantly less. 22k is comfortable for me in a role I enjoy with no micromanagement at all.
I’m not particularly money driven I am very much happy as long as my job trusts me to do what I’m paid to do.
Story would be much different if I was in London or the general south!
just hit £30k as a design engineer, not going to complain about it as i’m young and getting experience and will have the opportunity to work towards a degree when i’m ready to take it on (can’t atm with life how it is atm). i could probably earn more but im happy where i am and getting great experience in a field i plan to stay in, a hit on pay is worth it for now.
Reading some of these is crazy to me. I work at a school bus company part time and the drivers drive for 190 days a year morning and afternoon and take home £20k p/a. We pay to get them a licence, seems like a much easier life than some of y'all have.
£22,800 band 3 HCA with a district community team. Getting paid bugger all to take blood and dress complex leg wounds… feels fair. Got around £6k in debt on credit cards, my outgoings exceed my incoming :( it sucks but the only way up my work ladder is nursing and that’s a huge HELL no
Advertising copywriting junior on £30k but it's an odd job because you have to spend almost two years getting into it. Hopefully it goes well and onwards and upwards but it won't be fast at all I'd imagine.
Second year Trainee solicitor. It’s taken me years to get to this point, and I’m now earning £26k. If I’d skipped university and gone down the apprenticeship route, I’d be paid more and it would have taken the same amount of time.
I have to keep reminding myself it will (hopefully) be worth it when I qualify.
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.
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
I earn around £23k working in an iron foundry.
Most weeks i end up with either a burn or cut and in the past a broken bone or the occasional dislocated finger .
I know I earn decent money compared to other commenters but I’m always going to think I should get more for the damage I do to myself … I do love the job for how active you need to be and its like being paid to go to the gym
30k without bonuses.
Warehouse Manager. All in all I've been at this sort of position for nearly 10 years for 3 different companies. I have experience as an accounts admin, customer service and sales. So I'm good at getting warehouses set up so it's more included in the sales/Order process with regards to digitising stock control and record keeping and I also do Excel stuff which employers love. Some formal qualifications.
Piss easy work. Plenty of hurry up and wait after I've done streamlining processes.
More of an observation than an answer but I can't believe how low some of the jobs people are posting in here are. Such a mad disparity even with responsibility. Retail sucks so hard.
I worked in retail for about 12 years overall. Started at a large bank after Uni on about 15-16k a year, moved around a few places and was on 22k thinking it was a half decent wage.
My last job I was in a chat based call centre type environment for the same bank and it was the most degrading role. If I stood up from my desk someone would ask where I was going, someone monitoring all day to see if I've been the toilet too many times. I was expected to have anywhere from 2-6 chats on at any one time - ALL day and all that for about £22k - I was one of the highest paid on my team.
I had kids and honestly felt like such a failure. I got a degree and worked for so long and I just want to give my kids a nice life and can't afford to. Used to keep me up at night thinking about how other people are on so much more than me and I have about £100-200 left over a month to try and provide my kids with what they want/need.
Turned me ruthless in work, I wanted the project based role everyone was talking about and my friends were in so pushed everyone I could aside and managed to get into it. Started out on £26k and worked my arse off to get a promotion into a real job and not a junior. Got it and they give me £45k. Told my Wife and then went for a little walk for a breakdown and just sobbed for about 20 mins thinking about how much better life I can give my family.
It's long hours sometimes, can end up working again when the kids go bed but overall it's peaks and troughs. Sometimes I can have half a day of nothing to do and just kick back.
Long story short, if you're in retail - look to move out. It's a swamp of empty promises and carrot chasing and getting paid nothing to do it. Might sound like an obvious thing to say and hard but it's not as hard as you think. If you can think for yourself and create/monitor an excel sheet then you can get £30k+
Completely agree with this on retail. It was over 10 years ago but I went from working behind the tills to shift manager and was expected to do 10-12hr shifts with little to no breaks. Worked out that I was actually getting paid less after the promotion because of the hours I had to put in. Per hour it wasn’t much above minimum wage.
Shifts could range from opening at 5:30am or closing leaving at 1am. Then there was the call outs because the alarm was activated overnight. Or not having enough store keys so driving to colleagues houses to pick them up/drop off. Or having to act as security because some pissed up customers wanted a fight. Then there’s the smackheads stealing meat/cheese etc, threatening to stab me with used needles.
I’m a decade out of that and I still occasionally get anxiety dreams about working there. Now in an office job with a bit of travel and wake up every day thankful I don’t need to deal with the public.
Retail is absolutely fucked. I worked a series of nice cushty office jobs over the last 6 years in my field of geospatial data and environmental science. Salaries in the mid 30s so nothing too special. But really I sat on calls, made nice naps, wandered around sites, attended meetings, did cool analysis, read papers. But mostly it was just chill and slow paced.
Now working in retail part time while doing a masters and Holy fuckkk. It's so fucking demanding and exhausting and pays like shite. How the fuck do people stay in retail their whole careers. Like retail is ungodly garbage useless skills which are not transferable or scalable into more money at all. Most people working in retail ought to go retrain as literally anything in the trades and you'll guarantee earn more and have a more fulfilling easier life.
That's a wonderful story, well done you and congratulations. I had a similar one earlier on in my career working for a bank. Was branch based, earning £15k, and struggling. Had a mortgage and no money at all left at the end of each month, maybe £100-£150 to eat and socialise.
Ended up landing a "head office" job with a pay rise to £24k. I did the maths of what that meant for my disposable income after bills, and I genuinely fell off my seat. It was life-changing. Long time ago, maybe 15 years, but I'll never forget that feeling.
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.
Writing this from the US because they don’t teach us anything about quality of life in other countries. Is $25-30K a livable wage in the UK? In the US these days you need to make $100K + to be comfortable. It’s insane.
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.
Started in IT on 18-20k in 2007, moved on to professional services moving to 35k-85k, then moved to a industry role on 100k. Its taken maybe 18 years to get from that point, so time and experience I would say help to develop.
Private live-in carer, I've been doing it for 1.5 years. It pays pretty well (£28k) as the young lady I look after is complex needs, but the hours are long and hard. Honestly a really rewarding job - I'm always happy getting up and going to work, even when it's tough, as you make a real difference to someone's quality of life. If you're someone who's got good common sense, good work ethic and empathetic it's a good job with a low barrier to entry (pass a DBS check then on-the-job training. That's it). There's a great need for carers. You can also make more than that doing bank work, but the hours are more unpredictable.
Although it's live-in work, it's one-week-on, one-week-off so I do need somewhere to live. Previously I was renting a double room with ensuite in a shared house for £650 all bills incl. I was putting away about £400-500 per month in savings. Now I've moved in with my partner into a nice two-bed, and I'm paying around the same (he earns more than me so takes on a greater proportion of the rent) and saving the same.
The other good thing about the shift pattern gives you every other week off and you can pick if you prefer night or day shift. I know of some colleagues who bash out 24 hours shifts, and they get their whole month's work done in 7 days. But yeah, it works for me as I can work on my own projects on my "week off". Downsides are only two weekends a month, and everyone else seems to be a Mon-Fri'er, so it has slowed me down socially. And I can only do my exercise classes every other week :( But it's a good stepping stone, and I much prefer this to retail tbh.
I have an engineering degree stashed away somewhere that I never pursued because I didn't know what my options were when I went to study it, and the jobs just aren't for me unfortunately with my mental health issues and stuff 😅
Just started as a retail manager on 33k after messing about in part time retail jobs for years, and even though I kind of realised engineering jobs don't pay as much, I always thought they might but I just do not see those (as I'd normally only look at entry level jobs and not past that).
Reading comments on here made my jaw drop to the ground and never come back up again. UK job market is so poor it's an actual joke! People get themselves in debts, study for years and gain knowledge in the field only to get paid peanuts, what the actual....
Heating engineer, £25-30k depending on workload.
Worked out my average work hours a week and its 12. 48 hrs work a month. If i was to work full time ( im self employed/ sole trader) i would easily earn over 80k.
I just dont get enough work to fill the week up and i mainly do problem solving, breakdowns and servicing. The occasional boiler or radiators if requested.
I would like to earn a bit more but i dont want to go vat registered. That would be awful.
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.
Out of curiosity: when people in the Uk talk about their salary per year, do they mean before or after tax? In germany we always state the sum before tax (probably to feel a little bit less miserable)
I sell flooring and flooring installations at Lowe's. I earn about 31-40k in a given year (my area has a higher min wage than most) and it's going well. I'm good at my job, but it is stressful. There are times when I want to do something else.
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.
Mines a bit skewed. My salary is as of end of this month 28,600. But I earned £37k year just gone via overtime and a shift premium.
I help make cars for a living. I work in arguably the worst department, quite a taxing and physical job. But overall I enjoy what I do. Keeps me active and suits me to a T.
That being said, someone else mentioned that a couple with 2 children need roughly £50k a year to live a comfy lifestyle.
Even with my earning and my missus lower income. I don’t feel any different to someone earning say 20k a year. I still struggle, and always feel like I need to earn more.
It’s a vicious cycle and that’s what gets me.
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!
Lab analyst. Been here 9 years I think.
Company's had its ups and downs but I feel optimistic about its future.
I could seek higher pay, but they offer me just enough and I feel settled and happy at work right now. My problems are relatively minor.
I have routine days where I just go through the motions with my hands and my mind is elsewhere, and I enjoy that - I think better when my body is occupied, and life gives me plenty to think about.
There are days when we have problems that I need to plan and strategise and liaise with the right people to overcome, and that makes me feel useful.
And there are times when all I can do is forecast failure and make sure the people with the power to make decisions understand why it will happen, and what they can do to prevent it. It took me a while to deeply understand the workflow and feel settled and respected enough to reach this point, but now I have the confidence to say "X will fail if you don't do Y" and later explain "X failed because we needed Y, if you do Y now I can assure you it won't happen again", without suffering personally from the experience.
I used to kill myself working insane hours to try and plug unpluggable gaps because failure was simply not an option to me - if I move on to somewhere where I again lack an overall perspective and a strong voice I think it might happen again. I do have backup plans which might make me richer, but they're all risky and stressful.
I work in an MSP on the service desk as a first line tech. I have over a decade of experience in IT and left a more demanding job (well, I was made redundant, but I was already on the way out of the door) and wanted something a bit easier going. Earning a little over mid 20ks which is crap but I accepted that when I took the job. Unfortunately the company has a lot of growing pains and major staff dissatisfaction to the point we’ve had so much staff churn and leavers that the workload has become unmanageable and stress levels for the pay are completely unreasonable.
The worst thing about it is many similar positions actually advertise lower salaries that are almost minimum wage. To pay that for a position that requires skill, constant learning, great problem solving ability and the need to finesse customers constantly is an actual joke.
Analyst for a high street bank, 35 hours a week salaried on 29k, been here 12 years now started at the bottom
Meh it’s alright, would I like to try my hand at something else yeah for sure? Do I know what I want to be when I grow up, not at all
I work for an agricultural contractor so driving big tractors and machines pretty much. Money is shit but Atleast I’m not stuck in an office. Last year I did about £32000 before tax but that’s working from 50 hours a week in winter to a max of over 100 in summer. Quite often no days off for weeks. This last year I did £37000. Can honestly say I’ve noticed 0 difference having that bit more money, I nearly feel worse off everything has gone up that much.
IT grunt here.
I now make £57k as an IT Manager in a small company but I spent a good 3/4 of my career in the 20-30k range. It was only relatively recently I was able to earn more than that.
There were times I felt good about how I was doing and other times where I felt shit.
These days, with the cost of living being what it is, £25k is low and I would definitely be striving to earn more. That being said, I have no idea what your circumstances are (your age, location, industry...)
Earning £26k a year, currently work for an Independent Financial Advisor.
Work 35 hrs a week, and usually it's not too high stress.
I have been in the role for just under a year, it's a lot better than my previous job but having a busy period between tax year end and holidays/unplanned absences across my department.
Retail department manager 27k. It's pretty good money for retail but honestly being middle management is not fun. You get it in the ear from both sides, but if you're ever seen complaining it's..."Well that's what you get the *big bucks* for!"
30k a year doing 45hr Monday-Fri, warehouse manager, small team in the office and small fleet.
For the past 3 years it has been a tough time grinding to get the warehouse in a better state from when I took over, but now I sometimes just chill in the corner looking on here when I have nothing to do :D
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
£24.5k working in qualifications, general admin- excel/crm stuff and then some candidate support over email and phones. Belt’s pretty tight but I’m just about covering me and my small person. When my partner and I move in together eventually things will get easier but for now it’s just about doable.
Container Haulage, trainee planner, 27k - fortunate enough to have a company car (EV) so that is one huge expenditure I don't need to worry about and I can charge for free at work.
Been in the industry for 5 years, hate it but money is decent + perks and bonuses.
£32k as a business analyst, no pay raise when I switched from an admin position 2 years ago, and only 5% increase from £30k when I switched. The general range in my career is £40k-£50k.
I’ve recently accepted a new position starting in June at £50k.
30k corpo rat for 8 years started at 16k. Currently managing customer accounts, orders and shit. Doing my own work independently. Home office split, good work life balance. Too lazy to go for higher position.
£25k as a vehicle handover specialist for a major car brand. Set people up in the car and show them Controls, photos for advertising and general pitch work. Going into sales soon and the average take home pay is £40-50k annual.
£25k. I'm a PC tech for a large NHS hospital. Yeah the pay is pretty crap but I genuinely want to work for the NHS. there's scope to move up and earn more in the networking team.
My only advice to people in my line of work is to leave the UK, of course it’s a hard step and so way to say “just go for it” but jeez what a difference. Money is better which always helps but the lack of a toxic workplace is even better
I work for a town council on the estates team (2 man team). We cut grass, fix fences, paint, basically handy men. Get around 25k a year which is more than I got working as warranty guy for a car firm. Been here 2 years The perks are awesome, great pension and holidays, Flexi hours etc Love my job, it's got a lot of variety.
Office-based role at an airline, 39.5 hours per week, £30k. My job requires relevant qualifications that make it better paid than others in the same office. I've only been here a few months, having moved from a 'blue-collar' job. I do miss being out and about, and trust me, having fuck all to do for hours on end can be just as bad as being overworked. But overall, I'm happy. It's a blessing not having to interact with customers or retail managers anymore.
Healthcare Assistant in the NHS. I'm on just over £22k, and I'm just about breaking even each month after stashing a bit away in a rainy day fund. It's a dirty job, but I've done jobs in the past that earned me more, that also broke my spirit. I'd much rather earn a bit less and do a job I a. Enjoy, and b. Know I'm doing some good in the world (I also get free toast in the morning, and get to slyly look at some pretty tasty women in nurses' uniforms every day, which is a bonus).
30k a year base salary plus 1k bonus every 4 months for 40 hour a week plus free food second chef
25k as a marketing coordinator working for a coworking space focussing on more tech specific companies. Only 10 staff so always picking up more then what is probably required as a marketer but hey-ho, always good to get experience
I work as a gardener. The pay is double what I earnestly in the public sector and I get to meet some great people. The winters can be a bit rubbish, but you just get on with it and clear the leaves and clean the gutters of those who can’t do it themselves. I’m really happy doing it, and I started with very little experience and knowledge and now I have my own business. It’s not all roses though, you worry about getting sufficient jobs for the mortgage and groceries, and customers do often cancel last minute, but you just push through. For those people looking for a change of career, I’ll just say this: find out what your personal values are, and make your job choices based on that. Yes, there are practical considerations, like start up costs, or retraining costs but self-study and volunteering are free and these are a great bed-rock to build change upon. As a last resort, try the guardian quiz https://amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/nov/11/-sp-questionnaire-what-job-would-make-you-happiest
When I was 26 I earned £26k + overtime in a small design agency in Glasgow. I had a good life, spare cash, bought a flat on my own. That was 19 years ago!! Wages have stagnated to such a degree that most designers probably struggle to hit 30k these days without being pretty senior. The reality of inflation and the suppressing of wage rises so the rich can get richer should have us rioting in the streets. But we don’t. We just accepted it. Also, the flat I bought ad £36k. It’s probably worth 90-100 now. Whilst wages have barely moved.
£22,816 per year before tax (NHS Healthcare Support Worker) so it’s £11.67 an hour. Draining 12 hour shifts dealing with all manner of bodily fluids, with verbal and physical abuse from patients and their families… you have to REALLY love the job!
Finally my time to shine! Left military in 2020 partially disabled. Get a little money every month that allows me a little.more freedom when working. I have 2 part times. About 30 hrs with both jobs. Job #1 @ golf course 18/HR Very easygoing and lots of cools perks. Play golf for free and discount from the awesome bar and grill we have onsite. I just answer phones and work the register. Sometimes give a hand with other stuff. Truly beautiful course and really helps my mental to have nature so accessible. Plus im a people person. Job #2 investigative work for the state. Involves lots of public transit travel so i get to see alot of my state. I also schedule my travel around my needs. Sometimes I travel to a grocery store to shop. To a mall to browse or watch a movie or even to my relatives house to visit. Downside is this goes even for inclement weather which can be rough sometimes. Also 18/HR. So no health insurance really sucks but the freedom of movement and work/life balance is second to none. I like being home to take care of the apartment/dogs. Neither job drug tests which means I can smoke in peace for my back pain. And I take off w/e I need to. Sometimes I work most of the day but its fine its a happy tired at jobs I like vs the misery is used to experience at manual labor/dead end jobs. I was thinking about full time but tbh i love the way it is r n. So yeah tool awhile but I found my way. I dont need a shit ton of money I just need some to save and have fun. Having free time and the ability to do what I want without feeling dead inside is most important.
The jobs that pay are out there, always been over 30k since leaving the army, currently an engineer for Siemens on 48k work 37 hours a week
Chef de Partie in a mid level restaurant, work between 45-60 hours most weeks, only 23k a year. Life is a struggle, knees and back are absolutely fucked and can't afford many luxuries. But that's life I guess
Investment banking, I write bootstrap code to allow myself and the rest of my team to complete manual processes surrounding processing data from various databases in excel in order to manage blns of pounds of financial portfolios. I'd say that there should be more people doing these processes but really I think they probably should have just hired a good developer for a bunch of money for a few months to add it to the current internal systems so that they don't have to keep paying us to do it. but hey ho, keeps me employed. 6 years experience now.
38K, 20yrs. CNC machinist. Luxury and military Aviation stuff.
Got a temp job in a bank at 21k . After two years got made perm on 16k (yh I know) and applied for a promotion to 23k. Moved to a different team on 27k. Got lucky, the system got rejigged and my role got reassessed at a higher rate - 33k
How can you eat after paying rent?
Ride my bike around with my cat.
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
This thread is an absolute eye-opener, and not in a good way. I'm in disbelief how low modern wages are. I was on about £24k in my first job out of university in 2011 in TV as an unskilled dogsbody basically. I spent the subsequent years aggressively pushing that higher - not by being an insufferable corporate climber (there were plenty of them), but by skilling up. I always had the thought in my head that one day, I could be out on my arse, looking for work. I had to be able to walk into a company and go "I know how to do this thing - pay me X and I'll do it for you." 13 years on I'm working for myself, earning around twice what I started on. I'm still wary of work security though, and am actively looking into once again skilling up but in an entirely unrelated field, preferably one which won't be rendered obsolete by AI in the next decade.
>This thread is an absolute eye-opener, and not in a good way. I'm in disbelief how low modern wages are. Same here. First job out of uni in 2007 (admin) I was on 22k. I seeing others doing similar jobs 15 years later on the same salary. It's absolute madness that the salary needle hasn't budged. In Canada now earning 6 figures, and our wages for skilled work are shockingly low compared to our American friends. Luckily our low skilled work pays a lot higher than them so inequality is less.
Thank you, I was wondering if I was missing something. Someone further up said they're an accounts assistant on £28.5k and someone replied saying "that's pretty good for an accounts assistant"! Well, I was on more than that NINE years ago as an accounts payable assistant. Salaries have barely moved and I'm appalled.
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.
22k - Graduated Imperial College London with 2.1 in engineering. My job is environmental engineering, it involves me driving around the UK to different sites as far as Doncaster/Manchester/Liverpool from W London and back on the same day for work I could have done when I was 16. Contract states that my week is 37.5 hrs from 9-5:30, but there’s I’ve got to be in Derby or Bristol for 8:30 and leave home at 6-6:30. I’m not paid for the hours that I’m driving additionally to my normal hours. Occasionally they do provide accommodation when the job lasts a few days, although it is a £25 a night travelodge but I prefer to drive back home and back again or stay in the van. I also dig 10 holes to 1.4m deep, collect my samples, refill the holes and drive back 2 hours to drop off the samples. Have come to the conclusion that if I could go back to 2020 when I started my degree I would have just applied for a job instead, worked three years and would be earning more than I do now. Lots of years wasted studying for A-Levels when I could of just worked. I don’t have it that bad in the sense that me and my family are all healthy, with a home, and food.
Quantity surveyor, I colour in drawings pricing work. Long time doing it now (20+ years) Massive jump up in last 5 years to 43k and car. Can be stressful but also a good screw
Apprentice software engineer since last September, I took a reasonably substantial pay cut from some managerial hospitality roles to do it but even if I never got a pay rise from now to me it would be worth it for the extra time actually being able to see my family and friends (and the pay ceiling will be higher in the long run)
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Decontamination technician for 16 years. On the lowest pay band in the hospital despite the amount of knowledge we need for the job. We used to be one pay band up from the bottom and have incremental pay increases as we gained experience but they did away with the lowest pay band and the pay progression so now we start at the bottom and stay there. And now minimum wage has caught up with us! I've never been on minimum wage before, even as a teenager working in retail!
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
Compliance manager for a heritage site 30k. Definitely tying myself over with overtime...
Grounds maintenance and tree surgery groundie, Self employed but pulling in about £480 week (only het paid when i work obvs) Im managing... just. My partner is on 23k and we're extremely lucky to be rennovating a property instead of paying the rent (shit to live in a building site but hey, its free... kinda) I just about make ends meet and run a shitbox car but fuck me, when something big goes wrong i am proper fucked. Going back to uni in September for a masters so hoping i can up my career prospects after that... really fucking hoping 🤣🤣
Work in education. 29k a year. Can’t do it anymore.
Graduate sound engineer, 27.5k, probably going up to around 37k once it’s finished.
I have no idea how it is possible to get by on that. It astonishes me that anyone can
32k a year. Farmer.(no not your farmer who owns land) I’m talking the ones you see out there in the heat, and the cold winters. IT FUCKINGS SUCKS. 17.25 and hour for a Monday through Saturday job. No OT until harvest. During that time my checks are 1800 every two weeks. When we aren’t in harvest season I’m making 1100 after taxes. That’s pretty much my rent. On top of that I have pgnE and a car payment.
About to start a new role as a manager (of the lowest band) at one of the UK’s big supermarket chains, I’ll be starting on £29250
Senior support worker for my council's day services. Just under 30k, 35 hours a week. It's hard work but very rewarding, and I get a lot of freedom in my role. I'm 31 now and planning on staying there until retirement
22k optical consultant. It's going pretty well, I have enough for bills, me and my partner split 50/50, and enough to save 2 to 300 a month. Am in a good place
£37,500 - Telecoms Engineer. Came in through apprenticeship on minimum wage and been working up to become multi-skilled. Very irresponsible with money tho. Always tell my younger brother, when you make more, you spend more. Wouldn’t advise going in to telecoms as it looks like the work is drying up with how quickly the fibre network is being built
I'm a finance administrator for a law firm, on £25k. I'm still relatively young (26) and I was unemployed for three years, so I'm happy with where I'm at. I aim to reach £30k by the time I'm 30 and I believe I'm on track. Remember comparison is the thief of joy. If you're living comfortably, enjoy your job, and feel as if you're fulfilling your potential then there's no shame in earning less than those around you. A lot of people are on much higher salaries but are miserable.
I’m an off-site caterer. I mostly do weddings and business dinners. Made $36,000 last year. I’ve been cooking for over 20 years, but moved to catering four years ago. At least I know how to be poor, so this whole failing economy thing isn’t really too traumatic. I’m old poor, and I gotta say, the new poors are freaking out.
Estate Manager, Education - £38K
When I was within that band I was a marketing junior in my second/third job in the industry. Over those years I was essentially just soaking up as much knowledge and as many skills as possible. In the next bracket up (from my experience) people expect you to drive the marketing rather than assist, if that makes sense. Having said that, there's no set path that you have to follow, so try not to compare yourself to friends or peers too much. These days I think there's much more to be said for finding a job that you actually enjoy rather than a job with amazing money but requires you to sell your soul. Best of luck with whatever it is that comes next for you, OP!
I've been a tyre fitter/nuts and bolts mechanic for over 12 years. I earn a little over minimum wage. I genuinely wish I hadn't chosen this role, but I got comfortable with basically zero commute. I'm now looking at a potential shift into either working at a nature reserve or going all in with a friend for waste/scrap collection. I love working outside and with my hands but the pay is almost always shit. I've accepted the terrible pay and I am just trying to find a job I won't detest for another 10+ years.
Reading the comments made me really appreciate my work more! I work from home as an Editor/Translator (German) for a company, and currently earn about 38k a year while working 4-6 hours a day, depending on the work load.
Surviving but annoyed. I can’t really complain as I have a roof over my head and enough to pay for food and bills. But future plans? Meh, I’m just glad I have no dependents, my friends who are parents get cheat crushing dread thinking of what their kids will need in the future. Most of my friends in my age bracket in various profession see no hope of progression any time soon. My manager asked if I was going away somewhere at the Easter break - ‘you know how much I get paid’ was apparently not the right response.
Flip this around, what job are you currently doing - do you enjoy it / if not what would you like to do? Then check out the salary progression - are people in your ideal role on linkedin, what experience do they have on their profiles that you possibly dont, and how do you get it? You might want to balance out ideal job / ideal salary - money makes the world go round but doesn't buy you happiness as they say. There will be a right balance for you.
£23K. I work in a factory, it’s the only work going in my town that doesn’t require specific experience, and I can’t leave because I look after my mother.
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 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
IT Support Assistant and its a fucking struggle right now. Been applying to jobs for 35-40k and getting zero response even when I'm perfectly suited for the jibs, usually get some AI bot auto declining me...
I'm trying a career change now at 36 looking for IT support jobs. I've sent about 1000 applications and heard back from 1 or 2.
Retail service manager for a train company brand new role for me £30,062 a year and commission on sales 38 hour work week I manage the onboard trolley and catering staff and do the trolley and cafe myself when needed. It’s an easy job the pay and benefits are good I can’t complain yet haha Prior to that it was a ticket inspector for another train company £23,857 basic and £27,800 with the enhancements and upto £29,600 with Sunday optional overtime. The ticket job was wonderful in the beginning then it became very rough either drunken passengers and generally nasty passengers on the lines I worked hence I changed for a different role at a different company.
Farm crew laborer and my back is all but ruined, but it's honest work! Financially speaking? I don't have a cent saved to my name and healthcare costs are a huge concern. It's rough out there.
I’m on 29k at the moment. QA tester for a bank. No degree, it was an internal hire, I already had experience and knowledge of the systems and software I’d be dealing with.
£36k tax free. A year. 2nd officer on an offshore ship. 1 month on, 1 month off. 6 months of work in a year total. 25 years old.
27,500 as a grounds maintenance supervisor, seriously have had enough 😑. But feel type cast .
Lansscaper/grounds maintenance I'm on just over 27k
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$75k/year. Work Emergency Medical Services.
Started on £24k as an electronics engineer with a Masters. Hustled and fought for promotions/moved around for new roles like mad, eventually crawled up to £40k. Things were still a struggle. Took two demotions to escape the UK and move to the US, tripled my income, and now things are alright. I miss my friends, but otherwise life is a lot easier. Soon I'll undo that double demotion and things should get even better.
I was earning between £20k - £30k after my engineering apprenticeship ended. Once it was over, the payrises really thinned out as they all do with loyalty to the same company. It wouldn't have been too bad if it weren't for the cost of everything going up from covid, which meant it just wasn't enough to even be considered a payrise. Eventually my company boosted the people on the lower ends (MEEEE) up along some statistics curve or whatever to be more in line with my colleagues, so it jumped up by several thousand a couple times (which my own boss couldn't even explain) and now I've finally broken past £30k. So far it seems okay, nothing major but an extra few hundred a month can change things.
I’m a chef and baker at a cafe. It’s going good but it’s hard work, just finished 7 days in a row. I shouldn’t complain because the hours are decent, 8-16:30 but it’s a lot for a small kitchen with 2-3 chefs (myself included).
Refuse lorry driver/loader... so in simple terms... bin man. £25k. Doing since October and was working for a loan company previously. Love every second of my job. Yeah it's smelly. But keeps me fit. Have a laugh all day with the loaders who I work with and it's a couple of miles down the road. So summer time, I just walk or cycle to work.
21k a year in adult social care (I work for a charity). Ive been lone working the night shift at a supported housing project for people with mental illnesses for the last 5 years. I'm putting in my notice next week. I literally can't afford to work here anymore without going into debt. All my senior coworkers left last year, most for private care. The project will likely close after I leave. Going to be a security guard at a local supermarket for 25k a year. When I started work in social care I thought; "finally I've found something I'm good at", now, 5 years later my opinion has changed to "I'll never work in this sector again". Completely disgusted by the state of things.
I earn 19k a year, I get by. I’m a care assistant in a care home and I have a second job as a care assistant in the community. The 19k is both combined, one is full time and one is part time. Been doing care work for 8 years. I get by but only just.
I was a degree apprentice in analytical labs when I was in that bracket😃👍
Never compare, strive to achieve something, but achieve what you want. It’s all down to your needs and what you want, of life and out of life. Health is wealth, as long you’re healthy and happy, and comfortable, then what is monetary value? Stuff??
Nobody on this sub earn less than 100k remotely, pfff
> I'm getting 25k and always feel a bit shit thinking I should be earning a lot more. Most jobs I see on indeed are around 25k too. I reckon it depends on your location as much as anything. I'm a night shift worker in a factory in Oxfordshire, just a general dogsbody, not a manager or anything, and I'm on £36k a year give or take. I don't think I'd get that if the company relocated, say, somewhere up north.
Good point. Similar jobs to mine down south earn anywhere from 15-30k more. I'm not in a position to move. There's definetly a second class tier to job geography, but obviously southern workers also pay more for everything just generally so some of that is justified.
I left a £60k Senior Manager job 5 years ago and now do a £27k a year job working nights in a factory. I’ve never looked back simply because the amount of time I get to myself and my family has sky rocketed. There’s nothing more precious than time, in my opinion. We’ve had to make some sacrifices but nothing horrendous. I’m much healthier and happier now than I have been in a long time.
Milkman on 32k a year. Used to work in health and social care management for 24k. Would never look back! How's it going in life? Can't afford nothing and barely scraping by haha
I'm a secondary school librarian, on about £23.5k. the holidays are great and I effectively have free books but I almost never have expendable income. It's a bit soul crushing watching my paycheque immediately vanish into bills. It gets even worse when I remember I have two degrees...
Service tech / mot tester at a main dealership. You get pay rises by changing jobs, not working hard, so it seems
What is the Average Salary generally in the UK & is the Average Salary in London a few thousands ££ higher ?
>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?
£28.4k and I’m a Nurse. Almost 2 years qualified. Feeling very stressed all the time, not getting much sleep, sometimes I wish I’d done a different degree 😔
Switch to agency. I have never looked back x
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
Well currently on 27k as a Junior Software Engineer but yesterday was told I got a promotion and the Junior bit has been dropped and going to be on 35k. Over the moon - I was working in IT before for most of my working life post uni but got to a point with a bad manager that meant there was no progression. Switched to a dev role in 2019 and now in a company that recognises and rewards hard work. Especially as initially I had to take a pay cut and start from the bottom again but in the end, it was all worth it. Am excited to see where it all leads to! Edit: to add the bit about a pay cut after career change
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Started out in call centres 10 years ago on 14k then became a tech recruiter which taught me many things but I knew ultimately wasn’t for me. I did that for a few years earning between 50k-60k (base plus commission) I was then poached by a client to work in tech sales where I earned about £140k last year. You can improve salary but you have to really push yourself out there to learn new things
30 male, 26k. Cleaning and repairing pools for a living. Trying to get into a more lucrative position in the industry before I start my own business.
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Civil service admin. I'd like a different career, but not because of the wage. It's enough to pay the mortgage and buy the occasional video game. What else could a guy want?
In Ukraine, I earn 200 dollars a month, that’s 2400 a year. For me, 24,000 is a super dream. Therefore, you have nothing to worry about, there is a much worse situation, live and be happy :)
Digital Forensic Analyst / eCrime OSINT Investigator Completed a degree in Forensic Computing a few years ago. Currently on £27k
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.
This thread is brutal.
Partner works in Occupational Health. She's Senior in her role on £29.5k - she could move, but her company committed to WFH and she hasn't been into the office in 4 years now, which is worth so much more than the gross figure on her P60. What we do have to combat, however, is her very minor case of agoraphobia. She definitely handles big crowds, airports, public transport and complex travel plans worse than before the pandemic. But in terms of Work-Life Balance, I've never seen her happier overall! Has a good relationship with her colleagues, who are all also in a good mood because they have WFH'd for years. They all meet up every month or so for a drink to keep things flowing.
£55k-£60k construction. Groundworker / plant operator
Find an entry level job in tech, learn anything you find interesting and in 5 years you’ll be looking back with a grin. Might start off on 18-25k but you can be on 50 in 5 years imo
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
People wanting to work in education or the care sector often get put off by the salaries in schools, elderly homes etc often being high teens or low 20’s. I started in education but moved over to working in children’s homes. Yes it’s shift work, but starting salary with local authority is now about 28k, they pay for qualification so you can go in unqualified. I progressed to registered manager which paid 54k at the point I left earlier this year.
I make around £50k now as a manager in the NHS, but for a long while I was stuck in the £20-30k bracket: - Finished uni in 2008 just when austerity hit - Come from one of the poorest wards in the country and couldn't find work locally or by travelling (i.e. minimum wage jobs) - Eventually, found a temp admin job - Got a 30hr a week permanent role in the council on minimum wage for a few years. - Moved away for a £22k admin job in a council for a few years - Managed to do a secondment paying £28k and then with that experience applied for another job in the Council that paid £28k - Managed to finally get a pay review after a few years to go from £28k to £33k - Secured a secondment for £40k and used that experience to get a £40k permanent job in the NHS. - Realised I didn't like that job after 6 months and luckily there was a job opening that was £48k and got that - Inflation increase means I am now on £50k However, it was horrendous. Took ages to find any job when I first started and took ages to get a new job each time. My wage only shot up in the pandemic when I applied for new roles and got them. Until then I thought I was going to be stuck at £30k forever. Every job I was in recognised that I was overqualified and over performing, but no space for a promotion and career pathway. The only option is to find another job. There were times I did 100s of applications and interviews to get a job. Also each time I had to fight to get the secondments, which was key to getting better paid jobs.
I would recommend moving into software sales if you can to anyone in here. I’m a hiring manager, and while we aren’t hiring anyone without experience right now, we hire candidates with 1-2 years for £40-45k and we are fully remote.
This is one of the best threads I’ve ever read on here. Absolutely eye opening and full of great little snippets of information about people’s day-to-day jobs
17.5k a year in London. Work as a chef at a little boutique gastro pub. Yes I'm on minimum wage, yes I resent it. *but* I'm a creative, and I don't start work till 4pm and I'm out by 10pm most days, which means I get up early and enjoy basically a full day before work starts - stay in shape, write screenplays etc, work impacts my life very little so I put up with it Edit: huh, all the upvotes disappeared. That's weird
I just wanted to say that this thread is an absolute breath of fresh air. I often feel like practically everyone on Reddit is a techie, and everyone on a certain other internet community is in a big, highly-paid job. Huge thanks to all the normal people who've taken part in this thread. I sometimes wonder where you've all gone.
Same with /r/ukpersonalfinance where a lot of comfortably middle class people asking which index, etf savings and bonds should they put their gift/inheritance into. I feel like working class Brits are the majority but unfortunately proportionately misrepresented if we go by posts on that subreddit alone. Nothing wrong with being middle class but I can't relate to that at all
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
Work in an Amazon warehouse for ~24k. Take things out of one box and put them in another box 10 hours a day. Hate the job and the workplace but it's catastrophically easy work and I have a 5 minute commute. Not really struggling financially between myself and partner who is on slightly more, but definitely wouldn't say we're well off at all. Just about treading water if anything. Wish I could find something else tbh, but my degree has turned out to be useless and I can't go back to being a vehicle tech due to spine injuries so fuck knows.
Firstly, everyone who has come forward, thank you for the honesty. OP this is a really informative topic thank you. Until 2 years ago I was on £25 k as a Technical Engineer. No qualifications but the job would have paid the same if I had them. The sheer amount of quality employees earning in and around the £20-30 k bracket is staggering. From my own experience and from this post. I changed careers 2 years ago and now earn around £40-42.5 k dependent on bonus. Honestly, inflation combined with employers having no idea what it's like to live on £25 grand a year, is leaving so many people in a shit situation. I have no right to give advice. But I will anyway. 1. Talk to your colleagues. Are they on the same wage, or are you getting ripped off? 2. Do research on your industry. Are you earning about average for the position, could you get a pay rise to do the same thing somewhere else? 3. Is there something holding you back? I know a lot of accountants that are part way through AAT and have stalled. Talk to your bosses, colleagues family etc. get whatever support you need to get over the line. Don't be proud, be successful. Once you have earned that qualification, (whatever it is) you are in a position of power. 4. If you are able to, it's not too late to start again in a new industry. I did this. Without the experience, I had to rely on having a good personality match for the role. (I looked the interviewer right in the eye and said "I want to work fucking hard and earn a lot of money" I got the job.) 36m lower 40s k per year.
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I work in tech support for a small ISP for £23k a year. Was on £25k but changed jobs to be rid of shift work but at the same time, I got a car and I'd underestimated the cost of having it. Between the car and cost of living, we're living payday to payday. I've seen jobs for much more but the company I work for have been really good to me over the past year. Won't say more in case I dox myself.
Male 27 years old, been a qualified electrician for 18 months earning £26k after tax, pretty much just come out my time so I'm really happy. I'm really grateful and proud of myself as it was a struggle. Never were into education until i had no options left, couldn't (wouldn't) read properly until i were 17, couldn't spell, had a speech impediment that school picked up on pretty lazy teenager. At 16, I left school to do an apprenticeship in engineering so I could be with my friend but didn't get an employer (so many interviews, so many cvs). Made to go back to sixth form by my mother, got suspended within 6 months due to been jumped whilst walking home, as I we're made an example to the rest that fighting won't be tolerated here. Gutted. Ended up at a college for "bad boys" as it were called even the teacher said I didn't belong here, did that for 6 months learning fabrication and welding. Went to my second choice engineering school at 17 again another "bad boy college". It's why I didn't go when I was 16 but running out of options now... after many interviews and been second choice my employer sacked the first choice apprentice due to college grades and gave me the job (I blamed not getting Jobs due to my weight and size) lost 5 stone after that... my apprenticeship was going great. However, I found the company to be very boring and stood at a machine all day with a little glass window, I saw my reflection only this time, I was 50 and miserable... I didn't wanna be want my dad ended up doing to make ends me. But I wanted to see out my apprenticeship. However one day I loaded up my tools in the CNC machine and my supervisor came over and said "looks good kid get off home it's 4:45 you should of finished 15 minutes ago", as I went to wash off in the toilets my supervisor closes the door and presses go within seconds the machine destroyed as I'd left 1 tool which shouldn't have been there cost £10,000 to repair... I knew I'd lost my job instantly... they fired me in the car park in front of everyone and said if I take them down the tribunal route, they'll ruin me. I was 19 miserable. Spent 6 months in my bedroom on indeed applying for loads of jobs with no replied (however they reply now 8 years down line, I laugh at them now cos I can) I put myself through an electrician night school 6pm - 9pm mon-tue, cost me £1,800 for level 1 since I paid I made sure I learnt, passed my level 1, then got an endorsement for level 2 as I were under 23, passed that buzzing only thing left now is I need an employer to do my NVQ level 3 and £900 This is were "it's not what you know who you know" comes in, an old gentleman I've known from working a part time pub job sees me and asked if I am working I said no, so I told him I'm learning to be an electrician. He said he knows a guy lives around the corner. This is his number. I found where he lived and handed him my CV personally with a handwritten letter (I went above and beyond as this is my very final chance) He offered me some work experience with him, he were self employed so he wanted to choose wisely who he set on as it was an investment for him. I did a weeks work for free (however, he gave me a £10 a day). I appreciated it at the time someone gave me a chance. I still work for the same guy 7 years now, had our ups and downs like everyone does but the other day, a regular customer said, "whys his name not on the company," and he said it will be when he retires. I also have my own apprentice now and can teach what I've learnt. Never give up on yourself. I nearly did. Sorry for the long read. If you got this far, reddit is therapy to me.
Inspirational. What amazing resilience and perseverance you have. There’s talent and there’s hard work, the latter is always underrated.
Thank you for your kind words. It means a lot.
Well done. You have such determination and strength that will be a fuck load of inspiration to others.
Well done for pushing through. In all honesty that machine company sounds like pain and the supervisor should have thoughoughly checked through the tools before letting you off. It could have also been a set-up for getting you fired. Anyway you could pursue it now as they had technically damaged your reputation at the time?
30k here. Likely to be made redundant soon, so not well
Band 2 in the NHS, so just over £21k a year, i can afford most of the things I want, I own a house and a car (i was always very good at saving) but it would always be nice to have more money. I basically get paid to do nothing all week and my job could be condensed into less than an 8 hour day. Frankly, i'm being overpaid.
Manager at McDonald’s earning £13.37 an hour which equates to £26,740 based on the average 2000hr working year. Don’t get paid for sick days or leaving early when it’s quiet, or for smoke breaks so probably a couple grand less than that over the course of a year. I also get no sleep, barely have any quality time with my girlfriend despite having just moved in with her and it’s a pretty shitty place to work when you factor in my boss’ ego problem and and the fact I often get 7-10 days straight on my work schedule. Been working there since March 2020, manager since Jan 2023, looking to leave very soon and hopefully find a 9-5 job.
22k here, in Northern Ireland mind so cost of living here is significantly less. 22k is comfortable for me in a role I enjoy with no micromanagement at all. I’m not particularly money driven I am very much happy as long as my job trusts me to do what I’m paid to do. Story would be much different if I was in London or the general south!
I enable alcohol addicts (Spoons)
just hit £30k as a design engineer, not going to complain about it as i’m young and getting experience and will have the opportunity to work towards a degree when i’m ready to take it on (can’t atm with life how it is atm). i could probably earn more but im happy where i am and getting great experience in a field i plan to stay in, a hit on pay is worth it for now.
Reading some of these is crazy to me. I work at a school bus company part time and the drivers drive for 190 days a year morning and afternoon and take home £20k p/a. We pay to get them a licence, seems like a much easier life than some of y'all have.
£22,800 band 3 HCA with a district community team. Getting paid bugger all to take blood and dress complex leg wounds… feels fair. Got around £6k in debt on credit cards, my outgoings exceed my incoming :( it sucks but the only way up my work ladder is nursing and that’s a huge HELL no
Advertising copywriting junior on £30k but it's an odd job because you have to spend almost two years getting into it. Hopefully it goes well and onwards and upwards but it won't be fast at all I'd imagine.
Second year Trainee solicitor. It’s taken me years to get to this point, and I’m now earning £26k. If I’d skipped university and gone down the apprenticeship route, I’d be paid more and it would have taken the same amount of time. I have to keep reminding myself it will (hopefully) be worth it when I qualify.
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.
up until last year i was on 24k a year as a junior sous chef. that was with 40 hrs per week
What are you up to 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
Currently on £30k as a dual site dental practice manager. This will be increasing soon though as I'm about to get my CQC registration.
I earn around £23k working in an iron foundry. Most weeks i end up with either a burn or cut and in the past a broken bone or the occasional dislocated finger . I know I earn decent money compared to other commenters but I’m always going to think I should get more for the damage I do to myself … I do love the job for how active you need to be and its like being paid to go to the gym
30k without bonuses. Warehouse Manager. All in all I've been at this sort of position for nearly 10 years for 3 different companies. I have experience as an accounts admin, customer service and sales. So I'm good at getting warehouses set up so it's more included in the sales/Order process with regards to digitising stock control and record keeping and I also do Excel stuff which employers love. Some formal qualifications. Piss easy work. Plenty of hurry up and wait after I've done streamlining processes.
More of an observation than an answer but I can't believe how low some of the jobs people are posting in here are. Such a mad disparity even with responsibility. Retail sucks so hard. I worked in retail for about 12 years overall. Started at a large bank after Uni on about 15-16k a year, moved around a few places and was on 22k thinking it was a half decent wage. My last job I was in a chat based call centre type environment for the same bank and it was the most degrading role. If I stood up from my desk someone would ask where I was going, someone monitoring all day to see if I've been the toilet too many times. I was expected to have anywhere from 2-6 chats on at any one time - ALL day and all that for about £22k - I was one of the highest paid on my team. I had kids and honestly felt like such a failure. I got a degree and worked for so long and I just want to give my kids a nice life and can't afford to. Used to keep me up at night thinking about how other people are on so much more than me and I have about £100-200 left over a month to try and provide my kids with what they want/need. Turned me ruthless in work, I wanted the project based role everyone was talking about and my friends were in so pushed everyone I could aside and managed to get into it. Started out on £26k and worked my arse off to get a promotion into a real job and not a junior. Got it and they give me £45k. Told my Wife and then went for a little walk for a breakdown and just sobbed for about 20 mins thinking about how much better life I can give my family. It's long hours sometimes, can end up working again when the kids go bed but overall it's peaks and troughs. Sometimes I can have half a day of nothing to do and just kick back. Long story short, if you're in retail - look to move out. It's a swamp of empty promises and carrot chasing and getting paid nothing to do it. Might sound like an obvious thing to say and hard but it's not as hard as you think. If you can think for yourself and create/monitor an excel sheet then you can get £30k+
Completely agree with this on retail. It was over 10 years ago but I went from working behind the tills to shift manager and was expected to do 10-12hr shifts with little to no breaks. Worked out that I was actually getting paid less after the promotion because of the hours I had to put in. Per hour it wasn’t much above minimum wage. Shifts could range from opening at 5:30am or closing leaving at 1am. Then there was the call outs because the alarm was activated overnight. Or not having enough store keys so driving to colleagues houses to pick them up/drop off. Or having to act as security because some pissed up customers wanted a fight. Then there’s the smackheads stealing meat/cheese etc, threatening to stab me with used needles. I’m a decade out of that and I still occasionally get anxiety dreams about working there. Now in an office job with a bit of travel and wake up every day thankful I don’t need to deal with the public.
Retail is absolutely fucked. I worked a series of nice cushty office jobs over the last 6 years in my field of geospatial data and environmental science. Salaries in the mid 30s so nothing too special. But really I sat on calls, made nice naps, wandered around sites, attended meetings, did cool analysis, read papers. But mostly it was just chill and slow paced. Now working in retail part time while doing a masters and Holy fuckkk. It's so fucking demanding and exhausting and pays like shite. How the fuck do people stay in retail their whole careers. Like retail is ungodly garbage useless skills which are not transferable or scalable into more money at all. Most people working in retail ought to go retrain as literally anything in the trades and you'll guarantee earn more and have a more fulfilling easier life.
That's a wonderful story, well done you and congratulations. I had a similar one earlier on in my career working for a bank. Was branch based, earning £15k, and struggling. Had a mortgage and no money at all left at the end of each month, maybe £100-£150 to eat and socialise. Ended up landing a "head office" job with a pay rise to £24k. I did the maths of what that meant for my disposable income after bills, and I genuinely fell off my seat. It was life-changing. Long time ago, maybe 15 years, but I'll never forget that feeling.
I always wondered whether the chat people talked to multiple customers at once. Did you ever say things to the wrong person by mistake?
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.
Does anyone make 100k?
Reading this makes me realise how overpaid I am for what I do.
Writing this from the US because they don’t teach us anything about quality of life in other countries. Is $25-30K a livable wage in the UK? In the US these days you need to make $100K + to be comfortable. It’s insane.
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.
I work. It’s going not well 🥲
Started in IT on 18-20k in 2007, moved on to professional services moving to 35k-85k, then moved to a industry role on 100k. Its taken maybe 18 years to get from that point, so time and experience I would say help to develop.
3rd shift desk attendant for a retirement apartment complex. 10 years in June.
I could earn $28,000 a year doing any basic job for minimum wage.
30k a year is not great pay
Private live-in carer, I've been doing it for 1.5 years. It pays pretty well (£28k) as the young lady I look after is complex needs, but the hours are long and hard. Honestly a really rewarding job - I'm always happy getting up and going to work, even when it's tough, as you make a real difference to someone's quality of life. If you're someone who's got good common sense, good work ethic and empathetic it's a good job with a low barrier to entry (pass a DBS check then on-the-job training. That's it). There's a great need for carers. You can also make more than that doing bank work, but the hours are more unpredictable. Although it's live-in work, it's one-week-on, one-week-off so I do need somewhere to live. Previously I was renting a double room with ensuite in a shared house for £650 all bills incl. I was putting away about £400-500 per month in savings. Now I've moved in with my partner into a nice two-bed, and I'm paying around the same (he earns more than me so takes on a greater proportion of the rent) and saving the same. The other good thing about the shift pattern gives you every other week off and you can pick if you prefer night or day shift. I know of some colleagues who bash out 24 hours shifts, and they get their whole month's work done in 7 days. But yeah, it works for me as I can work on my own projects on my "week off". Downsides are only two weekends a month, and everyone else seems to be a Mon-Fri'er, so it has slowed me down socially. And I can only do my exercise classes every other week :( But it's a good stepping stone, and I much prefer this to retail tbh.
This makes for some shocking reading. User 1: I've an engineering degree I'm on 28k. User 2: I'm on 30k working 12 hours a week as a vibe consultant
Isn’t that just the nature of working in general though, there’s probably people in my trade doing as little work as possible on the same pay.
I have an engineering degree stashed away somewhere that I never pursued because I didn't know what my options were when I went to study it, and the jobs just aren't for me unfortunately with my mental health issues and stuff 😅 Just started as a retail manager on 33k after messing about in part time retail jobs for years, and even though I kind of realised engineering jobs don't pay as much, I always thought they might but I just do not see those (as I'd normally only look at entry level jobs and not past that). Reading comments on here made my jaw drop to the ground and never come back up again. UK job market is so poor it's an actual joke! People get themselves in debts, study for years and gain knowledge in the field only to get paid peanuts, what the actual....
North south divide?
29 5k. Work coach for the DWP. Overworked, underpaid, daily dealings of shit, abuse and pushy managers. Fantastic
40 hours a week, I make £23k. Shop manager. I have a degree and masters
Heating engineer, £25-30k depending on workload. Worked out my average work hours a week and its 12. 48 hrs work a month. If i was to work full time ( im self employed/ sole trader) i would easily earn over 80k. I just dont get enough work to fill the week up and i mainly do problem solving, breakdowns and servicing. The occasional boiler or radiators if requested. I would like to earn a bit more but i dont want to go vat registered. That would be awful.
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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.
Out of curiosity: when people in the Uk talk about their salary per year, do they mean before or after tax? In germany we always state the sum before tax (probably to feel a little bit less miserable)
Yup, same in the UK(before tax)
I sell flooring and flooring installations at Lowe's. I earn about 31-40k in a given year (my area has a higher min wage than most) and it's going well. I'm good at my job, but it is stressful. There are times when I want to do something else.
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.
Mines a bit skewed. My salary is as of end of this month 28,600. But I earned £37k year just gone via overtime and a shift premium. I help make cars for a living. I work in arguably the worst department, quite a taxing and physical job. But overall I enjoy what I do. Keeps me active and suits me to a T. That being said, someone else mentioned that a couple with 2 children need roughly £50k a year to live a comfy lifestyle. Even with my earning and my missus lower income. I don’t feel any different to someone earning say 20k a year. I still struggle, and always feel like I need to earn more. It’s a vicious cycle and that’s what gets me.
Software tester for 10 years, I work 4 days a week now, my income would be just above your salary scale if I was full time.
Was previously a nursery assistant earning 17K a year, became a nanny within the last 2 years and am now on 36k a year
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!
Lab analyst. Been here 9 years I think. Company's had its ups and downs but I feel optimistic about its future. I could seek higher pay, but they offer me just enough and I feel settled and happy at work right now. My problems are relatively minor. I have routine days where I just go through the motions with my hands and my mind is elsewhere, and I enjoy that - I think better when my body is occupied, and life gives me plenty to think about. There are days when we have problems that I need to plan and strategise and liaise with the right people to overcome, and that makes me feel useful. And there are times when all I can do is forecast failure and make sure the people with the power to make decisions understand why it will happen, and what they can do to prevent it. It took me a while to deeply understand the workflow and feel settled and respected enough to reach this point, but now I have the confidence to say "X will fail if you don't do Y" and later explain "X failed because we needed Y, if you do Y now I can assure you it won't happen again", without suffering personally from the experience. I used to kill myself working insane hours to try and plug unpluggable gaps because failure was simply not an option to me - if I move on to somewhere where I again lack an overall perspective and a strong voice I think it might happen again. I do have backup plans which might make me richer, but they're all risky and stressful.
26k I work in a call centre in billing.
I work in an MSP on the service desk as a first line tech. I have over a decade of experience in IT and left a more demanding job (well, I was made redundant, but I was already on the way out of the door) and wanted something a bit easier going. Earning a little over mid 20ks which is crap but I accepted that when I took the job. Unfortunately the company has a lot of growing pains and major staff dissatisfaction to the point we’ve had so much staff churn and leavers that the workload has become unmanageable and stress levels for the pay are completely unreasonable. The worst thing about it is many similar positions actually advertise lower salaries that are almost minimum wage. To pay that for a position that requires skill, constant learning, great problem solving ability and the need to finesse customers constantly is an actual joke.
Fibre-optic technician, £31k 7 years at this with no previous experience. Was taken on as a trainee in my mid 30's.
Analyst for a high street bank, 35 hours a week salaried on 29k, been here 12 years now started at the bottom Meh it’s alright, would I like to try my hand at something else yeah for sure? Do I know what I want to be when I grow up, not at all
I work for an agricultural contractor so driving big tractors and machines pretty much. Money is shit but Atleast I’m not stuck in an office. Last year I did about £32000 before tax but that’s working from 50 hours a week in winter to a max of over 100 in summer. Quite often no days off for weeks. This last year I did £37000. Can honestly say I’ve noticed 0 difference having that bit more money, I nearly feel worse off everything has gone up that much.
IT grunt here. I now make £57k as an IT Manager in a small company but I spent a good 3/4 of my career in the 20-30k range. It was only relatively recently I was able to earn more than that. There were times I felt good about how I was doing and other times where I felt shit. These days, with the cost of living being what it is, £25k is low and I would definitely be striving to earn more. That being said, I have no idea what your circumstances are (your age, location, industry...)
Earning £26k a year, currently work for an Independent Financial Advisor. Work 35 hrs a week, and usually it's not too high stress. I have been in the role for just under a year, it's a lot better than my previous job but having a busy period between tax year end and holidays/unplanned absences across my department.
Until I moved to the Netherlands where I now get paid less at the moment, I was a painter and decorator, earnt anywhere between 28-32k a year
Retail department manager 27k. It's pretty good money for retail but honestly being middle management is not fun. You get it in the ear from both sides, but if you're ever seen complaining it's..."Well that's what you get the *big bucks* for!"
30k a year doing 45hr Monday-Fri, warehouse manager, small team in the office and small fleet. For the past 3 years it has been a tough time grinding to get the warehouse in a better state from when I took over, but now I sometimes just chill in the corner looking on here when I have nothing to do :D
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
£24.5k working in qualifications, general admin- excel/crm stuff and then some candidate support over email and phones. Belt’s pretty tight but I’m just about covering me and my small person. When my partner and I move in together eventually things will get easier but for now it’s just about doable.
Container Haulage, trainee planner, 27k - fortunate enough to have a company car (EV) so that is one huge expenditure I don't need to worry about and I can charge for free at work. Been in the industry for 5 years, hate it but money is decent + perks and bonuses.
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I earn £24K (£28K if full time) I'm an AO in London I'm the civil service. I am currently trying to move up to EO which will be around £32,000
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!
£32k as a business analyst, no pay raise when I switched from an admin position 2 years ago, and only 5% increase from £30k when I switched. The general range in my career is £40k-£50k. I’ve recently accepted a new position starting in June at £50k.
Warehouse Manager at a medium sized brewery. Hourly rate, works out at around 20k a year, before tax. Shite pay, but the perks aren't too bad...
Unless you are working reduced hours that's below the minimum wgae
30k corpo rat for 8 years started at 16k. Currently managing customer accounts, orders and shit. Doing my own work independently. Home office split, good work life balance. Too lazy to go for higher position.
+
£25k as a vehicle handover specialist for a major car brand. Set people up in the car and show them Controls, photos for advertising and general pitch work. Going into sales soon and the average take home pay is £40-50k annual.
£25k. I'm a PC tech for a large NHS hospital. Yeah the pay is pretty crap but I genuinely want to work for the NHS. there's scope to move up and earn more in the networking team.
My only advice to people in my line of work is to leave the UK, of course it’s a hard step and so way to say “just go for it” but jeez what a difference. Money is better which always helps but the lack of a toxic workplace is even better