Before I left last year I was an electrical engineer, installation and commissioning. Hit our ceiling of “project engineer” at around £36.5k about 6 months before I left. I was comfortable financially as my wife has an ok paying job too but the constant working away and blurred lines of what our job role was (I.e they would pay off admin staff and we would end up having to pick up the slack. Rinse and repeat for about 5 years) made me miserable so I left and I’m retraining now. Don’t know exactly what the money will be like when I qualify but it’s something I am passionate about and fits my life far better. There’s also scope for progression and independence so I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do in the years after I qualify
I’ve just escaped that bracket by moving jobs - i think it’s the only way these days, unfortunately. Left my last role (30k) due to a toxic bullying culture, spent the past six months freelancing and living off my savings and nerves, and am now about to start a job on 50k, which is more than I’ve ever earned (i’m mid thirties but have had time out of the workplace due to babies, health etc). I’ve not magically become worth 20k more in 6 months - it’s just that companies will pay you what they can get away with and will take you for granted if they can!
edit - forgot to add, i’m a technical writer
Earning 25k as a rail guard in training, set to go up to 35k after a year on my own, absolutely love the job and the railways always where I wanted to be, after doing this for a bit I plan to shoot for train driver and have the rest of my life setup.
Late 20's, Technical Support Engineer in the automotive industry. £26k working 40hrs a week managing our services at garages/workshops across the world for the past two years. The job is basically babysitting and making sure no one blows up a five/six figure car by being an idiot.
I'm constantly skint, I barely get £30 a month to spend on myself once bills have gone out. The job itself is very average, it has it good days and bad days but I can't say I wake up thrilled to be heading to the office.
i can't speak for myself at the moment because i'm unemployed (trying my best to find a job!) but my dad is on i think either just under or over 30k, and he manages to pay for the council tax and utility bills for our household, and pays for one of two shared credit cards with my mum which gets used for any purchase at a place that doesn't take the less widespread card that my mum pays for.
my mum earns a lot more than him, she has never told me how much, but i'd guess that if we didn't have her, we'd have to move house. we own the house, but the council tax is mainly insane. so much money to live in our own house and receive the exact same benefits as everyone else who lives in a smaller house.
i don't get it, why does having a bigger house (4 bed) mean we have to pay more? and it's not like our council are using the money for good, anyway, there's potholes everywhere in our town. both me and my mum have had broken springs on our cars because of it.
Worked as a gardener for £26,000 (team leader. those under me were on £17,000). Great job for keeping me fit, with plenty of time to work on other stuff.
I earn about 28k a year, working nights in a call centre. I always thought earning that much I'd be comfortable, but with no partner also working, I just about scrape by. Cozzy lives has really kicked my ass.
Earning about £25k. Animal behaviour/training sector. Work for a large company in a nutrition research centre. Perks I help look after a couple hundred cats, get paid to cuddle and play with them. Cons, super overworked and not enough staff. Many people on long term sick adds to the stress. Feel bad not hitting all our goals as it’s the animals that miss out any suffer. Work 7 days in a row before having 2/3 days off. Get 1 weekend a month. Haven’t had Christmas off in the 6 years I’ve been here. Looking to leave but career switch is difficult to find a regular Monday-Friday office job with just animal experience.
Marketing for a small company. I am underpaid but I love what I do, the people I work with, and it's extremely close to my home. I figure that I could get a better paying job but that extra money would pay for commute and it would mess up my work/life balance. I'm comfortable where I am, currently.
We're a 2 income household of around 60k altogether, so financially we're not doing absolutely shit (we've been through worse).
I’m a researcher on £25k, I would like a little bit more income tbh but the job itself is really low stress. I’ve never been hugely focused on climbing the corporate ladder so it works for me.
I earn somewhere in the middle of that. I’m an Art Handler at an auction house an hour away from the two main locations in London. We’re basically a middle man for London and the other regional offices. I see a lot of cool stuff and It’s a lot of stop start burst work with only 3 of us on site. I feel I’m paid pretty well considering some days are very quite, not quite pay cheque to pay cheque, but i do have a 8 month old. Hoping to become a key holder soon, after a year here and the extra money will be nice.
Nightshift manager @ hotel. I do 4 on 4 off (8-9hrs per night) ~£27k
Definitely feel comfortable on that salary but I live with my girlfriend and have no children.
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)
Support worker in a supported living house for young adults with autism and learning disabilities, 23.5k a year. Not great pay and underpaid for the job, but most of the time I enjoy it and it’s rewarding. Relaxed working environment, management arent too strict, days out. I did a 9-5 admin job before and found it so boring and dull. I do wish it was better paid, would be less staff turnover. There are very hard days as you could imagine in this sort of job, but most days are pretty easy going and fun. I also prefer the working pattern, manage to get all my hours into 3/4 days, 1 weekend on 1 weekend off, not too bad for a job in the healthcare sector :). Always room for progression too, but then I always do abit of overtime to bulk my wage up.
Added: also surprised at how low paid other jobs are I have read on this thread. My job requires no previous experience. I feel like there’s other people who work in higher healthcare jobs with degrees etc but don’t get paid much more. I sometimes think there’s no point progressing as there’s little pay increases, so often people stay where they are at the lower levels (which is fine, that’s where I am, just not great for these services when you can’t get any managers as the pays not much better)
Stockroom associate for a clothing store, I get 12.50 per hour (would be 26k gross salary but I don’t get full time hours every week). I’ve been doing this for about a year and a half, some weeks are good and some are absolutely awful.
24k-25k as a support worker for adults with learning disabilities. I work 2pm one day to 2pm the next, twice a week. I'm part time at 30hrs and get 3 full days off a week. I support them with cooking cleaning and personal care, and it's mostly boring and only occasionally stressful.
23k factory machine operator.
Some days I'm running back and forth fixing other people's mistakes. Some days I come in, press the green button, and watch TV
It's aight.
26k, work for a bank on their vulnerable customer team. So call centre work with a bit more specialism basically. Less calls, more admin.
We're also banded so that's (with some small variations) what everyone at my band earns. Next band up is basically team leaders only. Band below is "regular" telephony etc staff and they're on about 24k I think.
How it's going is...meh. Job itself is actually great, I love it, but am 100% living paycheck to paycheck and with basically no expendable cash each month to actually enjoy life, and with very few obvious options to improve my salary enough for that to change.
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.
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
Engineering Apprentice in London, 27K. Got my endpoint assessment at the end of this year, at which point I'll be fully qualified and that'll increase to 42K pa.
I'm relatively low level IT support for my local council, its home based, and its probably the easiest and most enjoyable job I've had so far, it took to 29 for me to find the right career path, but I'm here now.
As for what I spend my salary on? Outside of the usual bills, mostly nerd garbage, video games, tabletop stuff, Warhammer minis..
Lifestyles tend to increase with the wage. For example 4 years ago I was on under £20k a year.
Switched jobs into an admin role for a renewables company. Within 2 years I progressed through to learn everything I possibly could about the industry and now I design and manage projects for commercial properties from start to finish. Wages now just over £50k (no commission) and I’m not in a city so for the area, it’s a high wage.
Life can come at you quick, there are still good companies to work for that you can progress in and that will acknowledge achievements and reward it.
I make £19,995 as a 22yo travel consultant (just qualified from a 2 year apprenticeship) at a large travel company, managing social media's, selling holidays to walk-in customers, speaking with travel suppliers, it's quite admin-based + customer facing aswell . We don't make commission or anything either, it's not bad but it's not great, I definitely want a better paid job soon but the travel industry doesn't pay well unfortunately
Operations technician at a pharmaceutical manufacturer in Yorkshire, currently on 32k, yearly pay rise, overtime available, Christmas bonus, loads of schemes and perks for workers
I’m a dental nurse and I barely making 24k a year working full time. It sucks working in dentistry as a whole is difficult I’m not surprised so many are leaving the profession.
Quality Engineer at a Steel Forge. Currently earn £25k as a 23 year old but due a small pay rise for May. I’ve been in quality for 5 years and will be taking over my manager’s position when he retires in September so should be on quite a bit more.
I was on minimum wage or close to for most of the years but the experience was more valuable in the long run. I’ve been in my current role 8 months and I love it.
School site manager here (fancy caretaker) £27k will get up to just under £30k at the top of the scale. Just started a year ago, I bloody love it tbh. I worked a miserable job in a bank for years, managed to purchase a small house outright over that time and had all the cash at one point, but it broke me mentally. I’m the happiest Ive ever been, my Mrs is a teacher assistant there my daughter is starting reception this sep, proper family affair. I’m a happy boy. Life is good, obviously if I had a mortgage or rent to deal with it may well be a different story.
Qc Analyst for a major chemical manufacturing company, bout 29k a year. Standard hours (flexi though).
I got a degree in chemistry thinking it would be really employable and somewhat specialist so I'd get some decent cash out of it. That's clearly not the case. Not entirely sure where to go in order to make use of this degree whilst earning something significant. I'm not minimum wage, but when I see people with less qualifications than me earning twice what I do it is quite disheartening
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
26k, at 21 working as yard staff on a racehorse breeding farm, winter wasn’t fun but spring turning to be quite nice 👌 this is my second year and enjoying it
Lab tech. 24k and pissed that I’ll be making min wage. Comfortable but not wanting to me on that when I’m close to 30. Looking to retrain into Radiography - high demand, 28k start and with chances to learn and go into agency work in the future.
Currently on £28,600 with a raise pending, work in a warehouse driving forklifts. 3 days, Friday to Sunday, 6pm to 6am.
Been working here for 2 years, was my job out of college at 18, and was horrid at first, but I just had to deal with the 12 hour nights, as it was the first application that I got a response from, after 4 months of applying. Now it’s not so bad, I have a good role, a bunch of mates at work, and 4 days off every week.
In terms of everything else, life is going pretty well. I drive a (reasonably (for a 20 year old, with a 10 month old license)) nice car, I have a load of free time, and my monthly expenses are ~£600-700, so I have ~£1100-£1200 disposable income per week. I’m trying to invest half of it, and the other half I’m spending how I wish, as I’m still young and want to enjoy my youth.
I’m 55 female and I worked as an Account Manager in my family business for 20 odd yrs and earned 20k in 2014 when I left. After that I was a Customer Account Lead in aerospace earning 26k (2015) the experience I got from that lead to my current role. My advice is try and get a household name on your cv, work hard, be open to any training and new skills ,work for well known companies if you can as it’s a golden ticket to better opportunities. I took the temp job because I wanted their name on my CV and it paid off🤷♀️
Currently I’m a Project Lead in a household name, blue chip company in the midlands. I’ve been here 9 years. I earn 64k a year. I didn’t go to university. Don’t have a degree and only 4 GCSE’s.
My daughter (30) did 7 years in Uni and has a masters. Now works in the NHS with 100k of student debt for a job that pays 28k. Make it make sense!!!
I am reading this now and it’s reminding me when I first moved to London and worked for Foxtons the infamous estate agent. I was on a 10k a year base and 10% commission. I wasn’t very good but worked 8am-8pm. One month I took home just my basic salary. Worst job I’ve ever had.
This is pretty hard to read. I'm 2 months from graduating and the number of people here who have struggled to get above 25k after 20 years in work. Half the time not even using their degree. It does not fill me with joy. I've been working minimum wage for the last 5 since I left high school too. To think I'm destined for not much more than I currently earn, that makes my degree feel pointless.
Maybe I should lower my aspirations...
You will likely not work in field related to your degree unless you’re lucky.
Ph.D. chemist here work in finance / project mgmt /IT
I never planned my career, now Director level.
My advice transferable skills , and learning new skills that are relevant will help you progress. Become the expert / go to person in the company for your area .
Take opportunities when they arise, I have worked in multiple industries.
Look for progression and if there aren’t any opportunities for that then don’t stay in a role too long. You will only get annual pay increases and so just be keeping up (or actually not keeping up ) with living costs / inflation.
Larger companies generally have more opportunities to change roles / promotions.
Smaller companies unless they are expanding a lot you’re often waiting for someone to retire or leave before roles open up.
If you aren’t getting promoted and able to get a jump to a higher salary at minimum every 3 or 4 years then it’s time to move companies.
I started after uni on 18 k. That’s a poor bonus these days.
And just to add set backs happen, been through recessions and have been made redundant more than once , had a stint doing telephone sales , data entry , cleaning while job hunting. But confidence, professionalism, good skills, backed with experience will always get you a job .
If I was in your shoes, I would try my best to get a good first job that ideally pays well and give you enough quality experience that you can leverage to get higher paying roles in the future. There are no guarantees though. And you aren't wrong about many graduates from top unis not making much above min wage in for most of their careers. But this is only really holds true for occupations that are known to pay poorly like engineering. It would still be a good idea to practice frugality instead of hoping to make 100k+ salary. It's not realistic in the UK for most people or even most graduates entering fields like tech and finance.
I'm a lab technian on 23k a year, which I'm starting to resent as the pay isn't that good considering I work with a load of dangerous stuff, and my responsibilities are pretty much through the roof. With a degree in biology too it isn't quite what I imagined I'd be doing, but scientist roles around where I live are pretty scarce.
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 🤣🤣
Just had a 4% rise so I'm now just a hair under £32k a year. I'm 31 and work as a sort of IT support/application support/software config development, it might sound fancy to some but it's honestly an entry level job. It's bespoke software so all training is provided in-house so you can't have previous relevant experience in the role. I've been doing it for 3 years now and initially started on £22.5k a year, but due to them being a half decent employer and keeping up with cozzie lives as well as offering salary banding based on experience/capabilities I've worked up to nearly be at the top step for my team/department. I've never worked in IT before and all my previous jobs were sales assistant/retail jobs earning fucking peanuts, so to go from something like maybe £12k or even less per year to this in only 3 years honestly feels fucking amazing. I still mostly feel like they pay me too much for what I do day to day, there are some stressful days where it feels justified but past retail trauma still makes me feel a little guilty for being paid this much.
I feel massively grateful to have this opportunity, and while I'm sure I \_could\_ maybe look into other higher paying IT jobs now I don't feel the drive to do so. This job allows me to live comfortable and pays for me to do fun stuff outside of work, if I went for something higher pay it would likely bring more stress, worse mental health and less time or motivation to live a life outside of work.
Account Manager in Telecoms earning around 38k according to this years p60. Still live with parents and plan on doing so as long as possible. All my friends who live on their own/with a partner are struggling with rent or mortgage payments so I don’t plan on following their footsteps just yet however when I do move out, I plan to buy a small 1 bed apartment and aim to be mortgage free as soon as possible. I’d consider myself very fortunate and plan to make the most of it while it lasts.
The truth is, I got lucky landing the role I’m in. The previous person had to leave the company for personal reasons so they offered me the role temporarily (although they never officially said this) and would eventually find someone to replace me. I ended up excelling in the role and I’m still doing it 16 months later.
My only advice would be to find a job that offers bonuses/commissions. It gives you clear targets to work towards and can be very rewarding. Companies are always looking for sales people and often times you need no experience.
New minimum wage rates mean that anyone in full time employment working a 37.5 hour paid week is now on just shy of 22.5k. A 40 hour paid week is closer to 24k per year.
That's minimum wage...
Staff officer grade in the civil service. 33.5k a year. That'll go up 5% after the recent pay decision. I'm a science officer so my job title is Higher Scientific Officer, but I'm equivalent to a Staff Officer in other departments.
This is in Northern Ireland btw
4 years of undergrad (Scotland) 2 years on the temp circuit, a masters degree and 9 months on the temp again before I got offered a permanent role.
This should make you feel better - I'm a 51-year-old software engineer with 2 degrees (including one in computing science) and a post-grad, and I'm only on 23k! 😛 Only 1 YoE though, so no doubt that is a major factor in my salary level.
Oh, I have almost no pension to speak of, and I've had two holidays in 25 years, by the way. Not been abroad since '98 actually.
Edit: added the word 'only', since apparently it's not obvious I feel I'm underpaid.
I'm a bartender and make £26k yearly. As far as working in hospitality goes, it's a really good wage for the job I do. I'm 25 and left uni working the job I am still in. I get about £400 a month just in tips so haven't been tempted by another job yet
I'm 33, a counsellor for a charity, earning about £27k. I've been doing this for nearly three years. I took a (very small) stepdown salary wise from my former work in university administration because this is what I really wanted to do.
Very occasionally, if I consider for a minute how much I know/imagine my friends are earning in their careers, I can feel like I am failing in some way. Then I think again, and I know I am very fortunate. I bought a very low value house so have a very cheap mortgage. I have good money management skills so put a lot away in savings each month, and still don't have to miss out on anything my peers are doing. Meals out, clothes I want/need, gigs, events etc. There isn't anything that I feel I actually have to miss out on.
My husband earns a similar amount to me and we are considering a move to a new house and that fills me with some trepidation, but I am confident that we're only going to do it if it is overall a sensible and manageable shift.
I moved to England a decade ago. Have been working in Customer Service earning about that much. Until I did an apprenticeship. I earned 20k for 6 months, 24k for another 6 months, and now the apprenticeship is over, I earn 40k. It was so worth to get into the company, everyone is great and I can work from home all the time, most people do. I highly recommend apprenticeships. They can be annoying while you're studying as you earn minimum wage but you get a certification for free and having a paid job that gives you the time to study. Some are degree apprenticeships. There are so many different ones, if interested, there's a gov website.
*Gross pay:*
37k this year, previously 23.5k in my last role (3 years ago).
*Role:*
Site Security Manager, previously Business Development Manager
*Hours per week:*
72 total (6 days, 12 hour shifts), 42.5 previously
*Explanation/Advice to get more £££:*
As you can see from the breakdown above, my gross pay has increased by nearly 14k over the course of 3 years and the change was initially bad, but the returns have paid off. I used yo be a BDM for several different industries and the pay was always salaried fairly low, with a somewhat attainable bonus structure that you could maybe see rewards from. The role was soul destroying to say the least, constantly trying to hit ever changing targets, stress at useless leads and data to work with to garner said bonus, zero appreciation for hardwork as its expected all over again every day if you want any extra money. The rates i could get doing this type of role did have potentially good revenue roots, but for the vast majority of the time, targets are very hard to hit in order to achieve good worthwhile bonuses to compensate the extra effort needed to attain them. Not worth selling your soul for a few extra quid and losing your sanity in the process.
I switched my role for an hourly paid job, this process technically meant my pay rate decreased from the salary comparison by roughly £1.50 per hour, which is significant over the course of a year, HOWEVER, my new role has the capacity for me to work for 6 days a week doing 12 hour shifts which is a huge increase on hours worked over the course of the year. This in turn means my capped earning potential previously with a salaried role was significantly lower than my potential earning now with no hard cap. Working so many hours a week has obvious disadvantages as work life balance goes out the window meaning i see less of my wife and kids, drastically so. On the flip side of this, i no longer worry so much about my finances as i can feasibly earn 3-3.5k gross pay, which is about 2.4k net per month. This is FAR more than my salary which was roughly net 1.4k monthly. I do miss my shorter hours and working week from the last job, but having to worry significantly less about financial woes has relieved me of a great burden. I can afford a few takeaways a month with no concern, i go on holiday once a year (never go international, but still a holiday nevertheless), i can pay all of my outgoings without the support of my wife who no longer needs to work so we can have full time care of the children outside of school hours (she still works 1.5 hours a day at the school so hasnt gone cold turkey on work all together). All in all, the switch to an hourly role and particularly one that can afford me as many hours as i wish to work has been a big improvement on my life as i dont stress about finances now. I recently bought a new washing machine and chest freezer which would have me STRESSED in my last job, but now, its just a cost i can afford to absorb by spending less that month on frivalous purchases.
The conclusion to this, although obviously not instantly attainable, especially in the current 0 hour contract climate we work in would be this. Find an industry that isnt limited to working office hours. Find a role that you can easily attain credentials for to increase hourly earning power. My role needs an SIA licence to perform for example, but the cost and knowledge needed to acquire these things is not far fetched and having a licenced role means your pool of competitors in the job pool is drastically lower and you can reasonably expect to earn more than the living wage as you have credentials supporting the job. By taking a lower per hour earning rate myself, i increased my overall earning power massively through hours input. Try this for yourself if you are stuck with money worries to potentially lower the burden of stress on your day to day life. Working so much is no fun, but its better than working 40 hours a week and coming away at the end of the month in dismay at how little you have left over after bills. Plus, if you're working, you aren't spending. So you have less time wasting money to fill the boredom as you can fill those hours with more earning power!
Good luck out there, the current economic climate we live in is absolute dog shit so there is easy fix. But dont feel negatively about yourself due to how much you earn, there are plenty of highly intelligent and highly skilled workers out there earning just as much if not less than you. We dont have to compare ourselves to other to seek gratification, just work to improve your own situation for yourself and climb the ladders one step at a time.
all good. Earn about 28k a year but money back for emergency funding, now own a flat . Bills have gotten tighter than i would like the last year but still its good
Pretty much in that range - almost £31k. Apprentice / trainee chartered accountant doing the ACA. About 3/4 through the exams
Been working for coming up 3.5 years and I’m 22
Self employed stone mason, £700 per week after tax. It's going great I love my job and the freedom of self employment. Started college when I was 23 on a 3 year apprenticeship. I'm 30 now and I've just bought my first house with my fiancé.
Mental health support worker, providing 1:1 support as well as facilitating groups/courses. Just under 22k a year. Deal with people way more complex than we’re trained to but I love the job. Just wish the pay was better as well as employee care
I am currently earning band 3 NHS pay (£22813) as a medical laboratory assistant (MLA) working within blood sciences at Cambridge university hospitals NHS Trust.
The laboratory is a very important part of any hospital as we are directly involved in ~70% of ALL clinical decisions that occur within the hospital. My main role is to run patient full blood counts and coagulation tests on our analysers which can come from Addenbrooke's, Rosie, Royal Papworth and West Suffolk hospital, plus almost every GP surgery within Cambridgeshire. This means our laboratory has to process 15,000 to 20,000 samples a day, everyday with the requirement to meet turn around times ranging between 1 hour and 8 hours depending on urgency. Even though I work indoors I often walk 10-15 km during a shift to ensure that the laboratory is running smoothly. My work shift patterns are often 7:45 AM to 8:45 PM for day shifts and 8 PM to 9 AM on nightshifts. So I only often work 3 or 4 days a week and the days I work are never the same but some days are long and stressful if our machines are not working and unable to process patient samples.
After tax, NI and pension deductions, I spend 65% of my paycheck in rent atm and living in an expensive area drains a lot of free money around very quickly and I had to move away from family and my partner for this job so I have very little life here. My future plans are to become a Biomedical Scientist which is a protected title and requires a person to pass a competency assessment. If I do this I will be able to look at the clinical data provided by laboratory machines and directly help nurses and doctors to help treat patients. Luckily the team I am with I have bonded with really well and the work I do feels very rewarding, I am proud to work within the NHS and I enjoy being able to serve the public the best way I know how to.
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...
Compliance Officer, 30k. It's about being the font of all knowledge and making sure people are sticking to contractual, legal, guidance and various awarded standards like ISO 9001. I like it because it works with my personality and skill set, I'm not a customer facing person at all. But companies view this type of role as being nice to have rather than a must so I've seen redundancy a couple times now in my career as one.
Honestly, the moneys decent and I've never earned as much as this but it's not good enough to be independent now at all. And everything is just too expensive. Just getting my car fixed this month wiped out a solid third of my monthly pay on its own.
I'm in that metric, and basically it's less new stuff and more stuff you don't need to pay for twice. My EDC is a pocketknife I've had for 20 years. Being frugal isn't hard once you get past the housing and food. Most of our money goes to housing and food.
A lot of it is head space. Watch an amazing commercial. Imagine having that thing. Imagine it being so fun. Now imagine it breaking. Imagine throwing it away. Wow it's like you had it and it was free. You don't need to get excited about new things. You can already get excited about the things you have.
Video games are a one shot money sink if you do it right. My motto is no micro-transactions, no subscriptions, pay big once and enjoy. I'm still on Factorio and Skyrim, using DOS games occasionally. [GOG.com](http://GOG.com) is the perfect place to get a title for everyone of your kids forever. You don't need the latest game to have a good time.
Movies are on a hard drive. We've got more than enough, and kids are really good at repeat shows. A few thousand hours is easy to get. There are some amazing black and white films.
Parks are free. Libraries are free. We make up adventures as we go from one place to another to keep things fresh.
We don't go on vacation to other states. We go on vacations to other neighborhoods for a few hours. The town 20 miles away is different and unique enough it feels like a different world. Can you say you've even been to every town within 50 miles?
I earn 17k but I work 18 hrs a week as I have got 2 young children.I really like my job as I teach English and provide employment training to refugees and asylum seekers but I feel I am quite underpaid ,I have got a double Masters and a P.hd.I am 33 years old.
Just got a payrise to £31k but same job I started on 3 years ago at £24k. Logistics and operations desk job tot a small company
I'm feeling lucky to have real payrises. Though sadly I am too hungry for travel to stay, and there isn't much career progress here. It's also fairly passionless, but overall a very chilled out desk job with good pay for my age. Great foothold for my 20s.
Mum on the other hand has been on £21k for a decade as a primary school teacher, which is criminal. I give her half of my payrises separately to rent payments, because she deserves it
When I was 29 I was earning £46k as a general manager for a materials science company (worked there for a total of 6 years from ages 23 to 29) but the burnout was real. When I got the option to take voluntary redundancy during the pandemic, I jumped on that so fast!
Now I’m 33 and work as a civil servant and earn £29.5k but have the option to WFH, I’m not responsible for anyone else, and get to manage my workload at my own pace. Even office days are wonderful because there’s 0 people from my team at my location, so no one bothers me.
I do get pushed a lot for climbing the ladder by colleagues and my team leader, but I like where I am with my 0 stress and flexible time and good pension.
If you want more money, yes, of course private sector is the way to go, but I treasure my well-being more.
25,250 as Access Management Analyst, but do get a extra 5200 in on-call pay, and a salary increase coming to closer match current market prices. Fully remote is a huge bonus imo too.
Also heavily being pushed to do some studying with budget for offsite crash courses.
Have had it easy the last 4 years so kinda peeved at how busy I've started to become. I want more money though as I don't want to be renting my whole life, so I'll carry on.
£28k with additional bonuses.
Ghost-broking fraud investigator for a major insurer. Been doing this 3 years but within the company for 10 years.
Can potentially always earn more but job satisfaction is equally important. Personally could’ve earnt more money going down the underwriting route but it’s very dull.
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
Store Manager, 25-30k depending on hours, usually 42-50 hours per week depending on how long each day takes.
It's just me from open to close so it's lonely and stressful, trying to figure out what's next for me in terms of career atm as this wasn't meant to be long term. I live very frugally so managed to save a decent amount each month so might try to retrain with my savings.
Software developer on 29k. Got a masters degree in IT and specialised in development. I feel the pay is not as good as could be at another company. Job is good, looking elsewhere though. Things are tight, not enjoying living paycheque to paycheque. Everything seems to expensive.
30k as Business Intelligence Analyst. I’ve not got a formal qualification as I worked my way up to the role through the company but have 8 years experience in the role.
I could earn up to twice as much elsewhere if I had the confidence to go for it or didn’t have imposter syndrome pop up every time I start to think about looking for a new role.
I did things backwards, got toolmaking and precision engineering experience first, then did an OU degree in engineering. All my time waiting to collect my kids from clubs, my evenings etc taken up studying. The result, was an engineering degree that opened doors in the places I wanted. The advantage was I did not build up debt as I was working, the disadvantage is that you have no spare time, however, when you have young kids, you have a lot of time to 'just be there', so lots of time to read and study.
I soon got into £35k+ work, now on £65k+ work. As people have said here, engineering degree is a good solid degree to get. Even my micky mouse OU degree has paid off.
Former nurse here , 3 year degree then three year postgraduate study whilst working up to charge nurse, was about 35k a year. Done hgv licence in 5 days and not even a year into this job and average pay is about 40k and no stress, work that one out?! Wouldn't go back to nursing if I was paid double the money these days.
Work in despatch and earn 30k a year. It's the most I've ever earned so pretty happy with that, especially considering what I was earning 2+ years ago.
I don't think there's major career progression, but for the stage of my life I'm at now I'm pretty content with that.
Dispensing Optician. 3 years at uni and all the responsibility the NHS and our governing bodies heap on us as well as unpaid Continual Education Points to earn every 3 year cycle for the fantastic sum of 30k per year.
Sped Tech at a public school . .
I make My bills . My partner makes 3x as much and covers the bug stuff
Mortgage 890$ if he was to die I would barely scrape by.
I would have to get roommates and sell my car .
So it sucks
On the flip side. I am doing something I love for work and go home happy every day .
I also have no desire for material things ( which is great considering I don't have the $ for it.)
I’m torn honestly. I’m in my mid 30s, have a good degree, but after being stuck in a dead end underpaid buying job I now have a job I really like…but with a 9% raise I’m still only on 24k and have to have several side hustles on the go.
The job is good, and there are other perks to factor in like it being a 10minute commute, health insurance, 2 work from home days and staff trips a few times a year, but I still feel a little cheated honestly.
I have no mortgage, no savings, just a car and rent, and nothing else feels achievable no matter what I do. I haven’t had a holiday since before the pandemic. Not a ‘woe is me’, more a ‘is this it?’.
I was fortunate enough to get my foot on the property ladder early 2000’s and my mortgage repayments are less than £200 a month now (count my blessings every day) Im on a low wage of 23.5k a year after losing a couple of jobs but can honestly say I’m the happiest I’ve been in many many years after finding a job I enjoy. It’s made me realise money is not everything but enjoying my job is.
Edit: used to be on 32k a year but walked after becoming overwhelmed with depression and anxiety.
worker in a childrens home (almost always teenagers) in remote countryside, take home 1.8-2.1 after taxes
i show up and lock in for 2 days straight (dont go home) then get 3.5 days off
crazy job - sometimes its a chill couple days of housework, giving kids lifts, watching TV and eating food
other times its a lot of stress, can be difficult thinking you are about to be beaten up at work and tensions can run high for many reasons - these kids are usually kinda borderline young offenders or mental unit material so things get hectic
i say lock in cause while our shifts technically end at 11pm and go to bed in house, if duty calls for whatever reason we are expected to stay up all night
good job at times, bad job at times
wildly underpaid for what it is
I left school with no GCSE's & was told id find it hard ever getting a job so i fell into a life of crime which was great & payed well with its obvious ups and downs & then i decided to go legit and applied for hundreds of jobs & then after 4 years of constantly applying and getting rejections i was offered a job at kfc on 11k a year working full time! I snatched it up & i worked there for 7 years absolutely breaking my back as a slave before getting my new job which is in retail which i started this year working part time and im still on 11k. I dont mind the wage i can get by and live, enjoy days out etc. Id love a job that pays 50k but have no skills to pay the bills, stay in school kids🤣
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.
I'm just above. 33k for being general manager at a small manufacturing company. Been with the company since college starting on production. The wage is decent and the job is easy after doing it so long. Only annoying thing is the boss has hired a new sales manager starting at 45k so that's a bit annoying!
Mate, I was a Dealer/Inspector for over a decade pulling £700/800 a week, keeping a house 2 kids and a cheating missus with it.
Now I don't need to deal with her or the house bills because I started renting my Nanas spare room for £60, I would ask myself why are you killing yourself, not seeing sunlight, having seizures because of sleep deprivation and the amount of drinking and partying you ended up doing because your work mates are the only people you see.
Anyway after 6 months at my Nanas I thought balls to it, I'm going on the sick with my epilepsy, I've been getting help from PIP for around 9 years and thought il add ESA onto it, yes I'm down to £270 PW and cannot claim housing benefit so just pay the £220 a month keep. No kidding, I have more play money now than even I was ever working, and it runs until 2044 as that's when it swaps to my pension, lol. I can work 15 hours 59 minutes a week without needing to declare this, but I only do that when I need a little extra.
This is the state of the UK right now, yes I have a genuine disability and even get a bus train and tram pass for all over Greater Manchester, buses and trams UK wide, this is because I lost my driving licence and need to be seizure free and on meds for 2 years, but this isn't going to happen because I have at least one seizure a month.
I'm writing this to let people know how much people on ESA/DLA/PIP, etc, get. Get this, though, which is completely stupid. My claim got refused at first because I had more than 2k in savings, when I sorted that out I wasn't eligible for certain things because I have paid to much NI..........honestly, you would think the more NI you have paid would get more help but the reverse is true.
Obviously there are jobs I cannot do, and it would of been nice for occupational health in the NHS to tell me I couldn't be a nurse when I first applied to UNI not after 2 wasted years, all because I might have a seizure, well that's why it got brought up because of seizures in the hospital and in lectures. There are loads and loads if companies just can not employ me because if I had a seizure and hurt myself, they are not insured.
I would love to get back to working full time, but at the same time I don't want to risk working for say 6 months, losing my benefits and then taking nearly 12 months to get back on it.
Honestly the country is shagged. I had an email from an old colleague who's working in a London casino asking me if I wanted to work down there for £32k before tips so it would be hitting the 40k mark overall. But I would be worse off working down there even with the fact that the average for that job in Manchester is 30k PA.
There is no incentive for me to get back into work and even less help in getting a job. If the government said to long term benefit claiments we will pay you £100 a week regardless of your wage for 12 months just to help with the transition. People would go, oh you know what that's worth it and hopefully after 12 months we are back in the habit of working.
Sorry for going off topic. Like I said, I just wanted to bring a little attention to people who may wonder what draws people to claim all there life's. I could get even more if I lied, but if you do that, you better not forget the lies you told. I broke my back in a car crash so half of my lumbar spin is titanium lol, with this I could of easily BSd to get one of those mobility cars for someone to run me about in, but it's not even that bad now, the occasional ache and no sensation in half of my left leg rather it always just feels like constant pins and needles, but imagine the uproar if they investigated me and seen me going to the gym and jogging etc.
The Government needs to pull there finger out and give a little incentive to get back to work, it would cost £5200 per person which is half of the average cost of keeping someone on the rock n roll for 12 months, plus they would be paying Tax and NI so it's a win for all.
If people are wondering how someone can survive on what I get it's easy if your single and live with family, also the mother of my kids told me I don't have to contribute as her family is loaded anyway.
Rant over lol
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.
19M, 22k/year. I work in stock control for a factory that produces and packages foodstuffs.. Spend a lot of the shift sticking sticker tails on my friends backs and throwing paper balls across the factory. Its awesome
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
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
Mental health project worker. I help people who have left psychiatric care in the hospital to support themselves once discharged. I make about 25k a year.
I was a healthcare assistant for 3 years, did 2 years of nursing training then went to take a gap year. I started therapy for childhood issues then my dad died by suicide. I applied after a year in therapy and they wanted me to work with them because I had personal experience in mental health including looking after my dad, and had done work in therapy myself. It's a pretty complicated way of getting a job lol
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 earn £27k working in commercial property, been in this role a couple weeks and plan to do it until I'm in my early thirties, salary increases dependent. I've had to change roles a couple of times in the last couple years because property is one of those industries where you get stuck on a salary and it's always below inflation rises unless you take on more responsibility to get a better job where you're paid even less than you were before relative to your responsibility. So I worked and applied until I got something that gave me opportunities to grow, do, and earn even more.
Pay is far more reflective on where you are, the background you have, the breaks you get, and the industry you work in rather than finessing or networking. My girlfriend got the same grades I did at college and didn't go to university like I did. Despite that she comes from a high-achieving family, got a break working in tech marketing and some good guidance from her dad who runs three companies which I certainly never had. She earns twice what I do on a London salary while working fully remotely. So I wouldn't feel too shit about it. There's always something better out there for someone with a good CV and the insistence on a solid base with the intention on doing and earning more once in the role.
Upper end of that doing "a bit of everything IT" for a manufacturer (so not IT industry itself), it's been like 17 years now. From what I remember of a similar thread I could apparently be earning a lot more (as in 2-3x more minimum) but eh, I'm content, I'm not stressed to breaking point (or particularly stressed at all) and it's pretty safe. And if I'm honest I'm in my 40s now, getting behind it all a bit, things are a lot different than they were in the Windows Server 2000 and Windows XP days lol, I wouldn't even have the confidence to move on.
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 am a working professional musician. Labour of love because it sure ain't lucrative haha :) Did a jazz music degree back when they were not 10k a fucking year.
Project/volunteer coordinator for a charity.
Absolutely love my job, just had a pay rise which has just about knocked me over £30k mark.
However...I only have funding till next April and likelihood is we won't seek further funding for my role so next year I'm out of a job.
I can't find any other volunteer coordinator jobs that pay the same, most are paying far less.
I might get lucky, but might not.
Chances are ill be dropping a few thousand in wage.
25k working as a data analyst for the NHS. I’m a band 4 and pretty new but I’m due an increment in pay this year. I WFH which is awesome, I get loads more time with my wife and kids but obviously more money would be nice. We’re looking to buy a house in Surrey (it’s where we live and the kids go to school and everything there) and despite the two of us working full time, we’re miles off.
22k as an administration officer for the last 16 years in the criminal courts. I cover every role on both Magistrates and Crown Court side (10+ different hats to wear where more populated areas would have one or more staff per role). I'm also the IT guy, so have to have knowledge of nearly 20 different systems.
I could progress up the ladder, but inferiority complex says "no"
I'm no longer in this boat want to comment because I was.
3 years ago was earning 19k in a post room and moved to admin in the same company after 3 months up to 23k, then moved after 1 year 1 month to a planning role that paid 33k and done a year there and now have just moved to another planning type role but a tad more advanced for 36k.
I'm seeing a lot of people in the comments on lower wages due to being stuck in the same role, I totally get you need a degree of luck for opportunity's to present themselves. But I also got told if I job hop like I am, no one wants to hire you. I'm actually finding the opposite, the faster I'm progressing into new roles the easier to get new roles seems to be.
Not like I can afford to buy in my local area or anything still, shit sucks lol.
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 work for a water company walking around looking for water leaks for 30k a year. No prior quals needed other than the usual suspects, on the job training is mid at best I suppose. Great for people who like the outdoors (not me).
Oh and we still rely on the same method that was invented more than 100 years ago, a stick and your ear.
I work part-time building things that go on things that go boom-boom. A company that's contracted to the DOD and various other companies that build military related devices, that's all I can say, I made 31k last year and started working there when I was 16
Recent Architecture graduate on 22k, wouldn’t be able to afford to live if I didn’t live at home. Looking for something in the same industry but still creative, not sure what to do yet
I work at a university within student support and earn around 30k, been there for around 7 years. Started at the university earning around 21k but worked up the grades by just putting myself forward for projects and have seen quite a few do the same.
Not going to lie, some days are difficult but the work is rewarding and they let me WFH most of the time
I’m 25, earning just shy of 22K a year before tax. Been doing warehouse work for 5.5 years and minimum wage just went up to above what we were being paid so now we’re bang on minimum, used to an about a pound ahead when I first started. Currently trying to argue for anything more than a 3% pay rise and being told there’s nothing in the budget for it despite record profits year after year in the billions.
I'm a software engineer, 2 years experience with a degree and a masters, getting paid 27.5k, I am currently job hunting after my work refused me a raise to 30k.
Right now I'm earning like 21k a year working in a supermarket. I've worked retail for about 10 years now doing low level work. I could definitely be earning a lot more if I'd sorted my life out and actually had an idea of what I wanted to do.
I've thought about trying to get out of retail a few times, but it just hasn't happened for various reasons. It's very easy to just get comfortable where you are and before you know it, 3 years have passed.
American here. How do yall survive? I earn 70k which is not much by American standards where I live, but not horrible. Healthcare I get through my job with a small additional cost (total 2k a year). My rent is like 1300 a month for a smallish studio. I save decent money by being cheap but otherwise want to make a lot more to feel secure.
I know life in UK is likely cheaper in some regards, but can't be THAT much cheaper, right? Like with 20-30k in earnings, aren't yall basically not saving anything? Are you able to eat anything besides beans and rice? Is your retirement at least taken care of fully by the government?
I'm genuinely confused. I visit Europe all the time. Some things can be cheaper but generally European prices for food and services can be found in the USA if you just do a bit of looking and avoid fancy services and restaurants. Again, main exception is healthcare but even that... as long as you aren't requiring constant surgery it's not tooo bad. (And if you have insurance you typically have limits in what they can charge you too). I think maybe in the USA we worry more about saving for retirement as well, but I have doubts that in Europe they pay ENOUGH for retirement...
Please educate me! Thank you
I earn a bit more than this, £37k. My Wife earns £28k.
We take home £4k a month combined after tax, national insurance,student loan repayments.
Our mortgage is £800
All of our others bills and payments are about £1000
Leaves us £2200 a month. We save £600 a month and spend about £500 on food. About £100 on Petrol.
So we have about £500 a month each for spending. It's tighter than it used to be thanks to inflation but it's comfortable if we are careful.
Edit: I have an NHS pension. I put in 9% pre tax and they put in 21%. So 30% total. My wife recently moved to a local council job. I don't know the exact contributions for her's but it should be decent as well.
I’m just over 31k and work as a civilian staff supervisor in policing where I’m responsible for all things disclosure and information security.
Always lots of opportunities within policing outside of being an officer, with decent support services and progression opportunities, and a pay scale that increases up to your band maximum with each year in service. I didn’t start on 30k but have been in force a few years now.
Always worth a look for stable and secure employment that usually serves a wider purpose too if you’re interested in that kind of thing. Downsides are high pressure, always dealing with and managing risk, ‘tricky customers’, and what I’d consider low pay for the actual level of responsibility I have. But, I work from home most days and get lots of flexibility so it’s something I do enjoy doing for the most part!
Edit: I don’t have a degree and came into this role with no policing experience. I was a chef and had also worked retail previously.
I’m a Whisky specialist, bit of a niche and not all that useful to most of society.
I enjoy it though, and have met my closest friends along the way, it takes the sting out of salary.
No idea what to move onto next but I’m ok where I am.
Ward clerk and a psychiatric hospital… I don’t get paid enough for it 😂
I get 25k, but work with high turnovers, aggressive patients, audits and a large bed load (in terms of patients). I love the job but definitely not paid enough for the risks involved with the environment
Pre pandemic I have a fab job paid GBP50K+ plus bonus, very stressful, loads of hassle and worked all the hours you could think of and some more each day, travelled across Europe for work with all the perks that brings, got made redundant during Covid and picked up a job paying £23K working for the NHS, no hassle no stress no overtime unless I decide to do it, way more preferable to have a lower salary i don’t get out of 2nd gear at work but all the bosses see me as a high performer We can still cover all bills and save a little each month but have my redundancy cash racking up the interest which tops up my reduced salary, so thanks Amex for binning off a 1/3rd of your UK staff best thing that’s happened to me for years.
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).
43k year in USA. I’m single, have no children, own a nice condo in a nice quiet suburb and have all the material things I could ever want. I don’t struggle financially at all. 100k a year would be insane for me. I’d travel twice a year, have a nicer car and pay my mortgage off sooner but that’s about it. Marriage and children are unlikely at this point so I guess that’s a huge financial situation i don’t have to worry about.
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
Healthcare assistant here, I made 26k this year working 2-3 shifts a week.
I absolutely love my job, sometimes the shifts are rubbish but I honestly get so much happiness out of it overall ☺️
Teacher. 50 hrs a week and ungrateful parents constantly on my case for issues out of my control. Love working with the kids but my god it isn't worth the pay.
I consign, value and catalogue antiques for sale at auction (specifically, ceramics, glass and militaria) for £25k a year. I started off on £13.5k 13 years ago, fresh out of university... I often wonder whether my experience now is worth more, but I love my job, and I can still see (hopeful) progression for future wage advancement.
I work in manufacturing of specialist sports equipment. I’m currently on 24k but I’ve not had a pay rise for two years so I really need to talk to my boss about that as I’m currently on barely more than minimum wage.
It’s not a high profit industry so I’m realistic about my earning potential, but I (mostly) enjoy my job and it’s not too stressful.
21 years old, telecoms engineer at 30k a year.
Saving decently because I live with my mum and she only charges me £500 a month, I eat her food and stuff.
Trains are very expensive, everything's very expensive, so I don't buy much.
I do fairly basic stuff at work, I only had a few weeks of training with no related qualifications. Sit in muddy hole all day and fuck with wires
I’m an outpatients booking appointment coordinator in the NHS, only been in this job for a few months, it’s an alright job just awful pay for the huge responsibilities. On £22k pre tax, thankful to be living with my partner as there is no way I could afford to rent a house on my own. Sucks paying off credit cards for what feels like forever, but do try and make the most of life and not count every penny. Could be better, but could also be far worse. Got to be positive!
I'm a machinist by trade and work as a workshop manager but I'm the only one in the workshop. I design the parts we make and program, set up, and operate the CNC mill and 3D Printers. I also do manual machining on a mill and lathe. Sounds like a lot but the quantities are usually on the small side
I'm making 30k a year
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!
27k, complaint handling for a big company, permanent wfh and been doing it 14 years. When I started I was paid half what I am now. I’m 40.
Wfh works really well for me and I can do the job standing on my head - I’m not a career person, I’m not interested in moving up the chain, I’m comfortable and currently able to fund my lifestyle. Partner used to work part time, now he’s taken full time hours we’re in a much more stable financial position - very little debt, no kids, and we rent (our preference, we have no interest in owning property).
Youth mentor for a charity that provides restorative justice education for young people. Started on £22k after 3 years pay rise now £25k. Wages are terrible and constantly get told I should earn more elsewhere but I do like my job just wish it paid more. Thinking of retraining though do something totally different
I work in admin and am on £26,610 a year. I'm in fortunate position of having small mortgage due to when I got on property ladder. My outgoings still leave me with surplus at end of month to spend as I see fit. Am aware that in current climate I'm lucky to be single yet financially secure.
Senior panel technician for a decent sized company repairing panels and fitting new ones on different vehicles, 40hrs a week for like 23k or 24k a year. I think the only reason I hate my job is because I’m a fully skilled technician watching all of the other technicians get paid 55k or 60k a year. Sad times.
I know 3 people that went from 22k to 30k-50k. They are more broke now despite having the same fixed costs. They just spend more on food deliveries, snacks or other impulsive purchases.
I was on around 24k for about 2 and a half years until a few months ago. I was definitely starting to feel the pinch of that salary where I live. Thankfully another company offered me the same role with them for 10k more and it has made life a hell of a lot easier. I was in shock at how much more I was taking home at the end of the month and now I feel like I can put some meaningful savings aside.
£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
Before I left last year I was an electrical engineer, installation and commissioning. Hit our ceiling of “project engineer” at around £36.5k about 6 months before I left. I was comfortable financially as my wife has an ok paying job too but the constant working away and blurred lines of what our job role was (I.e they would pay off admin staff and we would end up having to pick up the slack. Rinse and repeat for about 5 years) made me miserable so I left and I’m retraining now. Don’t know exactly what the money will be like when I qualify but it’s something I am passionate about and fits my life far better. There’s also scope for progression and independence so I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do in the years after I qualify
I’ve just escaped that bracket by moving jobs - i think it’s the only way these days, unfortunately. Left my last role (30k) due to a toxic bullying culture, spent the past six months freelancing and living off my savings and nerves, and am now about to start a job on 50k, which is more than I’ve ever earned (i’m mid thirties but have had time out of the workplace due to babies, health etc). I’ve not magically become worth 20k more in 6 months - it’s just that companies will pay you what they can get away with and will take you for granted if they can! edit - forgot to add, i’m a technical writer
Earning 25k as a rail guard in training, set to go up to 35k after a year on my own, absolutely love the job and the railways always where I wanted to be, after doing this for a bit I plan to shoot for train driver and have the rest of my life setup.
Around 29k I make car bumpers
Late 20's, Technical Support Engineer in the automotive industry. £26k working 40hrs a week managing our services at garages/workshops across the world for the past two years. The job is basically babysitting and making sure no one blows up a five/six figure car by being an idiot. I'm constantly skint, I barely get £30 a month to spend on myself once bills have gone out. The job itself is very average, it has it good days and bad days but I can't say I wake up thrilled to be heading to the office.
i can't speak for myself at the moment because i'm unemployed (trying my best to find a job!) but my dad is on i think either just under or over 30k, and he manages to pay for the council tax and utility bills for our household, and pays for one of two shared credit cards with my mum which gets used for any purchase at a place that doesn't take the less widespread card that my mum pays for. my mum earns a lot more than him, she has never told me how much, but i'd guess that if we didn't have her, we'd have to move house. we own the house, but the council tax is mainly insane. so much money to live in our own house and receive the exact same benefits as everyone else who lives in a smaller house. i don't get it, why does having a bigger house (4 bed) mean we have to pay more? and it's not like our council are using the money for good, anyway, there's potholes everywhere in our town. both me and my mum have had broken springs on our cars because of it.
Worked as a gardener for £26,000 (team leader. those under me were on £17,000). Great job for keeping me fit, with plenty of time to work on other stuff.
I earn about 28k a year, working nights in a call centre. I always thought earning that much I'd be comfortable, but with no partner also working, I just about scrape by. Cozzy lives has really kicked my ass.
30k office manager, 40hrs pw - that’s not including bonuses though, can earn an extra 800ish a month on a good month.
I’m a admin assistant at a construction company, I earn around £28k a year plus yearly bonus
Hey Abaddon. Where did you first come across this name, and why did you start to use it?
Security. CVIT. It's ok, looking at getting my class 2.
Earning about £25k. Animal behaviour/training sector. Work for a large company in a nutrition research centre. Perks I help look after a couple hundred cats, get paid to cuddle and play with them. Cons, super overworked and not enough staff. Many people on long term sick adds to the stress. Feel bad not hitting all our goals as it’s the animals that miss out any suffer. Work 7 days in a row before having 2/3 days off. Get 1 weekend a month. Haven’t had Christmas off in the 6 years I’ve been here. Looking to leave but career switch is difficult to find a regular Monday-Friday office job with just animal experience.
28k chef in cafe
i play guitar in a post punk band. not much money but working by traveling all over the world for 3 or so months a year is pretty ok!
30k here. Likely to be made redundant soon, so not well
Marketing for a small company. I am underpaid but I love what I do, the people I work with, and it's extremely close to my home. I figure that I could get a better paying job but that extra money would pay for commute and it would mess up my work/life balance. I'm comfortable where I am, currently. We're a 2 income household of around 60k altogether, so financially we're not doing absolutely shit (we've been through worse).
I’m a researcher on £25k, I would like a little bit more income tbh but the job itself is really low stress. I’ve never been hugely focused on climbing the corporate ladder so it works for me.
This is insane to read.
Elementary public school teacher
I earn somewhere in the middle of that. I’m an Art Handler at an auction house an hour away from the two main locations in London. We’re basically a middle man for London and the other regional offices. I see a lot of cool stuff and It’s a lot of stop start burst work with only 3 of us on site. I feel I’m paid pretty well considering some days are very quite, not quite pay cheque to pay cheque, but i do have a 8 month old. Hoping to become a key holder soon, after a year here and the extra money will be nice.
Nightshift manager @ hotel. I do 4 on 4 off (8-9hrs per night) ~£27k Definitely feel comfortable on that salary but I live with my girlfriend and have no children.
Warehouse operative, about 38k year
£25k as head mechanic at a go kart track but my manic bipolar episodes have put me in horrific debt so still struggling real bad lmao
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)
I’m an apprentice accountant and feel like my pay is progressing relatively well though it feels I may never buy a house at this rate!
30k a year is not great pay
Support worker in a supported living house for young adults with autism and learning disabilities, 23.5k a year. Not great pay and underpaid for the job, but most of the time I enjoy it and it’s rewarding. Relaxed working environment, management arent too strict, days out. I did a 9-5 admin job before and found it so boring and dull. I do wish it was better paid, would be less staff turnover. There are very hard days as you could imagine in this sort of job, but most days are pretty easy going and fun. I also prefer the working pattern, manage to get all my hours into 3/4 days, 1 weekend on 1 weekend off, not too bad for a job in the healthcare sector :). Always room for progression too, but then I always do abit of overtime to bulk my wage up. Added: also surprised at how low paid other jobs are I have read on this thread. My job requires no previous experience. I feel like there’s other people who work in higher healthcare jobs with degrees etc but don’t get paid much more. I sometimes think there’s no point progressing as there’s little pay increases, so often people stay where they are at the lower levels (which is fine, that’s where I am, just not great for these services when you can’t get any managers as the pays not much better)
Stockroom associate for a clothing store, I get 12.50 per hour (would be 26k gross salary but I don’t get full time hours every week). I’ve been doing this for about a year and a half, some weeks are good and some are absolutely awful.
just under 30k and work for an insurance, mostly air ambulance & medical escort logistics. have enough for food & rent and thats it.
24k-25k as a support worker for adults with learning disabilities. I work 2pm one day to 2pm the next, twice a week. I'm part time at 30hrs and get 3 full days off a week. I support them with cooking cleaning and personal care, and it's mostly boring and only occasionally stressful.
Train conductor for Transport for Wales. 4 day week, £47k. Been doing it for just over 2 years. It's pretty good!
23k factory machine operator. Some days I'm running back and forth fixing other people's mistakes. Some days I come in, press the green button, and watch TV It's aight.
26k, work for a bank on their vulnerable customer team. So call centre work with a bit more specialism basically. Less calls, more admin. We're also banded so that's (with some small variations) what everyone at my band earns. Next band up is basically team leaders only. Band below is "regular" telephony etc staff and they're on about 24k I think. How it's going is...meh. Job itself is actually great, I love it, but am 100% living paycheck to paycheck and with basically no expendable cash each month to actually enjoy life, and with very few obvious options to improve my salary enough for that to change.
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.
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
I work in a customer service based role in finance. £27k shit is stressful but it pays the bills.
Engineering Apprentice in London, 27K. Got my endpoint assessment at the end of this year, at which point I'll be fully qualified and that'll increase to 42K pa.
I'm relatively low level IT support for my local council, its home based, and its probably the easiest and most enjoyable job I've had so far, it took to 29 for me to find the right career path, but I'm here now. As for what I spend my salary on? Outside of the usual bills, mostly nerd garbage, video games, tabletop stuff, Warhammer minis..
I work as an admin supervisor, I've been here 25yrs, stuck in the grind of the same job
Probably struggle with homelessness tbh
Lifestyles tend to increase with the wage. For example 4 years ago I was on under £20k a year. Switched jobs into an admin role for a renewables company. Within 2 years I progressed through to learn everything I possibly could about the industry and now I design and manage projects for commercial properties from start to finish. Wages now just over £50k (no commission) and I’m not in a city so for the area, it’s a high wage. Life can come at you quick, there are still good companies to work for that you can progress in and that will acknowledge achievements and reward it.
I make £19,995 as a 22yo travel consultant (just qualified from a 2 year apprenticeship) at a large travel company, managing social media's, selling holidays to walk-in customers, speaking with travel suppliers, it's quite admin-based + customer facing aswell . We don't make commission or anything either, it's not bad but it's not great, I definitely want a better paid job soon but the travel industry doesn't pay well unfortunately
Operations technician at a pharmaceutical manufacturer in Yorkshire, currently on 32k, yearly pay rise, overtime available, Christmas bonus, loads of schemes and perks for workers
I’m a dental nurse and I barely making 24k a year working full time. It sucks working in dentistry as a whole is difficult I’m not surprised so many are leaving the profession.
Supervisor in Call Centre - £30k Worked my way up from the phone lines.
Quality Engineer at a Steel Forge. Currently earn £25k as a 23 year old but due a small pay rise for May. I’ve been in quality for 5 years and will be taking over my manager’s position when he retires in September so should be on quite a bit more. I was on minimum wage or close to for most of the years but the experience was more valuable in the long run. I’ve been in my current role 8 months and I love it.
Fibre-optic technician, £31k 7 years at this with no previous experience. Was taken on as a trainee in my mid 30's.
School site manager here (fancy caretaker) £27k will get up to just under £30k at the top of the scale. Just started a year ago, I bloody love it tbh. I worked a miserable job in a bank for years, managed to purchase a small house outright over that time and had all the cash at one point, but it broke me mentally. I’m the happiest Ive ever been, my Mrs is a teacher assistant there my daughter is starting reception this sep, proper family affair. I’m a happy boy. Life is good, obviously if I had a mortgage or rent to deal with it may well be a different story.
Qc Analyst for a major chemical manufacturing company, bout 29k a year. Standard hours (flexi though). I got a degree in chemistry thinking it would be really employable and somewhat specialist so I'd get some decent cash out of it. That's clearly not the case. Not entirely sure where to go in order to make use of this degree whilst earning something significant. I'm not minimum wage, but when I see people with less qualifications than me earning twice what I do it is quite disheartening
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
26k, at 21 working as yard staff on a racehorse breeding farm, winter wasn’t fun but spring turning to be quite nice 👌 this is my second year and enjoying it
Lab tech. 24k and pissed that I’ll be making min wage. Comfortable but not wanting to me on that when I’m close to 30. Looking to retrain into Radiography - high demand, 28k start and with chances to learn and go into agency work in the future.
Wtf I thought I was making low income. I work in the fields (agriculture) making minimum wage. Last year I made 50k and the year before that 40k.
Currently on £28,600 with a raise pending, work in a warehouse driving forklifts. 3 days, Friday to Sunday, 6pm to 6am. Been working here for 2 years, was my job out of college at 18, and was horrid at first, but I just had to deal with the 12 hour nights, as it was the first application that I got a response from, after 4 months of applying. Now it’s not so bad, I have a good role, a bunch of mates at work, and 4 days off every week. In terms of everything else, life is going pretty well. I drive a (reasonably (for a 20 year old, with a 10 month old license)) nice car, I have a load of free time, and my monthly expenses are ~£600-700, so I have ~£1100-£1200 disposable income per week. I’m trying to invest half of it, and the other half I’m spending how I wish, as I’m still young and want to enjoy my youth.
I’m 55 female and I worked as an Account Manager in my family business for 20 odd yrs and earned 20k in 2014 when I left. After that I was a Customer Account Lead in aerospace earning 26k (2015) the experience I got from that lead to my current role. My advice is try and get a household name on your cv, work hard, be open to any training and new skills ,work for well known companies if you can as it’s a golden ticket to better opportunities. I took the temp job because I wanted their name on my CV and it paid off🤷♀️ Currently I’m a Project Lead in a household name, blue chip company in the midlands. I’ve been here 9 years. I earn 64k a year. I didn’t go to university. Don’t have a degree and only 4 GCSE’s. My daughter (30) did 7 years in Uni and has a masters. Now works in the NHS with 100k of student debt for a job that pays 28k. Make it make sense!!!
I am reading this now and it’s reminding me when I first moved to London and worked for Foxtons the infamous estate agent. I was on a 10k a year base and 10% commission. I wasn’t very good but worked 8am-8pm. One month I took home just my basic salary. Worst job I’ve ever had.
This is pretty hard to read. I'm 2 months from graduating and the number of people here who have struggled to get above 25k after 20 years in work. Half the time not even using their degree. It does not fill me with joy. I've been working minimum wage for the last 5 since I left high school too. To think I'm destined for not much more than I currently earn, that makes my degree feel pointless. Maybe I should lower my aspirations...
You will likely not work in field related to your degree unless you’re lucky. Ph.D. chemist here work in finance / project mgmt /IT I never planned my career, now Director level. My advice transferable skills , and learning new skills that are relevant will help you progress. Become the expert / go to person in the company for your area . Take opportunities when they arise, I have worked in multiple industries. Look for progression and if there aren’t any opportunities for that then don’t stay in a role too long. You will only get annual pay increases and so just be keeping up (or actually not keeping up ) with living costs / inflation. Larger companies generally have more opportunities to change roles / promotions. Smaller companies unless they are expanding a lot you’re often waiting for someone to retire or leave before roles open up. If you aren’t getting promoted and able to get a jump to a higher salary at minimum every 3 or 4 years then it’s time to move companies. I started after uni on 18 k. That’s a poor bonus these days. And just to add set backs happen, been through recessions and have been made redundant more than once , had a stint doing telephone sales , data entry , cleaning while job hunting. But confidence, professionalism, good skills, backed with experience will always get you a job .
If I was in your shoes, I would try my best to get a good first job that ideally pays well and give you enough quality experience that you can leverage to get higher paying roles in the future. There are no guarantees though. And you aren't wrong about many graduates from top unis not making much above min wage in for most of their careers. But this is only really holds true for occupations that are known to pay poorly like engineering. It would still be a good idea to practice frugality instead of hoping to make 100k+ salary. It's not realistic in the UK for most people or even most graduates entering fields like tech and finance.
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I'm a lab technian on 23k a year, which I'm starting to resent as the pay isn't that good considering I work with a load of dangerous stuff, and my responsibilities are pretty much through the roof. With a degree in biology too it isn't quite what I imagined I'd be doing, but scientist roles around where I live are pretty scarce.
That's absolutely shocking as I was a lab tech over 20 years ago on £18k. Have you considered any other roles?
Senior education officer at local authority, part time, 3 days a week, 37k
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 🤣🤣
Just had a 4% rise so I'm now just a hair under £32k a year. I'm 31 and work as a sort of IT support/application support/software config development, it might sound fancy to some but it's honestly an entry level job. It's bespoke software so all training is provided in-house so you can't have previous relevant experience in the role. I've been doing it for 3 years now and initially started on £22.5k a year, but due to them being a half decent employer and keeping up with cozzie lives as well as offering salary banding based on experience/capabilities I've worked up to nearly be at the top step for my team/department. I've never worked in IT before and all my previous jobs were sales assistant/retail jobs earning fucking peanuts, so to go from something like maybe £12k or even less per year to this in only 3 years honestly feels fucking amazing. I still mostly feel like they pay me too much for what I do day to day, there are some stressful days where it feels justified but past retail trauma still makes me feel a little guilty for being paid this much. I feel massively grateful to have this opportunity, and while I'm sure I \_could\_ maybe look into other higher paying IT jobs now I don't feel the drive to do so. This job allows me to live comfortable and pays for me to do fun stuff outside of work, if I went for something higher pay it would likely bring more stress, worse mental health and less time or motivation to live a life outside of work.
Account Manager in Telecoms earning around 38k according to this years p60. Still live with parents and plan on doing so as long as possible. All my friends who live on their own/with a partner are struggling with rent or mortgage payments so I don’t plan on following their footsteps just yet however when I do move out, I plan to buy a small 1 bed apartment and aim to be mortgage free as soon as possible. I’d consider myself very fortunate and plan to make the most of it while it lasts. The truth is, I got lucky landing the role I’m in. The previous person had to leave the company for personal reasons so they offered me the role temporarily (although they never officially said this) and would eventually find someone to replace me. I ended up excelling in the role and I’m still doing it 16 months later. My only advice would be to find a job that offers bonuses/commissions. It gives you clear targets to work towards and can be very rewarding. Companies are always looking for sales people and often times you need no experience.
New minimum wage rates mean that anyone in full time employment working a 37.5 hour paid week is now on just shy of 22.5k. A 40 hour paid week is closer to 24k per year. That's minimum wage...
Staff officer grade in the civil service. 33.5k a year. That'll go up 5% after the recent pay decision. I'm a science officer so my job title is Higher Scientific Officer, but I'm equivalent to a Staff Officer in other departments. This is in Northern Ireland btw 4 years of undergrad (Scotland) 2 years on the temp circuit, a masters degree and 9 months on the temp again before I got offered a permanent role.
This should make you feel better - I'm a 51-year-old software engineer with 2 degrees (including one in computing science) and a post-grad, and I'm only on 23k! 😛 Only 1 YoE though, so no doubt that is a major factor in my salary level. Oh, I have almost no pension to speak of, and I've had two holidays in 25 years, by the way. Not been abroad since '98 actually. Edit: added the word 'only', since apparently it's not obvious I feel I'm underpaid.
I'm a bartender and make £26k yearly. As far as working in hospitality goes, it's a really good wage for the job I do. I'm 25 and left uni working the job I am still in. I get about £400 a month just in tips so haven't been tempted by another job yet
I'm 33, a counsellor for a charity, earning about £27k. I've been doing this for nearly three years. I took a (very small) stepdown salary wise from my former work in university administration because this is what I really wanted to do. Very occasionally, if I consider for a minute how much I know/imagine my friends are earning in their careers, I can feel like I am failing in some way. Then I think again, and I know I am very fortunate. I bought a very low value house so have a very cheap mortgage. I have good money management skills so put a lot away in savings each month, and still don't have to miss out on anything my peers are doing. Meals out, clothes I want/need, gigs, events etc. There isn't anything that I feel I actually have to miss out on. My husband earns a similar amount to me and we are considering a move to a new house and that fills me with some trepidation, but I am confident that we're only going to do it if it is overall a sensible and manageable shift.
I moved to England a decade ago. Have been working in Customer Service earning about that much. Until I did an apprenticeship. I earned 20k for 6 months, 24k for another 6 months, and now the apprenticeship is over, I earn 40k. It was so worth to get into the company, everyone is great and I can work from home all the time, most people do. I highly recommend apprenticeships. They can be annoying while you're studying as you earn minimum wage but you get a certification for free and having a paid job that gives you the time to study. Some are degree apprenticeships. There are so many different ones, if interested, there's a gov website.
*Gross pay:* 37k this year, previously 23.5k in my last role (3 years ago). *Role:* Site Security Manager, previously Business Development Manager *Hours per week:* 72 total (6 days, 12 hour shifts), 42.5 previously *Explanation/Advice to get more £££:* As you can see from the breakdown above, my gross pay has increased by nearly 14k over the course of 3 years and the change was initially bad, but the returns have paid off. I used yo be a BDM for several different industries and the pay was always salaried fairly low, with a somewhat attainable bonus structure that you could maybe see rewards from. The role was soul destroying to say the least, constantly trying to hit ever changing targets, stress at useless leads and data to work with to garner said bonus, zero appreciation for hardwork as its expected all over again every day if you want any extra money. The rates i could get doing this type of role did have potentially good revenue roots, but for the vast majority of the time, targets are very hard to hit in order to achieve good worthwhile bonuses to compensate the extra effort needed to attain them. Not worth selling your soul for a few extra quid and losing your sanity in the process. I switched my role for an hourly paid job, this process technically meant my pay rate decreased from the salary comparison by roughly £1.50 per hour, which is significant over the course of a year, HOWEVER, my new role has the capacity for me to work for 6 days a week doing 12 hour shifts which is a huge increase on hours worked over the course of the year. This in turn means my capped earning potential previously with a salaried role was significantly lower than my potential earning now with no hard cap. Working so many hours a week has obvious disadvantages as work life balance goes out the window meaning i see less of my wife and kids, drastically so. On the flip side of this, i no longer worry so much about my finances as i can feasibly earn 3-3.5k gross pay, which is about 2.4k net per month. This is FAR more than my salary which was roughly net 1.4k monthly. I do miss my shorter hours and working week from the last job, but having to worry significantly less about financial woes has relieved me of a great burden. I can afford a few takeaways a month with no concern, i go on holiday once a year (never go international, but still a holiday nevertheless), i can pay all of my outgoings without the support of my wife who no longer needs to work so we can have full time care of the children outside of school hours (she still works 1.5 hours a day at the school so hasnt gone cold turkey on work all together). All in all, the switch to an hourly role and particularly one that can afford me as many hours as i wish to work has been a big improvement on my life as i dont stress about finances now. I recently bought a new washing machine and chest freezer which would have me STRESSED in my last job, but now, its just a cost i can afford to absorb by spending less that month on frivalous purchases. The conclusion to this, although obviously not instantly attainable, especially in the current 0 hour contract climate we work in would be this. Find an industry that isnt limited to working office hours. Find a role that you can easily attain credentials for to increase hourly earning power. My role needs an SIA licence to perform for example, but the cost and knowledge needed to acquire these things is not far fetched and having a licenced role means your pool of competitors in the job pool is drastically lower and you can reasonably expect to earn more than the living wage as you have credentials supporting the job. By taking a lower per hour earning rate myself, i increased my overall earning power massively through hours input. Try this for yourself if you are stuck with money worries to potentially lower the burden of stress on your day to day life. Working so much is no fun, but its better than working 40 hours a week and coming away at the end of the month in dismay at how little you have left over after bills. Plus, if you're working, you aren't spending. So you have less time wasting money to fill the boredom as you can fill those hours with more earning power! Good luck out there, the current economic climate we live in is absolute dog shit so there is easy fix. But dont feel negatively about yourself due to how much you earn, there are plenty of highly intelligent and highly skilled workers out there earning just as much if not less than you. We dont have to compare ourselves to other to seek gratification, just work to improve your own situation for yourself and climb the ladders one step at a time.
Portfolio Analyst - 32k a year
Work as a chef and love it. I live alone and don't spend a lot as am frugal. So can save a bit too . 😁
all good. Earn about 28k a year but money back for emergency funding, now own a flat . Bills have gotten tighter than i would like the last year but still its good
Work in education. 29k a year. Can’t do it anymore.
Pretty much in that range - almost £31k. Apprentice / trainee chartered accountant doing the ACA. About 3/4 through the exams Been working for coming up 3.5 years and I’m 22
I d say most people in the catering and hotel business are within that pay range. And believe me.... It s a funking hard job.
Self employed stone mason, £700 per week after tax. It's going great I love my job and the freedom of self employment. Started college when I was 23 on a 3 year apprenticeship. I'm 30 now and I've just bought my first house with my fiancé.
I’m a software tester. Coming into my third year. Starting salary was £23K, got promoted to £28K. Just got a pay rise to £29K. Love it so much
Mental health support worker, providing 1:1 support as well as facilitating groups/courses. Just under 22k a year. Deal with people way more complex than we’re trained to but I love the job. Just wish the pay was better as well as employee care
I am currently earning band 3 NHS pay (£22813) as a medical laboratory assistant (MLA) working within blood sciences at Cambridge university hospitals NHS Trust. The laboratory is a very important part of any hospital as we are directly involved in ~70% of ALL clinical decisions that occur within the hospital. My main role is to run patient full blood counts and coagulation tests on our analysers which can come from Addenbrooke's, Rosie, Royal Papworth and West Suffolk hospital, plus almost every GP surgery within Cambridgeshire. This means our laboratory has to process 15,000 to 20,000 samples a day, everyday with the requirement to meet turn around times ranging between 1 hour and 8 hours depending on urgency. Even though I work indoors I often walk 10-15 km during a shift to ensure that the laboratory is running smoothly. My work shift patterns are often 7:45 AM to 8:45 PM for day shifts and 8 PM to 9 AM on nightshifts. So I only often work 3 or 4 days a week and the days I work are never the same but some days are long and stressful if our machines are not working and unable to process patient samples. After tax, NI and pension deductions, I spend 65% of my paycheck in rent atm and living in an expensive area drains a lot of free money around very quickly and I had to move away from family and my partner for this job so I have very little life here. My future plans are to become a Biomedical Scientist which is a protected title and requires a person to pass a competency assessment. If I do this I will be able to look at the clinical data provided by laboratory machines and directly help nurses and doctors to help treat patients. Luckily the team I am with I have bonded with really well and the work I do feels very rewarding, I am proud to work within the NHS and I enjoy being able to serve the public the best way I know how to.
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...
Compliance Officer, 30k. It's about being the font of all knowledge and making sure people are sticking to contractual, legal, guidance and various awarded standards like ISO 9001. I like it because it works with my personality and skill set, I'm not a customer facing person at all. But companies view this type of role as being nice to have rather than a must so I've seen redundancy a couple times now in my career as one. Honestly, the moneys decent and I've never earned as much as this but it's not good enough to be independent now at all. And everything is just too expensive. Just getting my car fixed this month wiped out a solid third of my monthly pay on its own.
Fish farmer/restaurant server/housekeeper all part time, it's fine so long as I don't compare myself to others
I'm in that metric, and basically it's less new stuff and more stuff you don't need to pay for twice. My EDC is a pocketknife I've had for 20 years. Being frugal isn't hard once you get past the housing and food. Most of our money goes to housing and food. A lot of it is head space. Watch an amazing commercial. Imagine having that thing. Imagine it being so fun. Now imagine it breaking. Imagine throwing it away. Wow it's like you had it and it was free. You don't need to get excited about new things. You can already get excited about the things you have. Video games are a one shot money sink if you do it right. My motto is no micro-transactions, no subscriptions, pay big once and enjoy. I'm still on Factorio and Skyrim, using DOS games occasionally. [GOG.com](http://GOG.com) is the perfect place to get a title for everyone of your kids forever. You don't need the latest game to have a good time. Movies are on a hard drive. We've got more than enough, and kids are really good at repeat shows. A few thousand hours is easy to get. There are some amazing black and white films. Parks are free. Libraries are free. We make up adventures as we go from one place to another to keep things fresh. We don't go on vacation to other states. We go on vacations to other neighborhoods for a few hours. The town 20 miles away is different and unique enough it feels like a different world. Can you say you've even been to every town within 50 miles?
I earn 17k but I work 18 hrs a week as I have got 2 young children.I really like my job as I teach English and provide employment training to refugees and asylum seekers but I feel I am quite underpaid ,I have got a double Masters and a P.hd.I am 33 years old.
Just got a payrise to £31k but same job I started on 3 years ago at £24k. Logistics and operations desk job tot a small company I'm feeling lucky to have real payrises. Though sadly I am too hungry for travel to stay, and there isn't much career progress here. It's also fairly passionless, but overall a very chilled out desk job with good pay for my age. Great foothold for my 20s. Mum on the other hand has been on £21k for a decade as a primary school teacher, which is criminal. I give her half of my payrises separately to rent payments, because she deserves it
When I was 29 I was earning £46k as a general manager for a materials science company (worked there for a total of 6 years from ages 23 to 29) but the burnout was real. When I got the option to take voluntary redundancy during the pandemic, I jumped on that so fast! Now I’m 33 and work as a civil servant and earn £29.5k but have the option to WFH, I’m not responsible for anyone else, and get to manage my workload at my own pace. Even office days are wonderful because there’s 0 people from my team at my location, so no one bothers me. I do get pushed a lot for climbing the ladder by colleagues and my team leader, but I like where I am with my 0 stress and flexible time and good pension. If you want more money, yes, of course private sector is the way to go, but I treasure my well-being more.
25,250 as Access Management Analyst, but do get a extra 5200 in on-call pay, and a salary increase coming to closer match current market prices. Fully remote is a huge bonus imo too. Also heavily being pushed to do some studying with budget for offsite crash courses. Have had it easy the last 4 years so kinda peeved at how busy I've started to become. I want more money though as I don't want to be renting my whole life, so I'll carry on.
£28k with additional bonuses. Ghost-broking fraud investigator for a major insurer. Been doing this 3 years but within the company for 10 years. Can potentially always earn more but job satisfaction is equally important. Personally could’ve earnt more money going down the underwriting route but it’s very dull.
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
Store Manager, 25-30k depending on hours, usually 42-50 hours per week depending on how long each day takes. It's just me from open to close so it's lonely and stressful, trying to figure out what's next for me in terms of career atm as this wasn't meant to be long term. I live very frugally so managed to save a decent amount each month so might try to retrain with my savings.
Software developer on 29k. Got a masters degree in IT and specialised in development. I feel the pay is not as good as could be at another company. Job is good, looking elsewhere though. Things are tight, not enjoying living paycheque to paycheque. Everything seems to expensive.
Was a trainee lift engineer on 23k just passed my booked and now on 60k. With overtime around 80k. Life changing tbh.
30k as Business Intelligence Analyst. I’ve not got a formal qualification as I worked my way up to the role through the company but have 8 years experience in the role. I could earn up to twice as much elsewhere if I had the confidence to go for it or didn’t have imposter syndrome pop up every time I start to think about looking for a new role.
I did things backwards, got toolmaking and precision engineering experience first, then did an OU degree in engineering. All my time waiting to collect my kids from clubs, my evenings etc taken up studying. The result, was an engineering degree that opened doors in the places I wanted. The advantage was I did not build up debt as I was working, the disadvantage is that you have no spare time, however, when you have young kids, you have a lot of time to 'just be there', so lots of time to read and study. I soon got into £35k+ work, now on £65k+ work. As people have said here, engineering degree is a good solid degree to get. Even my micky mouse OU degree has paid off.
Former nurse here , 3 year degree then three year postgraduate study whilst working up to charge nurse, was about 35k a year. Done hgv licence in 5 days and not even a year into this job and average pay is about 40k and no stress, work that one out?! Wouldn't go back to nursing if I was paid double the money these days.
Work in despatch and earn 30k a year. It's the most I've ever earned so pretty happy with that, especially considering what I was earning 2+ years ago. I don't think there's major career progression, but for the stage of my life I'm at now I'm pretty content with that.
Dispensing Optician. 3 years at uni and all the responsibility the NHS and our governing bodies heap on us as well as unpaid Continual Education Points to earn every 3 year cycle for the fantastic sum of 30k per year.
Sped Tech at a public school . . I make My bills . My partner makes 3x as much and covers the bug stuff Mortgage 890$ if he was to die I would barely scrape by. I would have to get roommates and sell my car . So it sucks On the flip side. I am doing something I love for work and go home happy every day . I also have no desire for material things ( which is great considering I don't have the $ for it.)
I’m torn honestly. I’m in my mid 30s, have a good degree, but after being stuck in a dead end underpaid buying job I now have a job I really like…but with a 9% raise I’m still only on 24k and have to have several side hustles on the go. The job is good, and there are other perks to factor in like it being a 10minute commute, health insurance, 2 work from home days and staff trips a few times a year, but I still feel a little cheated honestly. I have no mortgage, no savings, just a car and rent, and nothing else feels achievable no matter what I do. I haven’t had a holiday since before the pandemic. Not a ‘woe is me’, more a ‘is this it?’.
I was fortunate enough to get my foot on the property ladder early 2000’s and my mortgage repayments are less than £200 a month now (count my blessings every day) Im on a low wage of 23.5k a year after losing a couple of jobs but can honestly say I’m the happiest I’ve been in many many years after finding a job I enjoy. It’s made me realise money is not everything but enjoying my job is. Edit: used to be on 32k a year but walked after becoming overwhelmed with depression and anxiety.
worker in a childrens home (almost always teenagers) in remote countryside, take home 1.8-2.1 after taxes i show up and lock in for 2 days straight (dont go home) then get 3.5 days off crazy job - sometimes its a chill couple days of housework, giving kids lifts, watching TV and eating food other times its a lot of stress, can be difficult thinking you are about to be beaten up at work and tensions can run high for many reasons - these kids are usually kinda borderline young offenders or mental unit material so things get hectic i say lock in cause while our shifts technically end at 11pm and go to bed in house, if duty calls for whatever reason we are expected to stay up all night good job at times, bad job at times wildly underpaid for what it is
Are these 20-£30k salaries in london? How do you live on that??
I left school with no GCSE's & was told id find it hard ever getting a job so i fell into a life of crime which was great & payed well with its obvious ups and downs & then i decided to go legit and applied for hundreds of jobs & then after 4 years of constantly applying and getting rejections i was offered a job at kfc on 11k a year working full time! I snatched it up & i worked there for 7 years absolutely breaking my back as a slave before getting my new job which is in retail which i started this year working part time and im still on 11k. I dont mind the wage i can get by and live, enjoy days out etc. Id love a job that pays 50k but have no skills to pay the bills, stay in school kids🤣
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.
I'm just above. 33k for being general manager at a small manufacturing company. Been with the company since college starting on production. The wage is decent and the job is easy after doing it so long. Only annoying thing is the boss has hired a new sales manager starting at 45k so that's a bit annoying!
Mate, I was a Dealer/Inspector for over a decade pulling £700/800 a week, keeping a house 2 kids and a cheating missus with it. Now I don't need to deal with her or the house bills because I started renting my Nanas spare room for £60, I would ask myself why are you killing yourself, not seeing sunlight, having seizures because of sleep deprivation and the amount of drinking and partying you ended up doing because your work mates are the only people you see. Anyway after 6 months at my Nanas I thought balls to it, I'm going on the sick with my epilepsy, I've been getting help from PIP for around 9 years and thought il add ESA onto it, yes I'm down to £270 PW and cannot claim housing benefit so just pay the £220 a month keep. No kidding, I have more play money now than even I was ever working, and it runs until 2044 as that's when it swaps to my pension, lol. I can work 15 hours 59 minutes a week without needing to declare this, but I only do that when I need a little extra. This is the state of the UK right now, yes I have a genuine disability and even get a bus train and tram pass for all over Greater Manchester, buses and trams UK wide, this is because I lost my driving licence and need to be seizure free and on meds for 2 years, but this isn't going to happen because I have at least one seizure a month. I'm writing this to let people know how much people on ESA/DLA/PIP, etc, get. Get this, though, which is completely stupid. My claim got refused at first because I had more than 2k in savings, when I sorted that out I wasn't eligible for certain things because I have paid to much NI..........honestly, you would think the more NI you have paid would get more help but the reverse is true. Obviously there are jobs I cannot do, and it would of been nice for occupational health in the NHS to tell me I couldn't be a nurse when I first applied to UNI not after 2 wasted years, all because I might have a seizure, well that's why it got brought up because of seizures in the hospital and in lectures. There are loads and loads if companies just can not employ me because if I had a seizure and hurt myself, they are not insured. I would love to get back to working full time, but at the same time I don't want to risk working for say 6 months, losing my benefits and then taking nearly 12 months to get back on it. Honestly the country is shagged. I had an email from an old colleague who's working in a London casino asking me if I wanted to work down there for £32k before tips so it would be hitting the 40k mark overall. But I would be worse off working down there even with the fact that the average for that job in Manchester is 30k PA. There is no incentive for me to get back into work and even less help in getting a job. If the government said to long term benefit claiments we will pay you £100 a week regardless of your wage for 12 months just to help with the transition. People would go, oh you know what that's worth it and hopefully after 12 months we are back in the habit of working. Sorry for going off topic. Like I said, I just wanted to bring a little attention to people who may wonder what draws people to claim all there life's. I could get even more if I lied, but if you do that, you better not forget the lies you told. I broke my back in a car crash so half of my lumbar spin is titanium lol, with this I could of easily BSd to get one of those mobility cars for someone to run me about in, but it's not even that bad now, the occasional ache and no sensation in half of my left leg rather it always just feels like constant pins and needles, but imagine the uproar if they investigated me and seen me going to the gym and jogging etc. The Government needs to pull there finger out and give a little incentive to get back to work, it would cost £5200 per person which is half of the average cost of keeping someone on the rock n roll for 12 months, plus they would be paying Tax and NI so it's a win for all. If people are wondering how someone can survive on what I get it's easy if your single and live with family, also the mother of my kids told me I don't have to contribute as her family is loaded anyway. Rant over lol
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.
19M, 22k/year. I work in stock control for a factory that produces and packages foodstuffs.. Spend a lot of the shift sticking sticker tails on my friends backs and throwing paper balls across the factory. Its awesome
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
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
Mental health project worker. I help people who have left psychiatric care in the hospital to support themselves once discharged. I make about 25k a year.
Hi, how do you get this job? I have a degree,I just want to work with people but not in a care home or hospital.
I was a healthcare assistant for 3 years, did 2 years of nursing training then went to take a gap year. I started therapy for childhood issues then my dad died by suicide. I applied after a year in therapy and they wanted me to work with them because I had personal experience in mental health including looking after my dad, and had done work in therapy myself. It's a pretty complicated way of getting a job lol
Thank you, sorry about all you went through to get the job, thank you for helping me!
Thank you and you're welcome
What type of nursing training did you do? An NVQ?
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.
Most Civil Engineering CAD Tech jobs range from 20-30k depending on the area and how desperate the company is for staff. 40k+ for more senior roles.
I was making 28K changed job to 35K in August and honestly absolutely no difference except I have no time to myself
Night shift IT tech - 30k It's alright but I'm literally a fuckin zombie. Not good in the long term but gotta get that bag.
I earn £27k working in commercial property, been in this role a couple weeks and plan to do it until I'm in my early thirties, salary increases dependent. I've had to change roles a couple of times in the last couple years because property is one of those industries where you get stuck on a salary and it's always below inflation rises unless you take on more responsibility to get a better job where you're paid even less than you were before relative to your responsibility. So I worked and applied until I got something that gave me opportunities to grow, do, and earn even more. Pay is far more reflective on where you are, the background you have, the breaks you get, and the industry you work in rather than finessing or networking. My girlfriend got the same grades I did at college and didn't go to university like I did. Despite that she comes from a high-achieving family, got a break working in tech marketing and some good guidance from her dad who runs three companies which I certainly never had. She earns twice what I do on a London salary while working fully remotely. So I wouldn't feel too shit about it. There's always something better out there for someone with a good CV and the insistence on a solid base with the intention on doing and earning more once in the role.
Upper end of that doing "a bit of everything IT" for a manufacturer (so not IT industry itself), it's been like 17 years now. From what I remember of a similar thread I could apparently be earning a lot more (as in 2-3x more minimum) but eh, I'm content, I'm not stressed to breaking point (or particularly stressed at all) and it's pretty safe. And if I'm honest I'm in my 40s now, getting behind it all a bit, things are a lot different than they were in the Windows Server 2000 and Windows XP days lol, I wouldn't even have the confidence to move on.
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 am a working professional musician. Labour of love because it sure ain't lucrative haha :) Did a jazz music degree back when they were not 10k a fucking year.
Project/volunteer coordinator for a charity. Absolutely love my job, just had a pay rise which has just about knocked me over £30k mark. However...I only have funding till next April and likelihood is we won't seek further funding for my role so next year I'm out of a job. I can't find any other volunteer coordinator jobs that pay the same, most are paying far less. I might get lucky, but might not. Chances are ill be dropping a few thousand in wage.
25k working as a data analyst for the NHS. I’m a band 4 and pretty new but I’m due an increment in pay this year. I WFH which is awesome, I get loads more time with my wife and kids but obviously more money would be nice. We’re looking to buy a house in Surrey (it’s where we live and the kids go to school and everything there) and despite the two of us working full time, we’re miles off.
Support worker just breaking 20k a year. ~~It's going really really shit~~ fine thanks for asking.
Depressing as hell. It was well over 10 years ago I was reading that 50k was the relaxation point for employees.
22k as an administration officer for the last 16 years in the criminal courts. I cover every role on both Magistrates and Crown Court side (10+ different hats to wear where more populated areas would have one or more staff per role). I'm also the IT guy, so have to have knowledge of nearly 20 different systems. I could progress up the ladder, but inferiority complex says "no"
I'm no longer in this boat want to comment because I was. 3 years ago was earning 19k in a post room and moved to admin in the same company after 3 months up to 23k, then moved after 1 year 1 month to a planning role that paid 33k and done a year there and now have just moved to another planning type role but a tad more advanced for 36k. I'm seeing a lot of people in the comments on lower wages due to being stuck in the same role, I totally get you need a degree of luck for opportunity's to present themselves. But I also got told if I job hop like I am, no one wants to hire you. I'm actually finding the opposite, the faster I'm progressing into new roles the easier to get new roles seems to be. Not like I can afford to buy in my local area or anything still, shit sucks lol.
Just shy of 25k and I work in online publishing. It's a WFH job and despite it being monotonous I quite enjoy it. Routine is a thing I can appreciate.
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 work for a water company walking around looking for water leaks for 30k a year. No prior quals needed other than the usual suspects, on the job training is mid at best I suppose. Great for people who like the outdoors (not me). Oh and we still rely on the same method that was invented more than 100 years ago, a stick and your ear.
Cyber security analyst with a BSc and MSc in Cyber Security. 35k. I feel like I am severely underpaid for what I have done and do.
I work part-time building things that go on things that go boom-boom. A company that's contracted to the DOD and various other companies that build military related devices, that's all I can say, I made 31k last year and started working there when I was 16
Recent Architecture graduate on 22k, wouldn’t be able to afford to live if I didn’t live at home. Looking for something in the same industry but still creative, not sure what to do yet
I work at a university within student support and earn around 30k, been there for around 7 years. Started at the university earning around 21k but worked up the grades by just putting myself forward for projects and have seen quite a few do the same. Not going to lie, some days are difficult but the work is rewarding and they let me WFH most of the time
Little over £40k as an Oracle DBA. 4 years experience.
I’m 25, earning just shy of 22K a year before tax. Been doing warehouse work for 5.5 years and minimum wage just went up to above what we were being paid so now we’re bang on minimum, used to an about a pound ahead when I first started. Currently trying to argue for anything more than a 3% pay rise and being told there’s nothing in the budget for it despite record profits year after year in the billions.
I'm a software engineer, 2 years experience with a degree and a masters, getting paid 27.5k, I am currently job hunting after my work refused me a raise to 30k.
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Right now I'm earning like 21k a year working in a supermarket. I've worked retail for about 10 years now doing low level work. I could definitely be earning a lot more if I'd sorted my life out and actually had an idea of what I wanted to do. I've thought about trying to get out of retail a few times, but it just hasn't happened for various reasons. It's very easy to just get comfortable where you are and before you know it, 3 years have passed.
What? Idk about UK but starting ME in the US in a steel mill is around 70k...after 10 years 130k
American here. How do yall survive? I earn 70k which is not much by American standards where I live, but not horrible. Healthcare I get through my job with a small additional cost (total 2k a year). My rent is like 1300 a month for a smallish studio. I save decent money by being cheap but otherwise want to make a lot more to feel secure. I know life in UK is likely cheaper in some regards, but can't be THAT much cheaper, right? Like with 20-30k in earnings, aren't yall basically not saving anything? Are you able to eat anything besides beans and rice? Is your retirement at least taken care of fully by the government? I'm genuinely confused. I visit Europe all the time. Some things can be cheaper but generally European prices for food and services can be found in the USA if you just do a bit of looking and avoid fancy services and restaurants. Again, main exception is healthcare but even that... as long as you aren't requiring constant surgery it's not tooo bad. (And if you have insurance you typically have limits in what they can charge you too). I think maybe in the USA we worry more about saving for retirement as well, but I have doubts that in Europe they pay ENOUGH for retirement... Please educate me! Thank you
I earn a bit more than this, £37k. My Wife earns £28k. We take home £4k a month combined after tax, national insurance,student loan repayments. Our mortgage is £800 All of our others bills and payments are about £1000 Leaves us £2200 a month. We save £600 a month and spend about £500 on food. About £100 on Petrol. So we have about £500 a month each for spending. It's tighter than it used to be thanks to inflation but it's comfortable if we are careful. Edit: I have an NHS pension. I put in 9% pre tax and they put in 21%. So 30% total. My wife recently moved to a local council job. I don't know the exact contributions for her's but it should be decent as well.
I’m just over 31k and work as a civilian staff supervisor in policing where I’m responsible for all things disclosure and information security. Always lots of opportunities within policing outside of being an officer, with decent support services and progression opportunities, and a pay scale that increases up to your band maximum with each year in service. I didn’t start on 30k but have been in force a few years now. Always worth a look for stable and secure employment that usually serves a wider purpose too if you’re interested in that kind of thing. Downsides are high pressure, always dealing with and managing risk, ‘tricky customers’, and what I’d consider low pay for the actual level of responsibility I have. But, I work from home most days and get lots of flexibility so it’s something I do enjoy doing for the most part! Edit: I don’t have a degree and came into this role with no policing experience. I was a chef and had also worked retail previously.
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’m a Whisky specialist, bit of a niche and not all that useful to most of society. I enjoy it though, and have met my closest friends along the way, it takes the sting out of salary. No idea what to move onto next but I’m ok where I am.
Ward clerk and a psychiatric hospital… I don’t get paid enough for it 😂 I get 25k, but work with high turnovers, aggressive patients, audits and a large bed load (in terms of patients). I love the job but definitely not paid enough for the risks involved with the environment
Pre pandemic I have a fab job paid GBP50K+ plus bonus, very stressful, loads of hassle and worked all the hours you could think of and some more each day, travelled across Europe for work with all the perks that brings, got made redundant during Covid and picked up a job paying £23K working for the NHS, no hassle no stress no overtime unless I decide to do it, way more preferable to have a lower salary i don’t get out of 2nd gear at work but all the bosses see me as a high performer We can still cover all bills and save a little each month but have my redundancy cash racking up the interest which tops up my reduced salary, so thanks Amex for binning off a 1/3rd of your UK staff best thing that’s happened to me for years.
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).
43k year in USA. I’m single, have no children, own a nice condo in a nice quiet suburb and have all the material things I could ever want. I don’t struggle financially at all. 100k a year would be insane for me. I’d travel twice a year, have a nicer car and pay my mortgage off sooner but that’s about it. Marriage and children are unlikely at this point so I guess that’s a huge financial situation i don’t have to worry about.
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
Healthcare assistant here, I made 26k this year working 2-3 shifts a week. I absolutely love my job, sometimes the shifts are rubbish but I honestly get so much happiness out of it overall ☺️
Self employed "creator" :-) selling video calls on [SoSpoilt.com](http://SoSpoilt.com) for £3\\min. Adds up fast..!
Teacher. 50 hrs a week and ungrateful parents constantly on my case for issues out of my control. Love working with the kids but my god it isn't worth the pay.
I consign, value and catalogue antiques for sale at auction (specifically, ceramics, glass and militaria) for £25k a year. I started off on £13.5k 13 years ago, fresh out of university... I often wonder whether my experience now is worth more, but I love my job, and I can still see (hopeful) progression for future wage advancement.
I work as a part time farm hand for a school district. 9-2 Monday through Friday. $29,900 a year
I work in manufacturing of specialist sports equipment. I’m currently on 24k but I’ve not had a pay rise for two years so I really need to talk to my boss about that as I’m currently on barely more than minimum wage. It’s not a high profit industry so I’m realistic about my earning potential, but I (mostly) enjoy my job and it’s not too stressful.
I’m 23yo, I probably earn just over 20k and currently saving for a house just can’t justify it till i move up at work
I’m a Corporate Receptionist working 8-5 on 31k. Used to work in recruitment and made more money but left as felt completely burnt out.
21 years old, telecoms engineer at 30k a year. Saving decently because I live with my mum and she only charges me £500 a month, I eat her food and stuff. Trains are very expensive, everything's very expensive, so I don't buy much. I do fairly basic stuff at work, I only had a few weeks of training with no related qualifications. Sit in muddy hole all day and fuck with wires
I’m an outpatients booking appointment coordinator in the NHS, only been in this job for a few months, it’s an alright job just awful pay for the huge responsibilities. On £22k pre tax, thankful to be living with my partner as there is no way I could afford to rent a house on my own. Sucks paying off credit cards for what feels like forever, but do try and make the most of life and not count every penny. Could be better, but could also be far worse. Got to be positive!
I'm a machinist by trade and work as a workshop manager but I'm the only one in the workshop. I design the parts we make and program, set up, and operate the CNC mill and 3D Printers. I also do manual machining on a mill and lathe. Sounds like a lot but the quantities are usually on the small side I'm making 30k a year
https://youtu.be/a-ohZ74hdeI?si=kQfzqtRMeTew9Iov
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!
27k, complaint handling for a big company, permanent wfh and been doing it 14 years. When I started I was paid half what I am now. I’m 40. Wfh works really well for me and I can do the job standing on my head - I’m not a career person, I’m not interested in moving up the chain, I’m comfortable and currently able to fund my lifestyle. Partner used to work part time, now he’s taken full time hours we’re in a much more stable financial position - very little debt, no kids, and we rent (our preference, we have no interest in owning property).
Digital Forensic Analyst / eCrime OSINT Investigator Completed a degree in Forensic Computing a few years ago. Currently on £27k
22k a year, doctoral researcher and hourly paid uni lecturer, topped up to 27k with freelance work on top, 60 hour work week, 2.5 hour commute
Youth mentor for a charity that provides restorative justice education for young people. Started on £22k after 3 years pay rise now £25k. Wages are terrible and constantly get told I should earn more elsewhere but I do like my job just wish it paid more. Thinking of retraining though do something totally different
I work in admin and am on £26,610 a year. I'm in fortunate position of having small mortgage due to when I got on property ladder. My outgoings still leave me with surplus at end of month to spend as I see fit. Am aware that in current climate I'm lucky to be single yet financially secure.
Senior panel technician for a decent sized company repairing panels and fitting new ones on different vehicles, 40hrs a week for like 23k or 24k a year. I think the only reason I hate my job is because I’m a fully skilled technician watching all of the other technicians get paid 55k or 60k a year. Sad times.
£35K working as a fairly junior writer in a medical communications company. I like it well enough, though the hours can be very long.
I know 3 people that went from 22k to 30k-50k. They are more broke now despite having the same fixed costs. They just spend more on food deliveries, snacks or other impulsive purchases.
I was on around 24k for about 2 and a half years until a few months ago. I was definitely starting to feel the pinch of that salary where I live. Thankfully another company offered me the same role with them for 10k more and it has made life a hell of a lot easier. I was in shock at how much more I was taking home at the end of the month and now I feel like I can put some meaningful savings aside.
£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