what is a good pay rise?

DonDaddyD

itboffin wrote:

I'm going to offer some rare actual advice, pay attention.

Take care in jumping from job to job for career progression ie money unless you really need to, I say this because almost 25 years after starting my career and having lived through the heady early IT Internet days when we were paid more than bankers and every other phone call was a headhunter, this will make your CV look dodgy to say the least.

I frequently find myself explaining (lie) why none of my jobs last longer than 3 years, what am I meant to say ...? I was offered £££££££ so I moved?

As for spending more than what you earn, you always will - accept it.

ITB I get what you're saying. Depends on your job and where you are in your career.

Me, I'm getting to the point where moving around frequently will begin to be counter productive.

Any kind of payrise is appreciated. - I should have said that first.

daviesee

itboffin wrote:

As for spending more than what you earn, you always will - accept it.

Not since 1986. And proud of it.
I nearly buckled under the stress back then. Never again. No material object is worth it. If you need credit, you can't afford it. House excepted but even then it has to be controlled. There is always an alternative. Preach over

shouldbeinbed

BR 1979 wrote:

Why not move then?

(Edit - Sorry aimed at the angry public sector man one post up.)

Haha I should change my name. I do mention in there that there isn't a local option & moving would mean uprooting my family. Not something I want to do & TBH the thrust was not to moan about my lot but cos I'm sick to the back teeth of this public sector sitting pretty myth as if we're all on a par with MPs or council chief execs ot MOD types apparently or any of the other absolute top of the tree rarity jobs that get bandied about as somehow typical of all of us in this mythical single entity 'the public sector'

Its like chucking abuse at a RBS teller for Fred Goodwins misdemeanours or blaming the Tesco till operator for putting little local shops to the wall

The Rookie

I have a slightly strange job, there are only currently about 200 people in the country that have the experience to do it, so when we are in demand, salaries are very buoyant, fortunately we've been in demand now for about the last 8 years with no let up in site, salary rise this year just over 5% (on top of what I already think is over-inflated when compared to my peers who went into different fields) as a new player has started up and increased demand by about 10 engineers in one go.

Vacancies are only filled right now by scalping someone from somewhere else.

Simon

buy_my_cookies

what do you do? (if you dont mind sharing, else just ignoe me)

tailwindhome

The change to the tax threshold and NI which kicked in from 5 April have resulted in a net increase in my take home pay of £11.20 per month.

This will pay for the potential university fees for my 4 kids in only 1130 easy years

Cheers Mr Clegg, you're alright!

DonDaddyD

itboffin wrote:

As for spending more than what you earn, you always will - accept it.

Not sure I subscribe to that school of thinking.

I think you will always owe money in some fashion. Car loan, Mortgage, general loan of some kind: Daughters wedding/house repairs etc.

But living beyond your means each month is something I don't agree with.

Drysuitdiver

a smidge above inflation ??

anything that leaves you a little better off than you were last tax year. rather than a "rise" that means you aearn less in real terms this year than last.

rick_chasey

Drysuitdiver wrote:

a smidge above inflation ??

anything that leaves you a little better off than you were last tax year. rather than a "rise" that means you aearn less in real terms this year than last.

I assumed that a rise was always inflation adjusted...

daviesee

Rick Chasey wrote:

Drysuitdiver wrote:

a smidge above inflation ??

anything that leaves you a little better off than you were last tax year. rather than a "rise" that means you aearn less in real terms this year than last.

I assumed that a rise was always inflation adjusted...

Sorry Rick but you assumed wrong.

rick_chasey

daviesee wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Drysuitdiver wrote:

a smidge above inflation ??

anything that leaves you a little better off than you were last tax year. rather than a "rise" that means you aearn less in real terms this year than last.

I assumed that a rise was always inflation adjusted...

Sorry Rick but you assumed wrong.

Pfft, fair enough. I would expect AT LEAST inflation adjusted, and would kick up a fuss if it wasn't. I already had my carefully explained arguments planned out in my head in case I didn't get at least inflation adjusted.

The Rookie

buy_my_cookies wrote:

what do you do? (if you dont mind sharing, else just ignoe me)

No worries, I'm what we call a calibration engineer, but its probably not what you expect, I put values into engine management systems so that a cars engine starts and runs as it should, produce as low pollutants as possible and have as low a fuel consumption as possible, not to mention satsifying all the other regulatory and customer requirements.
My Degree was in mechanical engineering and is of no help (most the time anyway) to me in doing the job!

Simon

rjsterry

Rick Chasey wrote:

Drysuitdiver wrote:

a smidge above inflation ??

anything that leaves you a little better off than you were last tax year. rather than a "rise" that means you aearn less in real terms this year than last.

I assumed that a rise was always inflation adjusted...

Heehee. Once upon a time maybe, but now only if you're lucky. When inflation was around 2%, it wasn't a big deal, but it's nearer 5% now (depending on which measure you use). For the company, it'll be more than 5% with NIC, so quite a lot to add to a company's costs, especially if you can't put your prices up accordingly.

daviesee

Rick Chasey wrote:

Pfft, fair enough. I would expect AT LEAST inflation adjusted, and would kick up a fuss if it wasn't.

Ah. The innocence of youth

rolf_f

DonDaddyD wrote:

I think you will always owe money in some fashion. Car loan, Mortgage, general loan of some kind: Daughters wedding/house repairs etc.

I've only ever borrowed for a house. Pretty much nothing else ever justifies a loan (unless interest free and you have the means to pay it off at the end of the interest free bit). Borrowing money for cars is a particularly silly game - second hand cars are so cheap now that it is easy to get a good one for less than you'd pay to insure it! This is half the problem - people think borrowing money for cars as the norm (probably it is!). It just isn't worth it though.

rick_chasey

daviesee wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Pfft, fair enough. I would expect AT LEAST inflation adjusted, and would kick up a fuss if it wasn't.

Ah. The innocence of youth

Spoke to someone who's an MD at a medium sized consultancy firm, and they'd all just leave if they didn't adjust for inflation.

We were chatting about my pay discussion in April and he was surprised when I said "I hope they adjust for inflation"...

Went a bit like " :shock: Err, AT LEAST?!?!", so I figured that was pretty standard.

tailwindhome

Rick Chasey wrote:

daviesee wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Pfft, fair enough. I would expect AT LEAST inflation adjusted, and would kick up a fuss if it wasn't.

Ah. The innocence of youth

Spoke to someone who's an MD at a medium sized consultancy firm, and they'd all just leave if they didn't adjust for inflation.

We were chatting about my pay discussion in April and he was surprised when I said "I hope they adjust for inflation"...

Went a bit like " :shock: Err, AT LEAST?!?!", so I figured that was pretty standard.

leaving only works if you have somewhere to go

most people don't

gtvlusso

shouldbeinbed wrote:

BR 1979 wrote:

Why not move then?

(Edit - Sorry aimed at the angry public sector man one post up.)

Haha I should change my name. I do mention in there that there isn't a local option & moving would mean uprooting my family. Not something I want to do & TBH the thrust was not to moan about my lot but cos I'm sick to the back teeth of this public sector sitting pretty myth as if we're all on a par with MPs or council chief execs ot MOD types apparently or any of the other absolute top of the tree rarity jobs that get bandied about as somehow typical of all of us in this mythical single entity 'the public sector'

Its like chucking abuse at a RBS teller for Fred Goodwins misdemeanours or blaming the Tesco till operator for putting little local shops to the wall

Just for the record: I agree there is a huge amount of diversity of role and circumstance in the Public Sector. There are an awful lot of people who work hard and have gained little in various departments - their are also a few who have "hidden" and come out with rather large pay packets.
I am obviously comparing my circumstance to the nearest common denominator and it works out that I would be far batter off working in the MOD!

The unions used the public/private pay gap to negotiate some great deals for their members. Those deals are now ending and private sector pay and conditions need to catch up!

rjsterry

TailWindHome wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

daviesee wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Pfft, fair enough. I would expect AT LEAST inflation adjusted, and would kick up a fuss if it wasn't.

Ah. The innocence of youth

Spoke to someone who's an MD at a medium sized consultancy firm, and they'd all just leave if they didn't adjust for inflation.

We were chatting about my pay discussion in April and he was surprised when I said "I hope they adjust for inflation"...

Went a bit like " :shock: Err, AT LEAST?!?!", so I figured that was pretty standard.

leaving only works if you have somewhere to go

most people don't

It also shows how much things vary from profession to profession.

jonginge

Rick Chasey wrote:

daviesee wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Pfft, fair enough. I would expect AT LEAST inflation adjusted, and would kick up a fuss if it wasn't.

Ah. The innocence of youth

Spoke to someone who's an MD at a medium sized consultancy firm, and they'd all just leave if they didn't adjust for inflation.

We were chatting about my pay discussion in April and he was surprised when I said "I hope they adjust for inflation"...

Went a bit like " :shock: Err, AT LEAST?!?!", so I figured that was pretty standard.

Well, you've not been there very long. Initial pay rises reflect that your experience has increased quite a lot and are thus more likely to be able to get a job elsewhere. Replacing somebody costs the company quite a bit in terms of recruitment and wasted training.

Back in the day my salary went up by 50% in the first two years of employment. That just reflected the IT market of the time. It's a bit more commoditized these days. That said, there are still technology niches that can command megabux

richk

We got 0.4% - which was 0.4% more than most of us expected

tailwindhome

RichK wrote:

We got 0.4% - which was 0.4% more than most of us expected

As my Granda used to say "Don't spend it all in the one shop"

daviesee

Rick Chasey wrote:

Went a bit like " :shock: Err, AT LEAST?!?!", so I figured that was pretty standard.

No raise for me in the past 2 1/2 years (with or without inflation) and none expected until next year at least .

But then I am at the top end in my field so I am comfortable, there is no point in moving and I shouldn't complain. In fact I don't complain, I am just making the point.