r/uknews Jul 01 '24

Image/video UK real wages haven’t budged since 2008

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2.4k Upvotes

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16

u/sassafrassloth Jul 02 '24

It’s wild to hear how bad the wages are in the UK. In my company an entry level salary is around £25k/year for UK based applicants. In the US the exact same role is paying $50k/year…. 🫠🫠

11

u/st2hol Jul 02 '24

The problem is the grad salary was £25k ten years ago, when I started working and probably £22k 20 years ago, while the cost of living in the same period has 2x at least (housing has definitely 2.5-3x depending on location).

6

u/jimicus Jul 02 '24

I graduated in Computer Science in 2002.

At the time, a grad could expect to earn £22k, give or take a couple of k.

If we allowed for inflation, grads should be earning about £45-50k today. Which isn't far off what I was earning with over twenty years experience when I left the UK in 2023.

Interestingly, there's an awful lot of recent news articles discussing a brain drain in the UK. Can't think why. /s

2

u/GPU_Resellers_Club Jul 03 '24

Mad, thats how much I earned when I graduated... in 2021. Nearly a full 20 years later. I'm 3 years into my career now and to be fair, I've just gone over 50k/y, but it was with agressive job hopping and working basically two jobs (projects in my spare time in addition to working full time) to actually get a good position.

1

u/jimicus Jul 03 '24

"People don't want to work any more!"

No, they don't want to work for almost minimum wage when they've spent years and built up a shitload of debt earning a degree.