Are you worth more?
As thoughts turn to those summer holidays, thoughts also turn to paying for them.
Latest figures from sector skills body e-Skills UK for the last quarter of 2006 show that the average gross weekly pay for an IT professional in the UK was around £34,500 per year gross. However this is somewhat below the average advertised pay rate for a permanent post of £38,500 per year gross and around half the advertised pay rate for a contractor of £64,000 (£1,230 per week gross).
Of course, these averages cover a wide range of IT jobs, and as is usually the case with averages mask a wide variation in pay.
If you work in the north east, north west or Northern Ireland, then you are likely to take home up to 30 per cent less than those employed elsewhere.
And if you are a woman, then you are likely to earn some £56 per week or nine per cent less than your male colleagues on average throughout your career, with the pay gap peaking in your 40s. Perhaps this goes some way to explaining why working in IT appears to be increasingly a turn-off for women?
We are even receiving reports from some employees that they have not had a pay increase for a number of years.
As you head for the sun, whether in Bournemouth, Benidorm or Bermuda, are you being paid what you are worth?
I would love to know if I'm being paid a fair rate. I've not had a pay rise now for 4 years despite getting good performance reviews. I'm just above the average salary in the article about fair pay but I'm rapidly approaching retirement age. I don't know whether this is a factor in lack of pay rise, or because I'm a woman or the company I work for is stingy!!!!
Posted by: Rose | Monday, 25 June 2007 at 04:09 PM
Employers resist voluntary equal pay audits because they fear the exposure of significant differences between the pay of men and women in similar jobs.
I have won double digit pay increases for women members in recent years but the company avoided admission of breaches of the Equal pay Act 1970 - they just paid up.
I recommend that workplace reps encourage their women members to lodge equal pay grievances under the legislation. Companies MUST respond with their reasons why the pay of a woman and a named male comparator are different.
For further information browse the Equal Opportunities commision website at http://www.eoc.org.uk/
Posted by: Mick - Amicus Workplace Rep | Monday, 25 June 2007 at 04:49 PM
Dear Peter,
I do not think there are alot of people on this average salary of £34,500 in Fujitsu.
Posted by: | Monday, 25 June 2007 at 05:29 PM
My company used to have a policy of periodically reviewing pay in line with "market rates". Now they don't even want to do that and pay rises will only be awarded arbitrarily on an ad-hoc basis! A number of colleagues have not had a basic pay rise for several years now. I can’t see this situation getting better and in fact there is even talk of off-shoring more work to low labour cost areas such as Hungary and India……
Posted by: Rob - Amicus Workplace Rep | Tuesday, 26 June 2007 at 10:17 AM
Peter,
The company I work for had not given even a cost-of-living pay rise in some years, most of my colleagues and I getting no rise at all. The reason given was the the company needed to do better. Although lump-sum blanket bonuses have been paid on meeting targets, this still means that my standard of living has been decreasing year-on-year and my pension doesn't get any better. Like an earlier comment, pay used to be at "market rates", but many IT companies seem to be turning away from that.
This year, the company has done rather well, but there were a lot of "0% rises" again. So much for loyalty!
Posted by: Alan - Unite (Amicus) member | Tuesday, 26 June 2007 at 01:26 PM
if you don't like what you're paid, move. if you have the skills (most don't) and are mobile there is little limit.
i'm 34 and on 92,000 - i have a first class software engineering degree from de montfort university (leicester poly in my first year)
- hardly oxbridge.
i went straight to BT as a contract tester on 26,000 a year. two years of that then took a permanent job, same role, for a measly 23,500 (i was too lazy to look for other work, a mistake i have not made since)
i left for another telco and hit 32,000.
left for london and hit 40000.
back out of london (bit of a slump around 2001) to another telco for 42000. in my second year the company performed badly (i didn't) and there were no rises or bonus so i left immediately.
took 3 years off bumming around then back to london (financial c/c++/unix programmer) for 52,000, next year 68,000 and now 92,000.
Posted by: unknown software engineer | Friday, 14 September 2007 at 09:07 PM
Some people realy cant figure out what they are worth of but there shoud be mechanism that tells how much you are worth
Posted by: Employment Finder | Monday, 21 January 2008 at 02:14 PM
You are about to view the cheapest online cialis offer. Have a glance and make sure that you aren't already paying more!!!
http://forum.springframework.org/member.php?u=34407 cheap discount cialis
http://www.wowzamedia.com/forums/member.php?u=1370 discount cialis online
http://www.digitalcamerainfo.com/bbs/member.php?u=1867 buy cialis online
http://www.gamecareerguide.com/forums/member.php?u=2534 buy discount cialis online
Posted by: Cialis | Wednesday, 06 February 2008 at 10:47 PM
You are about to view the cheapest online cialis offer. Have a glance and make sure that you aren't already paying more!!!
http://forum.springframework.org/member.php?u=34407 cheap discount cialis
http://www.wowzamedia.com/forums/member.php?u=1370 discount cialis online
http://www.digitalcamerainfo.com/bbs/member.php?u=1867 buy cialis online
http://www.gamecareerguide.com/forums/member.php?u=2534 buy discount cialis online
Posted by: Cialis | Wednesday, 06 February 2008 at 10:49 PM
Some people realy cant figure out what they are worth of but there shoud be mechanism that tells how much you are worth
Posted by: Greg | Wednesday, 27 February 2008 at 06:41 PM
If you work in the north east, north west or Northern Ireland, then you are likely to take home up to 30 per cent less than those employed elsewhere.
Posted by: Generic | Thursday, 11 June 2009 at 03:30 PM