Hi, I came here from Australia and am currently living in London. I have a bachelors in Science and have recently gotten a job as a science technician. Science tech jobs seem to be the only abundant jobs on offer in both Australia and here. And considering the drive to promote people getting into stem careers, especially in regards to women, in recent years, I would have expected to be having a fairly decent starting graduate salary. And here I am, living in one of the worlds most expensive cities, and one of the worlds best cities for opportunity, on a £21500 salary, only £3000 more than minimum wage.
For starter, in Australia, I worked as a lab tech and the salary wasn’t great there either. However, it was still $16000 more than minimum wage in a far, far cheaper city with far less opportunity. On top of that, I was earning 1.5 times as much in Aus than I am now. Also, the company I worked for was confided just to Australia. The one I’m at now, is globally dominating, in over 50 countries and still pays nothing. I also had a temp job in a kitchen when I first moved that pays more than what I have now and that was for washing dishes.
I also recently took a sick day due to having a cold and thought I’d get paid for it, considering In Australia it is a requirement up to a certain amount. But I don’t. For comparison, I worked a no skill retail job in Australia where I got sick days as a casual where there is no requirement to do so. Now I have to budget hard next weeks pay and hope it doesn’t eat into my savings. As I’m stuck in the cheapest share room I could find and am still unable to save unless I budget hard, and I mean no pubs, takeaway, nothing.
I have a sibling that says he can get me a job at his entry level job, which requires no degree, has £7000 pay rise, optional overtime and great benefits (pays for transport etc).
I feel nothing but complete regret for the degree I chose to study.
13 comments
Yep, wages are higher in back in Oz for similar cost of living, especially as the government in the UK has cratered the economy.
It’s a great city to have fun in, though, so I’d just take the money and have some fun.
Still, at least you’ve got your health. Mustn’t grumble.
Get out of London
Wages aren’t very good here in the UK (relative to comparable developed nations). It’s as simple as that really
Britain isn’t what is used to be. Antipodeans used to come over and x times their income relative to home. It’s all changed, Antipodean nations have got far wealthier relative to Britain and Britain has allowed most of Europe and the world in.
So, its compressed earnings and increased housing costs in London esp. Plenty of young grads are spending 50% of their incomes on rents in SHARED accommodation.
You’re better off in Aus. Get some experience here and enjoy the touristy things then get back to Aus and get a house before they get even more out of reach.
I work in software and don’t get me wrong we are one of the highest paid (jnr Dev is normally £25k+) but compared to other countries? It’s quite low, I mean the US is insane how much they get paid (I know about all the healthcare blah blah), however I used to live in aus and worked there and found I did get paid more in comparison to the UK (not software) for doing a fairly low skilled job
However, the UK in general has some great advantages, healthcare is obvious, but not as many people mention PAYE which damn after living in other countries I do like PAYE, my money from work is mine, no need to sort out tax and stuff, done!
But yeah we seem to have low-ish wages but we do have some other advantages, also sadly I don’t think science (or acdemia as a subset) is that well paid over here.
Welcome to the UK! At least we have crumpets
I think you should still get paid for sick leave, are you still on probation?
Science Jobs without post-grad qualifications are often terribly paid in comparison to other graduate jobs.
The UK salaries are lower than other countries but we do (did?) have a much lower cost of living compared to those countries. We have a lot more things in the UK which make the lower pay bearable such as 5.6 weeks minimum holiday, stat sick pay and maternity pay, “free” healthcare and max working hours.
In the UK sick pay will be paid after 4 consecutive days off which is the legal minimum, some companies offer more but it’s not guaranteed. What I do is if I need a day off for sickness I take one of my holidays so I don’t lose the pay.
It’s your degree. A Bs in a science won’t get you a high salary for a science-related role. You’d need a Phd/top tier masters in a science to be on 50k+. Physics graduates tend to do very well in the UK, but most go into quant finance or swe roles. As for chemistry and biology, the salaries are pretty low for graduates.
No sick pay for one day off basically means a shit employer (unless you are very new in the role) so there’s that
I’m not sure about other countries but at least in the UK, a degree isn’t always a magic golden ticket to an amazing salary, for the most part it is just ‘help’. There is quite a few graduate jobs which still require at the very least 2 years experience of work in a field.