Am I on a fair wage?

Juneau333

Hi all,

I work in IT support for a manufacturing company. The company is doing very well, is a Times Top 100 business and makes profit above it's targets year on year. So I don't think the company is in any sort of financial difficulty.

I recently had my appraisal. I have worked for the company for just over 2 years now. I started as an apprentice at the age of 18 and am now a fully-fledged title. Going into my appraisal, my salary was £10,000. I was expecting a wage hike to match my job role and duties that I am responsible for.

In my appraisal the company stated they are very happy with me, and are pleased that I have improved so much. They could only find a minimal fault with me which is one of my next targets to work on. They were really pleased with my commitment and going the extra mile (I've done a lot of extra hours, working out of hours, coming in to the office whilst on annual leave, etc).

I was really disappointed when they said I would be going up to £13,000, and that it probably wouldn't be looked at getting increased until next September. I feel being at the age of 20, having an apprenticeship qualification under my belt as well as my college qualifications, that £13,000 doesn't reflect where I want to be, or where I should be.

I am asking if this is a fair wage that I should put up with or should I go back to my boss to ask for more? I just feel that for £13,000 I could go get a basic job without any qualifications and could still get by on that. But my job role takes on a lot of work, I work hard and I am disappointed I am going to be on £13,000 until next September. I will be 21 then.

I'd appreciate any advice on whether people think this is a fair wage, what my options are, etc.

Thanks.

tonyh66

Hmm its a difficult one, your wages seem quite low, what qualifications do you have? are you microsoft certified? Could you find a better paid job at another company?
On the other hand, a £3k pay rise, roughly 30% is brilliant considering everyone is averaging 3-5%
FWIW I work for a top 5 worldwide company and my payrise for the last 4 years has been £500 p/year

[Deleted User]

Do you know what other people in the same/similar role as you are getting paid by the company?

Was there any negotiation about the pay rise at the appraisal? Did you show that you were disappointed with this then/give evidence for why it should be more?

Do you meet the person spec. for better paid jobs at other companies for IT Support (if so, apply, if not see what is missing i.e. professional registration, skills in particular areas of expertise etc and work towards them).

HTH

D9

InsideInsurance

A 30% payrise for passing an apprenticeship doesnt sound so bad when people are on average receiving 2% or so

What is your exact role, "IT Support" can be anything from call centre to maintaining mainframe systems where you are one of only a dozen people left qualified in its archaic programming language.

Also where in the country are you?

PlutoinCapricorn

You do need to be careful not to rock the boat.

There is no harm in discreetly getting information about how much people doing similar jobs in your and other companies are getting though.

Don't forget that you are getting valuable experience that many similar paid jobs in other sectors would not give you.

What was your basis for expecting a much larger hike? Has your company got a salary scale? Is it age related?

purplepardalis

Where in the country are you?

somethingcorporate

It sounds low, have you investigated what similar jobs in other companies are paying?

getmore4less

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/TheNationalMinimumWage/DG_10027201

How many hours a week min wage 35hrs would be over £9k at 20, overe £11k at 21.

upto (£13k/(£4.98 * 52)) 50hrs is still above min wage.


depends what you do, what qualification and where(region) you work.

engineering companies tend to offer lower pay than some other sectors.

dancingfairy

Your options are to accept it, negotiate or leave (as far I can see).
The fact that your 21 and feel you should be getting more is irrelevant. As has been said you need to benchmark it to others. Are others in a smilar position or have been in the last year or 2? do you know what they got? Do you know/have access to a company pay structure etc? What are others in the local area paying and what are other similar companies paying?
Are there other benefits you could neogitate on - ie a company car, gym memebership, flexible working time etc that you would appreciate (especially if it's something that wont' cost the company much money).
Also is it worth sticking where you are for now for a few years to gain experience and a good reference? Can you get qualifications where you are? Is there generally good progression or do you feel like you'd be in a dead end job?
I'd maybe try and negotiate it up a little if possible (you're probably not going to get anything wildly different from what they've offered but there may be scope to increase it within a certain range), look around the market and see what (if any jobs are going) and see how the next 6 months go (but that's just my personal opinion).
df
Edit: as someone else said your job title is pretty broad and covers lots of things and it's going to come down to your exact role and responsibilities. Do you have any trade tittles in the IT industry that may give you an idea of salary expectations?

19lottie82

If other companies are paying more for similar positions, use the experience that you have gained and take your skills elsewhere.

£13k works out about £6.75 ph for a 37 hour working week. Seems pretty low, considering NMW is only, £6.16 (?) BUT as someone else has pointed out,y our job title is pretty vague.

Sure, speak to your employer and voice your concerns but From my experience, it is unlikely that they will turn round and give you the huge pay rise that you were hoping for, so start look elsewhere.

Juneau333

I work 37.5 hours, but the extra hours I do are normally out of office.

My main roles are to:

Manage the servers
Manage the phone system/fax system/other electronic systems (such as BES)
Provide support for our business application SAP
Write SQL queries for SAP (only just started doing this since being sent on a Microsoft course by my company)
Provide support for our Warehouse Management System
Provide support for mostly all other electronic/technological issues in the business

I work alongside another guy in IT (he's been there for nearly 3 years), who I know has just had his appraisal and gone from 23k to 26k per year. He definitely has more knowledge then me, but I don't think his contribution to the business is double what mine is.

My qualifications are:

IT PROCOM Level 3 (finished as part of my apprenticeship)
OCR Extended National Diploma in ICT Level 3 (done at college)
Microsoft SQL Query Writing (finished this August)

I love working for the company though, and I get along with everyone. The company is family owned and has 120+ employees, so it is not like a major business that is trying to screw me over. Maybe that's me being blind though.