How long would it take to earn 30k+ a year in minimum wage job?

Elfbert

I started out on minimum wage as a welder in 2003. (Just over £10k a year back then, if memory serves!! But I also did plenty of overtime to boost that.)

In 2014 I hit 30k, still welding, but also doing a lot of other fabrication in a busy workshop.

But I still keep in touch with all the lads in my old workshop, and many of them are still just bumping along on or just above minimum wage. So it all depends what you want out of work/life, and how much effort you want to put in vs the stress you're prepared to get out of it!

Mersey_2

If you mean no qualifications, then there's still quite a few career areas eg everyone from Taxi drivers to Police can all work their way up to £30k pa if full time after 5+ years.


There'll still be internal tests along the way.


There was an article in I think Moneywise mag that listed quite a few areas from a supermarket manager to a scrap metal dealer who were all earning over £30k pa after having left school at 16.

Darksparkle

Took me 9 years.

Sncjw

Be very long slog to get to 30k a year. You would need qualifications to prove your worth that much. Nurses starting out do a degree and that's only 21 k a year to start with.

If your building a business no way you will earn 30k a year instantly unless it's a massive selling product

paddyrg

Lamentation wrote: »

My understanding is that in the past, 1 in 40 jobs paid NMW and now it's around 1 in 20. Not sure of the timescale to confirm how long this has doubled. Probably worth checking to see if this is true.

I don't know the specifics of this, so I'm not challenging your statement, however I'm always a little wary of such figures. NMW has risen measurably recently, and that may have mopped up a lot of those lower pay rates that were barely over NMW.

For instance, if NMW was £6.70, and people were being paid £6.80, they were not appearing in the NMW stats. The rising tide taking everyone to £7.20 means the people who were on £6.80 are getting more money, but are suddenly included in NMW figures.

The more processed statistics are (and the easier the headline), the easier it is for them to carry an agenda. The original raw data may tell a totally different story if asked "How many people were helped by a rise in NMW?" when it would have given a very positive-sounding number!

Lioness_Twinkletoes

Got2Save wrote: »

I want to know, on estimate, how long it would take someone to earn 30k (and more) starting out at minimum wage? Which kind of industries is this possible?

It's taken me roughly 12 years to go from minimum wage, working for agencies, to £36k a year. I work and have almost entirely worked for the local authority. I've managed to avoid a number of restructures and consider that I'm very fortunate to have the job I am currently doing. I work with a fabulous group of people and love my job. I have a 15 minute commute (by bicycle) and I work from home one day a week.

Got2Save

sangie595 wrote: »

Sorry, but you are long term unemployed with no skills to speak of and a poor work history. The first objective is to get a job. You can't be picky about which industries might one day promote you. And you really can't afford to split your attention. You either go all out for a career, or to build your business. Try to do both at the same time, and you have no time to do either well. Careers are hard work. So is building a business. Both take extra effort. It's only a few weeks ago that you wanted a minimum wage job to get together enough money to put into the business, and that was all. You need to make a decision about what your realistic prospects are. And stick with it.

Thanks for response and I agree. I 100% want to build a business as it's the only thing I feel passionate about now. It's taken me a long time to realise what I really want, so up until now I have been drifting from idea to idea a lot without any certainty, but a building a business is something I am certain about. To be honest I don't know why I said 30k because that figure is a little arbitrary.

I should have said, instead, I would start in a minimum wage job then want to move up the payscale so I can invest more money into starting the business, meanwhile being able to handle other separate expenses. My question really is, if there's a way I can go about earning more money a job without committing to a "career"? Thanks.

Andrew_Ryan_89

You need to job hop a bit and don't limit or underestimate yourself.

I started stacking shelves at Tesco. Many people working there would think you could not then move on to a professional job like an accountancy firm or a bank but you can.

One thing that I have learnt during my career is to not mentally accept your salary. I went from a £25k job to a £36k job and I was more experienced than my colleagues. In fact, seniority wise it was a step down for me but I got paid more.

Alice_Walker

Got2Save wrote: »

Thanks for response and I agree. I 100% want to build a business as it's the only thing I feel passionate about now. It's taken me a long time to realise what I really want, so up until now I have been drifting from idea to idea a lot without any certainty, but a building a business is something I am certain about. To be honest I don't know why I said 30k because that figure is a little arbitrary.

I should have said, instead, I would start in a minimum wage job then want to move up the payscale so I can invest more money into starting the business, meanwhile being able to handle other separate expenses. My question really is, if there's a way I can go about earning more money a job without committing to a "career"? Thanks.

Do you know what you really want? There's no point in saying you want a business if you don't know what service/ goods you want to provide.

It is the beginning of the academic year, what courses have you signed up to?

The point is that these things are not going to happen until you do something about it. At present the only thing you appear to be doing is procrastinating.