Which professions do you think are overworked/underpaid? Similarly which are well paid?

hyubh

guccininja wrote: »

we paid the doctors to work 4 shifts per week, 2 days/2 nights (on call) at £75,000, plus OT rates, 6-8 weeks holidays and 10% pension (NHS is 13% if I remember correctly from my TUPE data)

It's DB (and pretty generous DB at that), but accounted for on a DC basis, like the other big unfunded public sector schemes. While employer rates are now north of 13%, like-for-like, eligibility for an NHS pension is worth something like a private sector DC employer contribution of 25%, on a conservative basis. To be honest, the public sector workers who have been getting a touch sanctimonious in this thread should remember that...

1886

Overworked and underpaid, I'm going to throw HGV drivers and bus/coach drivers into the ring. The responsibility placed on their shoulders is huge. They can be pulling a fully laden lorry (44 tonnes) and getting £10 an hour, a bus/coach driver can have a full vehicle of passengers (fifty or more) and be getting paid less than £10 an hour

That's a lot of lives in your hands and if a lorry driver makes the smallest of mistakes they could cause a huge crash and close a section of motorway for hours effecting thousands of people. They also work sixteen hours days, get treated like !!!! by the general public and at the end of the day some sleep on the side of the road and get their vehicle broken in to

Doctors, Nurses etc. I was at a family dinner and my Wife's Cousin and her Husband who are both Doctors were there. She told me that last year she had to sleep in her car eight times as once she finished her shift she was so tired she could'nt drive. Sometimes she will sleep on the floor in an office if possible. She said that she's lucky if she gets a 15 minute break on a 12 hour shift

I have huge respect for the people that do all of these jobs

LucyLL

22k starting pay to do shift work including weekends and nights with the danger of serious assault, witness some of the men in our care hang themselves or self harm and get PTSD, constant overtime due to being seriously understaffed. As soon as new recruits start there's more staff leaving.

Teacher2

As a teacher I saw that the public sector professions were getting a kicking in terms of money and status in the nineties. The work, hours, onerous targets, impertinent levels of management and overseeing (for example,OFSTED) and lowering of public respect were becoming ever more intolerable. Teaching was a busted flush after New Labour got in and I saw that medicine was also not worth the effort for a top ability graduate. When management, administrators, cleaners, contractors and assistants get more money for less responsibility and fewer hours than the professionals like teachers and doctors, it is time to do something else.

My children went into communications and management and my 27 year old daughter has just been offered twice what I was paid as a second in department in teaching after 33 years. She has many doctor friends and they live a hellish life for little reward.

k8d

No, you're not right.

You're far better paid than most newly qualified accountants, most of whom will have done a 3 yr degree plus a further 3 yrs training and qualifications and likely to be on around £30k at your age. There will also be a smaller percentage hit 6 figure salaries than in medicine.

Or......... you could be an academic. 3 yr undergraduate degree, plus commonly a 1 yr masters degree, plus minimum 3 yrs PhD so many aged 25 are not yet actually in a paid job. In terms of time spent to get to a decent salary, medicine has got nothing on higher education. First jobs as a postdoctorate are lucky to earn £30k. The number of academics who will hit the 6 figure salary is tiny.

Lecturer contracts are 365x24x7 with no fixed working hours beyond the vague protection of the EU working time agreement. This means that once the 36 hours a week of teaching, prep and marking are used up, they can be given as many hours admin, pastoral care, student support or other work, that an organisation throws at them. Those that complain may be threatened with disciplinary action. Most are doing 12-15 hour days, and all are working most weekends. None of this mentions the research they have to do to get promotion.
Students then expect instant replies to emails sent at midnight or on a saturday afternoon, as they have left the completion of an assignment till the last minute

hyubh

Teacher2 wrote: »

When management, administrators, cleaners, contractors and assistants get more money for less responsibility and fewer hours than the professionals like teachers and doctors, it is time to do something else.

It is completely false that most 'administrators', any 'cleaner', and any teaching assistant 'get more money ... than the professionals like teachers and doctors'. A school bursar (so, senior administrator) will typically be well paid compared to most of the teachers (if not overwhelmingly so, and certainly well short of the headteacher), administrators under her/him generally less. A school cleaner will be on something like an unqualified teacher, but with limited hours, much lower social status, and potentially employed by a contractor with much worse pension rights (for those directly employed by a school, pensions are different between support and teaching staff, but comparable).

Fiona_CW

I think senior doctors are overpaid. GPs in particular. Being a GP seems like a pretty easy job to me.[/QUOTE]


I was a GP for 10 years and it is far from easy! I gave up and whilst I earn a lot less now I would not go back for any amount of money!

Nifty_Purse

Some excellent points have already been made, but I think the OP needs to think about the following:
Working in medicine comes with a high level of job security. Even if you weren't in the NHS/government funded medicine at the end of the day people need doctors and medical treatment. That isn't the case for most IT jobs where companies come and go quite rapidly and that level of job insecurity is compensated for in the salary and bonus levels. This also applies to some financial sector jobs.
Your friends may be getting paid better than you now, but what will happen when they hit 40/50 and the young IT graduate recruit effectively makes them obsolete? They will likely have to retrain entirely at their own expense and then work for several years at a lower pay rate to get back to their current level of pay. You won't have to do that if you stay in medicine.
If you want a better standard of living then move to another part of the country where your pay will go further.

My own experience:
My brother is in IT and I work in food retail. He has only GCSEs; I have a degree. He's been made redundant two or three times, I never have - people have to eat! All his employers have been small, <100 employees. He gets much better pay and sociable work hours, but much more job insecurity. On the other hand if he doesn't do his work that would mean some electronic payments being delayed or not being paid; if I don't do my work people can't buy food plus a shop full of customers and staff wouldn't necessarily be safe or secure. So you can see that it is disputable as to who has more responsibility.

My tuppence:

Food retailers are overworked, underpaid, under-trained, understaffed and undervalued. And now being undermined by on-line shopping.
After the NHS retail is the UK's biggest employer.
The public often dismiss retail as easy work, but it is physically and emotionally demanding. It can also be dangerous work with shops being regularly raided for cash, tobacco (due to the government's never ending tax increases) and alcohol. Customers can also be violent, drunk and physically and verbally abusive. Unlike other professions there is no training provided to employees to cope with these issues. The only people in retail not working weekends are those workers at head office. Unless you're in senior management, you only get auto-enrollment pension and no health insurance. No extra pay for evening, weekend or bank holiday work.
The general public takes all this totally for granted.


Retail provides jobs for the broadest spectrum of people of, I would think, any UK industry. From school leavers, pensioners, graduates, no qualifications, learning difficulties, people returning to work after prison, illness, parenting, caring, travelling and bereavement. I mention this because not long ago I worked with a man who had worked in IT for years earning good money, but in his late fifties was earning around £12,000 in retail plus a nominal amount from renting out a house he owned.
So the point isn't how much are you earning, but what you're doing with that money? Are you enjoying the job despite the long hours because the grass isn't as green elsewhere as people sometimes think it is?

skintscot

Many of those mentioned but definately carers. They do a crucial job, work evenings, weekends, bank holidays including Xmas day and get paid peanuts. The fact that they only get paid when they are with clients and not for travelling from house to house is scandalous and really shouldn't be allowed. They are also often given completely unrealistic time allowances for getting from house to house.

JayRitchie

redlfc wrote: »

yes but dont forget the degree is double the length of others. Also I dont agree the year 1 salary is high anyway - almost all graduate schemes have a higher starting salary and thats for 3 year courses - as a first year doctor youre already a few years behind everyone - with a much higher student loan to boot!

I think, as others do, that regional variations play a big part. To my knowledge doctors have a fair amount of choice in where to work. A doctor from the NE/ Wales etc can probably find a job there. A graduate looking for grad schemes probably doesn't have that choice. Plus the doctors pay is very high in local terms whereas it isn't in London.

I'd be a bit cautious about grad scheme salaries. Yes - they tend to be pretty good, but they are hard to get on. Most graduates with medical applicant type A level results/ 2i won't get a job on one of these schemes. The average pay for biology graduates from universities requiring AAA+ is really not very high.