Civil Service Pay Band

Vicki1980

Hi 

Can anybody offer any advice on how quick you can climb to the top of your pay band in the Civil Service (Home Office) as an Executive Office Asylum Decision Maker? 

The role has a salary bracket of £24,100-£27,229.  I have been told I will start on the lowest salary as I am an external candidate.  

My question is how long does it take to reach the top end of that bracket? Is it achieved simply by yearly minimal pay increases so it could potentially take 10+ years?? 

Thanks. 

strawb_shortcake

It depends if the Home Office retained spine points or not, some parts of the public sector did others didn't. 
Assuming they didn't then I'd be inclined to say you'd get promotion before reaching the top of the salary band. Civil service pay rises have typically averaged between 1-2.5% per year at least where I am.

Additionally where I am in the civil service it's new entrants that get the higher starting salary if they have relevant experience, it's not unheard of for Line managers to earn less than those that work for them. Internal staff start at the bottom.
On the plus side the civil service is pretty secure and the pension is pretty good too.

sammyjammy

I don't think any Department has spine points in CS anymore, certainly Home Office don't.  Chances are any payrise you get the minimum pay will rise the same amount so its highly likely that you'll remain on or near the minimum all the time you remain at that grade.

Vicki1980

sammyjammy said:

I don't think any Department has spine points in CS anymore, certainly Home Office don't.  Chances are any payrise you get the minimum pay will rise the same amount so its highly likely that you'll remain on or near the minimum all the time you remain at that grade.

Thank you for your reply.  It makes me wonder then what is the point of pay bands? I understand that it allows for internal applicants to negotiate pay but if an external candidate will always remain on the lowest pay and it only inCreases with annual minimum pay rise increases why not just state that the salary for external applicants will be £24,100?? 

TELLIT01

It is virtually impossible to negotiate pay for the vast majority of Civil Service employees.  There is a nominal pay band, but pay increases over the past many years have been so small that moving from the bottom to the top of the band would probably take your entire working life.

strawb_shortcake

Vicki1980 said:

sammyjammy said:

I don't think any Department has spine points in CS anymore, certainly Home Office don't.  Chances are any payrise you get the minimum pay will rise the same amount so its highly likely that you'll remain on or near the minimum all the time you remain at that grade.

Thank you for your reply.  It makes me wonder then what is the point of pay bands? I understand that it allows for internal applicants to negotiate pay but if an external candidate will always remain on the lowest pay and it only inCreases with annual minimum pay rise increases why not just state that the salary for external applicants will be £24,100?? 

Internal applicants do not get to negotiate their pay, senior civil servants may be excluded from this. 
I have more than doubled my salary in 10 years, I could have done better than this but I prefer slow and steady.

Vicki1980

annabanana82 said:

Vicki1980 said:

sammyjammy said:

I don't think any Department has spine points in CS anymore, certainly Home Office don't.  Chances are any payrise you get the minimum pay will rise the same amount so its highly likely that you'll remain on or near the minimum all the time you remain at that grade.

Thank you for your reply.  It makes me wonder then what is the point of pay bands? I understand that it allows for internal applicants to negotiate pay but if an external candidate will always remain on the lowest pay and it only inCreases with annual minimum pay rise increases why not just state that the salary for external applicants will be £24,100?? 

Internal applicants do not get to negotiate their pay, senior civil servants may be excluded from this. 
I have more than doubled my salary in 10 years, I could have done better than this but I prefer slow and steady.

Ok so if then there is no negotiation for internal applicants what really is the purpose of pay bands?? 

Would you mind me asking how you doubled your salary? Is that from applying for internal jobs at higher bands? 

Andy_L

Vicki1980 said:

annabanana82 said:

Vicki1980 said:

sammyjammy said:

I don't think any Department has spine points in CS anymore, certainly Home Office don't.  Chances are any payrise you get the minimum pay will rise the same amount so its highly likely that you'll remain on or near the minimum all the time you remain at that grade.

Thank you for your reply.  It makes me wonder then what is the point of pay bands? I understand that it allows for internal applicants to negotiate pay but if an external candidate will always remain on the lowest pay and it only inCreases with annual minimum pay rise increases why not just state that the salary for external applicants will be £24,100?? 

Internal applicants do not get to negotiate their pay, senior civil servants may be excluded from this. 
I have more than doubled my salary in 10 years, I could have done better than this but I prefer slow and steady.

Ok so if then there is no negotiation for internal applicants what really is the purpose of pay bands??  

Historical interest. 
Also Some departments give a larger increase to those towards the bottom of the bands (eg a 2% payrise overall might be 1.7 to those in the top half of the band but 2.3 to those in the bottom) so whilst there is pay progression up the band it's slow and variable rather than a fixed amount per year. 

TELLIT01

Vicki1980 said:

annabanana82 said:

Internal applicants do not get to negotiate their pay, senior civil servants may be excluded from this. 
I have more than doubled my salary in 10 years, I could have done better than this but I prefer slow and steady.

Ok so if then there is no negotiation for internal applicants what really is the purpose of pay bands?? 

Would you mind me asking how you doubled your salary? Is that from applying for internal jobs at higher bands? 

The only way anybody could double their salary in 10 years would be to move from an area of the Civil Service with comparatively low pay, to a higher grade in a higher paying department.  Nobody would average a 10% pay rise every year for 10 years in any other way.  Anybody earning over about £21k got no payrise for several years following the banking crisis in 2008.

strawb_shortcake

I returned to work in 2010 as an AA - admin assistant pretty much the only one as this grade all but disappeared. 2 years later I skipped the AO grade and went straight to EO on promotion increasing my salary by circa £7k, I had 2.5 years as an EO and went for promotion again (HEO) this pushed my salary up by around £5-6k.
We have typically had minimal pay rises but my first year as an HEO I got a higher pay rise based on performance from the previous year, this was around 3.5% as I recall, last year we got lucky again and I had a close to 4% pay rise. 
I've stayed in the same department but we do typically have the higher salaries compared to other departments. Additionally my organisation has agreed with treasury that our pay deals can be bespoke as long as they are affordable. We have another pay rise this month. 
In theory I'm due to go for promotion in the next year this would get me another £4-5k, but my next post is quite exciting and Covid 19 permitting I'll be travelling to Florida up to 4 times a year.

lincroft1710

annabanana82 said:

Vicki1980 said:

sammyjammy said:

I don't think any Department has spine points in CS anymore, certainly Home Office don't.  Chances are any payrise you get the minimum pay will rise the same amount so its highly likely that you'll remain on or near the minimum all the time you remain at that grade.

Thank you for your reply.  It makes me wonder then what is the point of pay bands? I understand that it allows for internal applicants to negotiate pay but if an external candidate will always remain on the lowest pay and it only inCreases with annual minimum pay rise increases why not just state that the salary for external applicants will be £24,100?? 

Internal applicants do not get to negotiate their pay, senior civil servants may be excluded from this. 
I have more than doubled my salary in 10 years, I could have done better than this but I prefer slow and steady.

Going from AA to HEO in 4.5 years is hardly slow and steady!! I've known people take longer than that to get to AO!