6 ms·

The salary ceiling is very low in UK.

by M8 11y ago

Peroni 11y ago
Almost every salary ceiling is low compared to SV but it's all relative. It's not particularly difficult to achieve a £100k+ salary in London and you can have a very comfortable lifestyle on a six figure income.
- Nursie 11y ago
  Comfortable? Something of an understatement. There are very few in the UK earn that much... --edit-- though I do agree money on offer here generally is a joke. Hence going into contracting.
- randomname2 11y ago
  Just out of interest, how? For a developer, £100k+ as a contractor is not particularly difficult, but as an employee this would be rare, no?
  - Peroni 11y ago
    Anything relatively senior in FinTech encroaches on the six figure salary mark. Plus there are plenty of experienced Data Scientists getting six figure offers lately. In the past twelve months the market has shifted quite quickly. £60-£70k is becoming the norm for a decent, experienced engineer. Add 'lead' to that title and you'll struggle to find great people for less than £100k. Considering that £300-£400 per day is a pretty standard contracting rate, companies are ramping up salaries in order to tempt contractors back into salaried roles.
  - buserror 11y ago
    I agree; unless working for google or something, the ceiling for a super-duper dev at hiring time seems to be around 65k -- perhaps a bit more if you stay and negotiate well, but I topped up at 75k before I became a contractor. Now, this company tax year, I invoiced 120k ex-vat so far, managed to buy a rather large amount of kit on the company (like, that 4k£ dream workstation..) and I finally have the feeling I'm getting paid what I'm worth, without having to do any politics. I can concentrate on pure engineering, and I don't have to ponder whether I should become some sort of 'manager' to crack up the engineer pay ceiling.
    - Peroni 11y ago
      >the ceiling for a super-duper dev at hiring time seems to be around 65k Not in London. Don't get me wrong, £65k will get you a decent developer but £60k is the starting point for good quality developers in London right now. I'm currently hiring a senior iOS developer and our aim is to hire someone around the £70k mark but I honestly think we'll need to pay more to get the calibre we need. I've spent the last few years hiring developers in London and I also help run the HN London meet-up and based on first-hand experience along with the huge number of developers I've met through HN London, I can assure you that I'm not exaggerating the figures.
      - buserror 11y ago
        Oh I'm sure in London it's likely to be the case, but I'm around the Thames Valley here. Just the train ticket to London offsets any gain I would have made tho :-)
walshemj 11y ago
Not for contractors its way higher than permie's pay I have seen year long contracts for data science going at 700/800 per day. An average day rate for London is £450-500 and that is well north of 100k pa
- 100timesthis 11y ago
  Tangentially related: I'm a data scientist based in London, and I'm just thinking about becoming a contractor, but I don't see many position. I thought companies, because the strategic knowledge of the position, prefer to have those skills in house... do you think it's true?
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]

The salary ceiling is very low in UK.

by M8 11y ago

The salary ceiling is very low in UK.

Almost every salary ceiling is low compared to SV but it's all relative. It's not particularly difficult to achieve a £100k+ salary in London and you can have a very comfortable lifestyle on a six figure income.

Nursie 11y ago
Comfortable? Something of an understatement. There are very few in the UK earn that much... --edit-- though I do agree money on offer here generally is a joke. Hence going into contracting.
randomname2 11y ago
Just out of interest, how? For a developer, £100k+ as a contractor is not particularly difficult, but as an employee this would be rare, no?
- Peroni 11y ago
  Anything relatively senior in FinTech encroaches on the six figure salary mark. Plus there are plenty of experienced Data Scientists getting six figure offers lately. In the past twelve months the market has shifted quite quickly. £60-£70k is becoming the norm for a decent, experienced engineer. Add 'lead' to that title and you'll struggle to find great people for less than £100k. Considering that £300-£400 per day is a pretty standard contracting rate, companies are ramping up salaries in order to tempt contractors back into salaried roles.
- buserror 11y ago
  I agree; unless working for google or something, the ceiling for a super-duper dev at hiring time seems to be around 65k -- perhaps a bit more if you stay and negotiate well, but I topped up at 75k before I became a contractor. Now, this company tax year, I invoiced 120k ex-vat so far, managed to buy a rather large amount of kit on the company (like, that 4k£ dream workstation..) and I finally have the feeling I'm getting paid what I'm worth, without having to do any politics. I can concentrate on pure engineering, and I don't have to ponder whether I should become some sort of 'manager' to crack up the engineer pay ceiling.
  - Peroni 11y ago
    >the ceiling for a super-duper dev at hiring time seems to be around 65k Not in London. Don't get me wrong, £65k will get you a decent developer but £60k is the starting point for good quality developers in London right now. I'm currently hiring a senior iOS developer and our aim is to hire someone around the £70k mark but I honestly think we'll need to pay more to get the calibre we need. I've spent the last few years hiring developers in London and I also help run the HN London meet-up and based on first-hand experience along with the huge number of developers I've met through HN London, I can assure you that I'm not exaggerating the figures.
    - buserror 11y ago
      Oh I'm sure in London it's likely to be the case, but I'm around the Thames Valley here. Just the train ticket to London offsets any gain I would have made tho :-)

walshemj 11y ago

Not for contractors its way higher than permie's pay I have seen year long contracts for data science going at 700/800 per day. An average day rate for London is £450-500 and that is well north of 100k pa

100timesthis 11y ago
Tangentially related: I'm a data scientist based in London, and I'm just thinking about becoming a contractor, but I don't see many position. I thought companies, because the strategic knowledge of the position, prefer to have those skills in house... do you think it's true?
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]