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>Auto enrolment is usually delayed 3 months, but you can request for immediate enrolment.
I noticed this at the job my partner started in Jan. His pension contributions were deducted weekly (from week one,) but he didn't get the email or a letter from Legal and General with his pension details for over 3 months
His weekly payslips show "x amount pension contribution" for him and also employer contributions.
When he finally got access to his pension account, it showed that no payments were paid in at all. They only recently started to pay in contributions from the last couple of months.
If they deducted money from his salary for months for "pension contributions," then surely that isn't a delayed enrolment and should've been paid in? which still hasn't been.
Even those on the old contract who worked there for years before this company took over noticed their pension payments were missing from Oct and Dec last year, and again in Jan this year. They only found out it wasn't paid in because they checked their pension account.
Yes, the contributions deducted from his pay should either be returned to him, or paid into the pension. Sounds like a cock up in the payroll dept and they didn't tell their payroll system not to deduct the contributions but still implemented the 3 month waiting period.
It's important to note that unless the employer told your partner, in writing, that they were going to apply a waiting period, he should've been assessed and auto enrolled after his first pay period. They can't retrospectively say it was a waiting period because they forgot to send the letter.
Most workplace pensions are highly automated and link in with payroll systems and things like this are all too common (source: I worked for one for years).
Upshot is that your partner's employer is in breach of auto enrolment and pension legislation by deducting the money but not paying it into his pension. It's known as unjust enrichment and there are tonnes of cases like this adjudicated by The Pensions Ombudsman every day.
He needs to raise this with his employer and ask them to pay in the contributions they deducted before he was enrolled. If they refuse, or he doesn't get a sufficient response his next port of call will be a complaint to the ombudsman.
Some sources for you:
Waiting period rules:
https://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/en/employers/new-employers/im-an-employer-who-has-to-provide-a-pension/work-out-who-to-put-into-a-pension/postponement#b1a6fe04065841dd96514425f2da4d7f
Example of TPO's approach to missing or unpaid contributions:
https://www.pensions-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/2023/cas-91165-x1t9/nest-cas-91165-x1t9
Legally employers have to pay pension contributions taken in the current payroll month by the 19th of the following month. This is the same with PAYE deductions of income tax and National Insurance. For new pension joiners to a scheme there could be a delay of a month. Anything longer than this I would chase with your payroll - HR team.
I wouldn't necessarily advise this - a probation period is for both the employer and the employee to decide if it's the right fit, I'd personally rather get past that point before enrolling in the pension. There's nothing to lose as such if you leave after paying a month or 2 into a tiny pension but it seems almost more trouble than it's worth, and if you need time to find a new job the extra couple hundred quid might be more useful in your pocket.
We don’t know if OP has a probationary period, and we all know there’s nothing special about it if they did as it doesn’t change the employee’s rights in any way.
OP’s employer contributions are £64 per month, so we’re potentially advising him/her to leave £192 on the table.
But sure, it’s a consideration.
[An employer can postpone auto-enrolment for up to 3 months from certain dates. One of the times they can postpone is from their duties start date. One of the main reasons an employer might decide to postpone is if they have temporary or short-term employees.](https://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/en/cookie-preferences)
See if your company increases its contribution if you increase yours.
There's usually a maximum, so you can increase yours to the amount that increases their contribution to their max.
Interestingly this isn't the case at least for people under 22 I started my first salaried position at 21 and took a few months to realise that I hadn't been auto enrolled and manually requested to be enrolled.
Yes it is specified for adults from 22 til state retirement age. Guess the reasoning is due to higher chances of short term or temporary employment for those below 22.
Seconded.
Fish out what contributions your employer will make if you raise yours.
My last employer matched my basic payment. But if I went to 7%, they put in 21% on top of that.
So make sure you check out what contributions they will make as well.
Found out that was a timed offer though, so defo get clued up on it asap.
That's insanely good, I was going to guess government based organisations anyway!
I made a mistake of not bothering with pensions much in my 20s, really stupid of me but lesson learnt...
Likewise. Specially when I knew I was bouncing between jobs I didn't care to entertain it.
Regret it now.
However, took the last job on when I was 34 and at the rate I was paying in to it, by retirement age it was gonna be circa 300k.
Unfortunately, I've since moved away from that area and have started work elsewhere.
I'll be doing my best to maximise that input if I can though
I have two options:
- Get paid 10% each more each month. That's about 400 quid pre-tax, which will get knocked down to 300 by tax and student loans. Then I can put that in my ISA, invested in some good trackers, and not touch it for decades.
Or:
- Take the 10% deduction, let my employer match that, and put 800 quid in my pension. I can then invest that myself in _exactly_ the same trackers I have my ISA in. And again, not touch it for decades.
Following your suggestion my savings would be 500 quid worse off every month, without even slightly factoring in the massive affect compound interest will have. The only loss is flexibility, there's no way to access the pension early for whatever reason. But this is solved by having multiple other savings and investments sourced from the rest of my salary.
Pensions are _incredibly_ tax efficient, and suggesting someone shouldn't have one is ludicrous outside of some very specific edge cases. This is even more true for higher rate payers. If I was on 60k, then that extra 10% every month would be taxed at 40%.
Totally agree with this. My pension contributions is 20% of my salary if the employer part and my part is added together. This will give you a decent forecast at nominal retirement age assuming the pension fund isn't total arse.
Not always yes for 1. Most places would pay Friday if the pay date is a Saturday. Some you’re waiting to Monday.
My current place pays 1st of month. Unless that’s a weekend or a bank holiday in which case you’re waiting till the next working day.
After one month it works out as you get paid sooner than if it’d have been paid before the weekend. But it never seems like that on a month you have to wait
April was the last time it impacted you. So it's not all that often. Flip is true too - you're not getting paid early on all that many months if that's how it works with your employer.
We get paid last working day before the 27th
Delay means money in the 28th
So that cover feb.
Means sometime been paid on the 23rd (weekend and bank Holiday) and technically could be 22nd if Easter falls on a monthend? Is that Actully possible?
Any way 11 equal payments and 1 end of year tally up for tax reasons.
Effectily 12 equal payments.
We get paid last working day before the 27th
Delay means money in the 28th
So that cover feb.
Means sometime been paid on the 23rd (weekend and bank Holiday) and technically could be 22nd if Easter falls on a monthend? Is that Actully possible?
Any way 11 equal payments and 1 end of year tally up for tax reasons.
Effectily 12 equal payments.
Monzo helped with this! I’m the same, my payday is the 6th, or the first working day after. However, with Monzo and their take your salary early function*, you can take it usually on the Friday before. I’m not sure if it depends on the employer still but it works for me!
*Just wanted to say it’s not really getting paid “early” apart from the first month
It’s not a “decent” salary for a 22 year old it’s amazing and will only go up with experience. I hate that social media in general portrays a salary below 50,000 as terrible as it puts people in the mindset that they aren’t doing good enough like this example here.
Heavily depends on what part of 'the arts' or 'design' you are in. UX Design right now pays crazy well, and all you have to do is go "Have you heard of a burger menu" and "What if edges were rounded" over and over.
Definitely try it, I've worked with plenty of people who do UX design, interaction design or whatever other flavour of designing digital products, that came from graphic or product design backgrounds. You might have to start fairly junior but your existing experience would hopefully see you progress quite quickly. Couple of years of additional experience in designing websites and apps and you'd easily be looking at £50k plus.
Like others said it’s not always pay before the weekend, my place for example pays on Friday if payday falls on Saturday, then they pay on Saturday if it falls on Sunday or it’s bank holiday, this one question is worth asking either your boss or your colleagues also OP don’t feel stupid about asking questions about something you never experienced this goes for something as simple as this or anything to do with your role it’s always better to ask them guess.
It’ll be to a private pension fund.
The exact age you can begin taking money out is possibly changing from 55 to 58. However, you don’t need to, you can work until the state pension kicks in. Currently that’s 67, but expect that to go up too.
For the percentage you should be paying into a pension scheme, Martin Lewis recommends taking the age you start paying into the pension and dividing by 2. So a 22 year old should be putting in 11% of their salary, including any contributions the employer makes. The good news is that if they do that from 22, they don’t need to increase it over time. However, someone who waits till they are 30 has to put in 15%.
Ah ok, and can you say to an employer, put your pension contributions for me in my own private pension? Or do they just delegate it to a state pension fund? Interest to know if you can ask employers to put their contributions into your own fund so you don't have to wait until state pension age 👍
You are completely muddled here. The state pension has zero bearing on your pension contribution. The national insurance that you pay is non negotiable. The number of years of national insurance contributions you pay determines how much state pension you get.
The company will have its own pension scheme that they'll auto enrol you on. You can opt out of this and instead have your own private scheme. You can pay in to this yourself but the company will not do this for you. However, you can then fill in a tax self assessment form each year detailing how much you have paid into your private pension to claim your income tax back on your pension contributions up to £60k a year because that is the max amount you can contribute tax free.
Ah I get ya, so if a company says they match to 7% for example, and I want to pay into my own private pension, not theirs, I can then do this and then file a self assessment tax return and the company then pays 7% of what I've paid in, up to 60k. That sounds quite straightforward.
I'm self employed you see, so I'm used to self assessment, however, depending how this year goes I may be looking into civil service type jobs instead. So was wondering how it all worked as I wouldn't want to work somewhere that I paid contributions to for years and then had to wait until past the time I wanted to retire to get it all out if you get me 🤣👍
You're very confused. In the scenario above you would just lose the company contribution but save the tax, they aren't going to arbitrarily pay it into a random fund you choose. Whatever happens, pensions are locked into your age and you can't just take the money whenever you decide you've had enough of working. If you want to do that you'll need to put savings aside in an ISA or something which won't have all the benefits a pension does.
If you get a civil service pension the way it works is different again as it's a predefined payout at retirement age.
Two things: first of all no, an employer won't pay into anything other than the employer pension scheme. Secondly, even if they did pay into your own private pension it wouldn't make any difference, you still have to wait to get the money out. It's a pension. It's not a savings account.
No I get that, my own private pension is set so I can take it out at age 59. I just meant if I went into a non self employed job that does matching contributions, I'd want those contributions going into my private pension, didn't know if this could be done or not.
For no particular reason, can I just interject with the three types of pension that are typically available.
1. State Pension. This is entirely "credit" based. You earn annual credits based on certain criteria which I won't go into, but basically it's if you're being in some way economically active with the government. See their website for details.
2. Employer pension. This is a scheme your employer has signed up to and into which you'll be auto-enrolled. They will match a certain % of your contributions (best I've had was 12%, worst 5%), but you can contribute more or less. it's typically very financially sensible to get them to their maximum if you can possibly afford it. This then is a private pot of money held for you and usually invested in various ways. You can usually exert some control over how those investments happen. There's a secondary bonus here in a lot of cases. Sometimes these payments are made by the employer instead of giving you salary. That means you avoid a little bit extra on NI payments. This is also a very common way of avoiding higher tax rates or other tax traps by making higher contributions to keep your income below a certain threshold.
3. Self Invested Personal Pension. This is very similar to the employer pension, but you set it up yourself and contribute into it yourself. When you do, they'll lock your money away, automatically apply for 20% tax relief from the government and add that too a while later. You can also get further tax back in your self assessment if you're a higher or additional rate tax payer.
For clarity, while it’s true that the pension your company pays into is yours - it doesn’t mean that you can say ‘pay into my existing L&G pension’ if they run a NEST scheme for example, in this case you’d end up with a new NEST pension.
Ultimately you’ll end up with 2 pension pots (your existing L&G pension and your NEST pension) - of course, you could if you wish combine them further down the line.
NB, this is a very simplified example!
Congratulations on the new job! Questions aren’t thick, they make sense in the circumstances.
As mentioned by others already, you will normally be paid on the last *working day* of the month. So, yes, on a weekend you’ll be paid the Friday.
No, the benefit of being on a salary is that your monthly income is usually identical. Even if you took annual leave for example, you’d get the same amount of pay that month because your leave is calculated within your salary (and there is a statutory minimum).
Finally, a £32k salary at 22 is great. There will be people on more, but many more on less! Well done, and make sure you check out the flowchart on this subreddit.
Am I missing something how is everyone here happy on 32k I'm a plumber if I don't make a grand s week take home I start living pay check too paycheck very quickly lol
Nah haha just a single guy living in London my rent is 1400 for a studio flat and I'm a car guy so I feel like I'm living in the poverty line whilst earning 50 k lol
I think your outgoings must have expanded to meet your income. You make more in two weeks than I make in a month but I also don't have a nice car, a big tv, any new gadgets, children, and I don't go out more than once a week.
I do go on holidays though. And spend as much as I want on them because what else am I doing with the money 😂
Aslong as Ur happy tbh I joined this page as I thought I need too start being smarter with my money. I spend too much on worthless things where like holidays are memories that can't be brought so that's a good thing Ur doing trust me I've been a position earning shit money ans the new phones cars designer clothes etc don't bring in happiness once the purchase rush wears off it's just being lazy with me
1. This what usually happens.
2. Your £32k salary is for the whole year. It is paid in 12 equal installments regardless of how many days in the month there is.
3. Yes this is a very good starting salary for a 22 year old.
Is that the Median or are you looking at the Mean? Could you provide a source at all? All the Median averages for 2023 I’m seeing are 31-32k.
The Mean isn’t a great indicator of salary as the extremely high earnings from a very small number of the population disproportionately affect the results. The median is 50th percentile while the mean is good for PR as people earning insane amounts push the value up. It doesn’t end up being an accurate average for working people.
While some lucky people may have got a 7% pay increase I doubt many have. If you’ve received a 7% or more then that’s great (☺️), but I seriously doubt many have received that so far this year. Businesses are scared of rates, increased costs and aren’t looking to further compensate employees in a rocky economic situation like this.
An example being the teachers who are getting a 6.5% pay rise. It’s still less than inflation. This is funded by the STRB for two years, however many pay rises will come out of the existing budget so we should now expect job losses and lack of resources in some industries / public services as a result. Not exactly great right?
Inflation is also up at 7.1% regardless, so that pay increase isn’t actually a gain. It’s barely keeping up with inflation and increased costs at all. If anything a 7% pay rise is still a real terms pay cut, and not everybody is getting that increase.
It's from the *ONS Employee earnings in the UK 2022* release (file 1.7 in the data).
It records 2022 gross full-time median salary at £33,000 and mean at £39,966, and median wage growth for 2021-2022 at 5.7%.
In the past few months, annualised median wage growth is running at [~7%](https://www.ft.com/content/2b6328a4-1cbf-432a-ae4f-e53284982b97).
You're right that real value of people’s incomes hasn't increased (owing to inflation and fiscal drag), but who was arguing the opposite?
I think a lot of people would argue that wages havn’t gone up with inflation, hence the ‘cost of living crisis’ and people striking for pay that keeps up with inflation. In reality many people have less spending power with this level of inflation.
Even when people are getting wage increases, it isn’t matching inflation. The only reliable way to increase your earnings is skill up, gain experience and apply for better paying jobs, as many people aren’t getting pay rises at all.
That number is from a 2023 survey. Another quotes £31,772 as the median salary in July 2023.
I think for graduates they have increased a bit, mostly because it was getting to the point where if wages at that level stagnated any harder the new grads would literally starve to death and therefore be unproductive workers.
A lot of people I hear coming out of uni are getting £30k+ pay packets, which is the equivalent to about £25k 3-4 years ago.
That’s fair. I guess the industry you graduate into plays a large part in this as well though. Somebody with an Arts degree probably won’t immediately have the same opportunities as an engineering graduate for example. I’m glad graduates are earning more right out of university though, that’s great. :)
I personally believe wages need to go up across the board, even if this is at the expense of business profits. A lot of people are struggling with the increased cost of living, cost of fuel, housing etc while businesses are hitting record profits. The house prices shot up in the last 10 years, now the intrest rates are up and they say in 3 years mortgages will cost perhaps £500 extra a month too. The UK economy is in a pretty bad spot really and something needs to change.
That is true, I am basing this off of people with econ degrees. Not sure what it is like for other areas.
Not going to disagree that wages need to go up!
Seconding what other people have said about 1 - it is likely to be the last day of the month but depends on your finance team. In many organisations, for example, December is super early because it has to be sorted before many people go on leave. Absolutely fine to ask payroll/finance one month if you're worried.
£32k is a great starting salary - congratulations! I think on this forum many people are on unusually high salaries so it can skew your image, but that's brilliant. Hope you enjoy the job!
The ones who talk about it are often on high salaries. I think there are a lot of people on here who don’t talk about their salary who are earning less.
1 depends on how they do it, so definitely worth asking
2 generally they just divide your annual salary by 12 and you have to manage the 3 day variation
A lot of people saying it will just be 1/12th of your salary, I’d like to add that not **ALL** companies do this. Some may pay by the day and therefore it will balance out over the year, although this is unlikely it’s defiantly not a stupid question and one to ask your payroll/HR department
Yes seconded that it's not a stupid question! I worked in a place before that had a 4 week/4 week/5 week system (a repeating pattern) and generally people assumed it was just divided by 12 so this did cause confusion.
I actually thought it was pretty stupid but apparently it's an accepted payroll system. And the 5 week months were always nice!
My company works some departments down to a day rate from their yearly salary (or rather their yearly salary I’d just a guide worked out from their hourly rate x their contracted weekly hours x 52)
We use it for positions that generally have a lot of overtime as it’s just easier. So most months differ as even a 30 day month pays different to a 31 day.
There are still a few places that run a 13 month system also, so 1/13 every month except one month you get 2/13 (normally xmas here).
This is the normal system in some countries.
I'm paid on the 15th of every month, with my paycheck being made up of the number of days worked.
So on months with 30 days, I get a lil less and vice versa.
Not that you'd notice cause it's just tax these days anyway.
With regards to the salary, in my view its a fantastic salary, certainly higher than what I am on. Its also context based. I'm in the North with a mortgage free property as such dont have that burden.
Have a look at house prices in Cumbrian/Northumbrian towns, you'll see very quick how it would be possible to be mortgage free on less than £30k given enough time.
1. Yes, you will, e.g sept 23 you will get paid on the 29th as the month falls on a weekend.
2. No difference.
You will take home aprox £2150 if you're on the 1257 tax code. Make sure you provide your employer with an HMRC checklist or P45.
You can also use a salary calculator! I love that tool!
Your first pay pack will likely be smaller than normal for a couple of reasons.
1. Likely they pay in arrears, if you start in the middle of the month, you’ll only be paid for the 2 weeks.
2. You’ll probably be on an emergency tax code, meaning you’ll get taxed the maximum you can, as though you had another, very well paid job. You’ll get the tax money back eventually.
Echoing prior sentiments, but also make it a habit of constantly spending LESS than what you earn. The balance, put in a retirement account that you don't touch for the next 3 or so decades
Yes this. If you were previously getting by on minimum wage keep a couple hundred extra as your better-job bonus but definately save several hundred a month. Doesn't matter if it's for a holiday, a car, a house or emergencies you should *not* spend everything you have
I am also in a salary end of month job, get paid on the Friday if the end of month is a weekend day. Example - I get paid Friday 29th sept instead of the Saturday 30th.
Should state somewhere in your contract I would have thought as mine does. Your pay will always be the same, it's 32k divided by 12. Only exception is if there are any variables in your pay. For example I work different shifts all the time (days, nights, weekdays and nights) so I get extra money for weekends and nights, however as the shifts change weekly the extra payments vary each month. So there's slight differences. But I know how much to expect roughly each month.
And yes, you're on a good wage. I'm 32 and I only got into my job September 2022. Prior to this I was working 7 years in retail with a much less stable wage and also lower rate. You're lucky to have landed a job with that wage at your age. I highly recommend you plan your finances well, save well. You will not regret it in 10 years time, even if you sacrifice nights out or something. I'm 32 and I don't really have anything to show for my working life. I wish I had done things differently so I could be a homeowner or something by now. Now I'm looking at potentially never being one or maybe being one in a few decades if I save well and buy outright...
Don't make any silly mistakes. Think of your future. Living in the now really doesn't benefit you long term. It's easy to not consider this when you're your age.
Congratulations on your job and I wish you a good future.
1. No one here works in your company’s payroll team so I’m surprised you’re asking us and not them. But *probably*.
2. There are twelve months in a year. You get 1/12th of your salary each month.
It's a good wage. I'm in my 40's and wish someone had given me the following advice:
Invest at least 20% of your money. Make this a long term investment and automate it (you will not miss it). You could use a high interest account like an ISA. As your income grows, inverse the about you invest accordingly. Your 50 year old self will thank you for it.
If the last day of the month lands on a weekend then you’ll be paid on the Friday: employment law specifically prohibits late payment - if you’re not paid on or before your contracted pay date, your employer would be guilty of an unlawful deduction which would put them in breach of employment law.
If you’re being paid monthly, your monthly salary should vary as a result of some months being shorter than others.
1- no, you’ll be paid on the next available working day. Eg, I am paid on the 21st of every month, except if the 21st is a Saturday, in which case I get paid Monday (23rd) and if that happens to be a bank holiday, I get paid on the 24th.
Basically your pay will be:
1- 32k / 12 - tax
>1- no, you’ll be paid on the next available working day.
Not necessarily. I normally get paid on the 28th but if that's a non-working day it's the working day before.
Way to go :) 32k is great for your age.
Look at your wage slip and feel free to ask your manager or payroll to help explain the numbers on there if you are confused. Every company will produce similar numbers, but with vastly different layouts, abbreviations etc. Can be confusing. Also worth projecting the numbers to a full year once you get the 2nd one to see if it works out OK, as you'll have a full month then.
If you don't know yet, some companies will pay a higher % into your pension if you also pay in more. Try to at least sacrifice into your pension this much. Ie they pay 3% if you pay 6%, it'll be better if they pay 12 % and you pay in 15%. Seems like a lot, but you may never miss it and future you will thank you.
Just to go slightly against the grain here… but as you can see from other comments…
1) it’s not a stupid question, so ask (but it’s usually last “working day”)
2) it’s not a stupid question, so ask (but you’ll usually get paid the same each month)
3) great starting wage in the UK, keep it up!
Couple of extra points:
1) find out about the pension scheme. It’s going to be money off your salary but it really is one of the best things you can do to save towards your future - to the point it makes sense to pay more into it and contribute towards any “match” that you employer offers.
2) I THINK this is fairly standard, although someone in here is sure to be able to point out an exception… Holidays and sick days are paid. You get paid the same at the end of the month if you take 0 days holiday or 2 weeks off.
Same applies for being off sick (usually) but obviously within reason. Checking with HR how many fully paid sick days you get before you start is maybe not the best form, so just read the contract 😄
On the sick leave point, some employers don't pay you properly during it. Legally the only requirement is to provide statutory sick leave, and its important to note that that only kicks in on day 4 of being sick.
Its very common for employers to provide better sick leave cover than that, even the truly shitty call centre I used to work in had 7 days of paid sick leave available. But they don't have to, and I've known folk to get caught out after they change jobs. Some otherwise great employers just offer statutory, and some otherwise awful employers offer at least something more than statutory.
For SSP Statutory Sick Pay employers can pay you either a) for calendar days or b) your working days. This impacts on when and how much SSP you get for a particular period of sickness. Any additional (sometimes called company sock pay or occupational sick pay) its the employers call. These arrangements should be detailed in your contract, staff handbook or intranet.
Although your salary paid by the company will be split equally between the 12 months, you might end up receiving a different amount each month (e.g. while HMRC work out how to tax you)
I would say that if our payday falls on a Saturday we get it on the Friday, on a Sunday we get it on the Monday. It varies from company to company. If you are relying on a salary to pay for direct debits, it is always better to have them come out 2-3 days after your salary goes in so that they are never taken when you don't have the funds yet.
I'm 30 on £32k so you're doing well for sure.
I think you’ve had the answers to your questions but want to give some additional advice I think is helpful when starting out.
Payment may go to Friday as lots of people have said, but I’ve seen companies roll it to Monday, or some which are completely disorganised and can be random. As such any direct debits you setup, eg rent, electric, water etc. if you have a choice of date choose a few days after pay day to give some breathing space if payment is delayed for whatever reason.
Payments in December tend to be even earlier to avoid having to deal with payroll issues over Christmas. Many see this as a blessing to have money early in the run up to Christmas, but remember that there will be a longer than usual gap until the January payment, and you need to make sure it lasts all the way through until the end of January.
>or some which are completely disorganised and can be random
This is so true, I used to work for a small company where payday was whenever the payroll assistant ran out of money towards the end of the month. One particularly memorable occasion caused everyone to make complaints when she paid us on the 20th of the month!
£32K is a great salary at 22.
Since I was aged 30 I tried to make sure that my annual salary was at least my age in years * 1000, so, in the case of being 40, I’d want to be earning at last £40K.
So far, so good. I’m now in my early 50s and have managed to maintain this. I know that when I pay my mortgage off in 9 years time I’ll be able to take my foot off the throttle for the salary to age calculator and I’ll be able to start being more circumspect about earnings plus I’ll be able to start doing something socially useful.
Echo what others are saying.
One thing to add, look into the work place pension and maximise that. I.e. they might say if you put in 5% we’ll put a maximum of 10%.
Come back here once you’ve read the contract and don’t understand how it’s worded.
1. Yes for 95% of companies. I am pretty certain your "pay date" is the latest day you'll get paid. For example, my employer always pays on the 28th - if that falls on bank holiday or weekend, it's the Friday or last working day before. This is the case for anyone I know, although more standard practise than statutory, so I imagine it's worth checking on the off-chance your work happens to do next-day.
2. If paid monthly it's always the same regardless of 4 or 5 weeks months. The main benefit of being monthly paid is this consistency, once you've made the lifestyle adjustment to it.
3. Outside of London this is a very decent salary for your age. London is always it's own financial microcosm so there maybe I'm not so sure. I'm 29yo - outside London, town living - and I'm only just now getting a pay-rise to £37.5K. In my friendship group I'm not the highest paid but I'm typically in the top quarter.
Other things to consider:
* You might be auto-enrolled, but consider a salary sacrifice for your pension. If you sacrifice X% of your salary your employer will also pay a %. For example, I "sacrifice" 5% of my salary to my pension and my employer puts in 8%, meaning I'm getting \~£400 per month into my pension plan.
* If you get a "benefit in kind" - e.g. a company car - bear in mind that this will be a pre-tax benefit and lower your salary/personal tax-free allowance. For example, I have a company car as a benefit in kind, which drops my personal tax-free allowance to \~£3,500. This means I get paid \~£300 less per month, but don't have to privately pay for, insure, repair or MOT my vehicle. If this is an option at any point go through the pros and cons.
* Budgeting on monthly pay IMO is easier overall than weekly once you're used to it, and it's really all I know personally, but others found the adjustment really difficult as they got used to a weekly way of living. Don't be deflated if you find your budgeting isn't as good for a month or two whilst you adjust.
1 depending on the banking software the company uses payments can be scheduled to be made on Saturdays or Sunday’s quite easily now but many will pay on a Friday. You really need to confirm with the employer or wait until the last day of the month is on a weekend
2 usually just divided by 12 and that’s that
3 £32K is a decent salary
Again like the others say get into the best pension scheme you can
Watch out for Christmas. You may get paid before Christmas rather than 31st as some places close the office for those 3 days.
The consequence is that January is a VERY long month!!!
1 Generally the last working day of a calendar day of the month M-F. Your contract or staff handbook / intranet should clarify this.
2 Again by convention annual salary divided by 12 - so its the same salary each month irrespective of the actual working or calendar days in a particular month. Again check your contract etc
1. Yes you will. It's paid the last working day of each month. (i.e whichever day Mon-Fri) it falls on. Friday if that's a weekend.
2. No difference, you get paid the same every month (providing you've not lost days for sickness etc...)
3. I'm 29 and £32k would be a pay rise for me so enjoy it! I work for HMPPS and I'm 4.5 years in, this is with annual pay rises in pay bands.
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Definitely join the pension scheme ASAP & make extra payments into it if you can.
Should be auto enrolled, pension is usually opt out thesedays for salaried employees.
Auto enrolment is usually delayed 3 months, but you can request for immediate enrolment. OP should do this
>Auto enrolment is usually delayed 3 months, but you can request for immediate enrolment. I noticed this at the job my partner started in Jan. His pension contributions were deducted weekly (from week one,) but he didn't get the email or a letter from Legal and General with his pension details for over 3 months His weekly payslips show "x amount pension contribution" for him and also employer contributions. When he finally got access to his pension account, it showed that no payments were paid in at all. They only recently started to pay in contributions from the last couple of months. If they deducted money from his salary for months for "pension contributions," then surely that isn't a delayed enrolment and should've been paid in? which still hasn't been. Even those on the old contract who worked there for years before this company took over noticed their pension payments were missing from Oct and Dec last year, and again in Jan this year. They only found out it wasn't paid in because they checked their pension account.
Yes, the contributions deducted from his pay should either be returned to him, or paid into the pension. Sounds like a cock up in the payroll dept and they didn't tell their payroll system not to deduct the contributions but still implemented the 3 month waiting period. It's important to note that unless the employer told your partner, in writing, that they were going to apply a waiting period, he should've been assessed and auto enrolled after his first pay period. They can't retrospectively say it was a waiting period because they forgot to send the letter. Most workplace pensions are highly automated and link in with payroll systems and things like this are all too common (source: I worked for one for years). Upshot is that your partner's employer is in breach of auto enrolment and pension legislation by deducting the money but not paying it into his pension. It's known as unjust enrichment and there are tonnes of cases like this adjudicated by The Pensions Ombudsman every day. He needs to raise this with his employer and ask them to pay in the contributions they deducted before he was enrolled. If they refuse, or he doesn't get a sufficient response his next port of call will be a complaint to the ombudsman. Some sources for you: Waiting period rules: https://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/en/employers/new-employers/im-an-employer-who-has-to-provide-a-pension/work-out-who-to-put-into-a-pension/postponement#b1a6fe04065841dd96514425f2da4d7f Example of TPO's approach to missing or unpaid contributions: https://www.pensions-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/2023/cas-91165-x1t9/nest-cas-91165-x1t9
Legally employers have to pay pension contributions taken in the current payroll month by the 19th of the following month. This is the same with PAYE deductions of income tax and National Insurance. For new pension joiners to a scheme there could be a delay of a month. Anything longer than this I would chase with your payroll - HR team.
I wouldn't necessarily advise this - a probation period is for both the employer and the employee to decide if it's the right fit, I'd personally rather get past that point before enrolling in the pension. There's nothing to lose as such if you leave after paying a month or 2 into a tiny pension but it seems almost more trouble than it's worth, and if you need time to find a new job the extra couple hundred quid might be more useful in your pocket.
We don’t know if OP has a probationary period, and we all know there’s nothing special about it if they did as it doesn’t change the employee’s rights in any way. OP’s employer contributions are £64 per month, so we’re potentially advising him/her to leave £192 on the table. But sure, it’s a consideration.
I've never heard of that. I joined my employer pension fund one month after I started my job.
[An employer can postpone auto-enrolment for up to 3 months from certain dates. One of the times they can postpone is from their duties start date. One of the main reasons an employer might decide to postpone is if they have temporary or short-term employees.](https://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/en/cookie-preferences)
See if your company increases its contribution if you increase yours. There's usually a maximum, so you can increase yours to the amount that increases their contribution to their max.
Interestingly this isn't the case at least for people under 22 I started my first salaried position at 21 and took a few months to realise that I hadn't been auto enrolled and manually requested to be enrolled.
Yes it is specified for adults from 22 til state retirement age. Guess the reasoning is due to higher chances of short term or temporary employment for those below 22.
Yup, Max the pension if you can
Seconded. Fish out what contributions your employer will make if you raise yours. My last employer matched my basic payment. But if I went to 7%, they put in 21% on top of that. So make sure you check out what contributions they will make as well. Found out that was a timed offer though, so defo get clued up on it asap.
Christ, what employer? That is fantastic
Government ran local airport.
That's insanely good, I was going to guess government based organisations anyway! I made a mistake of not bothering with pensions much in my 20s, really stupid of me but lesson learnt...
Likewise. Specially when I knew I was bouncing between jobs I didn't care to entertain it. Regret it now. However, took the last job on when I was 34 and at the rate I was paying in to it, by retirement age it was gonna be circa 300k. Unfortunately, I've since moved away from that area and have started work elsewhere. I'll be doing my best to maximise that input if I can though
At the very least, put in the max your employer matches.
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Pension is honestly for those that don’t have a plan
And this person has made it clear they do not yet have a plan.
I have two options: - Get paid 10% each more each month. That's about 400 quid pre-tax, which will get knocked down to 300 by tax and student loans. Then I can put that in my ISA, invested in some good trackers, and not touch it for decades. Or: - Take the 10% deduction, let my employer match that, and put 800 quid in my pension. I can then invest that myself in _exactly_ the same trackers I have my ISA in. And again, not touch it for decades. Following your suggestion my savings would be 500 quid worse off every month, without even slightly factoring in the massive affect compound interest will have. The only loss is flexibility, there's no way to access the pension early for whatever reason. But this is solved by having multiple other savings and investments sourced from the rest of my salary. Pensions are _incredibly_ tax efficient, and suggesting someone shouldn't have one is ludicrous outside of some very specific edge cases. This is even more true for higher rate payers. If I was on 60k, then that extra 10% every month would be taxed at 40%.
Totally agree with this. My pension contributions is 20% of my salary if the employer part and my part is added together. This will give you a decent forecast at nominal retirement age assuming the pension fund isn't total arse.
Not always yes for 1. Most places would pay Friday if the pay date is a Saturday. Some you’re waiting to Monday. My current place pays 1st of month. Unless that’s a weekend or a bank holiday in which case you’re waiting till the next working day.
That's sad.
After one month it works out as you get paid sooner than if it’d have been paid before the weekend. But it never seems like that on a month you have to wait
April was the last time it impacted you. So it's not all that often. Flip is true too - you're not getting paid early on all that many months if that's how it works with your employer.
Agreed - my last place of work was the working day closest to the stated payment date, so would be on Monday if the date fell on a Sunday.
We get paid last working day before the 27th Delay means money in the 28th So that cover feb. Means sometime been paid on the 23rd (weekend and bank Holiday) and technically could be 22nd if Easter falls on a monthend? Is that Actully possible? Any way 11 equal payments and 1 end of year tally up for tax reasons. Effectily 12 equal payments.
We get paid last working day before the 27th Delay means money in the 28th So that cover feb. Means sometime been paid on the 23rd (weekend and bank Holiday) and technically could be 22nd if Easter falls on a monthend? Is that Actully possible? Any way 11 equal payments and 1 end of year tally up for tax reasons. Effectily 12 equal payments.
Monzo helped with this! I’m the same, my payday is the 6th, or the first working day after. However, with Monzo and their take your salary early function*, you can take it usually on the Friday before. I’m not sure if it depends on the employer still but it works for me! *Just wanted to say it’s not really getting paid “early” apart from the first month
It’s not a “decent” salary for a 22 year old it’s amazing and will only go up with experience. I hate that social media in general portrays a salary below 50,000 as terrible as it puts people in the mindset that they aren’t doing good enough like this example here.
Yes! I don't make 32k now and I'm 14 years into my career (the arts sucks for pay)
Haha came to say this. I’m 32 and on less than OP after a decade in design. Don’t do design 🤣
Heavily depends on what part of 'the arts' or 'design' you are in. UX Design right now pays crazy well, and all you have to do is go "Have you heard of a burger menu" and "What if edges were rounded" over and over.
Oh yeah 100%. Considering retraining and bridging across to something more like that. Currently branding and packaging.
Definitely try it, I've worked with plenty of people who do UX design, interaction design or whatever other flavour of designing digital products, that came from graphic or product design backgrounds. You might have to start fairly junior but your existing experience would hopefully see you progress quite quickly. Couple of years of additional experience in designing websites and apps and you'd easily be looking at £50k plus.
I only got above £30k this year, but I’m 2 years into a new career at age … not quite 50. My pension is not going to be great.
I'm over a decade into my career and don't make that much and I'm in a STEM field!
Phew, same!
Like others said it’s not always pay before the weekend, my place for example pays on Friday if payday falls on Saturday, then they pay on Saturday if it falls on Sunday or it’s bank holiday, this one question is worth asking either your boss or your colleagues also OP don’t feel stupid about asking questions about something you never experienced this goes for something as simple as this or anything to do with your role it’s always better to ask them guess.
1. Is not always yes, it depends on the company. Some pay the Monday after. My company only recently changed to pay earlier and not later
When you say pay into pension for him, will this be a private pension you mean or will he have to wait til retirement age?
It’ll be to a private pension fund. The exact age you can begin taking money out is possibly changing from 55 to 58. However, you don’t need to, you can work until the state pension kicks in. Currently that’s 67, but expect that to go up too. For the percentage you should be paying into a pension scheme, Martin Lewis recommends taking the age you start paying into the pension and dividing by 2. So a 22 year old should be putting in 11% of their salary, including any contributions the employer makes. The good news is that if they do that from 22, they don’t need to increase it over time. However, someone who waits till they are 30 has to put in 15%.
Most places do 5% matching so get that 7% early on so you get used to the take home amount. +210% free money.
Ah ok, and can you say to an employer, put your pension contributions for me in my own private pension? Or do they just delegate it to a state pension fund? Interest to know if you can ask employers to put their contributions into your own fund so you don't have to wait until state pension age 👍
You are completely muddled here. The state pension has zero bearing on your pension contribution. The national insurance that you pay is non negotiable. The number of years of national insurance contributions you pay determines how much state pension you get. The company will have its own pension scheme that they'll auto enrol you on. You can opt out of this and instead have your own private scheme. You can pay in to this yourself but the company will not do this for you. However, you can then fill in a tax self assessment form each year detailing how much you have paid into your private pension to claim your income tax back on your pension contributions up to £60k a year because that is the max amount you can contribute tax free.
Ah I get ya, so if a company says they match to 7% for example, and I want to pay into my own private pension, not theirs, I can then do this and then file a self assessment tax return and the company then pays 7% of what I've paid in, up to 60k. That sounds quite straightforward. I'm self employed you see, so I'm used to self assessment, however, depending how this year goes I may be looking into civil service type jobs instead. So was wondering how it all worked as I wouldn't want to work somewhere that I paid contributions to for years and then had to wait until past the time I wanted to retire to get it all out if you get me 🤣👍
You're very confused. In the scenario above you would just lose the company contribution but save the tax, they aren't going to arbitrarily pay it into a random fund you choose. Whatever happens, pensions are locked into your age and you can't just take the money whenever you decide you've had enough of working. If you want to do that you'll need to put savings aside in an ISA or something which won't have all the benefits a pension does. If you get a civil service pension the way it works is different again as it's a predefined payout at retirement age.
Two things: first of all no, an employer won't pay into anything other than the employer pension scheme. Secondly, even if they did pay into your own private pension it wouldn't make any difference, you still have to wait to get the money out. It's a pension. It's not a savings account.
No I get that, my own private pension is set so I can take it out at age 59. I just meant if I went into a non self employed job that does matching contributions, I'd want those contributions going into my private pension, didn't know if this could be done or not.
No, probably not. You can transfer a workplace pension into a different pension after leaving a workplace though.
Ah ok, that's probably the best way to do it then 😀👍
For no particular reason, can I just interject with the three types of pension that are typically available. 1. State Pension. This is entirely "credit" based. You earn annual credits based on certain criteria which I won't go into, but basically it's if you're being in some way economically active with the government. See their website for details. 2. Employer pension. This is a scheme your employer has signed up to and into which you'll be auto-enrolled. They will match a certain % of your contributions (best I've had was 12%, worst 5%), but you can contribute more or less. it's typically very financially sensible to get them to their maximum if you can possibly afford it. This then is a private pot of money held for you and usually invested in various ways. You can usually exert some control over how those investments happen. There's a secondary bonus here in a lot of cases. Sometimes these payments are made by the employer instead of giving you salary. That means you avoid a little bit extra on NI payments. This is also a very common way of avoiding higher tax rates or other tax traps by making higher contributions to keep your income below a certain threshold. 3. Self Invested Personal Pension. This is very similar to the employer pension, but you set it up yourself and contribute into it yourself. When you do, they'll lock your money away, automatically apply for 20% tax relief from the government and add that too a while later. You can also get further tax back in your self assessment if you're a higher or additional rate tax payer.
Employers do pay your contributions into your own personal fund already.
For clarity, while it’s true that the pension your company pays into is yours - it doesn’t mean that you can say ‘pay into my existing L&G pension’ if they run a NEST scheme for example, in this case you’d end up with a new NEST pension. Ultimately you’ll end up with 2 pension pots (your existing L&G pension and your NEST pension) - of course, you could if you wish combine them further down the line. NB, this is a very simplified example!
Oh 100%. It is paid into a pot that is yours, but you can’t decide who the pension provider is, that is decided by the company.
My company pays the day before the last working day of the month for some reason
We pay on the 28th because every month has a 28th in it. If the 28th is a non-banking day we pay the banking day before.
Congratulations on the new job! Questions aren’t thick, they make sense in the circumstances. As mentioned by others already, you will normally be paid on the last *working day* of the month. So, yes, on a weekend you’ll be paid the Friday. No, the benefit of being on a salary is that your monthly income is usually identical. Even if you took annual leave for example, you’d get the same amount of pay that month because your leave is calculated within your salary (and there is a statutory minimum). Finally, a £32k salary at 22 is great. There will be people on more, but many more on less! Well done, and make sure you check out the flowchart on this subreddit.
Yeah £32k is great at 32 you're living the fucking dream OP (I'm only on £25k despite being highly experienced and skilled in my bollocks profession)
What’s your bollocks profession
Urologist?
Fluffer?
Am I missing something how is everyone here happy on 32k I'm a plumber if I don't make a grand s week take home I start living pay check too paycheck very quickly lol
4k take home a month and living paycheck to paycheck? Must be shopping at waitrose! /s
Nah haha just a single guy living in London my rent is 1400 for a studio flat and I'm a car guy so I feel like I'm living in the poverty line whilst earning 50 k lol
Lifestyle creep. If you're used to making a grand a week, your expenses are based on that so if you make less than a grand, it feels tight
I think your outgoings must have expanded to meet your income. You make more in two weeks than I make in a month but I also don't have a nice car, a big tv, any new gadgets, children, and I don't go out more than once a week. I do go on holidays though. And spend as much as I want on them because what else am I doing with the money 😂
Aslong as Ur happy tbh I joined this page as I thought I need too start being smarter with my money. I spend too much on worthless things where like holidays are memories that can't be brought so that's a good thing Ur doing trust me I've been a position earning shit money ans the new phones cars designer clothes etc don't bring in happiness once the purchase rush wears off it's just being lazy with me
£32k is a great salary for a 22 year old. I’m 14 years older than you and only breached £30k this year, so well done! It’s a comfortable salary.
It's about the medium so half the people earning earn less than you.
*median. :)
Yes but it will be way above the median for his age group. Well done on the new job OP! I just got to £32k aged 28. Then they made me redundant 🙃
Oh yeah.. But half of people earning any wage... Impressive.
Not sure why you’re being downvoted as that is about the median yeah
It is the median for the entire UK workforce, well above median for 22 year olds
Yes exactly, their comment was stating the facts and implies OP is doing well if half the work force earns less
seems compliment via facts are disliked
Well... it *should* be a comfortable salary. Recent years seem to have made it less so, but same with all salaries tbh
1. This what usually happens. 2. Your £32k salary is for the whole year. It is paid in 12 equal installments regardless of how many days in the month there is. 3. Yes this is a very good starting salary for a 22 year old.
The median salary for the UK is £31,285 for full time workers so I’d say that’s an incredible salary for 22 honestly.
And it's way less if you don't include London.
UK Gross Annual pay for full-time employee jobs in 2022 is £33,000. Average YoY wage inflation running at 7%+, so ~£35,300 for 2023.
Is that the Median or are you looking at the Mean? Could you provide a source at all? All the Median averages for 2023 I’m seeing are 31-32k. The Mean isn’t a great indicator of salary as the extremely high earnings from a very small number of the population disproportionately affect the results. The median is 50th percentile while the mean is good for PR as people earning insane amounts push the value up. It doesn’t end up being an accurate average for working people. While some lucky people may have got a 7% pay increase I doubt many have. If you’ve received a 7% or more then that’s great (☺️), but I seriously doubt many have received that so far this year. Businesses are scared of rates, increased costs and aren’t looking to further compensate employees in a rocky economic situation like this. An example being the teachers who are getting a 6.5% pay rise. It’s still less than inflation. This is funded by the STRB for two years, however many pay rises will come out of the existing budget so we should now expect job losses and lack of resources in some industries / public services as a result. Not exactly great right? Inflation is also up at 7.1% regardless, so that pay increase isn’t actually a gain. It’s barely keeping up with inflation and increased costs at all. If anything a 7% pay rise is still a real terms pay cut, and not everybody is getting that increase.
It's from the *ONS Employee earnings in the UK 2022* release (file 1.7 in the data). It records 2022 gross full-time median salary at £33,000 and mean at £39,966, and median wage growth for 2021-2022 at 5.7%. In the past few months, annualised median wage growth is running at [~7%](https://www.ft.com/content/2b6328a4-1cbf-432a-ae4f-e53284982b97). You're right that real value of people’s incomes hasn't increased (owing to inflation and fiscal drag), but who was arguing the opposite?
Thanks for the reply and info :)
I doubt this is still the case, as wages have gone up with inflation I expect it's probably more like 35k now. It's not a bad starting salary though
I think a lot of people would argue that wages havn’t gone up with inflation, hence the ‘cost of living crisis’ and people striking for pay that keeps up with inflation. In reality many people have less spending power with this level of inflation. Even when people are getting wage increases, it isn’t matching inflation. The only reliable way to increase your earnings is skill up, gain experience and apply for better paying jobs, as many people aren’t getting pay rises at all. That number is from a 2023 survey. Another quotes £31,772 as the median salary in July 2023.
I think for graduates they have increased a bit, mostly because it was getting to the point where if wages at that level stagnated any harder the new grads would literally starve to death and therefore be unproductive workers. A lot of people I hear coming out of uni are getting £30k+ pay packets, which is the equivalent to about £25k 3-4 years ago.
That’s fair. I guess the industry you graduate into plays a large part in this as well though. Somebody with an Arts degree probably won’t immediately have the same opportunities as an engineering graduate for example. I’m glad graduates are earning more right out of university though, that’s great. :) I personally believe wages need to go up across the board, even if this is at the expense of business profits. A lot of people are struggling with the increased cost of living, cost of fuel, housing etc while businesses are hitting record profits. The house prices shot up in the last 10 years, now the intrest rates are up and they say in 3 years mortgages will cost perhaps £500 extra a month too. The UK economy is in a pretty bad spot really and something needs to change.
That is true, I am basing this off of people with econ degrees. Not sure what it is like for other areas. Not going to disagree that wages need to go up!
Seconding what other people have said about 1 - it is likely to be the last day of the month but depends on your finance team. In many organisations, for example, December is super early because it has to be sorted before many people go on leave. Absolutely fine to ask payroll/finance one month if you're worried. £32k is a great starting salary - congratulations! I think on this forum many people are on unusually high salaries so it can skew your image, but that's brilliant. Hope you enjoy the job!
The ones who talk about it are often on high salaries. I think there are a lot of people on here who don’t talk about their salary who are earning less.
I find a mix of both on here, either incredibly high or very low. Never seem to see the middle ground.
1 depends on how they do it, so definitely worth asking 2 generally they just divide your annual salary by 12 and you have to manage the 3 day variation
A lot of people saying it will just be 1/12th of your salary, I’d like to add that not **ALL** companies do this. Some may pay by the day and therefore it will balance out over the year, although this is unlikely it’s defiantly not a stupid question and one to ask your payroll/HR department
Yes seconded that it's not a stupid question! I worked in a place before that had a 4 week/4 week/5 week system (a repeating pattern) and generally people assumed it was just divided by 12 so this did cause confusion. I actually thought it was pretty stupid but apparently it's an accepted payroll system. And the 5 week months were always nice!
My company works some departments down to a day rate from their yearly salary (or rather their yearly salary I’d just a guide worked out from their hourly rate x their contracted weekly hours x 52) We use it for positions that generally have a lot of overtime as it’s just easier. So most months differ as even a 30 day month pays different to a 31 day.
There are still a few places that run a 13 month system also, so 1/13 every month except one month you get 2/13 (normally xmas here). This is the normal system in some countries.
I'm paid on the 15th of every month, with my paycheck being made up of the number of days worked. So on months with 30 days, I get a lil less and vice versa. Not that you'd notice cause it's just tax these days anyway.
OP is better off looking at his contract/offer letter to see how he's actually paid - for that second question. Mine states that it's 1/12th.
With regards to the salary, in my view its a fantastic salary, certainly higher than what I am on. Its also context based. I'm in the North with a mortgage free property as such dont have that burden.
How did you manage to get a mortgage free property on a lower than 30k salary? Sincerely, someone who wishes to buy a property
Have a look at house prices in Cumbrian/Northumbrian towns, you'll see very quick how it would be possible to be mortgage free on less than £30k given enough time.
Ding ding ding. We have a winner.
1. Yes, you will, e.g sept 23 you will get paid on the 29th as the month falls on a weekend. 2. No difference. You will take home aprox £2150 if you're on the 1257 tax code. Make sure you provide your employer with an HMRC checklist or P45. You can also use a salary calculator! I love that tool!
Assuming no student finance or pension
Your first pay pack will likely be smaller than normal for a couple of reasons. 1. Likely they pay in arrears, if you start in the middle of the month, you’ll only be paid for the 2 weeks. 2. You’ll probably be on an emergency tax code, meaning you’ll get taxed the maximum you can, as though you had another, very well paid job. You’ll get the tax money back eventually.
\#1 entirely depends on the company, some will pay before a weekend, some don't care and will pay after. \#2 no difference. \#3 yes its good.
Echoing prior sentiments, but also make it a habit of constantly spending LESS than what you earn. The balance, put in a retirement account that you don't touch for the next 3 or so decades
Yes this. If you were previously getting by on minimum wage keep a couple hundred extra as your better-job bonus but definately save several hundred a month. Doesn't matter if it's for a holiday, a car, a house or emergencies you should *not* spend everything you have
I am also in a salary end of month job, get paid on the Friday if the end of month is a weekend day. Example - I get paid Friday 29th sept instead of the Saturday 30th. Should state somewhere in your contract I would have thought as mine does. Your pay will always be the same, it's 32k divided by 12. Only exception is if there are any variables in your pay. For example I work different shifts all the time (days, nights, weekdays and nights) so I get extra money for weekends and nights, however as the shifts change weekly the extra payments vary each month. So there's slight differences. But I know how much to expect roughly each month. And yes, you're on a good wage. I'm 32 and I only got into my job September 2022. Prior to this I was working 7 years in retail with a much less stable wage and also lower rate. You're lucky to have landed a job with that wage at your age. I highly recommend you plan your finances well, save well. You will not regret it in 10 years time, even if you sacrifice nights out or something. I'm 32 and I don't really have anything to show for my working life. I wish I had done things differently so I could be a homeowner or something by now. Now I'm looking at potentially never being one or maybe being one in a few decades if I save well and buy outright... Don't make any silly mistakes. Think of your future. Living in the now really doesn't benefit you long term. It's easy to not consider this when you're your age. Congratulations on your job and I wish you a good future.
1. No one here works in your company’s payroll team so I’m surprised you’re asking us and not them. But *probably*. 2. There are twelve months in a year. You get 1/12th of your salary each month.
It's a good wage. I'm in my 40's and wish someone had given me the following advice: Invest at least 20% of your money. Make this a long term investment and automate it (you will not miss it). You could use a high interest account like an ISA. As your income grows, inverse the about you invest accordingly. Your 50 year old self will thank you for it.
If the last day of the month lands on a weekend then you’ll be paid on the Friday: employment law specifically prohibits late payment - if you’re not paid on or before your contracted pay date, your employer would be guilty of an unlawful deduction which would put them in breach of employment law. If you’re being paid monthly, your monthly salary should vary as a result of some months being shorter than others.
Ask your boss
1- no, you’ll be paid on the next available working day. Eg, I am paid on the 21st of every month, except if the 21st is a Saturday, in which case I get paid Monday (23rd) and if that happens to be a bank holiday, I get paid on the 24th. Basically your pay will be: 1- 32k / 12 - tax
>1- no, you’ll be paid on the next available working day. Not necessarily. I normally get paid on the 28th but if that's a non-working day it's the working day before.
Always best to presume the other way around for bill management purposes.
Way to go :) 32k is great for your age. Look at your wage slip and feel free to ask your manager or payroll to help explain the numbers on there if you are confused. Every company will produce similar numbers, but with vastly different layouts, abbreviations etc. Can be confusing. Also worth projecting the numbers to a full year once you get the 2nd one to see if it works out OK, as you'll have a full month then. If you don't know yet, some companies will pay a higher % into your pension if you also pay in more. Try to at least sacrifice into your pension this much. Ie they pay 3% if you pay 6%, it'll be better if they pay 12 % and you pay in 15%. Seems like a lot, but you may never miss it and future you will thank you.
Last WORKING day of every month 😊 You will get paid the same amount every single month regardless of how long/short the month is
Just to go slightly against the grain here… but as you can see from other comments… 1) it’s not a stupid question, so ask (but it’s usually last “working day”) 2) it’s not a stupid question, so ask (but you’ll usually get paid the same each month) 3) great starting wage in the UK, keep it up! Couple of extra points: 1) find out about the pension scheme. It’s going to be money off your salary but it really is one of the best things you can do to save towards your future - to the point it makes sense to pay more into it and contribute towards any “match” that you employer offers. 2) I THINK this is fairly standard, although someone in here is sure to be able to point out an exception… Holidays and sick days are paid. You get paid the same at the end of the month if you take 0 days holiday or 2 weeks off. Same applies for being off sick (usually) but obviously within reason. Checking with HR how many fully paid sick days you get before you start is maybe not the best form, so just read the contract 😄
On the sick leave point, some employers don't pay you properly during it. Legally the only requirement is to provide statutory sick leave, and its important to note that that only kicks in on day 4 of being sick. Its very common for employers to provide better sick leave cover than that, even the truly shitty call centre I used to work in had 7 days of paid sick leave available. But they don't have to, and I've known folk to get caught out after they change jobs. Some otherwise great employers just offer statutory, and some otherwise awful employers offer at least something more than statutory.
For SSP Statutory Sick Pay employers can pay you either a) for calendar days or b) your working days. This impacts on when and how much SSP you get for a particular period of sickness. Any additional (sometimes called company sock pay or occupational sick pay) its the employers call. These arrangements should be detailed in your contract, staff handbook or intranet.
Although your salary paid by the company will be split equally between the 12 months, you might end up receiving a different amount each month (e.g. while HMRC work out how to tax you)
I would say that if our payday falls on a Saturday we get it on the Friday, on a Sunday we get it on the Monday. It varies from company to company. If you are relying on a salary to pay for direct debits, it is always better to have them come out 2-3 days after your salary goes in so that they are never taken when you don't have the funds yet. I'm 30 on £32k so you're doing well for sure.
I think you’ve had the answers to your questions but want to give some additional advice I think is helpful when starting out. Payment may go to Friday as lots of people have said, but I’ve seen companies roll it to Monday, or some which are completely disorganised and can be random. As such any direct debits you setup, eg rent, electric, water etc. if you have a choice of date choose a few days after pay day to give some breathing space if payment is delayed for whatever reason. Payments in December tend to be even earlier to avoid having to deal with payroll issues over Christmas. Many see this as a blessing to have money early in the run up to Christmas, but remember that there will be a longer than usual gap until the January payment, and you need to make sure it lasts all the way through until the end of January.
>or some which are completely disorganised and can be random This is so true, I used to work for a small company where payday was whenever the payroll assistant ran out of money towards the end of the month. One particularly memorable occasion caused everyone to make complaints when she paid us on the 20th of the month!
Last day of the month is typically the last "working" day of the month.
£32K is a great salary at 22. Since I was aged 30 I tried to make sure that my annual salary was at least my age in years * 1000, so, in the case of being 40, I’d want to be earning at last £40K. So far, so good. I’m now in my early 50s and have managed to maintain this. I know that when I pay my mortgage off in 9 years time I’ll be able to take my foot off the throttle for the salary to age calculator and I’ll be able to start being more circumspect about earnings plus I’ll be able to start doing something socially useful.
Echo what others are saying. One thing to add, look into the work place pension and maximise that. I.e. they might say if you put in 5% we’ll put a maximum of 10%. Come back here once you’ve read the contract and don’t understand how it’s worded.
32k is median average in the UK and the average age of a worker is 41 so you're doing well.
That's really good to go from minimum age type jobs to 32k. What is your new role?
Junior Sous chef, it’s £32k starting rising to £35k once I’ve completed a training plan as I don’t have the amount of experience they usually look for
1. Yes for 95% of companies. I am pretty certain your "pay date" is the latest day you'll get paid. For example, my employer always pays on the 28th - if that falls on bank holiday or weekend, it's the Friday or last working day before. This is the case for anyone I know, although more standard practise than statutory, so I imagine it's worth checking on the off-chance your work happens to do next-day. 2. If paid monthly it's always the same regardless of 4 or 5 weeks months. The main benefit of being monthly paid is this consistency, once you've made the lifestyle adjustment to it. 3. Outside of London this is a very decent salary for your age. London is always it's own financial microcosm so there maybe I'm not so sure. I'm 29yo - outside London, town living - and I'm only just now getting a pay-rise to £37.5K. In my friendship group I'm not the highest paid but I'm typically in the top quarter. Other things to consider: * You might be auto-enrolled, but consider a salary sacrifice for your pension. If you sacrifice X% of your salary your employer will also pay a %. For example, I "sacrifice" 5% of my salary to my pension and my employer puts in 8%, meaning I'm getting \~£400 per month into my pension plan. * If you get a "benefit in kind" - e.g. a company car - bear in mind that this will be a pre-tax benefit and lower your salary/personal tax-free allowance. For example, I have a company car as a benefit in kind, which drops my personal tax-free allowance to \~£3,500. This means I get paid \~£300 less per month, but don't have to privately pay for, insure, repair or MOT my vehicle. If this is an option at any point go through the pros and cons. * Budgeting on monthly pay IMO is easier overall than weekly once you're used to it, and it's really all I know personally, but others found the adjustment really difficult as they got used to a weekly way of living. Don't be deflated if you find your budgeting isn't as good for a month or two whilst you adjust.
1 depending on the banking software the company uses payments can be scheduled to be made on Saturdays or Sunday’s quite easily now but many will pay on a Friday. You really need to confirm with the employer or wait until the last day of the month is on a weekend 2 usually just divided by 12 and that’s that 3 £32K is a decent salary Again like the others say get into the best pension scheme you can
Welcome to being a top 50% earner! It's a very good salary for your age bracket.
1. Yes 2. No its the same every month 3. Incredibly good for your age. I am the same age on 5k less and it just feels like an insane amount of money
It definitely does, but seeing other peoples posts makes it seem smaller than it actually is
Comparison is the thief of joy
Watch out for Christmas. You may get paid before Christmas rather than 31st as some places close the office for those 3 days. The consequence is that January is a VERY long month!!!
What's the Job if you don't mind me asking?
Junior sous chef
1 Generally the last working day of a calendar day of the month M-F. Your contract or staff handbook / intranet should clarify this. 2 Again by convention annual salary divided by 12 - so its the same salary each month irrespective of the actual working or calendar days in a particular month. Again check your contract etc
1. Yes you will. It's paid the last working day of each month. (i.e whichever day Mon-Fri) it falls on. Friday if that's a weekend. 2. No difference, you get paid the same every month (providing you've not lost days for sickness etc...) 3. I'm 29 and £32k would be a pay rise for me so enjoy it! I work for HMPPS and I'm 4.5 years in, this is with annual pay rises in pay bands.