I was having a few beers on Friday and the topic turned to what people earned, never an easy topic! Out of everyone, only the young 18 year old was happy to share his salary and I was a little embarrassed but reminding him that he is 18 and although he spends the same time at work as everyone else, he earns less than is enough to live on because the employer can get away with it.
Later I checked and when I was 18 I worked at Stakis (Bar and Hotel work) and then Pople landscapes. I was a student and so only worked 20 weeks a year, but still I earned the “going rate”. Below is a copy of my slip, with you will notice: Zero holidays as I was casual and I paid NI but no tax because I was under the thresh hold per year. That is how bad it was.
Two years later and I had my degree and was working for my first year on the DNA database, profiling DNA and analysing results on Macs. A good job, but did it pay well? Below is my pay slip from 1999, as you can see I was paid 250 pounds a week, but still I wasn’t paid for holidays and so basically didn’t have any. I was now taxed and it all added up to about 11k per year.
