3 in 5 UK professionals are unhappy with their current salary
CV Library’s latest survey has revealed that a staggering 61% of professionals are unhappy with their salary, with the 1,500 surveyed professionals showing that lawyers, teachers and new graduates were the most unhappy with their current salary packages.
Despite this, the majority (54.6%) of respondents stated they had never tried to negotiate for a higher salary.
Results demonstrated that the reason respondents hadn’t negotiated a higher salary was that 51% feared it would risk losing their job, while 40% replied that they didn’t want to be seen as too pushy and finally 31% saying they didn’t know how to negotiate.
The pandemic appears to have worsened the issue as 29% of respondents said they were even less likely to ask for more money in 2021 than they were before the arrival of COVID-19. However, the landscape has change with record numbers of job postings in the last six months and confidence among the UK workforce has grown as we enter into 2022.
According to CV Library, the salary shift is already reflecting in the 2022 job market with average salaries on the rise in 16 sectors in January 2022 so far, compared to January 2021. The top 5 sectors with salary increases are:
- Hospitality/hotel +65.8%
- Marketing +12%
- IT +11.6%
- Administration +10.3%
- Management +9.4%
Lee Biggins, CEO and founder of CV-Library comments: “When the pandemic first struck, businesses held all the power and competition for top jobs was tougher than ever. However, in the last few months we have seen this power shift back in favour of candidates and the year-on-year salary increases we are seeing across many industries already in 2022, substantiates this. As such, candidates should feel able to negotiate on salary without fear of losing out on an exciting opportunity.”
Biggins continued: “The key to negotiation is to be prepared. Be sure that you know what you’re worth and what you can bring to the business that will justify a higher salary. To successfully negotiate a salary increase, it’s vital that you take the time to think about what you want, and you check out the latest salaries on offer for your specific role. This will give you the supporting evidence that your expectations are realistic for the 2022 job market.”
