Railway jobs and inflation

[1e10]

Hello,

Reading something in the news about how average wage increases are below the rate of inflation and this got me thinking. How well are increases for jobs on the railway? Are they below inflation or below inflation?

Any input appreciated

EDIT: Also, does anyone know whether wages at Network Rail rise with inflation or not?

 

[Beveridges]

Northern's pay rises have always been equal or above inflation since I have been with the company.

 

[A-driver]

The majority of railway pay rises within TOCs (ie not farmed out to agencies) are always a equal to or above inflation.

 

[455driver]

And so begins yet another 'greedy railstaff' thread! :roll:

 

[A-driver]

And so begins yet another 'greedy railstaff' thread! :roll:

It's not greedy to get a pay rise inline with inflation though. It is poor and unacceptable that many peoples pay does not go up inline with inflation.

Plus any pay rise above inflation is in exchange for conditions or flexibility etc.

 

[Silv1983]

I always try to explain to people that rail staff aren't greedy; they're fortunate that they have the bargaining power to get a fair pay rise each year to sustain a standard of living. That is, they only look overpaid in some peoples' eyes because so many other sectors have been left (unfairly) standing. Interestingly in the metro last week they calculated that if payrises had increased in line with inflation since 1971 the average worker would be on £87k per annum instead of £26k.

 

[Beveridges]

I always try to explain to people that rail staff aren't greedy; they're fortunate that they have the bargaining power to get a fair pay rise each year to sustain a standard of living. That is, they only look overpaid in some peoples' eyes because so many other sectors have been left (unfairly) standing. Interestingly in the metro last week they calculated that if payrises had increased in line with inflation since 1971 the average worker would be on £87k per annum instead of £26k.

Don't forget the average wage in the UK would be a lot less than 26k if the rich hadn't got richer. The very high paid jobs, such as doctors, dentists, super stars, Bankers, top managers, have all had big pay rises over the years, and these have a huge impact on the UK average salary. The situation for the average worker is even more poor than the "UK average salary" figures suggest. In a lot of deprived areas in the north west (i.e. most of it), the average salary is not much higher than 12k, and their working weeks are a lot longer than 35 hrs.

 

[AnonymousUser1]

I always try to explain to people that rail staff aren't greedy; they're fortunate that they have the bargaining power to get a fair pay rise each year to sustain a standard of living. That is, they only look overpaid in some peoples' eyes because so many other sectors have been left (unfairly) standing. Interestingly in the metro last week they calculated that if payrises had increased in line with inflation since 1971 the average worker would be on £87k per annum instead of £26k.

that article suggested the *& k average wage would be if wages had matched house pirce inflation - the average wage is inline / slightly in excess of inflation over the past 40 -50 years ( average wage is 26k ish and if it was purely based on general inflation it'd be 24- 25 k )

 

[High Dyke]

In some cases certain railway staff payrises are 0.5% + RPI rate at the time.

 

[455driver]

It's not greedy to get a pay rise inline with inflation though. It is poor and unacceptable that many peoples pay does not go up inline with inflation.

Plus any pay rise above inflation is in exchange for conditions or flexibility etc.

Not that people bother looking into these things of course, remember the uproar about Virgin offering their drivers £67k a year but people bother looking at what was being given away (basically everything) to get the payrise.

Maybe all those anti-union posters should look in on this thread and try and work out where we would be without the unions?

 

[1e10]

And so begins yet another 'greedy railstaff' thread! :roll:

Sorry if thread descends into that, not intentional. I am genuinely interested in pay conditions. It's not greedy that rail workers receive decent wages, all workers across all industries should.

You're all saying rail employees receive wage increases inline with inflation, if not above. Can the same be said for people working in office type roles with NR?

 

[The Planner]

Depends on the banding you are in within NR, the lower bands from 5 to 8 are generally pretty much assured RPI + 0.5%. Management bands from 1 to 4 don't get near that. It is more and more the case where some managers are on less than some of the longer serving staff they manage. It can actually be beneficial not to get or go for promotion! (signature applies here....)

 

[notadriver]

Can you tell us what the typical salaries are for MOM, COSS and similar roles?

 

[The Planner]

No idea, every discipline deals with salaries differently, considering the pay scales of the banding it could be wide and varied.

 

[NinjaJihad]

Couldn't comment for NR but COSS rates of pay I come across in job listings usually vary between £12-£15 per hour

 

[Silv1983]

that article suggested the *& k average wage would be if wages had matched house pirce inflation - the average wage is inline / slightly in excess of inflation over the past 40 -50 years ( average wage is 26k ish and if it was purely based on general inflation it'd be 24- 25 k )

Ah, I did scan read it - thought it was inflation related.

 

[W230]

And so begins yet another 'greedy railstaff' thread! :roll:

According to the Hate Mail, i'm overpaid working on the railway. I was also overpaid in my last job before working on the railway. My girlfriend is overpaid in her job, as is my brother, sister in law and most of my family. :?

We seem to have some national obsession with how much people earn in the UK and whether it is "justified" without really knowing what the job entails.

 

[1e10]

According to the Hate Mail, i'm overpaid working on the railway. I was also overpaid in my last job before working on the railway. My girlfriend is overpaid in her job, as is my brother, sister in law and most of my family. :?

We seem to have some national obsession with how much people earn in the UK and whether it is "justified" without really knowing what the job entails.

Absolutely. People will moan that they're not paid enough whilst moaning that others are paid too much, double standards.

 

[455driver]

We seem to have some national obsession with how much people earn in the UK and whether it is "justified" without really knowing what the job entails.

of course they know what my job entails, I just sit in the front pushing buttons, or so I am told!

Of course, in those poorly paid jobs, if people started working together instead of the me me me attitude they might actually improve their pay and conditions, but as people are not interested they just moan about the people that have put the effort in.

Either stick together or its a race to the bottom.

 

[Beveridges]

I often wonder if it was privatisation that caused our wages to go so high. Different companies offering more money. The poorer paying companies having to keep up with the higher paying TOCs so they don't lose their expensively trained staff.

 

[A-driver]

I often wonder if it was privatisation that caused our wages to go so high. Different companies offering more money. The poorer paying companies having to keep up with the higher paying TOCs so they don't lose their expensively trained staff.

Yes, it was privatisation which caused it.

 

[RJ]

Plus any pay rise above inflation is in exchange for conditions or flexibility etc.

Virgin Trains tends to increase pay by 5-6% each year, not in direct exchange for any T&Cs.

 

[SkinnyDave]

Virgin Trains tends to increase pay by 5-6% each year, not in direct exchange for any T&Cs.

They didn't this time

 

[PeteH]

Can't comment on any other TOCs or positions in the industry, but 5.5%, 3.7% & 3.2% for FGW drivers over the last three years seems pretty damn good. The military have had 0%, 0% and 1.5% in the same time period.

 

[TDK]

Don't forget the average wage in the UK would be a lot less than 26k if the rich hadn't got richer. The very high paid jobs, such as doctors, dentists, super stars, Bankers, top managers, have all had big pay rises over the years, and these have a huge impact on the UK average salary. The situation for the average worker is even more poor than the "UK average salary" figures suggest. In a lot of deprived areas in the north west (i.e. most of it), the average salary is not much higher than 12k, and their working weeks are a lot longer than 35 hrs.

People earning over 150k apparently are only 3% of taxpayers
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Hello,

Reading something in the news about how average wage increases are below the rate of inflation and this got me thinking. How well are increases for jobs on the railway? Are they below inflation or below inflation?

Any input appreciated

EDIT: Also, does anyone know whether wages at Network Rail rise with inflation or not?

Generally pay rises within TOC's is RPI or above at a certain time of the year. This year I got 0.7% above RPI about 3.9%. 2 years ago the RPI was 5.7% and I got 2% above so that was 7.7% of £45k

 

[Beveridges]

People earning over 150k apparently are only 3% of taxpayers

You could have one person earning a salary of £1 million a year and sixty people on the minimum wage earning £11k per year, the average salary would be £26k out of those sixty one workers.

This is an extreme example but I'm just showing how a small % of people on huge salaries is effecting the "average salary" and making it look a LOT higher than it really is for the average person.

 

[notadriver]

Maybe when calculating the average salary one way would be to exclude those on extremely high salaries and only include those earning up to 100k (basic). The difficulty for me is how do you include plumbers and doctors etc who can earn vast amounts for doing outside work?

 

[Mechy]

Signallers and front line operational staff within Network Rail are currently approaching the 2nd part of a 2 year pay rise deal seeing RPI+0.5% based on the November RPI.

RPI+0.5% seems to have been the norm for a number of years now, and in the grand scheme of things is a very good pay rise.

 

[Legzr1]

Yes, it was privatisation which caused it.

Well, it would be more accurate to say privatisation allowed companies to cull staff and add their roles to that of the driver whilst offering (relative) massive pay rises.

3% pay rises are nothing compared to the increases offered in 'productivity' deals.

The issue is that drivers (for example) can now earn in excess of £75,000 per year at certain companies but are left with very, very few T&C'S - some have none worth mentioning.

Luckily, being a qualified driver in this country allows you the choice of low (relative) pay with excellent T&C'S , very high pay with next to zero T&C'S and everything between - all you need to do is keep a clean SOL and bide your time.

 

[DarloRich]

Hello,

Reading something in the news about how average wage increases are below the rate of inflation and this got me thinking. How well are increases for jobs on the railway? Are they below inflation or below inflation?

Any input appreciated

EDIT: Also, does anyone know whether wages at Network Rail rise with inflation or not?

if you dont mind:

a) what is your job
b) how much do you earn
c) do your wages rise in line with inflation, below inflation or above inflation.

You see you may be overpaid and it might be possible for me to tell you how to do it better!