Brit Moving Back To The UK (I forgot how it is!)

Hi people:

I'm a Brit who's been in the US since '98.  I qualified as a lawyer here about three years ago but am contemplating moving back to the UK to be near my family who I miss alot, though I prefer the US to the UK anyday.

Anyway, just wondering what salaries are like these days and how far they go.

I currently earn about $48,000/year now working for a small law firm in Utah. That's plenty to love on here and I only need to work about 3.5-4 days per week to earn that amount.

I've been applying for jobs in London - lawyer jobs - and all I'm seeing are plenty of vacancies paying between 20-30 UK pounds for qualified lawyers!

Is this insane or what?! they're even asking for top academic credentials to even fill the jobs and being really selective.

I also took the transfer exams last year and am now a doubly qualified lawyer ie both in the US and the UK, so it's not like they're offering low salaries because I need to requalify or anything. I contacted recruiters in London and they told me that was the "market rate" for lawyers in London outside of the small handful of larger commercial and American firms, but that the latter would only recruit former Wall Street lawyer types anyway.

I got married last year and we're expecting a baby soon. I have no idea how I could support a family on that salary. Plus I have about $50,000 in student loans! Since my wife isn't a US citizen either we will probably have to come to the UK anyway eventually.

Other brits have told me not to worry because the UK operates a really good welfare system for low income families .

I can't imagine being a lawyer on welfare, but I hear there are hundreds of them over there.

Moving over in two weeks.. About an hour east northeast of London.  I have lived in US all of my life, and I have grown tried of the cost of living....and not the dollar cost.   I am leaving a post with Santa Clara County, were I commute 60 plus miles per day.  I am taking a significant pay cut, and if I am wrong....then I'll move back.   Life is too short.
Must add that I have been over five times in the last two and a half years.  All of my grandparents are from UK, so this is not a pick out of the air.
Helen
PS.  Lived in Utah for one year. Granted I was 19, but never would I ever live there again.  Hot, dust, and sand.  NO THANKS.  However, if  you love there, more power to you.

Hi people:





I've been applying for jobs in London - lawyer jobs - and all I'm seeing are plenty of vacancies paying between 20-30 UK pounds for qualified lawyers!



Other brits have told me not to worry because the UK operates a really good welfare system for low income families .

Between £20 and 30K isn't considered a low income.  You wouldn't really qualify for any benefits.  You would however have the NHS which is free at the point of service so that would be a help. 

WEll, roughly translated, £25,000 is equivalent to $48,000 so you would technically be making the same amount as you do in Utah. Difference being the horrendous cost of living, which i'm sure you can remember.  But there's no way you qualify as low income! I am considered low income and I wont embarrass myself by telling you what I make but it barely knocks into 5 figures. BARELY.  Basically, £15,000 is the cutoff for any type of working tax credit from the govt. You'll be entitled to a child benefit for your child (about £50 per month or thereabouts) and Child Tax Credit, which on that wage would probably be somewhere around £50 per month. Maybe a bit higher.

If you go on the Inland Revenue site, there are tables to calculate what you would be entitled to based on your income.

Mindy and Hopster are correct, that is not a low income. The average wage in London is £25000.  Outside a big commercial practice you will be lucky to get over £20 000 to start with. A few years ago I was offered a position practicing refugee law in East London for less than £14 000.

i found a website and to maintain the same standard of living in london to what i earn in utah ($48000) i would need to earn about the same in figures in british pounds, about 46000 british pounds to be precise!

therefore 25K in the UK is like earning 27K in utah. note that the feds put a family of three on 18K as poverty level in the US

why do people even become lawyers. my mother works as a nurse in a small provincial town in britain and earns 20K a year.

also, the math doesn't work out.  25K a year will give a family of three 1500/month after the extortionate taxes and deductions. i've found a modest two roomer to rent for 800/month, another 100 for council tax, another 100 for utilities, then there's a 300 pound minimum monthly student loan repayment, travel costs of say 100/month, food and clothing, savings toward retirement ?, plus i'd like to save about 500/month for emergencies.

if this is not a low income then all i can imagine is that there are destitute lawyers and doctors and so on all over the UK some of whom are bordering on homeless!!

can anyone name some careers that in general do pay well in the UK?

i found a website and to maintain the same standard of living in london to what i earn in utah ($48000) i would need to earn about the same in figures in british pounds, about 46000 british pounds to be precise!

That's a...fascinating discovery, please share that website with us!

can anyone name some careers that in general do pay well in the UK?

Football player, crack dealer, prince of wales

Welcome to our world 

Every thing web design and programming related pays quite well too.

This is why DH doesn't want to move back. He gets paid loads of money for being a mechanic, but he works on Ferraris so the field is a bit different then your normal mechanic. We have looked and we would be lucky for him to make 1/3 of what he makes here, unless there is some sole out there who wants a personal mechanic which would pay good money. To bad they all have mechanics.

is this problem caused by socialism?

seems that lawyers are still expensive over there. i would have thought that on such low salaries the cost of using a lawyer would be not much higher than 30-40 pounds an hour, but no, they charge just as much as in the US, 100 ponds an hour and counting!

so how does that translate into poor working class salaries? it must be that the government is taking all of it in tax and the rest is swallowed up in complying with red tape and regulations.

tax and regulate - sounds like the hallmarks of a liberal socialist state to me.

i figure that i can make more money if i work for myself rather than a firm. i could charge people 40 pounds an hour and undercut them. even if the first year or two was slow i could still make 20K working just 10 hrs a week. i could also fiddle figures so that i paid less tax too. might sound wrong to some, but i believe providing for one's family trumps giving money to the state to spend on liberal programs.

so how does that translate into poor working class salaries?

Again, this is not a bad salary.  A 'poor working class salary' would be about 10K.  Cost of living is high, but let's all agree that 25K is NOT poverty level. 

Just for the record, Britain is a not a socialist state. It's a liberal democracy. (And of course "liberal" isn't a fall-down-dead insult in Britain.)

regarding the whole salary comparison thing..i'm having a hard time researching salaries as well...i'm currently making $75K working as a project manager at an interactive ad agency. when i research jobs in london, they're coming in at 20,000 pounds a year..some that doesn't seem comparable...and these are jobs that require a good deal of technical knowledge! i have over 5 years experience at what i do and live comfortably in nyc, but it seems like i would be taking a pay cut and would have to have roomies just to make ends meet if i live in london...i thought the cost of living was comparable to nyc? no?   

I work in IT for an investment bank here in London.  In general, I think the financial industry pays better than most others here. 

I get paid reasonably well, but still feel I am underpaid here due to the high cost of living.  I just make sure I prioritize what is important for me to live comfortably and still have enough to save towards my retirement.

bvamin

Tenthplanet, if you want to be in the big money in the legal profession  in the UK either join a large commercial practice (eg Freshfields, Norton Rose etc) or retrain as a barrister and be a very good one.  But as several people have pointed out, £25k is not a low salary by any means and by repeatedly talking as if it is poverty level you are insulting a lot of people on this forum who may be earning considerably less in various professions.  London is a very expensive city but you can live quite decently on £25k even if you have children.  Also, why would you risk getting struck off by fiddling your taxes?