US to London Salary negotiations

Does anyone have recent experience on negotiating a salary conversion from the U.S. to London?  My wife's company is allowing her to transfer but they don't have defined guidelines for the process.  Specifically, I am wondering about what currency conversion rate is used (current rate, 10 year average, etc) and what percentage is typically given for cost of living increase.  Thanks.

When I was given my relocation package from NYC to London last year, my UK salary was included in it.  I tried to negotiate an increase in salary as the cost of living is higher in London than NYC, but my company didn't budge.  They told me that they took into consideration my skills, experience, etc and matched them with the local job market here and felt what was offered to me was sufficient.

I think my company used close to the current exchange rate to convert my salary from dollars to pounds which did me no good and I wasn't given a cost of living increase.

bvamin

Not sure where you will be living when you arrive but I asked my former manager in the US what kind of salary I should ask for in the UK (I wasn't coming over as an Expat) rather moving over on my own but was applying for a position over here with the same company, strictly based as a UK employee (married to a Brit). She had lived here a year before and had staff in London...she pulled up her spreadsheet and compared my skills with someone on her team in London and suggested a salary that I should ask for....then she said she also paid his train fare....I didn't think anything of it at the time...thought it was a bit unqiue but know I understand....alot of folks take the train/tube and it can be very expensive depending on your commute....so you may want to take that into consideration when negotiating.

The current exchange rate is £1.00 equals $1.91. While the £ is very inflated you do have to take what bvamin said....it is more expensive over there.

Best of luck!

Julie

BVAMIN,

My husband and I are considering a move from NYC to London. My husband is considering taking a job with a London firm, not a transfer but a new job opportunity. My question for you is ....in  NYC,  if one wants to live  WELL they need to make a $100K. How much would one have to make in London to live WELL?

Thanks

How do you mean well?  Do you haev a family?

Well means a lot to different folks.  If you mean eating out at trendy places alot, living in one of the best neighborhoods in something other than a shoe box-i would say combined you should make about £80-100K in pounds.

that is well.  Might be even more if you're looking for a big old flat!!!!!!  Considering some large flats in great areas can be between 400-3,000 a WEEK it depends on what you mean by well.

2 of us live in a posh area of london (in a tiny flat though) and eat out quite a bit and travel tons and are happy on the above number between the 2 of us. (we make more with bonuses and comission but that is sallary).  If we didn't have debt to pay, we'd be richer. 

BVAMIN,

My husband and I are considering a move from NYC to London. My husband is considering taking a job with a London firm, not a transfer but a new job opportunity. My question for you is ....in  NYC,  if one wants to live  WELL they need to make a $100K. How much would one have to make in London to live WELL?

Thanks

As Amy mentions, "living well" means different things to different people.  I moved over by myself and live in a nice area of NW London (zone 2).  I don't go out to eat often, but I have spent a lot of money on nights out every now and then.

There is just two of us, no kids yet ; - ). We do OKAY in NYC b/c we have a combination of two good salaries. Earning 60K (pounds) in London would mean a reduction in our standard of living.

Living well for me means; having a large flat that’s centrally located, eating out at will, dressing well; and still having funds left for travel, entertainment, and savings.

What makes London more expensive than Manhattan?

What makes London more expensive than Manhattan?

I often wonder that too when I try to explain it to my friends and family in the US... I am from California so the thought of paying £500 pounds minimum for a one bed flat in greater London doesn't seem to be a big deal to me, for example. I guess the only real way of knowing is to give it a try and see how much of a difference it will mean in your standard of living.

Your first few months will be full of adjustments and figuring things out so during that time you should have a better idea of where to save your pennies or live the lifestyle you are used too.

in my opinion london is more expensive than manhattan as the potential to earn as large sallaries as you can in NYC is a lot less.

Like i know lawyers, who in London make 50K.  in the US, they would be making 3 times that.

In my opinion, from what i have seen, sallaries are no where near as high as in the US.

PS: 500 pounds a month in greater london will be.....well...highly unattainable and probabally not in the area you'd want.

£500 minimum in "Greater London" is quite different and more doable than  £500 in "Central London" for a single person's budget... depending on your salary of course.

The rule of thumb is to not spend more than 1/4-1/3 on rent. Find your net earnings and figure out what the monthly income would be and start by figuring how much you can spend on rent. Then add in council tax, water, electricity, etc, etc.

use this, it's great for figuring out your take home pay.  is quite accurate.

and JKLM is right, it depends on where in 'greater london' you'd want to be.  how far out and the areas you like. we spend 1/3 on rent but we wanted area and safety over cost.  i hate how much we pay, but we had to make concessions.  in my opinon, you gotta do that here!

check out this awesome tool for figuring out your take home pay.  it's pretty accurate.

http://www.listentotaxman.com/