Keeping up with Inflation ...

[Protagoras]

I see in the news that 'junior doctors' aka 'residents' are seeking pay rises to attain parity with 2008 rates given inflation. I can't blame them. Any of us with collective bargaining power would probably do the same.

Imagine if we could all get parity like this? My 2008 rate would be £690/day according to the BoE's inflation calculator. When I retired last year I was on £515/day (fully remote) and considered myself doing reasonably well considering the market. But I certainly knew that my standard of living was not what it was.

Many of us will have fared badly to some extent or another, not even counting the zero-rights employee off-payroll surcharge.

Of course those with highly sought after skills will probably be retained parity or better, but I don't think that's the majority.

Have most people been able to keep up?

[sadkingbilly]

'keep up' is relative, depending on how greedy you are.
some live well, but modestly, and are much more resilient than those who max out everything to show the world how successful they are.
Anyone on IT contracting is in the top 10% of UK earners anyway.

[ladymuck]

It would seem that my rate today, compared to what it was in 2008, is ahead of inflation by about £60 a day. However, one could argue I'm worth more because of all those years of experience.

[willendure]

Bloody hell - my equivalent rate in 2008 was 735/day. Currently on 500. No wonder I was partying hard back in those days!

[edison]

There are some good detailed and quite technical explanation videos on YouTube of why the usual UK inflation measurement is quite flawed and why we are even worse off than we think in real terms.

It's quite sobering when I worked out that my most recent contract day rate was about a third less in real terms versus my peak in 2018.

[DoctorStrangelove]

One might observe that the medics are using the RPI measure rather than the CPI measure of inflation.

Handy that.

[sadkingbilly]

[mgrover]

i only tend to pay myself 50k and leave the rest alone

ive jammily been in work since 2021ish but the way the market is when this contract ends that could be it for a bit.

my day rate is whatever the market rate I manage to get is, way i see it is some revenue is better than none.

if a better rate would come along id jump but like i said, markets a bit dead.