Salary Story: I’m A Part-Time Working Mum & I Miss Disposable Income

In our series Salary Stories, women with long-term career experience open up about the most intimate details of their jobs: compensation. It’s an honest look at how real people navigate the complicated world of negotiating, raises, promotions and job loss, with the hope it will give young women more insight into how to advocate for themselves — and maybe take a few risks along the way.

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Age: 33
Location: Yorkshire
Current industry and job title: Art — communications officer
Current salary: £17,000
Number of years employed since school or university: Ten
Starting salary: £19,000
Biggest salary jump: From £25,000 to £30,000 in 2017.
Biggest salary drop: From £35,000 to £25,000 in 2021.

Biggest negotiation regret: I have always negotiated salaries. Admittedly I became more confident as my career progressed but I never shied away from the conversation. That was, after my first full-time job. I asked for £19,000 in the interview, while £21,000 was up for grabs. I walked out happy I got the job but a few years later I realised I had undersold myself majorly and felt almost grateful that they gave me a job.

Best salary advice: As long as you can cover your living costs (which I am finding difficult currently), then it’s not all about salary. The job has to work for you and enable you to live the life you want.

I was living with my mum in London (I know, lucky) so this was a dreamy salary post-university. It was exciting to have my own income to spend on holidays and nights out! I had always volunteered at art galleries alongside working in retail so this full-time job in a corporate setting was totally different. My days consisted of brain-numbingly boring scanning and filing tasks. Sneaking onto the roof for sunbathing and smokes with colleagues was the highlight. 

I didn’t ask for more money but they thought I was bored and would leave so they gave me a raise. I left soon after!

£2,000 more felt better than nothing but I was looking for other jobs as this was never the career path I wanted. I was not serious about this role; I just needed money. The art world in London at the time was saturated with unpaid internships. I was lucky enough to live with my mum but not lucky enough to be able to work for free. 

I found my people at this job! I loved the role, the money felt similar to what I was on before and I was still living with my mum. Lots of my friends were starting out in the arts so it didn’t feel a particularly low salary as we were on comparable wages. I loved working with inspirational artists on projects that were quite out there, organising big afterparties and meeting new people. 

The art world is notoriously low paid so this felt about right when I compared it to friends’ salaries, even though it is low. I didn’t have to pitch for this, I was given a raise at an annual review.

More money, more responsibility but still the same assistant title (eye roll). I didn’t ask for this promotion but I was actively working on projects that weren’t exactly in my job description. This raise felt like a milestone in terms of salary but I still had the junior title.

I had taken on more work and my role started moving in a different direction. I really had to fight for a title change. My company was happy for me to keep doing the work without any reward. This made me feel undervalued. 

This was a great salary and one I really miss. I fought hard for the money: I had to prove my worth by pitching how I could transform the digital marketing and communications outreach. It started great, then COVID-19 hit and I ended up creating way more digital content than I imagined. I was not furloughed and spent much of the pandemic working long hours from a bar stool in the kitchen of my partner’s flat. I really got my money’s worth with that cheap stool. I was fortunate enough to add more to my savings over this period. 

I didn’t think the loss of earnings would affect me so much. I work harder now for so much less. I felt super conflicted as I was moving out of London to the northwest of England so I knew I was going to have to take a pay cut but it didn’t dawn on me just how much of a hit it would be. Moving in with my partner who was earning more created an obvious salary imbalance, but we make it work and it was the right decision.

I’m now working part-time and have a child. We live paycheque to paycheque. With budgeting we make it work but I do miss having a disposable income. I pretty much just work to pay childcare fees. For now, I view salaries as a household and we seem to be doing okay but I do worry about having more children and the cost of that. 

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