Live data from Hacker News

UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k

infosec.exchange

91–100 of 245 posts

Re: UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k

#91
post #77

This has caused a bit of a stir because the UK hasn't quite understood the relative weakness of wage growth for the last 10 years. The culturally understood milestones of "high pay" 30/50k have also not increased with inflation. I get paid well for the UK - but I could triple or even quadruple my salary in the US/Australia. Combined with relatively high taxes (my marginal tax rate is 60%) - it isn't a great value pro…

The worst thing about it all is our healthcare is barely even a benefit anymore. You’d be more likely to find a leprechaun than get an appointment with a doctor and don’t get me started on dentistry.

Re: UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked at Coinbase making 140k GBP in base compensation. My SF based colleagues with the same job title were making 250k USD (so 202k GBP). We sat down one day and compared our household budgets line by line and in the end we estimated that 'money left over' for equivalent house, medical and kids education my American colleagues were slightly better off, but maybe only by 5-10k USD per year. Anecdatally ...

140k is an incredible salary in the UK though, like top 0.1% at least. It's also hard to compare things 1:1 - since the NHS is "free" (via taxation), but it doesn't cover dentistry at all really whereas equivalent good US health insurances will do.

You're off but not by much, 1% earn over 183k, 2% earn over 128k and 3% earn over 104k meaning they were in the top 2% of income earners.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/percentile-points-f...

Re: UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k

#93

Could it simply be, that these types of jobs (high rank, low pay) are reserved to wealthy people? It might be so that the only ones that can apply are people for which the salary is a mere formality - it's just listed because it might be mandatory for the paperwork. Kind of similar to how artificially high housing cost is some sort of gatekeeping/community control and not actually reflecting demand in some places...…

> Could it simply be, that these types of jobs (high rank, low pay) are reserved to wealthy people?

Some are. But I highly doubt it's the case for this particular one.

Re: UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k

#95
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

C++ Dev in the UK public sector here. I make 40k a year and so does my boss. I think my boss’s boss might make 50k, or that might only be his boss.

Why do you do it? Or are there factors at play besides the money?

There are only so many high paying jobs. When someone on HN says that they have a £100k+ job in the UK, that means that it's possible for some number of people to get those jobs but not everyone who's on £40k can double or triple their salary, there aren't enough opportunities to do so.

Re: UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k

#96
post #77

This has caused a bit of a stir because the UK hasn't quite understood the relative weakness of wage growth for the last 10 years. The culturally understood milestones of "high pay" 30/50k have also not increased with inflation. I get paid well for the UK - but I could triple or even quadruple my salary in the US/Australia. Combined with relatively high taxes (my marginal tax rate is 60%) - it isn't a great value pro…

Your last two posts are this exact comment.

Re: UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k

#97

For the non-British here. Taxes are paid automatically in the UK to the tax man through a system called "Pay As You Earn - PAYE". Take home pay is closer to 41k. If the applicant has a student loan. These might take 30 years to pay off at the default 6% from gross (3.3k). Then there are pension contributions too which are opt-out now at usually 5% gross (2.75k). All deducted automatically. No remote advertised, the a…

It's civil service, which means a defined benefit pension paid by the civil service which is valued at some crazy value - like 27% of salary per year with the employee only needing to contribute something like 5%.

Re: UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k

#98

I get a lot job offers in my LinkedIn inbox and newsletters from places like glass door as I like to keep my eye on the market. One thing I’ve been seeing a lot recently is salaries for dev roles steadily dropping in the UK. The concerning thing, in my opinion, is that the poster linked by OP seems disillusioned as to the standard of living in the UK. They specifically mention being paid £55k as being equivalent to $…

I'd be reasonably certain that $100k in the Bay Area would leave you with pretty much the same lifestyle you describe here in London.

There is quite a gap between London and the UK as a whole, for better and for worse.

Re: UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k

#99
post #77

This has caused a bit of a stir because the UK hasn't quite understood the relative weakness of wage growth for the last 10 years. The culturally understood milestones of "high pay" 30/50k have also not increased with inflation. I get paid well for the UK - but I could triple or even quadruple my salary in the US/Australia. Combined with relatively high taxes (my marginal tax rate is 60%) - it isn't a great value pro…

You think you would triple or quadruple your comp in Aus? The US I get, but Aus seems to be about the same as the UK. Also, how is your marginal tax rate 60%? I'm guessing you mean 40%. https://www.gov.uk/income-tax-rates

He is either adding vat or social security.

Re: UK Treasury trying to find a Head of Cyber Security for £55k

#100

I get a lot job offers in my LinkedIn inbox and newsletters from places like glass door as I like to keep my eye on the market. One thing I’ve been seeing a lot recently is salaries for dev roles steadily dropping in the UK. The concerning thing, in my opinion, is that the poster linked by OP seems disillusioned as to the standard of living in the UK. They specifically mention being paid £55k as being equivalent to $…

What part of

> £55k as being equivalent to $100k in the US

Is not? I don't see any argument for that not being correct. Everything you said about costs, sounds that exact same as $100k in the US. Unless you live in North Dakota, chances are you are paying pretty close to the same percentages for rent/foot in a larger city such as San Fran or Chicago.

Not exactly sure what zone 5 is, but a rough search gave me $2500 for rent in Chicago, which is about double £1,500 (roughly), council tax probably doesn't exist, but travel in Chicago is certainly going to be WAY more than "£50 a week". And GOOD luck finding utilities for "at least £100", internet alone is probably $50 US, cell phone another $40 US, power, heat, hot water, depending on apartment is probably another $100 US. Food for "£50 a week" is also a dream I would expect food to be closer to $200 USD a week. Unless you're living on ramen.

Everything I see adds up to that being about correct.

Post reply on HN