The gov.uk developer salary starts at 24k gbp, and averages at around 50k. How do they manage to hire and retain people, and create such a great service?
Firstly, the salaries are slightly misleading. There is a special non-pensionable pay supplement (DDaT) which improves the salaries considerably.
Benefits are very generous. Obviously there's not stock plan, but the guaranteed pension is fantastic. There's also good parental leave, holiday allowance, and things like that.
But, more than that, it attracts people who wants to make a difference. You could go to work for a start-up developing an ice-cream on demand app - or you could work on a nationally important service which improves the lives of millions of people.
Some people join because they want a "big name" on their CV. That's fine; you expect people to go off to bigger and better things. The know that a lot of what they work on will be open source - which serves as a great portfolio for them.
Some people join because they want to work with "decision makers". There's lots of movement between government departments, so it isn't impossible to go from being a junior developer to briefing a Minister if that's your aim.
Finally, it genuinely was a great place to work. The people are friendly, the problem is interesting, and the work is important.
Another thing I'd say is that £50,000 is actually a decent developer salary in the UK. Your average senior dev in London probably gets around £70,000 - £80,000, and outside London a senior dev might more typically get around £60,000 - £70,000.
This also doesn't really paint the full picture if you're comparing to the US because in the UK if you're earning that "much" the government will take 40% of your income and you'll pay an additional 20% consumption tax on most things you buy.
This is not true. The 40% tax band doesn’t even start until slightly over 50k.
Deliberate feigned ignorance? Ignoring because it has the word “Progressive” in? I misunderstood this when I was 14. Then I grew up.
I think people who cite effective tax rates are being equally misleading, but I appreciate I'm a minority in that opinion and therefore said what I said knowing it would likely cause some controversy.
The point I'd make here is that if you're earning more than £37,500 in the UK you are still paying 40% on anything beyond that £37,500 – it's not inaccurate to say you're paying 40% tax – it's just not the full picture.
These brackets cause many people to want to work less because the way they see it anything they earn beyond £37,500 is worth significant less since they are quite literally paying that 40% on the additional income. So if I get a job paying me £60,000 I'd have to consider the fact I'd be paying 40% tax on a decent percentage of that when I calculate my take home pay.
So I'd argue it's simply not the case that someone would look at it this purely from the perspective of what their effective tax rate is in any given financial year – especially if they're working overtime or have other forms of income which might get pushed into a higher tax bracket. I know plenty of people who refuse work when they hit the 40% tax bracket because they feel too much is taken from them at that point. While saying someone is paying 40% tax isn't the full picture, citing an effective tax rate isn't the full picture either when considering incentives for promotions, overtime and side income.
I'm sure we disagree on this though which is fine. I was considering wording it differently, but ultimately felt putting it in a slightly controversial way would at least prompt people to ask the right questions. The general point I wanted to make is that tax is quite a bit higher in the UK than the US so you can't directly compare gross pay – hopefully we at least agree there.
Also, just as a side point, I sometimes struggle to understand how to say things sensitively, I think because I'm not the spectrum. However I seem to get very distressed when I do hurt people compared to the average person. Thanks for calling me out here though, I'll try to think more about how I word things.
You get some lifers that work there but they also get a lot of contractors and people that leave after a few years for a private sector job with more pay but worse pension.
Source: work as a contractor in UK public sector