Why I voluntarily took a pay cut, twice
Choosing short-term loss for long-term gain
Over the course of my career in technology, I’ve chosen to take two pay cuts. By that I mean that I’ve applied for new jobs that offered a lower salary than what I was being paid at the time.
Sharing my experience of this is something I’ve gone back and forth on. We’re fresh out of a pandemic and in the middle of a global cost-of-living crisis. Many hard-working people aren’t being paid fairly. A lot of people are being laid-off and/or struggling to find work.
But I still believe that if the circumstances are right, i.e. when you can afford to, taking a reduction in your salary can be a short-term sacrifice for a better career in the long-term. Here’s why.
Organisational culture
If your current workplace is toxic, making you miserable, jarring with your personal values, you need to get out. Whether that’s the company generally or specifically a terrible manager, no job is worth your mental health.
It’s one of my personal reasons for leaving a previous employer for a lower-paying job. I moved to an organisation whose mission I believed in and where I felt psychologically safe. Able to be myself, to contribute ideas, to make mistakes and learn from them.
Reader: I thrived.
And I’m now earning twice what I was in the role I left.
Which leads me on to…
Progression opportunities
You might find that you’ve outgrown your job but there aren’t more senior roles available for you to be promoted into.
Of course, you can be patient and wait for a vacancy to open up or your team’s budget to be increased so a position to be created. That stuff can and does happen. But, in my experience, it’s not common. And if it does happen it takes a long time.
More often, in order to move up the ladder you’ll also need to move to another organisation. And you may need to take a pay cut, or accept a matching salary for a position with more responsibility.
But if this opens up better learning opportunities and a chance to meet amazing and supportive mentors, then you should consider how it also opens more (better-paying) doors in the future. And makes you happier in the meantime.
Which takes us to…
Job satisfaction
No one should live with Sunday night dread. You could earn a small fortune but if it’s making you miserable for most of your waking hours then… why?
Your job should inspire you, challenge you, push you to grow, support your lifestyle — not dictate it. If I had to choose between being rich and being happy, I know which I’d prefer.
Ideally, if you have to give up either then you can make that a temporary situation — until you find a job you love that rewards you for your skills, experience, and passion.
Considering the gender pay gap
We know that:
- In the UK, the 2022 gender pay gap was 8.3% (if we assume a man working full-time earns the average salary of £33,280, then a woman would earn £30,518 for doing the exact same job)
- The UK gender pay gap also increased last year, which is the most recently reported, from 7.7% in 2021
- Women are less likely to try negotiating our starting salary
- “Aggressive maneuvers [sic] on the part of female negotiators often backfire”
- Maybe this is why, even when we do ask for a raise, we’re only successful 15% of the time (to men’s success rate of 20%)
Of course there are other pay gaps, about which less is known. But research does suggest that there’s an ethnicity pay gap, a disability pay gap, and an age pay gap.
As individuals, there isn’t much we can do to change systemic discrimination. But we do have control over our own decisions and actions.
When I found out how much more likely men are to start salary negotiations, I made a decision that I would never again accept the first offer. I wanted to do my bit to improve that statistic. And I wanted to earn more money too.
I’ve also chosen to be vocal about this decision. As a woman in STEM and a female leader, it’s important to me that my team see that conversations about money might be uncomfortable but they’re not to be avoided. And as a white person, I’m also in a position of privilege to set this example.
It’s about standing up for what I believe in, while taking calculated risks for a more fulfilling — and rewarding — career.
Thanks for reading. I’d love to know your thoughts on this! Comment below and let’s continue the conversation.
Becky
