Interesting Reddit post on wages

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

We often think that the pay for the job is crap, that lorry drivers should be paid a lot more so where do we fit in compared to salaries that people get paid in this country? Fortunately someone on Reddit has done the hard work so here’s the summary based on ONS data.

The ONS recommends reference to median earnings rather than mean earnings. Mean earnings are inflated by a small number of super-earners, whereas if we lined up everybody in the country in order of earnings, the median will give us the salary of the person in the middle.

All Regions

In 2020, the median annual salary in the UK (regardless of working hours) was £25,780.
If we only look at full-time workers, the median annual salary was £31,461.
The median annual full-time salary for workers aged 22-29 was £26,096.
Median pay peaks in people’s forties, then slightly declines again in people’s fifties.
The highest earning group are full-time males in their forties, with a median annual salary of £38,829
In contrast, full-time females in their forties earn a median annual salary of only £31,403.

By Region

Median incomes vary vastly by region.

You’ll recall the median full-time annual salary across the UK was £31,461
By region, median full-time salary is highest in London, at £38,592, and lowest in the North East, at £27,971.
By local authority, median full-time salary is highest in Richmond Upon Thames, at *£50,006, and lowest in **Boston, Lincolnshire, at £24,219. (*although data for the City of London and Kensington and Chelsea are missing)
The lowest median salary in the UK (per worker, regardless of working hours) is in Blackpool, at £19,808.

Main take-aways

If you earn a little more than £30,000 you are in the top half of full-time UK earners
For people in their twenties, £26,000 or more puts you in the top half of full-time earners
For people outside London, these ‘top half’ thresholds will be substantially lower.
In the lowest-earning local authorities such as Blackpool, 50% of workers earn less than £20,000 per year.

So overall not that shabby. Many will be in the over £30k bracket which puts you in the top 50% of fulltime UK earners, a figure which also includes London salaries.

2

Conor:
We often think that the pay for the job is crap, that lorry drivers should be paid a lot more so where do we fit in compared to salaries that people get paid in this country? Fortunately someone on Reddit has done the hard workso here’s the summary based on ONS data.

The ONS recommends reference to median earnings rather than mean earnings. Mean earnings are inflated by a small number of super-earners, whereas if we lined up everybody in the country in order of earnings, the median will give us the salary of the person in the middle.

All Regions

In 2020, the median annual salary in the UK (regardless of working hours) was £25,780.
If we only look at full-time workers, the median annual salary was £31,461.
The median annual full-time salary for workers aged 22-29 was £26,096.
Median pay peaks in people’s forties, then slightly declines again in people’s fifties.
The highest earning group are full-time males in their forties, with a median annual salary of £38,829
In contrast, full-time females in their forties earn a median annual salary of only £31,403.

By Region

Median incomes vary vastly by region.

You’ll recall the median full-time annual salary across the UK was £31,461
By region, median full-time salary is highest in London, at £38,592, and lowest in the North East, at £27,971.
By local authority, median full-time salary is highest in Richmond Upon Thames, at *£50,006, and lowest in **Boston, Lincolnshire, at £24,219. (*although data for the City of London and Kensington and Chelsea are missing)
The lowest median salary in the UK (per worker, regardless of working hours) is in Blackpool, at £19,808.

Main take-aways

If you earn a little more than £30,000 you are in the top half of full-time UK earners
For people in their twenties, £26,000 or more puts you in the top half of full-time earners
For people outside London, these ‘top half’ thresholds will be substantially lower.
In the lowest-earning local authorities such as Blackpool, 50% of workers earn less than £20,000 per year.

So overall not that shabby. Many will be in the over £30k bracket which puts you in the top 50% of fulltime UK earners, a figure which also includes London salaries.

But…

Most lorry drivers work twice as many hours than your average. Which means that drivers are only being paid half what they should be…

My wife is a nurse outside the NHS and works 30 hours a week which is not full time. She earns around 31k for that. She’d be on close to 40k for full time. If she worked the hours drivers do she’d be on 60k plus.

The reality is a lot of driving jobs are very poorly paid when compared to other industries and professions.

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3

Perhaps if they did a survey on how many hours people worked including weekends, nights and start times then it would be more of a comparable survey.

4

This is so stupid I don’t even know where to begin… and of all people here Conor is the one to post such cr4p. I’m a full time employee and my salary is X. I have colleagues working here who are fulll time too bjt they only make about 60% of what I make in fact I was making that last year you know why? LESS HOURS WORKED. Now I work 50-55-60 hours per week which is nearly double that of any office or retail job etc. People keep asking me how much you get paid driving but when I tell them about the hours most say no thanks.

5

Truckulent:
My wife is a nurse outside the NHS and works 30 hours a week which is not full time. She earns around 31k for that. She’d be on close to 40k for full time. If she worked the hours drivers do she’d be on 60k plus.

The reality is a lot of driving jobs are very poorly paid when compared to other industries and professions.

I have one ex who is a nurse and another who is an HCA and although we do work longer hours, you can’t really compare the workload. Both were on their feet for 8-12 hour shifts rushing around non-stop like blue-arsed flies whereas all we generally do is sit there listening to the radio and making sure the thing keeps moving in a straight line by making minor adjustments to a wheel. Often, we spend hours doing nothing at all.

6

Harry Monk:

Truckulent:
My wife is a nurse outside the NHS and works 30 hours a week which is not full time. She earns around 31k for that. She’d be on close to 40k for full time. If she worked the hours drivers do she’d be on 60k plus.

The reality is a lot of driving jobs are very poorly paid when compared to other industries and professions.

I have one ex who is a nurse and another who is an HCA and although we do work longer hours, you can’t really compare the workload. Both were on their feet for 8-12 hour shifts rushing around non-stop like blue-arsed flies whereas all we generally do is sit there listening to the radio and making sure the thing keeps moving in a straight line by making minor adjustments to a wheel. Often, we spend hours doing nothing at all.

Depends what sort of nurse you are. My wife has very busy shifts sure. But on night shifts she does 12.5 hours and is usually done after 4 hrs or so and time drags.

Plus, it doesn’t really matter whether you’re busy or sleeping in your cab - you’re still at work.

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7

Truckulent:
But…

Most lorry drivers work twice as many hours than your average. Which means that drivers are only being paid half what they should be…

The average working week as a lorry driver is 55hrs. Coincidentally there’s also another thread on Reddit about how many hours people work and the fact that those in London earning those high salaries are actually doing 50-60hrs a week.

8

Truckulent:
Depends what sort of nurse you are. My wife has very busy shifts sure. But on night shifts she does 12.5 hours and is usually done after 4 hrs or so and time drags.

Plus, it doesn’t really matter whether you’re busy or sleeping in your cab - you’re still at work.

It is also worth making the point that it takes longer than ten days to train to be a nurse.

On wages, my thoughts are “it is what it is”. Would I like more money? Sure. But we are at the front line of free market economics and we will only ever be paid what the Law of Supply and Demand dictates.

9

Conor:

Truckulent:
But…

Most lorry drivers work twice as many hours than your average. Which means that drivers are only being paid half what they should be…

The average working week as a lorry driver is 55hrs. Coincidentally there’s also another thread on Reddit about how many hours people work and the fact that those in London earning those high salaries are actually doing 50-60hrs a week.

But most of the country don’t actually live in London so that is fairly irrelevant.

No one I know thinks truck drivers are well paid for the hours worked.

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10

Not all jobs involving lorry driving depend on working all hours for wage of around £35/45k.
It also takes a lot longer than 10 days to become a proficient lorry driver, and depending on what sector you specialise in can be several years before you’re really skilled and efficient, steering a lorry down a motorway is not actual lorry driving so if that’s all the job entails don’t expect it to be paid at the higher end.

Is lorry driving well paid?, well depending on where you live how lucky/resourceful/committed you are and what the job entails it can be paid anything from ■■■■ poor to really very well, invariably most of us start somewhere near the bottom and hopefully we’ll move up the ranks as we get more skilled trusted and reliable and can take on the more intricate or better work if we get the chance, assuming its there to be had in the area you choose to live.

Quite right there will be massive differences in average pay between North Lincs and Kingston upon Thames, rents and housing costs in the region of twice or quadruple what can be found in the more remote but not particularly desirable rural parts.
Not so sure those huge differences apply as much in lorry world as they might in some abstract world such as a smart London suburb’s local or health authority where all normal rules are inverted.

11

Personally I think a lot of the how much you get paid/earn" is relevant to your outgoings. If for example you take home £2k per month but your outgoings are £1800 you probably think you are low paid. If however your outgoings are £1k and you have £1k disposable income to do as you please you would think you are relatively well paid. I’m not the highest earner by a long chalk but my disposable income is quite high, ergo I am more than happy with what I earn and the hours I work. I do also believe that some truck drivers wages are low compared to other jobs and should be higher, ie shelf stacker at lidl gets more that driver’s at some companies and that’s not right in my opinion given training, risk etc. Just my opinion and no doubt others would disagree.

12

Harry Monk:
On wages, my thoughts are “it is what it is”. Would I like more money? Sure. But we are at the front line of free market economics and we will only ever be paid what the Law of Supply and Demand dictates.

This.

13

DCPCFML:

Harry Monk:
On wages, my thoughts are “it is what it is”. Would I like more money? Sure. But we are at the front line of free market economics and we will only ever be paid what the Law of Supply and Demand dictates.

This.

Hmmm.

So, if as drivers we refuse to work as one (cutting the supply completely and increasing demand) and then ask for (demand?) £25/hr basic, o/t after 8 hrs do you think we’d get it?

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14

Truckulent:

DCPCFML:

Harry Monk:
On wages, my thoughts are “it is what it is”. Would I like more money? Sure. But we are at the front line of free market economics and we will only ever be paid what the Law of Supply and Demand dictates.

This.

Hmmm.

So, if as drivers we refuse to work as one (cutting the supply completely and increasing demand) and then ask for (demand?) £25/hr basic, o/t after 8 hrs do you think we’d get it?

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If everyone stuck together there would be sound grounds to suggest some improvement in terms/conditions/pay could be achieved. It happens elsewhere…

Problem is that most drivers in the UK are just spineless, mouthbreathing fannies with very little backbone.

15

Harry Monk:

Truckulent:
My wife is a nurse outside the NHS and works 30 hours a week which is not full time. She earns around 31k for that. She’d be on close to 40k for full time. If she worked the hours drivers do she’d be on 60k plus.

The reality is a lot of driving jobs are very poorly paid when compared to other industries and professions.

I have one ex who is a nurse and another who is an HCA and although we do work longer hours, you can’t really compare the workload. Both were on their feet for 8-12 hour shifts rushing around non-stop like blue-arsed flies whereas all we generally do is sit there listening to the radio and making sure the thing keeps moving in a straight line by making minor adjustments to a wheel. Often, we spend hours doing nothing at all.

Glad you’re not my shop steward, remember to tell this to the boss next time you’re after a raise. Let me know how you get on.

16

Don’t know know about where anyone else is but wages here in Stoke are rising. Agencies are crying out for drivers and majority of jobs advertised are now 1-2 £ more per hour. Long may it continue!

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17

ag1992:
Don’t know know about where anyone else is but wages here in Stoke are rising. Agencies are crying out for drivers and majority of jobs advertised are now 1-2 £ more per hour. Long may it continue!

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£1-2 hr on top of what? That’ll be the interesting bit really. Day rate / Night rate ?

18

Londontrucker123:

ag1992:
Don’t know know about where anyone else is but wages here in Stoke are rising. Agencies are crying out for drivers and majority of jobs advertised are now 1-2 £ more per hour. Long may it continue!

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£1-2 hr on top of what? That’ll be the interesting bit really. Day rate / Night rate ?

Day rate. The usual jobs on indeed pallet network stuff, all gone up. Agency work also gone up a few quid more.

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