Service pay, is it past its sell by date?

When I left the navy 21 years ago I took a drop in pay of £1500. Or did I?
In the RN my £10000 per Annam was fixed no overtime and very few allowances. My new job gave me a£8500 per Annam basic plus overtime plus expenses plus certain other allowances. At the end of my first year with the company my taxable earnings were about £12000. I had my company car and untaxed flat rate expenses while working away from base.

Is it time for the government to realise that not all jobs are equal? As an ex wafuu I certainly put in far more hours when at sea then working ashore. Ashore 5 days a week 8 hour day (usually) & most weekends off, duties about 1 in 30. At sea 7 days a week 12 hour day some weekends off and duty 1 in 6.

If this is still the case then surely the government should pay a bonus when serving on a seagoing ship. Perhaps this could be adjusted to the number of hours actually worked by each person. If the government say that this would be unworkable they should be asked how all civilian companies manage to operate this system

 

I recently looked at the RN pay scales and they are pitifully low, for what I get paid now as an ex POWEM the same as a top band Cdr or low band Captain, how the mob can justify paying the shite wages that a CPO or WO get is beyond me. My job now is very similar to what I did in the mob but we work with a basic salary if you are sat at home doing nothing and then a bonus every day you do on a ship. We just put in a timesheet at the end of the month and are paid a month in arrears. A system this simple could surely be adopted by the mob.
To pay a Chief or WO the same money as a civvy trainee in the oil industry is a disgrace indeed.
Then again you do get a nice snappy uniform to wear at weddings.......

 

The justification for the low wages was the usual Civil Service one, where there was a 22 year career and pension...these guarantees have now gone.

Ok there is the really cool kit you get...the runs ashore....the drinking...loose women in home ports.....etc.

But i still prefer the money!

 

It always baffles me how people survive on the wages made by the mod . In am not doing as well as ling but I was only a killick wem when i "left" as my sister is still in as a PO i know what that pay scale is and i wouldn't / Couldn't survive on that level of pay. Give the forces the pay they deserve and earn . Agreed we are not always at war and they aren't always in fear of their life but they sign up and are willing to risk their lives for those of us sat at home every night safe in our homes and like everyone they can only live once and die once and that is something beyond monetary value

 

People can survive on low MOD pay in the same way as other low paid workers survive, by being able to claim benefits in addition to working & by people back home working and doing overtime or moonlighting. Low paid staff where I work have been told to do shelf stacking after work for Sainsbury's. You can also work during holidays! This is not ideal for service personnel risking their lives for the rest of us, but they are viewed as little different from uniformed civil servants. The indexed public sector pension is theoretically paid for by accepting lower wages - that's part of the deal. It will be interesting to see what happens if the Tories get in and abolish index linked public sector pensions, as they propose, and replace them with employee investments made on the stock-market - as for everyone else. Not sure how it will work in practice though! The pressure for better pay will become irresistable then.