I Didn’t Let Guilt Stop Me From Pulling Out Of A Job

Illustrated by Virginia Gabrielli.

In our series Salary Stories, women with long-term career experience open up about the most intimate details of their jobs: compensation. It’s an honest look at how real people navigate the complicated world of negotiating, raises, promotions and job loss, with the hope it will give young women more insight into how to advocate for themselves — and maybe take a few risks along the way.

Been in the workforce for at least five years and interested in contributing your salary story? Submit your information here. Published stories receive £100.

Age: 27
Location: Essex
Current industry and job title: Fashion e-commerce, junior UX researcher
Current salary: £37,000
Number of years employed since school or university: 10

Starting salary: £16,000 in 2014
Biggest salary jump: £31,000 to £37,000 in 2022
Biggest salary drop: N/A

Biggest negotiation regret: It never occurred to me to negotiate until I started to talk with my fellow coworkers about salaries. I remember starting somewhere and noticing that my coworkers were earning at least £5,000 more than me, even though we did the same job and had the same title. Not only did I not think of negotiating my salary, but benefits never occurred to me either until I started to work at my current company, which offers great benefits compared to other places I worked for. I wish I wasn’t so afraid to just ask; no harm in asking and I may have been able to get a little bit more.

Best salary advice: I have managed to raise my salary by moving roles, at times where I also didn’t feel I was progressing and wasn’t liking my job so much. I think it’s good to recognise when you may be underpaid or undervalued. Going forward I am going to ask for more. As a POC I do find it harder as I have a mindset of automatically assuming I can’t get more compared to my peers. However, I deserve it and shouldn’t be made to feel like I need to settle and suffer.