Salary Story: 28-Year-Old Fashion Designer On £55k

Illustrated by Lucie Corbasson

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: 28
Location: London
Current industry and job title: Designer, fashion
Current salary: £55,000
Number of years employed since school or university: Six

Starting salary: £18,000 in 2016
Biggest salary jump: £22,000 to £50,000 in 2020
Biggest salary drop: £28,000 to £22,000 in 2020

Biggest negotiation regret: Allowing someone to take advantage of my inexperience and age, and laugh at what was retrospectively a very reasonable salary expectation for a job, which I still took despite the low salary.

Best salary advice: I’ve not really ever received any advice of note that I can think of. But I’ve learned along the way that the majority of companies will take advantage of you as much as they can if you don’t know or ask for what you deserve, so you’ve got to make sure you do your research and make sure that you do ask.