Salary Growth & Expectations 2024/2025

In contrast to 2022/2023 salary increases linked to cost of living/inflation since Q3 2024 we at Vinokelly are not seeing any signs of significant salary increases within an existing role:

• If a company has an annual salary increase this is likely to be 0-4% for most employees.
• If the person is critical to the organisation – skill set shortage/role is business critical/high performer – then there is some potential for a higher salary increase but this unlikely to appear without negotiations.

Considering a new role

Base salary

Base salary is not the only issue when considering a new role, however it is probably the most important for most people.  The overall package needs to be considered – if there are good benefits including company pension contributions then it is worth figuring out the numbers and considering the overall package.

Should you consider moving roles for a lower base salary?

It depends.  This is very specific to the opportunity on offer and what the job seeker’s motivations are:

• Only a lower base salary and you are in a job – only if you are moving to a different area when you need to gain experience in specific skills. 
• A lower base salary and you are not in a job – unfortunately this is often what happens if you are not in a job due to redundancy/taking time out for personal reasons. 
• A slightly lower base salary with significantly better company benefits: in this case it is worth seriously considering.  Here the reduction in base salary couldn’t be more than 10% of the current base salary in order to make the new package attractive.  If the company has better promotion & development opportunities then this could be a very good move, positioning yourself well for the future. (A useful yardstick of promotion & development opportunities in a company is rate of turnover of staff).
• Sales roles: a lower base salary + lucrative commission structure: this will appeal to a sub-sector of sales people who are confident of their business development abilities and very target driven.  In this case there should be a portion of existing active business within the organisation that would be transferred to new joiner on arrival.  If the commission scheme is a significant portion of the package then it must be paid quarterly in order to keep this scheme attractive.