MOST Guernsey workers are unsatisfied with their salary, according to a recruitment specialist.
Focus HR Solutions director Becky Machon (pictured) said most employees felt they were underpaid, despite receiving higher wages than their UK counterparts.
A poll by Jobsite.co.uk has found that most British workers think they need £38,000 a year to live free of money worries due to rising fuel and other costs. The average Guernsey salary is some 20% higher than the UK’s, according to the latest figures.
Mrs Machon said she thought people here tended to be quite secretive when it came to how much they earned. ‘I think there is a lack of understanding when it comes to the true value of jobs and whether people are fairly paid. Due to the difficulties the island has with recruitment, it’s probably also fair to say that we have to offer competitive salaries in order to recruit and retain good staff.’
The Guernsey Press provides daily in-depth coverage of life in the Bailiwick. Subscribe here. View a demo and subscribe to our online edition here.
Loading ...
5 Article Comments
If there were less immigrant workers there would be more jobs for LOCALS why can you not see the problems this has and is causing.They are monopolising everything and us LOCALS are forever losing out for goodness sake open your eyes they are ruining the island.I have many friends who are from the mainland who are disgusted with how over the last ten years the island has gone down hill and will not set foot on the island again now what does that tell you?
Re the above
That tells me that successive electorates have voted for politicians that believe in economic growth against social stability. That said, Guernsey has to rely on non local workforces (not immigrants) otherwise the system would collapse.
They do not monopolise everything, that’s just a UK Daily Mail myth.
More pertinently, if Guernsey were to tax the rich more and distribute corporate wealth directly into infrastructure projects manned by the lower paid then some societal progress would be made and we could all get along, no?
The housing problem could be alleviated by a punitive Inheritance Tax/Capital Gains Tax to deter speculators and to incentivise the young to learn what earning money is all about.
Unfortunately for us locals, the poorer non local people who come here and work hard know all the more about the value of money, whilst we fritter it on short term luxury and capital hoarding.
Yeah this is a tough one for young employees due to aspirations from childhood that won’t be reached. If going to the job centre isn’t rewarding enough then getting that dream job you needed never comes, then there is a lot of emotional stress.
I think mature employees still suffer but at least they understand the turn-buckle and force themselves to understand the true value of jobs.
I am from Portsmouth and we have only three job centers for the city. It can be very stressful, and more hours can be spent looking for a job than actually time in paid employment.
Degrees are helpful for a gradual push in to a career but the loan fiasco might put the non-academic off. Media seems to be controlling a lot of our (government) decisions. This is not good, so switch off the tele and have a look around. It’s not so bad outside.
The way the survey is reported isn’t entirely accurate. What people actually said was that they felt they would need around 40-50% more than they presently earned to be worry-free. Since the average full-time UK salary is around £24-26k, that’s where the headline figure of £38k comes from.
But the crucial point is that pretty much everyone thinks they’d need to earn more to be worry-free - however much they’re earning at the moment! So if you ask people earning £38k how much they’d need to earn to be worry-free, they give an even higher figure.
In other words, the survey doesn’t tell us how much money we actually need, but instead tells us that we all think we’d be happier if we had more money.
Beware statistics!
Of coarse many Guernsey employees are unhappy with their salaries because they probhably know someone else who is getting more than them. But they don’t know how lucky they are compared with people who live elsewhere especialy here in Australia, they should see what some people have to live on here.
And as for good old Guernsey BSE (blame someone else)of blaming immigrant workers goes.
As I was an immigrant worker who stayed in Guernsey for 40 years (yes it was the immigrant workers fault when I arrived)and I saw many changes certainly for the worst in that time, well most of them were caused by an incomptent States along with good old Guernsey greed.