Uk Pay Structures & Artificial Intelligence

Currently hundreds of thousands of people are taking or will take strike action over pay & conditions in the UK - Nurses, Ambulance workers, Junior Doctors, Passport Office staff, Environment Agency workers, University staff, Teachers, Civil Servants, Rail workers & Postal workers. It is a sign of general discontent with worsening conditions & real terms loss of income over many years. 

Some groups have settled - Criminal Barristers 15%, Arriva bus drivers 11%, some BT workers 16%, Unite & Unison Health workers 7.5%. 

Meanwhile the highest paying jobs in the UK are;-

1. Chief Executives and Senior Officials – £79,835
2. Marketing, Sales and Advertising Directors – £77,695
3. Information Technology Directors – £73,571
4. Specialist Medical Practitioners – £68,614
5. Headteachers and Principals – £66,686
6. Public Relations and Communications Directors – £66,510
7. Financial Managers and Directors – £64,193
8. Aircraft Pilots and Air Traffic Controllers – £62,778
9. Functional Managers and Directors – £61,139
10. Senior Police Officers – £59,141
11. Train and Tram Drivers – £58,868
12. Barristers and Judges – £53,110
13. Health Services and Public Health Managers and Directors – £50,789
14. Rail Transport Operatives – £50,561
15. Electrical Engineers – £50,487
16. IT Business Analysts, Architects and Systems Designers – £50,396
17. Business and Financial Project Management Professionals – £50,287
18. Research and Development (R&D) Managers – £50,027
19. Taxation Experts – £49,916
20. Senior paramedics – £49,909

The highest paying Companies in the UK are;-

1. Citadel – financial services company (£121,759)
2. Contino – business management consultant (£108,128)
3. White & Case – international law firm (£10,115)
4. G-Research- quantitative finance research firm (£101,066)
5. Google Cloud – cloud computing services (£99,677)
6. Palantir Technologies – software company (£98,095)
7. Squarepoint Capital – investment services (£96,933)
8. Bank of America Merill Lynch (£94,393)
9. MongoDB – developer data platform (£93,993)
10. Pegasystems – software company (£93,844)
    

The current Minimum Wage rates are;-

Age 23 or over (National Living Wage)	£10.42
Age 21 to 22	£10.18
Age 18 to 20	£7.49
Under 18	£5.28

It seems that there are huge discrepencies which need to be addressed. Pay structures are immensely complex.

What people are concerned about is this graph relative to the cost of living & rate of inflation, which means that their salaries have fallen markedly in real terms for years. Alongside that many would argue that working conditions have also deteriorated. Add to that the undoubted gender & ethnic inequality in the workplace.

The UK desperately needs to move into the 21st century. We need to embrace diversity & transparency. There should be equal learning & development opportunities. Education should value both academic & skills learning equally. There should be effective monitoring & auditing. Flexible working which increased during Covid, needs to be encouraged. 

We are entering an age of robotics & artificial intelligence that will revolutionise the world of work. Our government needs to be ahead of the game in order to benefit from it & also protect people from the possible adverse effects. 

I don't see much evidence that we are on the right track. Workers are discontented now. How will they feel when A I really impacts the world of work?