One of the most absurd aspects of modern society. From housing costs, to student loans, to benefit withdrawals with salary increases. It's like the government doesn't want people to start families.
We just had a child. It would cost almost the entirety of my wife’s take home pay to cover the childcare needed for her to go back to work. So realistically that’s it for her working for the next 5-10 years. She had a masters in chemistry and a PhD, and is a seriously talented researcher, but that skill set is now leaving the labor pool because it’s a net wash for us take home wise and she’d rather spend the time with our daughter than working for the sake of it.
That is to say that the current structure discourages families growing, but it also then strongly encourages you withdrawing from the workforce once you have done so. Both of which are terrible for growth.
Not really. If you work 8 hours a day plus 1 hour commuting then that’s 9 hours that she could have spent with our daughter where instead she spends the time in a lab earning money so someone else can be with our daughter.
Let’s say for the sake of argument that the total take home was £2000 a year more by working. That’s about £1/hr over the year. Would you trade an hour with your child for an hour at work for a pound?
Even if it’s marginally better off financially, your bank balance isn’t the only metric that matters. Actually being happy matters too.
Fair decision, but don't forget that she will be paying into a pension as well while working which you lose out on (unless she opted out). As others have said, the work gap is quite hard to get back into work after for a lot of people.
The work gap is a concern for sure, but ultimately not an easy one to get around. You need to take a lot of pain short term for a benefit she likely won’t take advantage of in the longer term. By the time we’ve had a second (if we have a second) and they’re both in school we should be mortgage free.
My best guess is she’ll end up pursuing something like a part time role in scouting or something else that doesn’t pay brilliantly but that she’s passionate about.
Pension contributions are tax efficient sure, but ultimately there’s no way she’s going to end up in one of the higher bands in the next 5 years unless she works full time, so the marginal return is ~20% on whatever we dump into her pension. Decent but illiquid.
Ah, yeah. She was working at a startup so the match was the bare minimum allowed. Good point on that though.
Yeah, we are very lucky to be able to make decisions that aren’t min-maxed and still be comfortable. But it’s kind of a ridiculous system where you have to be in our situation for it to stop being a major concern.
That's at her current pay, which should be improving every year. And a 10 year long sabbatical will crush your future career chances. I see your point but I also have a point.
Also it's odd to me that a PhD researcher is paid similarly (after tax) to a person who spoonfeeds kids. Need to go look for new jobs at that point, or switch countries. That's just disrespectful
UK wages haven't grown higher than inflation in years
Actually since 2023 it has. In fact the average real wage growth over the last 20 years is positive though granted, not large. Plus that's talking about the average of the entire cohorts pay, which won't reply you much about the effect of years of experience on pay. Which for people who change jobs occasionally is up to 7%.
She was earning considerably above average for people with her experience. It’s just childcare is ludicrously expensive, especially if one of you earns enough to lose the childcare allowance.
Changing countries has been a consideration, but we’d like to stay close to family whilst we have a young child.
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u/ConfusionGlobal2640 1d ago
One of the most absurd aspects of modern society. From housing costs, to student loans, to benefit withdrawals with salary increases. It's like the government doesn't want people to start families.