Salary Story: I’m A 28-Year-Old Fashion Designer & I Make 55k
Last Updated 2 January 2023, 7:00
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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.
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Age: 28
Location: London
Current industry and job title: Designer, fashion
Current salary: £55,000
Number of years employed since school or university: Six
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 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.
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