I live in Scotland and work for the NHS. My current role is coming to an end. I applied for a role within a larch insurance and pensions company.
During the interview they asked me what my pay expectations were. The job was advertised at £24k so thats what I said my expectations were. One of the interviewers asked me what my current salary was. I said that it was minimum wage at £9.5 per hour and after some discussion I said its around £18500 per year for 40 hours per week. (My hours recently changed and so I didn't have a solid per annum answer). At this point both interviewers were joking and laughing at how bad a salary that was. I'm literally sitting there with my tummy rumbling struggling to make ends meet while one of the biggest asset managers in the country is laughing at my income. “haha yeah” I said.
Fast forward a day and they have offered me the job but not for £24k but for £20,500. (I'm yet to respond to the offer, its currently a weekend). I asked the person who made me the offer if it was possible to negotiate, they later got back to me saying no and it was due to previous experience which is a fair point as although I have done a course on banking and have read a tonne of books I have no actual experience working somewhere like that outside of managing my own personal finance. To cut to the chase my current earnings per week are £320 and my new one with them if I take the offer will be £337 (£17 more per week). Although my current role is 40 vs the new one at 35 I actually do much less than 40 hours of actual work as a lot of that is just being on call whereas the 35 with the new place will be full on.
TL:DR I was laughed at in an interview by one of the largest asset manager funds in the country for how little I earn to then be given an offer that is only £17 more per week for significantly more work. Its may even turn out to be less than that as it may push me above certain thresholds where I need to pay more stuff like student loans etc.