People power | How do we determine a job's value?

Many events have shaped the world of work this past year, but industrial action of some UK workers to fight for the salaries they feel they deserve has heightened the awareness of employee power.

It has also shined a light on the salaries of certain groups in our society and ultimately pushed spectators, and most importantly the organisations strikers work for, to decide how much a job is worth.

Demand for better pay has been at the forefront of recent strikes from rail workers, nurses, junior doctors, civil servants and more. The BBC posted a recent article looking at the pay rise demands from strikers in-line with inflation and the average UK salary which is £33,000. The average salary for a junior doctor is £55,000, for a teacher is £41,000, and for civil service workers is £27,700. Despite some of these salaries being above the UK average, workers argue that they haven’t risen in-line with inflation and rising prices.

As HR professionals, an important aspect of your job is deciding what salary bracket each employee in your company falls into. The salaries equated to job roles is something that has developed over decades and is primarily based on the skill-set required for a particular role and the perceived value it brings to society. But who determined some jobs would get paid more than others? And what goes into deciding the salary of a job?