A company hints they want me, check my maths please

[turbotoaster]

I currently permanently work as a Field Engineer for an instrumentation company that contracts us out to another company(MOD Fleet)

Ive been doing this work for 2 years, its been split been 3 of us so I spend roughly a 1/3rd of my year there(we rotate every week or 2)

They have hinted a couple of times that they wanted one us(poach) and yesterday they again said there was an opening.



Ive thought about it a couple of times, but today I got home and decided to work the numbers out on what my employment is actually worth to me, I do enjoy the company I work for.

You can see that my basic is pretty low, its the other things that seem to add up, ive gone back through my last 12months to see what I did.

Wages £31272
Overtime £3315
Bonus £2112
Food allocation £1200
Broadband £186

£38085

But being a field engineer, a lot of things are paid for on my behalf(see below) so a new car every 4years, fuel card, so worked out the costs based on me travelling there 50 weeks of the year(2 weeks covers private mileage) and what i need to cover that I wouldn't get with this new company.

Ive never bought fuel myself in the last couple of years even doing private miles for example

Lease £4800
insurance and tax £450
Fuel £4540
Wear and tear, tyres etc £1000(worst case scenario)
Laptop £300
Mobile phone £360

£11450

Since i will need to earn that money, add 25% so £14312

So that takes me to £52397 just to break even +another circa £300 for the 40% tax bracket so £52600

With that mind to even justify changing to this company what would you put to them.

In my mind it would have to be £65000 as thats £12400 more of which i would keep just under £7000 of it.



Does my maths seem reasonable, realistically I dont think they will entertain that figure but if they ask me again next week I at least want to be able to respond to a figure im happy with.

I dont want to miss anything out, as effectively im asking for double my basic(which they of course dont know), but then there is alot of things i loose which I need to cover for.

Thanks in advance

[StevieBee]

Your maths stack up (although you don't appear to have taken into account the tax / BiK on the car, fuel etc) but you need to de-couple the salary from expenses.

You can't include the expenses as part of any future salary negation. Things like cars, laptops, phones, etc are tools that need to be provided to you in order for you to do your job. Although you do benefit from having them, that is more a 'perk' rather than an absolute benefit to you. It's up to you to determine if the package of perks offered are sufficient to entice you.

I'm assuming nothing would change other than the name of your employer. That being the case, you can assume that the new employer would provide those same (or similar) tools. You can then look at the conditions that are attached to these. So if the new employer won't permit you to use the fuel card to cover fuel for personal journeys, you can work out what cost impact that will be to you and seek to add that to your salary.

Don't forget that your current employer is earning margin on your time and the potential employer is not going to take you on if you're going to cost them more that you do at present. So if you can find out what that margin is, that will give you an indication of the ball park for negotiation.

And don't look at the headline figures.... focus on what goes into your bank account each month.

But before you do anything, you need to check you current Contract of Employment to determine if there are any restrictions on you leaving to work for a client.

HTH

[AndyAudi]

Make sure you are comparing like with like.

Whilst you are getting a company car & fuel currently, you probably are & should be being taxed on such a benefit if you get private use. (You may actually be paying more for that benefit through a payroll tax deduction out of your wages than it’d cost you to fund private miles yourself …)

As mentioned look at your take home proposed with a “clean” new salary using a calculator & tax code as 1257
(if you use your current tax code it may assume you still get a company car/fuel etc)

https://www.thesalarycalculator.co.uk/salary.php#m...

[DodgyGeezer]

(maybe a) silly question... what about pension, private medical, annual leave? I know it's not directly into your bank account but over time are obviously of (potentially) greater benefit than an increase in ££

[turbotoaster]

StevieBee said:

Your maths stack up (although you don't appear to have taken into account the tax / BiK on the car, fuel etc) but you need to de-couple the salary from expenses.

You can't include the expenses as part of any future salary negation. Things like cars, laptops, phones, etc are tools that need to be provided to you in order for you to do your job. Although you do benefit from having them, that is more a 'perk' rather than an absolute benefit to you. It's up to you to determine if the package of perks offered are sufficient to entice you.

I'm assuming nothing would change other than the name of your employer. That being the case, you can assume that the new employer would provide those same (or similar) tools. You can then look at the conditions that are attached to these. So if the new employer won't permit you to use the fuel card to cover fuel for personal journeys, you can work out what cost impact that will be to you and seek to add that to your salary.

Don't forget that your current employer is earning margin on your time and the potential employer is not going to take you on if you're going to cost them more that you do at present. So if you can find out what that margin is, that will give you an indication of the ball park for negotiation.

And don't look at the headline figures.... focus on what goes into your bank account each month.

But before you do anything, you need to check you current Contract of Employment to determine if there are any restrictions on you leaving to work for a client.

HTH

Sorry, with regards to the BIK, i worked it out to be only £400 a year in wage loss(skoda hybrid) but should have included that, my tax code is 999L

Since im going to a permanent single place of work, there would be no car, no phone, no fuel card, I effectively become a maintenance engineer at a specialised factory.

I know based on the above total costs they are charging it out at over 3 times the number i personally would be asking for, but of course with that they get all the support of b2b which I cannot provide, they are just paying for my knowledge and skills in that particular field

[turbotoaster]

DodgyGeezer said:

(maybe a) silly question... what about pension, private medical, annual leave? I know it's not directly into your bank account but over time are obviously of (potentially) greater benefit than an increase in ££

these are items i dont know what would be on offer, I was trying to get myself in the ballpark finance wise before I open myself up to discussions as no point going down any of this path if each side is looking at it to far apart, while im guessing the pension will be better, for me im more bothered about life now than when im 68 as im not the healthiest chap

[Mr Pointy]

turbotoaster said:

DodgyGeezer said:

(maybe a) silly question... what about pension, private medical, annual leave? I know it's not directly into your bank account but over time are obviously of (potentially) greater benefit than an increase in ££

these are items i dont know what would be on offer, I was trying to get myself in the ballpark finance wise before I open myself up to discussions as no point going down any of this path if each side is looking at it to far apart, while im guessing the pension will be better, for me im more bothered about life now than when im 68 as im not the healthiest chap

In which case Private Medical Insurance might be a big benefit to you so it's worth finding out if it's a possibility. What about promotion, training etc? You might not be bothered about promotion but is there a difference in training you might be able to get to progress up the ladder?

[gangzoom]

turbotoaster said:

In my mind it would have to be £65000 as thats £12400 more of which i would keep just under £7000 of it.

As someone else has mentioned just bare in mind the total cost to your employer after NI/pensions is going to be £80k ish for a £65k payroll to you. Everyone wants more £££££ but just be realistic of the actual costs to HR vs your take home pay.

[turbotoaster]

gangzoom said:

As someone else has mentioned just bare in mind the total cost to your employer after NI/pensions is going to be £80k ish for a £65k payroll to you. Everyone wants more £££££ but just be realistic of the actual costs to HR vs your take home pay.

Well there is no point moving companies unless I see a good increase in the money in my back pocket regardless of what it costs the employer, there will be things I loose out on in my current role such as being able to work hard to finish a job early, have days with no work booked and chill out at home.

The only reason I would contemplate moving if for money, not for a better work experience

[LastPoster]

Obviously it's up to them but taking you on directly introduces a single point of failure, namely when you are on leave/off sick the service is not being provided. Even worse if you opted to leave or got run over by a bus. I guess your current employer wouldn't want to support them going forwards when they have cancelled the contract and pinched one of their staff. They must have strong reasons for introducing these risks, probably cost saving. Make sure you don't price yourself out, especially if they might be talking to your two colleagues as well.

For you, will it make your role a dead end? On a single site, no new contracts to work on or career progression.