UK MSCA-IF Salary
Good morning Gurkan,
I agree, the UK salary does end up feeling like a bait and switch. I am an MSCA at Leeds and my in hand salary per month is ~£2800, which is apparently still above average here. I am not sure why I am being offered less than you are so there may be some differences in how Bradford runs things.
If I have understood correctly it works like this:
- At Leeds they have a very conservative exchange rate to EU (0.78 when its been about 0.85) which will be balanced at the end of my contract - so I am very likely underpaid now, but will get it back in two years. This is still a negative thing to me as I am losing the opportunity to invest any savings or to just have enough here, if you are supporting others.
- If you opt into the pension scheme, the employer contributions come out of your bucket of money.(~22%)
- Then your contributions to the pension come out. (~10% these have changed recently and may change again next April)
- Next the employer contributions to your tax come out of that remaining total (13.8% on income over £737/month national insurance, 0.5% apprentice levy)
- Lastly your tax comes out, but that will be more variable with dependants etc. From my spreadsheet, it looks like they are reserving ~£400 aside for my tax/month.
As you can see from this order, if you do opt out of the pension, you get a much higher salary now, but pay a lot more tax so may end up worse off in the long run - but you really need to find out how you will access the pension as the UK rules for moving the pension to your home country (if you don't stay in the UK) are paternalistic at best. Also, if your are supporting others, you may find you need the extra income; obviously I can't gauge that for you.
I hope that helps somewhat, it might at least help you know what to ask them about.
Cheers,
Tams