So from what I understand, the current proposal is to change the current Senior band to HERA band 4:

Band 4: Senior
£46,690 - £56,333

This is a reduction of ~£5k from the top of the current band.

We'll then have a new `staff` band which is HERA band 5

Band 5: Staff
£56,840 - £66,483

From the discussion today it sounds like this could have very different implications depending on whether we decide to promote in place between senior and staff, once seniors reach the required level.

- On one hand we might be putting a cap on Seniors' future earnings (unless they get promoted).
- On the other hand we might be increasing Seniors' future earnings.

This sounds like it is a very important point to have clarity on.

This brings another point, its hard to understand what the financial consequences are for the team, in part because I dont think it is clear how we should expect to move within a band over time. Our performance related pay process seems opaque and ad-hoc. I think individual performance is not the only factor in deciding who gets a pay rise?

I think a question we should be able to answer is "if I progress as expected year on year, where in the salary band should I expect to be in {3,5,10} years time?".

It's difficult to assess how our future earnings will stack up against equivilant roles in other organisations. It seems like the new Senior band may align us more closely with RSE teams in Universities (looking at UCL grades for comparison). But a University will gaurentee your progression through the band every year, regardless of performance. So depending on how we expect to move through the band, the upper salary limit might be immaterial to our expected earnings over a 5-10 year period.