Big changes in parental leave (especially paternity leave) needed across the board, definitely!

I'm definitely not saying don't do a PhD - my stipend was the longest contract I'd ever had, I'd always had annual contracts, so that was a big plus! But I also think it is easy to romanticise and I'm wary of that.

UK gov data on annual salaries looks at people who have been in role for a year so it's a bit dodgy. But the current average annual salary for people aged 18-21 (lower than most graduates) is 23k (33k for 22-29 age range but that's a big range of experience!).

I'd probably still disagree. My graduate scheme salary in 2019 was £21k and entry level jobs at the company I moved to the in 2020 paid the same. That charity then moved to pay entry level jobs at £25k. Looking at jobs currently, coordinator roles are often around 25k (not always ofc!).

(Equally my experience when talking about the realities of the academic job market is that men still think that they might as well give it a shot, whereas women and people of colour aren't as likely to risk it. And my cautions here will absolutely contribute to that split. No right answers!)

Both of us have loved so much about doing a PhD and we don't regret any of our choices. There are many wonderful things that come from a PhD. But we also need to be careful about how we talk about them - especially to young people who haven't got alternative experience.

This is true even if one of you is working!

You also don't get the new subsidised childcare hours (because you're not a worker). So you have to have childcare in order to finish the PhD, but you also need to pay for that childcare privately - especially as fewer and fewer universities have any coverage. We spend a lot of time chasing money.

I didn't get any parental leave through my PhD because we had infertility issues - so while I got pregnant while funded, my due date was after my funding ended (though before my student status ended). So all I could do was extend my writing up time (after the fact).

Also, speaking personally, there's the question of family life. My partner and I had our child while we were both PhD students. He got 2 weeks parental leave and had no entitlement to shared parental leave (because you're not a worker).

Obviously this is just anecdotal and maybe it was bad timing, etc etc. But I have also heard this from other people. At the very least, it takes a lot of work to make your academic experience sell.

Not to brag, but my CV is very strong - I have a lot of experience both in and out of academia because I've worked throughout my PhD. I applied for 15 jobs recently (at varied levels of seniority) and got no interviews. I then took my PhD off my CV and got offered the first job I applied for.

It's also 3 years of no NI contributions (so no access to state pension) and no pension contributions. For a lot of people in their early twenties thinking about a PhD, that doesn't mean much but it will make a huge difference over their lives. (Especially given the existing gender pension gap).

It is great that stipends are rising but £21k is on the low end for a graduate job. And that's probably £21k for 3 years, but you're doing the PhD for more like 4 in most cases.

My first post-bachelors degree jobs were paid at or over £21k in 2018/2019.

Absolutely agree with this - a PhD is a bad graduate job because it offers no pension contributions (both state and private), very variable access to parental leave and no access to the government funded childcare hours before 3yo.

(I am also not convinced it does do good things for your CV)

Congratulations! Hope you get a break for a bit!

Also, in the time it has taken me to get 100 pages into this *very short* book, I read one detective novel and one romance, but both of those were ebooks, so it's not looking good.