I'm now in my 3rd year as an analyst at a big consulting firm. They more or less cancelled promotions so myself (and others) now have about 2 1/2 years experience and are still on an analyst salary while promotions next time also look to be minimal.This is essentially due to the economic climate rather than performance (which under normal circumstances would have definately got me promoted). I'm therefore underpaid for my level. Is my current salary going to have a large impact on the salary I can get if I move or is the length and type of experience more important? someone with around 3 yrs experience should be shooting for £45-50k imo but that might be hard to achieve if you're still on an analyst salary!

Interesting conclusion. Underpaid in comparison to whom? Do you know ppl in other firms who don't have a pay freeze? Surely your salary if you're able to move will be governed by the prospective employers ability to pay & how attractive/competent a candidate they think you are?

i have a slightly different problem, i'm mid career and need too high a salary to move, i'm in final salary pension which these days are rare, everyone is money purchase these days which is just a bet on the stock market so to give that up I'm need at least a 10% rise just so I could fund any short fall, I'd need a 5% rise just to cover loss of long service benefits etc, so that's 15% rise to move for no real personal gain, plus I'd need another 10% just to make it worth my while, so i'd need a total of 25% rise I estimate to make a job change financially worth whileof course I could move for less just for a change or career progression, but finanically speaking I need 25%, and that's difficult

"underpaid in comparison to whom"In comparison to people in my firm at the next level up, often who had worse performance ratings than mine at the time they were promoted, people in other firms with similar levels of experience and recruitment salary surveys which detail approximate salaries and yrs experience.

Sounds like an unfortunately reality of life at the moment. You mention "if i move" - is that an actual option, or are you speculating?

I am underpaid too. Last year on £70K plus bonus. This year on jobseekers allowance about £2K.It doesn't seem fair. I always got good performance ratings. And the salary surveys say I should be on at least £70K.

Be thankful that you had a job paying 70k. What about all those people from woolworths who are out of a job and only ever earned 20k max. You can get a job if you really wanted to, yes the salary might be 20k less but this is a recession, deal with it.As for the original post, if you were that good they would promote you to keep you. Obviously they think they could continue without you, so either suck it up or move on for whatever wage you can get.

Anon they promoted a fraction of the amount of people that would normally be promoted based on performance, retaining employees isn't high on their agenda right now.