Hi,I'm currently working in Finance Advisory for a big 4 firm in London, and am thinking of relocating to Edinburgh. There is plenty of work there for me within my firm, and the Edinburgh office are keen for me to relocate.However a colleague of mine in a different big 4 firm is also going through the same thing -trying to relocate from London to Scotland and has just been told they'd need to take a 15% pay cut - due to 'regional variations in salary'. I don't know if the same will be true for me.Has anyone else experienced this? What sort of regional difference in salary have you heard of / what is reasonable?15% seems like a huge difference!

A number of firms and gov departments have "London Weighting" as part of the package. Usually up to £5k. Makes a big difference to the lower grades, obvoisly less so on the way up as generally the higher grades are in London anyway.A search found this analysis: https://unison.org.uk/upload/sharepoint/Briefings%20and%20Circulars/London%20Allowances.pdfNew hires in the regions are cheaper than London, so you can see their point, not sure of the legalities of it though.

Hi Andy,I know a number of people who have relocated before who did not take a "London weighting" cut when moving up North. Only those who had a specific salary part which was London related (eg the £5k mentioned on previous post) would have it cut, which is fair.You are in a great place as they are keen for you to move. Think about it, you are going to make them lots of £££, does it really matter if you keep your current salary? You won't be earning that much more than those in Edinburgh, some at your level will no doubt be earning even more than you.I would try and argue that you will have additional costs with moving and hence should keep the salary as is. Remember to also ensure you get an agreed budget set aside for them to pay moving expenses. Whether its £2k or £5k, it will really help you in that first couple of months as you pay for transport, trains, petrol etc

Any company that pays their staff in Scotland te same as they pay their staff in London is nuts. People in Scotland are far cheaper because the houses cost so much less, the lifestyle is better (no crappy tubes or commute to contend with) and the hours are usually way shorter...

People in Scotland are cheaper there is less competition between employers for skilled resources and greater difficulty in passing on high.costs to local clients, not because of extrinsic "lifestyle factors" which encourage employers to pay less in reflection.BEP is a big-timer who has been no nearer partnership of a consulting firm than I have an intimate relationship with Natalie Portman.

The lifestyle factor does matter actually... It's difficult to charge a london day rate in the regions when the staff aren't working london hours... Clients will pay more if they know the team is working 18 hour days and feel the stress of getting work completed than if they know they switch off the laptops and go home at 5.00pm carefree on the dot every day

...which happens only in the fantasies of London-based staff

As Yoda would say;"Feisty DCF is"Personally, I think its about 2-1 to DCF at the moment. Sorry BEPAs to Natalie Portman comment, you missed out DCF because there was another thread where it became all about Cindy Crawford! Haha, good ol' Cindy. Although Natalie is a nice 21st Century replacement for Cindy, who in the 80s could act about as well as Keanu Reeves. But give her a straight line to walk backwards and forwards on...Anyway, we digress. I reckon we need Coolio to do some Sherlock Holmes speech and confirm either way. Although DCF may then advise Coolio that he is about as likely to be a £2k a day contractor as DCF is to be taking his helicopter to work this morning while Natalie Portman gives him a nice good morning "breakfast of champions" on the way...;p

Is your salary split into two; i.e. x amount salary and y amount London weighting? If not, it would be really difficult for the company to force you to reduce your salary when moving to Edinburgh. How strong is your negotiating position here? Is this move driven by you or your company? Clearly the second point gives you more leverage but your company would be saving travel and expenses by you being located there rather than someone else potentially commuting from London. Try and dig out some HR policies from the intranet, it's not unknown for projects to spout something completely at odds with the companies HR policies....

Oh, I should add. I've just received a job offer from a small consultancy. My salary is split by salary and London weighting. The London weighting is around 12 % of the total salary. However, my offer letter states that should my home office location change from London to one of their regional locations then I forfit the London weighting....which is important as in a couple years I want to buy a long way from London and under this construct I wouldn't lose any element of my salary.

Would point out that some consultancies pay the same regardless but when the focus is London and you are in Edinburgh you need some sort of compensation as you will spend a lot of your time away from home