22K full-time in London? That's a typo, right? Or are you looking for recent grads or interns?

I doubt it's a typo. Junior developers are starting on very low rates in the UK these days. I met a mid-level PHP Developer working for a major firm in the UK a few weeks ago, and he was earning £14k!

You get what you pay for.

There are a few companies that try with these kind of "pays" - mostly looking for "coders" basically trying to undercut even Eastern European offshore rates (min. US$20/h) but in London (£14k est. hourly rate - 2760h p.a. £12k -> US$6.8/h - this is basically the UK minimum wage)

And then there are others that are looking for different types of people - those that design and invent things, get something done reliable without constant control, architects and creators.

The second group like anywhere else demands multiples of that pay and gets that easily without much discussion. Have a look around on this page what others in London are offering for entry / mid level positions and even for that you see multiples of the 14k offered.

I consider it appalling (trying) to pay such low amounts in London for full time work - amounts that will not be enough to cover even the most basic living in this great but one of the most expensive places on this planet.

I was working as a Junior developer for my first company and already had 2 years of experience in freelance work aned as a hobbyist really. I was paid £4,800/a or, £400 per month (which after national insurance etc was a paltry £370.)

After I left that job (mostly due to the money, I'm not a greedy person, but my quality of life was ridiculously low) I came to my current job, where in I earn in the region of £22k.

While it may only be $30,000 or so in the US, outside of London in the UK, this is actually a pretty standard wage for developers.

4800 per annum is not even legal minimum wage for full-time work in the UK, unless you're talking about a very long time ago and not adjusting for inflation. So if that is what you were really paid, you should not only have quit, but reported your employer to the authorities.

My first IT job in the 1990s was 15K per annum, and that was considered low at the time (living in Edinburgh, not as expensive as London but still higher cost of living than average). My more experienced colleagues were earning at least 30K, and that was in 1997.

I know someone outside of London that's getting paid £600/month as a sort of apprenticeship. But it's honestly disgusting. He's working the developer silly hours, making him work weekends and evenings and keeping him in the office til late some day. I was conned into joining this business (i didnt realise it was a glorified cowboy operation) and just quit with them this week. It's truly appalling what people get away with. And on top of that, there was so much hubris, and a lack of respect for the team.

It was a higher apprenticeship, which lets them get away with paying 1/3 as much for someone with the same talent and experience.

Oh my god. That is horrific! I recently did some contract work and got conned in a similar way. It's amazing how much people in the UK still get away with this kind of behaviour. I'm really glad you managed to find some work where you're paid better. If you're ever interested in additional freelance work, do let me know. I do business consulting/digital marketing work and occasionally have a requirement to outsource work to a developer. I have a project that needs quoting on today in fact although I kind of pegged another developer for it, but he hasnt confirmed his availability with me just yet. No promises, but if interested, let's speak.

My contact details are on my virtual business card which is in my profile.

That's shocking, I didn't realize things had gotten so bad there. Glad I left when I did.

There seems to be a stark polarisation. There's a whole host of businesses that have become extremely cagey and fearful due to the recession and their lack of ability to cope, and are "coping" by trampling on their own team. On the flipside, there are however a few exceptional businesses as well, that are treating their team well both financially and emotionally, but the ratio of fearful businesses to the exceptional ones is something like 9:1 <-- don't quote me on this, i'm making a random figure up based on my observation, and the reality is probably quite different, but hopefully you get the picture of what i'm saying.