What else can I do to move from IT support into infrastructure? Getting paid low for my current role..?

Disclaimer: I know some of you guys gonna say “tldr” but would be nice to be given advice .

I’m 22 and have been working in IT support for around a year earning £28k central London , although I’ve taken on more responsibility than you would usually expect from a basic support role. Before this, I spent around a year working as a Dell field technician.

I’m part of a small IT team supporting over 700 users and I’m the main onsite IT person in our London office.

My responsibilities are:

• Managing users, groups, OUs and permissions in Active Directory
• Working with Group Policy and troubleshooting policy issues
• Managing users, licences, RBAC, sign in logs and audit logs in Entra ID
• Administering Exchange Online, shared mailboxes, distribution groups and mail flow
• Managing devices and policies through Intune and Windows Autopilot
• Supporting Azure Virtual Desktop session hosts and user sessions
• Supporting Conditional Access and approved bypass groups
• Troubleshooting DNS, DHCP, TCP/IP, FortiGate and Always On VPN
• Investigating phishing and email security incidents using two Big Email security platforms
• Using PowerShell for Active Directory and Exchange administration
• Provisioning devices and handling escalated onsite issues
• Carrying out root cause analysis when problems repeatedly return

I’m studying for the AZ 104 and have completed the main learning content. I’m now revising and working through practice questions before booking the exam.
For my homelab, I built a hybrid Azure environment with a Windows Server domain controller and Entra Connect. I synchronised users into Entra ID, configured a custom domain and deployed a user VM into a separate VNet. I set up VNet peering, changed the VM network’s DNS to use the domain controller and joined the VM to the domain. I also configured an Azure file share with AD authentication, Azure RBAC, NTFS permissions and automatic drive mapping through Group Policy. I have hit an Azure pay wall so I can’t do more home labs unfortunately:(

I’m applying for Junior Infrastructure Engineer, Systems Administrator, M365 and Azure support roles, but many still ask for previous sysadmin experience, VMware, Hyper V, backups and third line responsibility.

Do you think I’m ready to move up, and what should I focus on next to improve my chances? I don’t want to keep collecting certifications and building labs if what I really need now is an employer willing to give me production infrastructure experience.

On the side note, based on my responsibilities – do you think I’m underpaid? It cost me £260 to commute per month and take home is very low for me especially for central London. Please let me know otherwise as the market value for what I do is apparently £35k-38k average