Magrat it does depend on where you are in the country, but 24k ish (some research fellowship or research associate posts are as low as 18k) is around 1500 take-home (with student loan payment) per month, hardly enough to live decently on in most of the country, esp the SE (and university towns with big research universities capable of sustaining lots of postdocs tend to be expensive places to live). Lots of people have to live on less, of course, but around 1500 take-home is just at that point where it's too much to be eligible for any tax credits/help but not enough to live properly in lots of areas in the country - and for people who've spent 7-8 years training in higher education it's pretty grim. I mean, renting a 1-bed flat in my area is over 850/month - not much left for council tax, bills, food, clothes, leisure after that.....
Most entry level posts in my field have been replaced by fixed term "teaching fellowships" at well below the old Lecturer A scale.
andsmile the reason that most HE lecturers are 35 plus is because the entry level posts (which a generation ago used to go to new PhDs in their early 20s), are now going to people who did their PhDs in their early 20s, but then freelanced or were on lots of short term quite lowly teaching or research contracts for 10+ years before they managed to get a lectureship....at least in my field. :( What used to be first jobs for those without much teaching experience or published research are now highly prized and fought over. The salary, though, is nowhere near what you'd expect from other professions with a comparable level of qualifications and training - teaching, for example, pays a lot better. In academia, people with three or four degrees from prestigious universities and 10-15 years' publications and work experience might get a 34,000 starting salary in their late 30s - and that's if they're at the absolute top of their game! Having existed on much less than that for years moving about the place as postdocs. It's now becoming a career really for those with loads of time, not many family commitments and a private income, sadly.