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Original poster

To think it’s crazy that National Minimum wage is £27k

663 replies

Butterflyfluff · 09/10/2026 20:08

Yet it’s not really enough to live on 😢

My first job paid £7.5k per year and I thought I was loaded! And I’m not ancient.

Now 2 people on NMW earn over £50k between them yet it’s really not enough these days.

OP posts:
Finta · 09/10/2026 21:08

It's fine if you don't have kids. Just rent a one bed and split the bills.

Boreded · 09/10/2026 21:07

Silverbirchleaf · 09/10/2026 20:59

Try being a pensioner. They have half that to live on.

No pensioner I know has less than 3 holidays a year. I don’t know anyone wealthy, it’s just that pensioners have no housing costs, and guaranteed income from the state to top up their private pensions.

Some pensioners might be poor, but not most. They also have no mortgage or rent to pay which right now would be more than half of the minimum wage someone earns (if they’re buying a house now).

HardFuckingBird · 09/10/2026 21:07

DonTBeacunt · 09/10/2026 20:59

50k pp? Or between 2 as a gp?

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I recently got a new role, so I now earn £29k a year and DH earns £25k a year, so in fairness we now earn £54k between us. One of our children has significant SEN so we both work part-time to juggle things. We are in an area of the country with quite a low sessional rate for GPs. As I said, we do have some erratic, unreliable self-employed income too, but we cannot rely on it and we don't use it for living expenses - it gets saved if and when it comes in. I fully accept that we are not on the breadline, but we manage to pay all our bills very comfortably on our employed income. I have colleagues who earn far more than us who are feeling stretched, and it's almost always due to lifestyle creep - four foreign holidays a year, a five bedroom detached house, two luxury cars, etc.

x2boys · 09/10/2026 21:07

Butterflyfluff · 09/10/2026 21:04

Ok, you pay it then tell me differently? 🤨

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I was agreeing with you it isnt posdible on the figures the pp posted .

AllIwantForChrismasIsAKitchenAidStandMixer · 09/10/2026 21:06

Silverbirchleaf · 09/10/2026 20:59

Try being a pensioner. They have half that to live on.

All the pensioners I know are absolutely rolling in it. Hundreds of thousands released from downsizing a house they bought for peanuts in the late 90s, final salary pensions. They’re living the god damn dream.

fedupwithseparatebedrooms · 09/10/2026 21:05

£27k I wish... I'm a TA and my annual salary is £19500

AllIwantForChrismasIsAKitchenAidStandMixer · 09/10/2026 21:05

Endoadnowarrior · 09/10/2026 20:42

It also depends what you are classing as "full time", it would have to be 41hrs pw for an over 21 to earn 27k.
At 37.5h (which a LOT of jobs are! Especially in admin/office roles,) FT NMW is actually just under 25k. Which is even worse!

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I fully reject the idea that “full time” is now 40 hours a week - since when? I do 37.5 and DH does 36 and we’re both full time!

LowlandLucky · 09/10/2026 21:05

CatamaranViper · 09/10/2026 20:50

And yet we have a gross income of £80k and struggle to make ends meet.
We're stuck in a debt spiral and have been for years. Can't get out. Every time one of us earns a tiny bit more, everything else becomes more expensive and we still can't pay off the debts we have.

If you didn't have the debt then 80k would be a fantastic wage. Were some of the debts through choice?

Boreded · 09/10/2026 21:05

intrepidpanda · 09/10/2026 21:01

Yeah they seem to have missed that it was a tongue in check response.
My poor DP is now getting accused of taking evasion. Expecting a visit from HMRC soon lol.

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You’re gonna have a ridiculous amount of notifications for the next couple of days. More if someone randomly revives the thread too 😂 HMRC are going to be the least of your worries

Original poster
Butterflyfluff · 09/10/2026 21:04

x2boys · 09/10/2026 20:54

It isnt.

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Ok, you pay it then tell me differently? 🤨

OP posts:
Silverbirchleaf · 09/10/2026 21:04

x2boys · 09/10/2026 21:03

Not all pensioners my 84 year old dad has thousands in his bank account he retired at 54 he has a very good income.

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Yes, and not all people live off minimum wage.

x2boys · 09/10/2026 21:03

Silverbirchleaf · 09/10/2026 20:59

Try being a pensioner. They have half that to live on.

Not all pensioners my 84 year old dad has thousands in his bank account he retired at 54 he has a very good income.

intrepidpanda · 09/10/2026 21:01

Boreded · 09/10/2026 20:54

@intrepidpanda bet you’re wishing you hadn’t posted now…it’s not your husband and you were just explaining what they were doing and now everyone is replying like you’re the one claiming a low income 🫣 got to love mumsnet sometimes don’t you

Yeah they seem to have missed that it was a tongue in check response.
My poor DP is now getting accused of taking evasion. Expecting a visit from HMRC soon lol.

DonTBeacunt · 09/10/2026 21:01

intrepidpanda · 09/10/2026 20:39

He is a tradesman
He earns £12, 570

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Does he take dividends Amie pay you and your dc the same amount as well as dividends?

Silverbirchleaf · 09/10/2026 20:59

Try being a pensioner. They have half that to live on.

DonTBeacunt · 09/10/2026 20:59

HardFuckingBird · 09/10/2026 20:27

Salary! No benefits except for Child Benefit. Believe it or not, we are both GPs - we have a child with significant SEN so both work part-time.

We earn £50k a year from employed income. We do have some erratic, unreliable self-employed income which we can't rely on and don't budget for - we save it as soon as it hits our bank account.

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50k pp? Or between 2 as a gp?

shuggles · 09/10/2026 20:58

HardFuckingBird · 09/10/2026 20:15

DH and I live off around £50k gross between us and we have a very comfortable lifestyle (we have two children in primary school). It's a perfectly reasonable household income in inexpensive areas (I realise it wouldn't go far in London or much of the south). In my area the problem is lifestyle creep. People's expectations are crazy compared to when we were children. When I was at school most families didn't have one foreign holiday a year, but now a lot of the families I know expect to be able to go away 3-4 times a year. Families often shared one old car - now most people I know have a luxury car per adult, often on PCP. Meals out used to be a rare treat - whereas now a lot of my colleagues feel entitled to coffees, lunches, takeaways and meals out every week.

I have far more respect for people who live comfortable lives on modest incomes than I do for clowns earning massive £100k+ salaries who cry about supposedly not having enough to live on.

HardFuckingBird · 09/10/2026 20:58

LostNFoundSV · 09/10/2026 20:55

I wasn’t . I don’t recall anyone in my friendship group or my family doing that either.

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Quite. My family were quite well off when I was growing up. By the time I left home to go to uni I'd only had 6 foreign holidays. That was more than a lot of my friends. Nowadays I don't know many families who don't go abroad at least once a year - many go away 3-4 times a year.

Waitingfordoggo · 09/10/2026 20:58

LostNFoundSV · 09/10/2026 20:55

I wasn’t . I don’t recall anyone in my friendship group or my family doing that either.

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Yes, I wasn’t doing that in 2000 either. I was a young adult, just graduated. I didn’t go on many holidays then, and definitely had no credit cards. I did go to the pub quite a lot though 🥴

CherryKerry · 09/10/2026 20:56

The tax allowance has not increased for years, it should be around £15600 today.

Waitingfordoggo · 09/10/2026 20:56

BiteSizeByzantine · 09/10/2026 20:39

In basically the year 2000? Everyone was going mental on credit cards and mini breaks became a thing

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That’s not when I grew up, no.

Or do you mean what I said about becoming spoilt in the last 30 years? Maybe I mean 40/50 years then!

Boreded · 09/10/2026 20:55

Shatenoeuf · 09/10/2026 20:53

No darling, that's what he declares to the tax man.

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That’s what intrepid is saying…she isn’t the poster who claimed 20k income

Endoadnowarrior · 09/10/2026 20:55

He must be self employed? Is that a dividend he "pays" himself, so he doesn't pay tax?

Because for ft hours of 37.5 per week, that's £6.44 ph, which would be highly illegal for an employer to pay him that rate! Even under 18 year olds NMW is £8 ph!

You say you have kids, on those amounts surely you would also qualify for Child Benefit and UC?

Do you have visibility of the household finances? I am a little bit concerned that you're being duped into what your household income actually is, or there is something amiss with creative accounting!

LostNFoundSV · 09/10/2026 20:55

BiteSizeByzantine · 09/10/2026 20:39

In basically the year 2000? Everyone was going mental on credit cards and mini breaks became a thing

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I wasn’t . I don’t recall anyone in my friendship group or my family doing that either.

XenoBitch · 09/10/2026 20:54

JoannCourcyIveGotThePowerNSoul · 09/10/2026 20:53

A lot of jobs are part time with shift patterns that don't allow second job.
Full time hrs are thin on the ground in NMW sectors.

Yep, and zero hour where you are expected to be on call, but for no extra pay. So you can't get a second job then either.