Average UK salary. How you getting on?

[RedSquirrel111]

Thought it would be interesting to hear off the average, and not the mumsnet six figures- can't afford to live

Average UK salary for full time workers 2021 was £31,285

I'm very slightly higher on £33k with potential end of year bonus up to £2k

• live in North West
• insurance broker
• no partner or children
• own home (with mortgage)
• comfortable but a bit worried about increased cost of living.

Generally I feel quite lucky. I can't afford luxuries, but I don't worry about basic necessities - don't really budget for food costs etc.

How does your average wage look? What's the job sector? Do you struggle? What area?

I earn 33k full time in London. I’m mid-50s. Private sector. Pay rise was 0.5%. DH earns 24k. Cost of living a serious concern.

I’m an AHP, just got a Band 6 role which is about £32,000 FTE. I work 30 hours a week so earn about £25,000. I’d love to earn a bit more, but really don’t want to work full-time at the moment (3 young children) and there aren’t that many band 7 roles in my profession. Husband is a university lecturer and earns more than me, plus is full-time. Between is we are comfortable on a day to day basis but I worry that we’re not able to save much each month.

Midlands and part time so 19k and DH self employed about 33k. Fortunate to have bought property 20 years ago and moved up but have a chunky mortgage still.
There is wriggle room to earn more but I won’t give up my few hours a day where I do all the women’s mental work in the working day. Shopping, kids dentist, cat vet etc etc.
Can afford ok standard of living but don’t eat out/ take away much. Shop in Aldi etc.
I definitely feel the pinch of higher food prices so far it’s noticeable.
We have a log burner and get free wood through DH job so that helps with keeping heating bills down a bit but still need heating on.
My wage used to rise annually by 2/3% but that has stopped about 5 years ago in my sector.
Don’t have any savings or anything to dip into for holidays that’s the but I wish we had.

@NeedAHoliday2021

Anyone struggling on £150k, even if you’re a single parent, needs to have a word with themselves and sit down and look at what they’re doing wrong. Do you think those on average salaries don’t have childcare costs? You’d think someone intelligent to earn that much would be better at budgeting.

Totally agree. It beggars belief.

Civil servant central government - 45k per year, applying for promotion to the next level at the moment, that would be 12k more. I live in Surrey, so that’s not really enough to purchase a house as I’m on my own. I’m saving for a mortgage and planning to move back to north wales, where I can easily afford a decent property. I go on nice holidays and my children get anything they need; their dad is also a civil servant but a lot higher level than me, he works overseas at present and has saved for their Uni education so that’s great as means no pressure on me for that, as I’ve supported my eldest through Uni too

@forcedfun

Surprised by all these people purportedly on many multiples of the average salary who can't read a couple of quite clear paragraphs and conclude this isn't the thread for them!

I agree! Whatever they get paid for, it obviously isn't reading comprehension.

Dh earns just over average, I earn just below.
We bought properties at the right time and invested and saved. Paid off final small mortgage a couple of years ago. We are well off and certainly don't have any money worries, have luxury holidays, nice food, clothes, car, campervan, anything we want within reason.
We live in a lovely home in a very nice area..
Our dc are all independent adults, one is wealthy.

We most definitely do not live frugally like all the alleged super high earners on MN earning £100k+

@delilahbucket

I was doing amazingly but you know Covid... Self employed... Yada yada. Oh and DH made redundant last month. I do think the average salary is a bit of a misnomer though as Oop North we have much lower outgoings and that average wage doesn't reflect the individual parts of the country.

Agree with this. We definitely get more bang for our buck up here.

Lockdowns and WFH have also made a big difference to our outgoings. No extortionate city centre parking (£12 a day!!), no morning Costa, very low fuel and car maintenance costs, no school dinners... we saved enough to completely pay off all credit cards and a small loan with enough spare to completely revamp the living room and finally replace our knackered old sofas.

(And we are one of the average salary households £60k between us)

Me and DP both earn around the average (I would earn more but because of Ill health I can only work 3 days)
We live very comfortably day to day but don't have children (my health issues prevent it) and we rent, we are saving for a deposit but it's tricky as house prices have been rising faster than we can save.

Family income within OP's range, we live comfortably. Mortgage free.

Hang on, I've just twigged that the 30k is average household income as a whole so totally ignore my comment!

I earn about 21,000, husband 19,000. Now mortgage free. Help the children out quite a lot. Could probably have had higher incomes over the years but never been much of a one for 'stuff'. Don't really care what anyone else earns because I am happy with my life.

£13000
Subject specialist teaching assistant, STEM graduate, work 8.30-4 5 days a week.
It’s shit. Really fucking shit. And I’m good at my job, really good (I’m consistently praised for how well the students and teachers respect and like me and how well I do) but I’m leaving because I can’t afford to stay. If education is so bloody important to this government then maybe they could pay us like we are important. I’d get more stacking shelves in the supermarket (no joke - I get £9.55 an hour). The kick in the teeth was when the gov started the national tutoring programme to help kids catch up post covid - the job description is exactly the same as mine but pays £25 an hour. That’s my worth. That is what TAs should be being paid

I'm a carer for my son and work part time, can only earn £128 a week without it affecting carers allowance.
DH earns £21k a year, private sector. Life is a constant struggle, never have enough money to treats/holidays, we're happy though. Just need a small lotto win!

Me - full time - public sector - £54k
DH - full time - private sector IT - £52k

I would say we are fairly comfortable, not rolling in it by any stretch but okay 👌🏻

I earn 34k, band 6 nurse. My husband is on slightly less, works in education. We have a mortgaged house and run 2 cars. Two children and a dog.
Always still seem to struggle at the end of the month, but at least I can indulge in buying things like kitchen roll these days!
I don't think we're brilliant with money to be honest, it's actually quite inspiring reading what people are doing with quite modest salaries, such as striving to pay off mortgage early, and save for the future. Well done to all.
Worried about the astonishing rises in energy prices. We are currently paying double what we did a year ago, at £189 a month.

This thread has been so disappointing, sorry @RedSquirrel111

As someone on the national average wage I was looking forward to reading about others on the sme wage, where they work, etc. but just can't be bothered to sift through all the posts which are tit for tat digs and going on about other irrelevant posts.

Just to tie it to the thread more as I didn't read your last line, I was average a year ago (in the £30s) and we were comfortable (before inflation went insane) but there is a lot we want to do and the role also didn't stretch me enough so I knew I wouldn't sit there long- I wanted a higher responsibility role.

My husband's salary is average, but has a non contributory pension, his fuel to work paid for and no student loan so he brings in a good chunk. He hopes to bring in more too though.

@MrsJBaptiste I agree. It was totally obvious to me what the OP was asking.
And for those shouting that she hadn't 'reprimanded' those earning less than average then really, clear your ears out. It's clear that she wants to know how people earning average-ish salaries...not £100k+ are managing with rising costs etc. people on less than average have something to contribute and hopefully provide tips on budgeting etc.
Nuance is a skill that many here seem to have been at the back of the queue for!

Stealth braggers alert⚠️⚠️⚠️

Yup .. and another poster, snowone comes to tell us they're okay on over 100k. Why do people do this?

Maybe qe could start again but word OP differently? I don't know? I think its a great idea for a thread and I'm really interested!

Earn a bit more than that part time. London, kids, high earning partner.

28k retail store manager with up to 5k bonus, north west england. 2 children (under 2) so relatively ok, once the kids are in school i'll be comfortable but at the moment £70 a day in childcare is a real killer!!

I earned exactly that average salary 3 years ago pre- dc, I’m now slightly above it (42k). DH is a SAHP so we have no childcare costs but obviously just the one wage.

We live in a large 4 bed which we managed to buy by renovating our first house which we bought for under £100k and sold for £180k. The work cost us about £20k to complete and we held off having DC until we were in a better place financially.

We have no debt other than the mortgage and our student loans which means our outgoings are low and manageable.

I’m 30 and my earning potential can accelerate from now, so although we’re not rich, we feel well off.