Roughly when did one salary stop being enough to comfortably sustain an average family?

[keswickgirl]

I realise there won’t be one exact year of course. All I know is that my dad bought a very nice 4 bedroomed house on a headteacher’s salary in the early 90s, my mum didn't work and my sister and I had very comfortable childhoods. UK holiday every year and abroad every few years. Pets, dancing, swimming, piano, tennis lessons.

30 years later, it’s such a different story. Roughly when did things change?

Its been a slow steady creep as house prices have outstripped salary rises.

mid 00s probably although will depend on location.

My Dad and now ex Step Mum both worked full time jobs in the early 90s and it was hell. We didn’t have any spare money and I remember being scared we’d lose our house.
no holidays. No treats. No nice things. Nothing. Everything was a struggle.

I would say the 1980s. My grandparents bought their house on just my grandfather's salary, but both my parents needed to work. Admittedly more for holidays and schooling. I was born in 1970.

I bought my first house in 1995 and was the only one of my peer group to have bought by myself.

i would say sometime in the 1980s
its hard to pinpoint - I grew up in the 70s , both parents worked when they could but we never had holidays or the like whereas you feel it was normal in the 90s to have what to me is a luxury life on a single salary

in the 50s I would say my grandparents got by on a single salary but neither set owned a home or went away for holidays more than every decade or so - certainly not the lifestyle people today mean by adaquate !

Well you could still do that on a HT salary. I think it depends on the salary, COL is definitely a factor and where you live though. Plenty of single parents manage on one salary. Our family is one-salary on HOD money atm which is much less than HT.

I wouldn’t say 80s or even early 90s- I remember my dad finding out how much my brother was earning in the 00s and he was flabbergasted but he’d lived fine on his wage, saved well and we could afford what we wanted on that his one wage in 80s and 90s- we had hobbies, nice house (although we did all share rooms) did shoppings that nearly cost as much as what we do today!!

Depends on the salary. I had my children in 85 and 87 and the intention had been for me to stay at home until they went to school. My now ex was a transport manager, but it soon became evident that we couldn't manage on his salary and I started part time and gradually built up until I went full time when they were about 3 and 5 - but I had had periods when I had taken on extra hours and did full time before then, usually when he was made redundant (which happened a few times). I think we managed on one salary for less than a year - and that included maternity pay.

Median head teacher salary today is over 63k - that’s not far off 2 median salaries - but sone can earn twice that

as a headteacher your dad was not “typical “

By 1971 49% of women worked - I guess that’s a clue

I worked in retail whilst at uni & if I was full time would have been on about 20k. You could buy flats in parts of London for 80k ish in then & lending was more relaxed, eg 95% mortgage, interest only etc. I would be richer if I sacked off uni!

@keswickgirl the 1975 Sex Equality act prevented banks from discriminating against women's salaries in mortgage lending. Since then, more legislation and cultural shifts have helped women to become financial contributors to mortgages. The rest is down to market forces - dual incomes have an advantage over single incomes, and have gradually contributed to price rises.

My immigrant parents bought on 1 salary in the 80s, our neighbours were similar. In-laws bought on one teacher salary in the 80s. But parts of London were very different then.

Of course it does depend on the salary, and I do realise I was lucky growing up.

My friend is a headteacher, and today she gives her children a similar home and lifestyle, but she and her husband both work full time. He probably earns slightly less than her, but not much less. She has told me that things are a little tight since mortgage rates went up, they’re still managing but it’s not like they’re saving loads. So today it takes 2 salaries to live a similar family life to the one I remember in the early 90s on one salary.

Speaking from personal experience, about 1984-6.

That was around the time we bought our first home, and banks would lend 3x the man's salary and that was it. They wouldn't take the woman's salary into consideration at all. Within a couple of years, house prices had rocketed so much they were using 3x the man's salary plus 1x the woman's. Couple of years later it was 3x joint salaries.

@keswickgirl you couldn't buy my parents or in-laws homes today on 1 salary or 2 unless they were high as they ££££

I grew up in the 80s and 90s and both my parents worked. Outside the middle class women have always worked

No it doesn't. Things we take for granted today were not commplace back then. Childcare, dog grooming, pet walking, mobile phones, multiple TVs, foreign travel, the list goes on.

This. I was brought up in the 60s/70s and both my parents worked as did my friends' parents. We lived in a council house. Our childhood was nothing like yours.

I bought a flat with my husband in the early 90s, but we both worked and would have struggled on one wage.

That makes sense.
My dad did actually buy the house in the 80s, not the 90s, now I think about it.

80s I guess

But I think it did vary a lot, according both to the individual salary in question and one’s expectations.

I have to say I don’t think life was much better in them there days - less frantic certainly but often with a blanket of Philip Larkin like quiet desperation which is less common now.

If only there was a solution society could come up with like both parents working fewer hours

…. oh and doing something about our INSANE house prices via sorting out the green belt and the epic misbehaviour of developers obviously..

My parents both worked all of their lives, my mother worked nights when we were young so she could be home when my dad was at work. They could never afford to buy a house, it wasn't even a dream.

For many people it was never a possibility to live well on one wage, it's an urban myth. If you were middle class or above it was possible, but the middle class was much smaller, most people were working class.

It’s been gradual but I would place the change around the turn of the century, when there were significant changes to education, welfare and taxes.

In previous generations women often didn’t work, and children got jobs at 16/18. The benefits system was also more generous in some ways (eg mortgage interest tax relief). There were fewer one parent families and less geographical mobility so housing was easier to plan and to come by.

I suspect that most people would agree that the changes sounded positive in theory, and the government’s policies were made with the best of intentions. But a lack of planning and the laws of unintended consequences now mean that house prices are much higher relative to incomes, and previous support systems no longer exist. This, coupled with events and societal shifts (both predictable and not) like an ageing population and CoL mean that things have been exacerbated further and now even two earners struggle to provide the standard of living that one could’ve provided 40 years back.

But of course 40 years back I’d have been a housewife and my kids wouldn’t have had the educational chances they’ve got. And if they’d have been disabled they might have been institutionalised. And my parents would be dead rather than alive-but-unwell. So, swings and roundabouts.

No it doesn't. Things we take for granted today were not commplace back then. Childcare, dog grooming, pet walking, mobile phones, multiple TVs, foreign travel, the list goes on.

🙄 mobiles didn't exist but lots had a house phone. Foreign travel was cheap in the 90s with the budget airlines.

I would think 1980s for several reasons. Consumerism and the availability of more products from tech and clothing some from from overseas. The ability for women to not need their husband or father to agree to a credit card or bank account as in the 1970s. They were seen as lesser despite earning and sometimes earning more than the father signing her right to a credit card.

I think it has all been encouraged by the government, 2 people paying tax, higher house prices mean you need 2 salaries and that means more stamp duty too.

We have lived on one income for over 20 years, I have a disability but worked before having children. The house we live in now has shot up in value and I am glad we bought when we did.