How is the median salary in the UK so high?

[MellowAquaBalonz]

The median gross annual salary for full-time employees in the UK in April 2024 was £37,430. This represents a 6.9% increase compared to £35,004 in April 2023. London's median salary is notably higher, at £47,500.

Those salaries are more often found in tech/banking/consulting etc. I am on a management consultancy grad scheme in London and it's only 40k off the bat, 50k once I am promoted in 2 years etc. And thousands applied for this.

I thought most people in the UK were in low-paid service jobs like hairdressing, shop assistants etc.

Agree with @eurochick - you sound disappointed that you're not making much more than the median salary but you're comparing apples to oranges, ie. your starting salary as a graduate, with the median of all salaries of everyone in the whole workforce. This will include lots of people who have spent many years working their way up the pay scales thanks to experience, gaining qualifications, moving laterally to cement an increase etc.

You're starting on £40k and expecting to be at £50k in 2 years - I'd expect that your progression would continue beyond that to be £65-70k in a few more years as a senior consultant and then beyond to managing consultant, again on significantly more (am ballparking from memories of Capgemini salaries from a friend, may be well out of date these days!)

I’m most concerned that you’re training to be a management consultant and don’t know the difference between types of average and the effects they have on the “average” figure you get.

Median is a perfectly reasonable value to use in this situation.

Conversely that's probably the detail that suggests it's genuine 😀

😂I'd honestly nominate this thread for Classics if I knew how. Brava! Mediana!

I thought most people in the UK were in low-paid service jobs like hairdressing, shop assistants etc

what a weird assumption. Thousands of graduate roles in teaching, social work, nursing, allied health professional roles etc. etc. etc. Whilst many might not pay that average wage at the outset, after a few years, most of these professionals will meet or surpass that average wage.

And the assumption that hairdressing is low paying - loads of successful stylists out there with their own businesses, earning way more than man who went to university.