To think £31500 pa is less than average wage?

[Elderwand]

That's it, I work as a nurse in the Nhs, I'm 33. , just thought at this stage of my life I would be earning more. (unhappy & bitter) have 2 young DD, So career change at the mo would be difficult.

That would not work Margery. If everyone from the se displaced including their extended families it would cause economic chaos.

I'm not casting any kind of aspersions on people who earn £15k, just seeking answers. In my generation, there was a considerable salary gap between graduate jobs and non-graduate jobs. What you seem to be saying is that gap no longer exists.

But it's not always true that the more qualified you need to be for a job the more your

Paid!

I don't see it. Not in my experience.

Elderwand, I have a degree, an MA and a PGCE and if I went back to work as a lecturer in FE I would earn less than £33k. And that's with 10 years of teaching experience.

Some of you keep saying that living in the South East means that a salary of c£50K doesn't go far...

I live in the SE. DP and I earn 25K between us (we have DC) and work our nuts off for it.

Some people don't know they're born

Also, being a graduate doesn't count for shit these days.

bureni

Blimey 31k average, I currently 45-60 hours a week and would be lucky to see 20k per year. Can I assume this 31k figure is for England only?

The important thing to note about that 31k figure is that it is the mean, not the median. There are different ways of expressing an 'average' and some work better than others.

In the case of salaries/wages, the figures for mean are distorted by a very small number of very highly paid people Let me give you an example of five people and their hourly salaries:

A - £5 p/h
B - £7 p/h
C - £8 p/h
D - £9 p/h
E - £50 p/h

The Mean average here is £15.80 per hour. But as you can see, that doesn't really reflect the majority of people who earn £9 per hour, so the Mean isn't a good figure to use.

That's why the Median salary figure - of £26,000 per year - is used. A handful of very highly paid (mostly) men distort the figure. Those include people like Mark Thomson, director general of the BBC, with his £834,000 a year salary.

I'm sure I once read that the average salary in London is £40k but presume that is because some people who live there are super rich.

Salary is a weird one. There's no 'perfect' figure is there- I've just striven to make sure that what comes in exceeds that going out. At the moment, not so good as I recently lost my wonderful full-time job (£32,000 ish a year, 65-70 hours a week) and have been unable to find anything else full time so I'll be doing a 3 day week (£18,000 per year for a 30 hour week) and picking up extra babysitting etc as and when I can- because although the figure is HUGE- seriously, growing up in a desperately poor area even reaching min wage was beyond me- it won't cover my rent, council tax, bills.

The pay off for earning so much is that I have to live in an area that can employ me- I'm a nanny, so I live in a shockingly expensive part of Greater London. I pay over £1000 per month rent for my tiny one-bed flat, over £100 a month for CT! Then other bills, food, transport, and it's all gone. Now if I moved home and managed to earn £18,000, even if that was doing a 70 hour week, I could rent a decent 2 bed! But there are no jobs there, or very few, certainly in childcare.

I'm seriously contemplating taking my career in a different direction entirely- I'd love to get a degree, I'd love to feel I was doing more with my life. I'm looking into trying to get into university to study something in health, perhaps occupational therapy or speech and language therapy. I know I'd struggle during the course and after, I know I would start off on a lot less money but there would be progression- I've never, in my life, had a pay-rise or 'moved up the ladder', once you take a job that's it till the kids are too old for you or they move! I could also think about moving somewhere less expensive and widen that gap between what comes in and what goes out- I'd love to get rid of that 'helpless' feeling about money, that feeling that when a job ends (which is every year or so, I can't seem to keep a job!) my outgoings are so much that every penny of my savings will disappear in a couple of months and I'll be on the streets! It terrifies me.

Yeah, I said that a combined salary of less than 50k i8n the SE does not get you very far- when you both have to commute to London and you have mortgage (rent) and you have childcare.

I know i have been born, though.

I also know that we would in the immediate future be a very great deal better off if one of us worked only, and the other on took over childcare. . We would have a better disposable income.

But we are currently gritting our teeth through these years, because we hope that things will be better, and because we both think that having a job is better than not having it- even though actually, we would in the immediate future be better off for NOT having jobs.

Wow, £31500 is a good wage, even though nurses work hard. I would say £25000 is average. Both mine and my DP earnings come to £18000. I would love us to be on what you have

You can't just compare salaries though, there are all sorts of means-tested benefits that kick in/drop out, it is far more complex than just a blanket salary amount.

Dh is a HRT taxpayer, but when he was made redundant, we discovered that we were almost the same wrt household income, because of the additional benefits we could get. Happily he got another job quickly, but it was an eye-opener (note; I think it is GOOD that welfare exists to help people in difficult situations), and really clarified the issue about comparing salaries!

Those pf you on less than 20K aren't on that alone though, are you? I expect you are all drawing down pretty hefty tax credits and other benefits.

flatpackhamster
The median in the UK is £18,000
The mean is £26,000
Only 37% of people earn more than the mean

I don't qualify for any tax credits or benefits whatsoever, even unemployed I can't get JSA as I spent a year working abroad!

About 24 million earning up to £30,000,. I feel much better knowing that :)

If benefits are that significant, the thing to compare is net incomes.

I hate it when people say well I can live in virtually fresh air
But then they have a council house paying minimal a week, no commuting fees, no council tax, tax credits etc etc.

Well if someone will pay for my flat, tube annual ticket, reduce bills and give me some money for lunch then of course I could survive on limited wage.

As it no one does so if our annual household wage was £31 we would struggle seeing 2/3rds would be on rent alone ( London)

forevergreek who was it that was saying that?

This sort of thread is always full of people saying ' I only earn 15k, we manage', but at 15k there are so many extras you can get, it just isn't as simple as comparing base-line salaries.

I make 12k, straight up, no extras, nothing. My partner makes more, but our finances are totally separate. I pay 33% of the rent, everything else is 50%. Because he earns more, I don't get any tax credits or whatever.

So not everyone is on extra money at all.

But to be fair, that is kind of yours and your partner's decision. Not the same as a household income of 12k, which would almost certainly be supplemented. Benefits have to be household means tested, otherwise would be insane.

Er, yes, I didn't say anything about benefits or anyone else's situation. I was saying that for some people 12 or 15 or whatever means just that.