The average salary in the UK?

[Banoffeepiefan]

It struck me that I have no idea what this is, in terms of (if I'm right with this) the modal average - the mean, I think, is about £26,000, but that is not a good reflection on what most people or families live on. Are there any stats to show what this is across the UK?

Interested because I'm job hunting at the moment, trying to plan ahead, and also because of the surge of threads on Mumsnet about how many people are struggling, and that number who are struggling seems to be climbling steadily this last few years whether it's to buy a house or to buy food. I wonder is the average (whatever it might be) enough to be comfortable on, and are the people who are really struggling (apart from crises such as health or debt etc) those who earn significantly less?

An income of £100k is loads. Sorry but it is.

I don't know anyone in real life that earns even half that and all my friends are graduates, some with firsts, and lots with good experience in various fields.

The most I have ever earned has been £35k and that was as a senior marketing manager.

Admittedly though we are in south norfolk not London so wages here are lower.

I don't think the average wage of £26k is a true reflection at all. Dh earns £15.5k, I'm a sahm and we have two dc. Amongst our friends that is pretty much average.

I've always halved the 'national average' to get a real figure that most people earn!
The general rule of thumb is halve the figure if it supposed to be good and double if it is bad if the figures are provided by the government!

£100k is loads, I agree. I think we're really comfortably off and DH earns nowhere near that amount.

100k IS loads and I only know one very educated couple on that amount but I get what she means. Id expect top 5 per cent to be much more than that!

average wage and average income are 2 different things

15k and 2 kids sounds like a top of of tax credits etc? does it bring it closer to 26k?

I assume that a household income of 60 + 40, 70/30, or 80/20 is probably more likely than a sole earner of 100. But it's still very uncommon in the UK as a whole.

That link is after tax income remember so if it's salary of 100k you need to put in 60k or whatever.

I too think that 100k is a huge household income.

DH and I are graduates, as are all our friends, many in professional jobs and I only know one couple who are likely to have a household income anywhere near this amount. About half that would be more typical, and even that is a huge amount of money to most people.

This one is also helpful. It is the median gross income of household in each decile broken down by household type.

www.theguardian.com/money/2014/mar/25/uk-incomes-how-salary-compare

You can see for a family of 2 adults and 2 children the median in the 9th decile is 91k. So the 100k poster is firmly in the better half of 9th or worse half of 10th decile. Not average by any stretch of imagination.

Giraffeski That figure will be quite correct.

What you don't see from the figures is that the scale is in no way linear in terms of standard of living, so if you're on £100k in the South East, with all the usual mortgage etc., you are likely to be far closer in 'standard of living' to someone at the 80th percentile (all else being equal) than super rich in the 99th percentile. No doubt the person on the 80th percentile would like your extra income, but you're probably equally likely to buy a super-yacht

It's a common misconception that the top 10% are 'the rich' whereas the true 'rich' are a very small percentage of the population indeed.

My oh would have to work 5 1/2 years to get 100k! And he works 2 jobs! Average wage where I am is around 15k, when I was working I was on 11k pro rats which is the norm

fairlylea your household income puts you at the lower half of the bottom decile so yet another non typical family. Sorry to have to say that.

It's okay I realise we have a reasonably low income compared to many people but as I said it's typical for our area. The point I was making was really that the average salary is very dependent on things like location etc.

It's hard to find the modal average because it's so much lower than the mean or median (so the majority of us have below average earnings.)
In terms of seeing how people might survive, I think mode is the fairest one to take account of and a few sites suggest it is around £15k, so the majority of families where two work are likely to earn around £30k pa.

No and I don't think £100k is super rich it is just quite well off. The 1% have so much more than the rest if us.

My dh earns 43 grand-I am a sahm-and he is always whinging about our lifestyle compared to that of his collegues

Good point about location Fairylea

I used to travel a lot with work and as a junior manager at the time, initially thought the London senior managers 1-2 grades above me were being a bit crass bitching about money in front of me when earning 20k more than me...then I looked into moving there.

fairylea definitely location. We are in Hampshire and I'm sure we will be £100k if DH and I works in London. Workmates that moved to London all earn about £60k and that's not even a senior position. It's software developers for banks if you are curious. I earn a lot less being based outside London. But I like my little house with garden.

I think what people are trying to say is that while £100,000 is undoubtedly way above average and an individual or even a household with that income are in a very small percentage of earners statistically, that income does not automatically make you terribly comfortably off - depending on where you live and when (and if) you got on the housing ladder.

Most people I know in my friendship circles are on less than 15k. We live in Wigan, it's not the most prosperous of areas.

It's so meaningless without knowing where people live and what their other expenses are. My SIL and her DH have loads more disposable income than my household for example even though our income is around 4x theirs. We live in the SE with a mortgage and they live up north in a house they inherited. They go on amazing holidays, have lots of gadgets and things. We'll end up better off on paper if we ever clear the mortgage as their house isn't worth that much but I doubt we'll ever have as good a lifestyle.

It's all relative to where you live. 100k isn't loads in London and parts of Surrey. I would say that there are times when we struggle in fact...

I understand what she means though that she is shocked that it is top 5%.

I've just done it and came in at top 6% - me and my husband are on roughly 37 and 43K per year. This is not an outrageous amount considering we have been in the same company for a large number of years and have worked our way up (he has worked 27 years, I have worked 19). Everyone at our respective levels earn the same.

I would have thought that top 10% at least would have been more like rock star wages tbh.

50k is a lot more than I can imagine ever earning never mind 100k.

In relation to cost of living, mortgage / rent etc, I wouldn't think 50k would be enough for a family to comfortably live on in London / SE, but I have friends further North who earn less and have a fab life.