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?

There are people who have to live in London on a lot less.

And 100k is household income. Two income family at that would be more common than sole earners I think. Though both DH and I earn over 40k we don't see us getting 50k unless through inflation. We are like scarlett having been the work place for ages and DH is over 40 and I'm nearly there too.

I would have expected rock star wages to be more like top 1% to be honest than top 10% or even 5%. Think about it, celebrities are in the 100s and 1000s, plus all the 'hidden' high earners such as bank managers that aren't in the public eye, whereas 10% of the population is millions of people!

I didn't say they didn't exist, I said I didn't think it would be 'comfortable'

If you lived round here and earned 100k you'd have a fab life. I can imagine that'd be nothing in London and them parts though

1% of the working population is still 300,000 people. I don't think there are 300,000 rock stars, surely more like 300, or 0.0001%?

oops 0.001% maybe

crappy maths o'level 100 years ago

Yes I thought the median salary was £26k, but outside London the median salary is £20k. So half of people outside London earn less than £20k, and half earn more.

I loved quite happily as a childless graduate on 22,000 but I don't think I could now.

I'm sorry, but £100000 as a household income really isn't all that much. Assuming that's supposed to provide for two adults and children if the family live in London that is just not a whole lot.

I earn just over 30000, but am single, no financial commitments, no kids and it really does not leave all that much after rent (£1000/pcm + bills for teensy studio flat).

£100,000 household income isn't that much!! Some people I think have lost touch with reality.

I hope noone thinks I was whinging about our income of 43 grand btw-among most of my friends its considered a very good wage but dh mixes in circles where the household income is twice that at least,great houses,dcs privately educated etc.

I know we could live comfortably on this income if we were both not so shit with money.

It's all relative isn't it.

When I was on my own earning just £600 a month I was skint.
Then I went to living on job seekers and realise how lucky I'd been.
Then got with DP and had a joint income of £41k with us both working - we didn't realise how much this was really until I lost my job and am now on Universal credit and it's dropped our income to 21k.

I know, when you think logically the actual number of super high earners is a very small percentage (I didn't mean just rock stars ), but it is a shock that 2 incomes of roughly 40K would put you at top 6%.

We are ordinary working class people, not graduates, who just happened to have worked for the same employer for a long time and worked our way up (our job has a defined career development and advancement structure, so that is slightly different to most I suppose).

It is only in the last few years that we have felt 'well off' though as a lot of our income went on child care before. We have never had a mortgage and have only started saving for a deposit over the last few years as childcare costs have dropped.

I suppose we will feel well off in the future when kids have left home and we are only paying for ourselves!

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

Exactly. When it comes to a good salary, I don't think you can go wrong in the City (a specific area of London, the financial centre). No matter what you do, you are paid well.

I was a junior business analyst. In at 9, left shortly after 5. Never worked weekends. Occasionally, during a busy period, I worked evenings, never beyond 7.30. I left it four years ago to have children, I was 28 at the time, and on £45k with a bonus of £7k a year, with tremendous benefits (private health care, 12.5% pension). I was about to take a fairly big step up. That is a very modest salary for the City.

Oh an I totally agree, if you live in London, with children, an income of £100k really is nothing to write home about.

OK, then.

£100000 works out as about £62,141.72 net wage. Imagine family with two children.

To rent a terraced house they are then spending roughly £29,124 for a really not all that thrilling looking place which I would probably not choose to move to (again assuming living in London).

So that leaves £2751 a month for bills, food, transport, etc for four people!

You choose to live in an expensive area. when your household income puts you in a small minority in the country in terms of wealth, then you are better off than nearly everyone.

Mellow. Childcare. Enough said.

My point Enjoying. That post was in response to someone incredulously asserting that stating £100000 not being a fabulously mindblowing income clearly means that I don't live in the real world.

Example. Full time childcare of two children. maida vale, where I used to live, the cheapest, the very cheapest, and awful nursery, was £56 a day. The one we wanted for our son was £77 a day, this was average. So with two, £164 A DAY on just childcare. Do you get it now?

You choose to live in an expensive area

Their wage may not be such a good one if they moved from said area though

Ah mellow, I see!

The vast majority of money threads on mumsnet, that end up as bun fights, are due to the fact that people outside of London, and no experience of it, cannot grasp a) the high salaries b) the high cost of living

Enjoying, I went to Leicester for work the other day and nearly cried looking through the window of an estate agents and realising I could live in a bloody mansion. In reality I can't even afford a freaking living room. £100000 is not necessarily a lot of money (not that I earn anything near it). End off.