About the supposed average earnings?

[Orda1]

So this morning I read an article on Sun (I follow every main newspaper on social media). It said the average wage for a 30 something was 24k. I don't earn that much, I've only been working for two years but I get various other benefits. The article had a lot of comments which I assumed would be saying it was too low, but infact they were saying it was way too high. There was even someone that worked as a manager for 17k.

Am I completely out of touch?

I think your issue is here OP: " I've only been working for two years" so you wouldn't expect to be earning what the average person in their 30s year old would. The average person in their 30's is has been working far longer.

Also, there are big issues with "average" earnings, for example average earnings in the public sector tend to be much higher, due to the smaller number of minumum wage jobs, and higher number of graduate professional jobs, yet the right wingers still bang on about it as if its a shocking figure.

Averages are mostly just a rule of thumb, or a bench mark. Don't worry about it.

The figures are probably from the recently released Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. Full tables are on the ONS website but here's the actual numbers - I've picked out a few:

-----Median--Mean
All employees--22,487-- 27,607
All FT employees-27,645----33,689
All 22-29---19,216---20,933
All 30-39---25,142---29,307
All 40-49---25,784---31,858
FT 20-29---21,962---24,101
FT 30-39---29,219---34,182
FT 40-49---31,193---38,314
All - North east--20,818-----24,748
All-London---30,821-----40,305
All-Scotland---22,476----26,413

I'm surprised you're surprised tbh.

Longtime - no I dont expect to be earning what 30s do, I expected 30s to be earning more than 24k (I'm not too far off and as I said 2 years not 12+).

That's interesteribg Statistic.

It feels very low when you think about house prices (especially in the south), but I agree with others it is the way it is. That said, I am surprised anyone thinks 'starting salaries' for university graduates were not so very much less than this 12 years ago. I can believe that might be the case for a very small group, but I doubt it was ever realistic for most.

I think the 'manager' was in retail, but they'd been doing it 10+ years.

I think I'm shocked because 22k is sold to students as a starting salary (I know know it's not) but 22 & 24 aren't much different and this is 21 year olds we are talking about.

Now know*

But, orda, don't most students realise it's not realistic? When I was doing my undergrad, more than ten years ago, we were told 20k. We all knew it was a stunt to make us hopeful - we could see real salaries in the back pages of the paper any day.

My students don't seem any more naive today, TBH.

I think 22k isn't a starting salary for most students though - it's a starting salary for those who go in to professional grad roles like accounting, teaching, nursing etc (roughly), but very few students actually go in to proper grad roles relative to home many graduate every year. I graduated 4 years ago, at that point starting salary for big4 accountant grads was £21k, actuarial was about £28k.

Even nursing, I don't think 22k is a starting salary. My friend is a nurse and she is 30 - her salary is just under 22k now!

Nurse 29 earn 33k. I'm unsure how long your friend has been qualified jeanne but that sounds low?

Oh, it might be - I've never really asked her much about it. I just know how much she earns because she happened to mention it in context of buying houses. It could be she's not working as many hours as full time, though!

Retail is notoriously badly paid.
Those stats include people working for nmw as well as graduates. The median is less skewed by mad salaries.
According to that I earn roughly the mean for my age. With a relevant degree and solid experience but I work in the public sector.

Scottish band 5 nurses start on £21.6K, plus antisocial hours etc.

In my workplace starting salary for grads is £21k. When I was that age I was on £21k, over 15 years ago, and not because I was some high flyer, it was a comparable role. Something is not right!

I'm 32, service manager, and work part time but my FTE would be slightly more than that. I'm in London where living costs are generally higher, though.

I am actually surprised the average isn't higher. I see quite a few people in really ordinary jobs in million pound houses. I assume there's a lot of fiddling / tax evasion going on.

I'm 34. I've been working since I graduated 10 years ago and am on the grand total of 21k. So sounds about right to me.

A lot of people in million pound houses didn't pay a million pounds for them though Floppity. Or they had help from parents (alive or dead). It's almost certainly not because their "ordinary job" allows them to be paid 50 grand and only declare 25.

This thread is depressing, I don't earn anywhere near that

£22k was my starting salary 11 years ago. Seems low to me considering house prices. :(

It sounds about right to me.

I know quite a few people who earn more than that, mostly professionals, like doctors, accountants, pharmacists, teachers. I also know a lot of people on less than that, teaching assistants, shop assistants, cleaners, etc.

I think one issue is how full time is defined and whether only salaried people are included.

Very often full time is defined as 30+ hours which is actually 0.8. So my salary for example is included but I'm not paid full time . Some figures also only include salaried people which raises it the other way.

It also depends massively on where you live.