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?

With the obvious exception of doctors, most of the people who live around me and earn good salaries are either

a) people who left school young and were able to work for free/next to nothing whilst living at home as a teenager and then get a foot in the door, and have stayed within the company and worked their way up, through long service and taking on additional responsibility. These people are in their 40s now though, and I can't imagine that a teenager today would be able to do the same thing.

or

b) have taken on management of a family business which was already well established.

I know it is entirely different in the South East where you can join companies on a management programme, get trained, do professional qualifications with company support etc. That doesn't really happen where i live.

That's right Egosumquisum, I am in East Yorkshire (not a city) and a Legal Accounts Manager (I'm a sole legal cashier in a solicitors practice) and am on under 20k!!

My best friends daughter graduated last summer and is now earning £52k.

In fact they paid her £40k for the summer internship.

London obvs.

It's stupid. No one earns below 0 but some people earn billions. So it's going to come out much higher than what most people actually earn.

Yes it would if you were using a mean figure itsbetterthanabox, but these figures are medians, so billionaires don't distort the numbers.

That's why I posted the actual mean and median upthread itsbettertham so you can see the impact

I think that sounds about right, on the whole.

I think some people don't realise how little wages have gone up in the last 10-15 years.

Jobs that used to pay 20k, now the private sector knows it can pay a graduate NMW now to do it instead, so that's what they do.

£40,000 just for an internship?! Wow, loads of internships I see advertised in London are unpaid, although they tend to be in things like fashion, politics, advertising etc.

Definitely depends where you are in the country. Would be interesting to know the average wage for London, what with their mix of very high and very low paid workers. Depends what sector you're in as well. A manager in the NHS I would expect to be on at least £30,000. My friend who was a manager in retail earned about £18,000.

If you think the majority of people in the country at the moment aren't graduates, then £24,000 is realistic. Although a relative wasn't a graduate and earnt a 3 figure salary in a big company but I think the job he started out in would want a graduate now.

Pandora I posted the London figures upthread - on phone but if you search my name they're there.

I saw a job advertised for a fashion graduate

A charity shop, minimum wage only. In London.

£30 plus grand of debt? To work for minimum wage - just terrible

Someone mentioned earlier that they were paid £16k for an admin job in 1997. I think that was very high. I was on about £12k in a scientific role in the public sector then and the admin staff got a couple of £k less.

Outside the south east bubble of banking and law many many people earn minimum wage or a bit more. Nurses starting on £22k plus shift allowances are well paid in comparison.

I am very lucky that I earn £40k as an experienced professional. That is very well paid around here.

House prices are no indication of wages. They've increased out of all proportion and are fueled by inheritances, equity, shared ownership schemes, buy to let and rich foreign investors, not the salaries of ordinary people. Even well paid working people can't afford to buy in London without inheritances etc.

Sounds about right as an average between my friends and family. My job pays 25 including bonuses but full time is 48 hours. Dh earns around 35 but works long hours.

I'd like to here that Egosum - which programme was it?

Thanks :) I totally agree with that principle - I've always thought the way to be happy with what you earn is to have lots of friends with an income around the same as yours or lower!

Someone mentioned earlier that they were paid £16k for an admin job in 1997

Thats was nice, in 1998 as an engineering grad on 14k in south east, jobs I have looked at are around 30-40k for my exp, but then again engineering wages are broken.