To wonder what a ‘good wage’ is?

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Not really an AIBU but something I’ve been pondering on, and posting here for traffic and opinions.

I often see people mentioning that someone earns ‘a good wage’ or indeed a high wage, but what that means in practice is clearly dependent on many factors, not least the area someone lives in but also their dependents.

I work in an industry where I talk to people on very high wages all the time about their jobs, which I think skews my view of what’s normal. I was involved in a discussion in another forum recently where it was mentioned the average salary at the moment is £27,000. Of course this is a mean average, skewed by a few very high salaries, and most people are below that. But many people were commenting that they didn’t know anyone who earned that much and had never earned anywhere near that themselves.

I’ve also been fascinated by this calculator from the Institute of Fiscal Studies that shows where households fall in the stratification of the country www.ifs.org.uk/wheredoyoufitin/
I think a lot of people would be surprised by it. When DP and I each earned the average salary (no kids) we were still in the top 25/30% ish of households which seems mad, and we live in an expensive area.

I’m wondering - what do you think a ‘good wage’ is, and at one point does something become a high wage?

I don’t agree with 40-45 years plus as know several people in London in various finance and legal roles in this in their 30s. There are also various medics I know in my part of the country in 100K who have finished training but are still late 30s.

I would say a good wage is 60k+. I consider my wage to be average even though I know I’m above the statistically average.

All relative. I earn £32,000 a year, my OH earns £40,000 a year. We feel really well off, we don’t struggle, we put £500 a month away and we have a decent house with two new cars etc.

We have no other debt though, and no childcare as my grandparents loook after my youngest and do drop offs and pick ups for my eldest.

ah, ok. we are not in london, my friends with these salaries are firmly in east and west midlands, with the exception of my law firm partner friend who is in mid 30s.

We fluctuate around top 10%.

I know full well that we are very comfortable, we also live in a cheapish area and have not had a mortgage since we were in our late thirties.

I certainly look back and see how money makes money from the smaller things like being able to buy in substantial bulk when stuff is on offer and having room to store it. DH came home with about £75 spent on shampoo but it was half price. To the really big stuff like gambling on an investment knowing you could lose the entire amount but knowing you can take the hit.

I grew up in an impoverished household with too many siblings and can remember being hungry, I got my first job at 13 to buy extra food and clothes for myself. My siblings remain quite poor, the difference is I went to University. They have worked hard as well but remain in low paid work.

The real difference with my siblings and me personality wise is I'm a massive risk taker. Was prepared to leave the rural backwater we grew up in, they wouldn't. Obviously those risks could have gone horribly wrong, thats where luck comes in to it.

turnocks, i would love to be in your situation, whilst we have a much higher income, we are stung as we dont get child benefit like you and my childcare is still £1,200 per month and will be until youngest is at school.

we drive two old bangers and live in a normal house in a fairly nice area in the midlands. not having to pay childcare would make a huge difference, id be swanning around in a fucking porshe cayenne if i didnt have childcare!!

didnt mean to sound so bitter there!

London lawyers who are not partners who are about 30 can earn £100k by the way. Make sure your teenagers choose careers carefully as it is life changing if it you get it wrong or right.

I earn quite a bit. I usually just say over £100k and under £1m but at all income levels it all just depends on what you need for the lifestyle you want whether that is enough for you and usually most of us are happier if we spend less than we earn although that is not always easy.

cloth, raises the crucial issue - many young professionals with children and 2 full time careers in big cities might seem to earn a lot but by the time you take off even £40k a year for childcare for 2 under 3s where both parents work full time out of taxed income and rent or a large mortgage and travel costs it ends up being fairly similar to lower wages in some other areas and lifestyles.

Say childcare £40k a year and rent £24k plus let us say £5k travel (could well be more for two) that is about £70k after tax so provbabl more like £100k before tax so each in that couple if they earn say £70k gross each is using about £50k of that on rent and childcare and travel to work so that would leave them about £20k each before tax - about £10k each after tax for food and all the rest - very rough figures and they are very lucky and if they buy not rent eventually after 30 years they may own out right and eventually they will not even have after school child care to pay although that couple would probably have £30k to pay on day school fees as that tends to be hte norm for that kind of couple and then they might pay for university for the children too but all those are very nice choices to have for our very lucky couple. Even so they have a lot of costs just to get to work whereas in some countries the £40k they pay for 2 toddlers at nursery is virtually zero.

defo Xenia!

people who think a household income of £100k will pay for private school for two children, save for two large pensions, buy two skiing holidays, then a little trip to a Balearic island in summer etc are way off the mark, unless they bought their house in like 1991.

I'm 23, my DP and I have a joint salary of £80k. This will rise to 100+k in 18 months. We own a flat in the south and I work in London. I still don't have anything left at the end of the month and don't spend much or so I thought!

A good salary is dependent on age for me:
20s: 35-40k
30s: 41-60k
40s: 61-100k

We're in the South East. My husband earns fairly well: in the £60-70k bracket. But i'm a newly qualified midwife, so earn a pathetically small sum. Clearly his button-pushing IT work is 3 times the value of my essential, skilled healthcare work!

We have bugger all money left at the end of the month, but that's because we have 2 x wraparound childcare to pay for, have to run 2 cars because of my odd shifts (my car is considerably older than either of my kids!) and H's commuting costs are ridiculous. If it were just the 2 of us, we'd be laughing.

I believe it cloth! My sister also has two children, she earns similar to me, but her husband owns his own business and has a salary around £200,000. They pay for their own childcare however and this eats up £2400 of their wage, meaning that they are currently worse off than us, despite their household salary being double.

That said in 2 years they’ll have a higher disposable income obviously when childcare goes.

It’s such a large expense. We’re very lucky.

For me, a good wage is one that means you can afford the essentials (rent/mortgage, bills, food, transport etc) with some money left over for fun/non-essentials and saving - so it is hard to quantify what that is, as it will be different for different people.

For example, ds1 is earning in the region of £35K - but he is single, doesn't have a mortgage and rents a room in a house, and hasn't got a lot of expenses apart from commuting to work, so that is a very good wage for him - but if he had a family and a mortgage, it might not be as good a wage - if that makes any sense.

Pingu yes, I struggle with that realisation. Me and DP both work in social care. We earn 40k between us after tax (I'm part time, he's a manager). We earn more than many families I know (South East), Mumsnet makes me laugh so much sometimes. What are these jobs people do that earn so much?!

I'm looking at what to train in next. I'm a graduate, my interests lie in health/social care/education, but maybe I should just do a law conversion thing. I have absolutely zero interest in it, it sounds incredibly dull to me in comparison to my job. But we might be able to afford a house one day, if I was lucky enough to get a job...

(I'm mid-30s)

Some of the pleading poverty on 200k posts are ridiculous. Dp and I earn 100k as a family. Before kids we had a 3 bed house, 2 cars, holidayed twice a year, and I commuted to London, contributed to pensions etc, AND WE STILL MANAGED TO SAVE.

After kids our incomes boosted, part of the amount we saved went to private school fees, but yes we can still save.

Budgeting is a life skill and it’s hard. If you need to learn it that’s fine but coming out here and telling people that earning 100-200k is ‘borderline poverty’ is ridiculous.

Glug absolutely. On our 40k after tax joint income, with 3 kids, I would never, for example, feel able to ask for an exemption from the 'voluntary' contribution for DD's school trips, as so many families earn so much less. But according to this thread, we appear to live in poverty

It's all completely relative as everyone else is saying! We have a joint income of a minimum of 75k and can generally save at least 1.5k a month after paying the credit card bill and other household bills. We don't struggle at all, but also no one else would have a clue what we earnt because we live in a very modest semi detached house with 2 normal cars and go on normal package holidays. Our lifestyle is the same as most of our friends on about half our income...we just save the surplus. Add in a couple of kids/childcare expenses and moving to a 4 bed detached house in our area, and we'd probably start to feel the pinch!

DP has just moved jobs and had a massive raise. We are in the top 3% according to the link at the start of the thread but we do have big outgoings. We both have independent incomes from property but this year I won’t make any money on mine due to putting in a new boiler and doing repairs. I’m very happy to do this as the property is my nest egg and I want the tenants to be comfortable and warm but the income made there has just gone. Likewise we pay nursery fees which make a big dent each month.
Our mortgage is high too (we live in quite an expensive area though not in SE) so although on paper we have a lot coming in our outgoings are also high.
I would never plead poverty however, I realise I am incredibly lucky and I can remember really struggling when I was single and much younger.

I find it fascinating looking at what people spend their money on as it seems there are such different attitudes towards it.

It would be good if you were able to say what line of work you were in. Some have mentioned lawyers in London or being a medic trainee.
Having an idea helps, as enables us to give career options to the kids looking at what to go into and study.
Also may help those thinking of career changes.

One thing that has been missed and not spoken about is whether earning the big salary and the responsibility with it, has made you cash rich but time poor.

Or does the holy grail exist, balanced work pressures with some time to yourselves.

Good point about nursery fees. The main reason I am relatively poorly paid (although much better paid than many) is because I am 'stuck' in my job because it enables us to work around each other and thus despite having 3 children under the age of 7 we have never paid for childcare. Some of my better-paid friends pay in excess of 1k a month in nursery fees.

lifeat40
I gave several examples of jobs in my friendship circle where people earned £80,000 +

My job is also fairly responsible. Too much detail would be outing but I care for children with very complex needs and have many nursing responsibilities (not trained but have come into contact with many nurses who are astounded we have so much responsibility and technical knowledge) and have cared for many very poorly children before the paramedics have arrived. I also administer many medications daily.

(My basic FTE salary is 21k, although shift payments etc increase this by thousands)

Bigbabboonbum, what is your occupation btw? Sounds idyllic that you earn a good wage without leaving home🤔. That could add to the discussion actually, could posters reveal there occupations if there earning above the national average wage?