To wonder what a ‘good wage’ is?

[PaperdollCartoon]

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?

lady, my advice to my own children to get a degree if they want and ensure they have good social skills to climb up the greasy pole! communications and IT seem to be really high earning in DH's job

Glug, i have no idea how you can afford private fees on £100k year but i have no idea how much your mortgage and council tax are though.

One child around here is £13,000, so 2, £26K, to get £26,000 a year you'll have to earn about £40k per year gross just for school fees alone.

i do know that on quite a similar income, we simply couldnt afford private school for two children.

What absolute bollocks people talk pretending 40k ist the normal price of a year's childcare for 2 children! A little over half that would be average for full time, 52 weeks per year for 2 kids. If you're paying 40k for 2 kids you are choosing to.

Christ reading some of these posts, I feel like a proper poor person. Even though I'm a professional we don't earn anything close to what people here are talking about even put together!

£40,000 is the GROSS cost a private nursery or private school for two children. plenty of people need 07.30 am to 6pm care 5 days a week if they have no family or if no cheaper child minders in the area work those hours. why is it so hard for you to understand that? also if you earn over £100,000 you dont get free 30 hours nursery.

Because it isn't true cloth

www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/childcare-costs

If you're paying 40k for 2 kids you've chosen a far more expensive than average option.

average cost of full time nursery per week in my area is not £234 per week, its £60 for 07.30 - 6pm in a chain (Co op nursery) if you get £234 per week in your pay packet, what is your gross??? im talking GROSS

£260 per week, sorry

Thanks cloth collector, that was good to get that insight.

However some recent posts didn't mention sector or job title.

Your right that if one earner in household earns over 100k, no 30 hours.

In my area south east near London looking at £55 to £60 a day, may get discount very very small if child is in full time and have another at same nursery.
Remember this is paid after tax from your salary. (net income}
It is a huge sum of money but you could see it as short term pain till school age.
But if parents then choose to send them to private school, then that is their choice and the cost continues.

If you earn 100k you'll have about 1200 per WEEK / 5500 per month AFTER tax.

Cloth, you say It is high demand does that mean being an experience coder or being very senior and running teams or units.

I know some who earn 100k plus in IT but they are contractors so the risk of future work and pension/sick pay falls on them. Technically self employed.

• that's after income tax and national insurance

oh i dont know life, i would have to check with DH but i suspect he means being a manager.

cat i know, £5,500 is a shit load, which is why i said in my first post in this thread that one sole income of £40,000 is good depending on where you live.

£40,000 if you have a sahp and no childcare costs.

i should leave this thread. very interesting to read about different situations though!

Thanks cloth.
Life presents itself different to everyone and the choice we make impact on different areas.
All to often you find a path and you stick to it and it is hard to get out, life trundles on.

It is interesting to understand more, as all too often there is limited time to be aware of what else could be possible. Again weighing up choices and options.

I think it depends a lot on the area, I live in the south east so costs are quite high here. A friend of mine manages on £65k (family of 4), they have enough to live but don't have a lot spare. I'd say £100k is probably a 'good' wage to live comfortably as a family here.

What I would like to know is what are these jobs where people are earning 50k, 70k, 100k plus?

Age comes into a lot, and how long someone has been in their career, working their way up.

Professional careers, with a few years experience.

Even outside of London a solicitor can easily be on 50k within the first 5 or 6 years after training, nearing 100k after 15+ years, and double/triple that if they become an equity partner.

Academics can easily be reaching 50k+ after several years of work experience.

Teachers with management points will be hitting the 40% bracket and above.

The people I know, outside of London on 50k+ salaries include > Doctors and other medical staff
Lawyers
Accountants
Surveyors
Teachers
Academics
Financial Advisors
IT field
Own business
etc

But they are all mid 30s and higher, who have been in their field of work for several years. And several on on an awful lot more than 50k too. Not all are men either.

The only nursery I have figures on is about £24k full time for a baby and a bit less once a toddler so my £40k was actually UNDER not over the true cost. that is central London which tends to be where these higher salaries are. It is one reason peerhaps tax should be a lot less in London but a lot higher in places like the NE where I am from where childcare will indeed cost less and rents are less but we never get that - people just say ah high London salary so we will take loads of tax off you remove your child benefit and you can find the massive childcare and mortgage or rent costs somehow.

(On the jobs people were asking about the ones I know are medicine and law but top end where it helps to be Oxbridge or equivalent and always working full time.)

Xena 30 seconds on childcare.co.uk throws up nurseries in London for vastly less than that.

I own a modest terraced house, an 8 year old car, and earn less than the average wage - and I think I'm pretty well off tbh.

cat, let me explain again: my nursery costs £1200 per month, which is £13,500 per year roughly. Imagine i then had a second child and they cost £13,500 per year. that's £26,000 or so. I can go to work and get a salary of £26,000 but i will get taxed, national insurance and automatic pension deductions. to get £26,000 in my hand, i've got to earn £40,000.

I dont have any grandparents to do childcare, i dont have a childminder in a 5 mile radius of me who works from 07.30 am to 6.00pm. imagine my partner is in meetings in Europe, US or in Scotland regularly and i have to work 5 days per week, then i need a nursery open those hours cos i aint got no one else.

Not everyone can use a child minder: the ones near me are only 3 days per week or only work to 5pm which is no use to me, so BAM! i send my child to a nursery.

The figures you're talking about are average and may not even compare like for like, without any qualification like is it a charity run playgroup, council or a private nursery?

You're being rather narrow minded her. Childcare costs are a huge reason why people become SAHP. It sure as shit was why I became one for a while.

Yes cloth I get that, although actually 40k would leave you over 30k, not 26. But most people do not pay 26k per year child care and very few people are paying for 2 under 3s for more than a couple of years. People get the free 15 (not 30) hours after age 3 on any income at all.

People on 100k will have 66k after tax and NI, not before.

£128,000 living with the family I work for (so rent, food etc paid for) between KSA and London.

We know a few people on 100k +

International banker
Consultant for oil and gas industry
Surgeon
Professors
Dentist with own practice
Lawyer

At least half have been to Cambridge, they graduated with DH.