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?

Assuming there are two adults working, I’d say (per adult person) anything above 100k is good, over 60k is decent, over 40k is okay, below 40k I have no idea how people manage with a family!

You seriously have no idea how families on less than 80K manage?
You do know most families survive on significantly less than this?

DP have a joint income of 60-65K (dependent upon a few factors) before tax etc. And live in the South East. He’s on about 25K plus a small bonus, my salary is roughly 30K but I get unsociable hours, London weighting etc as I work for the NHS so end up earning closer to 35-36K. Amongst our friends we are higher earners! We own a small house (mortgaged) and live very comfortably - think several holidays per year and expensive hobbies. However, we aren’t really into going out and aren’t bothered about having new clothes or anything like that.

The way other MNetters go on, I expect to all of a sudden feel very poor once our baby is born as we are on such a low income! 😂

Depends on age, location and other support. In London so a mortgage or rent for a couple/family is likely around £1500/month. I was surprised how much or little people on similar incomes seemed to have each month and the difference seemed mainly to be how much family had helped with a house deposit or childcare.

I think the £27k average in London is a median so as to cancel out the extreme outliers.

you have a higher income than around 10% of the population - equivalent to about 6.3 million individuals.

That's me on a low-wage job, living with DH who is unemployed but not entitled to any benefits due to my income, and we have a baby on the way. About 50% of my take-home pay goes on our rent.

Partner and I 25 , joint income of 85k in London with jobs fairly tied to here . We have a mortgage on a 1 bed at 1100 a month and with all our bills that adds another 800! No way could we afford to have a child here. Nursery costs circa £1700 a month .

That calc puts us as in the top 7% and we feel we can’t afford to have kids !

Where I am I think 25k upwards is considered pretty good.

I earn circa 16000 after tax and my husband about 4000 - his changes year on year due to over time etc.

We're in South Yorkshire.

Our bills are about 1200 a month. I would say we are 'comfortable'. Although I'm under no illusions that circumstances can change in an heart beat.

Wages are done with a median average and not a mean. This is so the figures are not distorted by mega city wages.

The median wage in 2015 was £19,00. This figure does not include figures for people who pay no tax / are below the personal allowance amount. The average wage is therefore lower.
50% of tax payers earn £10 - £19k
50% of tax payers earn £19k plus
An undisclosed number of people do not earn enough to pay tax.

Median household income last year is estimated to be £27,200. Think mum, dad and any adult DC combined. One parent earns £19k the other £8,200. They have 1.7 DC.

If you earn £30k you are doing well.

If you need £5k a month, you need to widen your social circles.

This data should really be cut against age of Warner and household ownership status. £27k is probably loads for an older person with minimal mortgage and no kids. The same number is pretty tough to live on in London even as a graduate - share houses, travel costs to commute to work etc.

Random erroneous Warner in there. No idea who he is

*I'd consider a good wage to be £30,000. I think of a high wage as over £50,000.

But I'm painfully aware that the vast majority of people earn considerably less than the average of 27,000.*

Same here.

Some of the replies from the high earners astound me on these type of threads. They seem incapable of any sensitivity or understanding and yet they ought to be intelligent if they're big earners, surely?

Threads like this depress me. I think if you're happy and what you've got works for you t doesn't really matter. We get by just fine, have jobs we don't hate and earn (IMO) a "decent" wage - but most people here are saying they don't know how they would manage on our wages or that we would need to be earning double or triple to even come close to their perceptions of a decent wage! I think MN is very skewed in this respect though.

This is fascinating, thanks all. I do think Mumsnet has a more middle class/higher earning skew itself which probably impacts questions like this.

For me I think a good wage is probably £35,000+ and a high wage is over £70,000 but my opinion on this is changing all the time. I live in the south east and rent, but my monthly payments wouldn’t be lower on a mortgage (I’ve checked!) I do wonder how people manage here knowing how little most people earn when you can’t rent somewhere that comes to more than 40% of take home income. That means a house where I am is out of the question if the household earns less than £40,000. I’ve seen many friends prices out of working by childcare. I thought DP and I would be able to afford to have kids when we reached a joint salary of £70,000.... we’ve just gone over that and I can see there’s no chance yet with the cost of full time childcare we’d need.

It completely depends on where you love and what your expenses are. If your house is paid off and you have no children, the same figure would be a lot less if you're a single parent in privately rented accommodation.
I'd describe a good wage as enough to cover all bills, food and clothing, along with enough for occasional treats and a nice holiday once a year, with still enough left over each month to save for emergencies and retirement.

I should add I grew up in a house with little money, and 7 years ago was on benefits at the bottom of the pile, earning what I do now would have seemed like a huge amount of money. So it’s weird how things change. I think it’s easy to lose perspective the higher up the ladder you go, discussions like this are vital to keep a grip on what reality is

I think a good wage is about 30k+
I assume that’s about the level where you get no state help with anything.
Although many people live in nmw I don’t think any wage where you need tax credits to bring it up to a living wage can be considered decent or good.

A high wage I think is from the higher tax rate boundary and up. Maybe I’m too literal?

Usually people say “six figure” for those over 100k.

40000 not 4000. That zero makes all the difference

Some of the replies from the high earners astound me on these type of threads. They seem incapable of any sensitivity or understanding and yet they ought to be intelligent if they're big earners, surely?
You would have thought so.
Unfortunately the haves and have mores are oblivious to sensitivity and often appear to have limited understanding.

We're in the North East and have a household income of about £84,000. We are certainly not rich. We have a large mortgage, the running costs of our home are higher than average (listed property) and we have 1 DD and 1 on the way. Although our bills etc are paid each month, we don't have a massive disposable income. My DH and I have discussed this afew times and think we'd need about £7000 a month net income to live really comfortably - our net is just over £5000pm currently.

I hate the focus on wages. Wages are largely irrelevant because unearned income (i.e. Benefits) redistributes income from those who earn more to those who earn less.

When coming up with these stats I'd love to see what the median household income is with benefits included. I think it would be far far higher than £30k.

Anyway, to answer your question I think a high income is top 2.5%. Low income is bottom 2.5%. The middle 95% is your 'normal' range.

I think anything above 20k is a good salary, because it's a salary you can live comfortably on. Most people I know earn well below this, many of those people are graduates and have worked hard all their life. I earn 13k, I wish I could earn more.

Is that true, that half the country earn under 19k?

That is eye opening.

If you need £5k a month, you need to widen your social circles

Why? Does that mean I only know a small amount of people

My best friend earns £24k and his GF £30k, they have no dc and live in a small flat with fairly low rent. He is constantly banging on about how poor he is. But according to that IFS calculator he is earning more than 81% of the population! I'm so shocked.

Want median household income includes benefits £27,200.

£22,400 for retired households
£29,300 for non-retired

National Statistics