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?

@AllPizzasGreatAndSmall Oh, I absolutely agree with you. We chose to live in a fairly middle class area and as a result, had to stretch ourselves to a mortgage at the top of our budget. Normally we are fine with this, but the reality of life is frustrating as we know we are on a fairly good income, yet we have no savings and if we had to pay for something unexpectedly (let's say, a new boiler) it would have to go on a credit card as we wouldn't have the money there to pay it. Everything we earn gets spent. I appreciate there are much cheaper areas to live in the NE, but after growing up in a really poor household myself, in a very, very working class family, I wanted something more for myself and and children.

7-8k a month? Flaming Nora. I earn £6250 a YEAR

I'm in central Scotland and think a good wage would be considered 50K +

I bet you think that four year old cars, private school, investments, nights out and wine and takeaways whenever you want them are luxuries Flabrador as do most people on low to middle incomes.

mrsP it says in black and white they strip out housing costs. The published number is disposable income. To get to income that resembles wages you have to add back housing costs and taxes paid for all groups which means you have to add back housing benefits where applicable.

Yes there is a benefits cap but I though that was only applied to those working limited or no hours.

Private school is a luxury and probably the only luxury I would consider to be in that bracket.

Takeaway and a bottle of wine are not luxuries at £20-25

To all those pointing out it's a choice to live in Central London, well, yes it is obviously, but if that is your home and where your friends, schools and jobs are, then people tend to stay. It's a bit like saying to someone living in a cheaper area up North that they could always sell up and live on a canal boat or the Outer Hebrides, so stop moaning - it's a choice.

£7-8k a month? What a twat to post that. We earn enough, but not that high, I choose to work part time.
Even if earn £100k+ you should know that most earn £19-27k.

Absolutely Barbara. A luxury in this house is fancy bin bags with handles.

Honestly £27,000 a year would leave both of us with no worries at all, in fact we would feel positively well off. Currently earn £23,500 and just keep our heads above water.
We know lots of couples who earn two or three times as much but always seem broke!

Sorry lol at the people with household income of 100 and 84k respectively and think they aren’t rich and are doing ok. You’re in the top 5 percent of the UK . Let’s not be naive

As I said above, if it were just me and dh (both work full-time), yup, we'd be laughing. As it is, we have four children, including two at university, and thus our actual lifestyle is fairly average and certainly not extravagant! (One 2009 car, inexpensive house, my clothes mainly from eBay, 1 week self-catering holiday in France, etc.) I'm not naive, I'm happy that we're secure these days, but I'm not living some sort of crazy life of luxury.

Takeaway and a bottle of wine are not luxuries at £20-25

They are when you can’t afford them ever!

We’re in the top 2%. 30s, no children, 2 incomes. We live fairly modestly, small house, mortgage, one cat, rarely go out to expensive restaurants and don’t drink very much or smoke. We don’t live a champagne lifestyle and our income probably wouldn’t go far if we had those sorts of tastes.
None of that means that we aren’t lucky to be so comfortably off. We have choices. We have savings, I have a pension and if we want to take a nice holiday or go out or treat ourselves to something we can. Neither of us are really big spenders but if we wanted we could lead a more expensive lifestyle and save less. But having an expensive lifestyle doesn’t change the fact that an income in the top 10 is a ‘good wage’.

Family is income is over £420k a year. My salary is half of that.
Saving and investing like mad to retire soon.

According to that.. we have a higher income than 94% of the population. Made me laugh out loud.

We do earn a decent amount for our backgrounds & lack of formal education - just over 30k each but we still struggle to get to payday every month, not to say we don't waste money either.

For the lifestyle I want , yes I would like to earn 7-8 k so I can live my life to the fullest and give my kids what my parents weren't able to give me.

We earn 6k take home at the moment and with childcare and bills out outgoing is just shy of 5k.

It's all relative. A good wage to me probably is what I earn now but to have everything I want in life, 7-8 & would be perfect.

Aw shit. Yeah I put in my income BEFORE tax.

Thanks for correcting me tho!

DP says I'm on a good wage at £20k, but it's still below the national average.

OK, I'm still in the top 80 per cent. Given I have no dependents.

Top 20 per cent I meant. Higher than 80 per cent of population.
Numbers not my strong point!

Family is income is over £420k a year. My salary is half of that.
Saving and investing like mad to retire soon.

Henrysmycat is clearly a manager in the NHS

My little wage is fantastic.

I earn the grand total of £105 a week - not even enough to pay tax or NI.

BUT a year ago I was doing the same 'job' for nothing, as a volunteer.

I had been a volunteer for the best part of 28 years. Even when I worked full-time, was a single parent etc etc, I still found the time to volunteer. And now I get paid for something I used to do for free.

That just has to be the best ever.

DH has a decent salary (about 35k), we have a smallish mortgage (less than a weeks wages worth), own our car and have NO debt.

Life is grand :)

I used to earn a lot for a freelancer. My day rate was $350-600 per day. But when I had my DC, it was suddenly split three ways, about evenly, a third for the nanny (three days a week), a third for the tax, and a third for me. When that balance changed big time, I gave up work.

Fortunately then my DH's business got traction. I supported him and it in its early days, and now he's making decent money. We are not wealthy but we were old parents and had paid off our mortgage by the time DC came along, so we have a bit in the pension pot.

It's a long haul. Ours has turned out okay, so far, but we are not in the SOuth East.

lifechangesforeverinjuly - I can't see how you can be in the top 6%. Your net income must be approx £4k a month which puts you in the top 32%.

I think lots of people are putting int their pre-tax income.

Takeaway and a bottle of wine are not luxuries at £20-25

Sorry to derail, but holy shit that's cheap! We had a local takeaway this week and it was £50 without any wine. 2 soup, 2 main, 2 rice, prawn crackers.