Would you consider £25k to be a good salary

[Sergio4]

I would. I live in London and would love to earn that much. Most of my friends living on London are on £20k or under (some have kids)

Your thoughts?

It would be great where I live, but I can't see it being enough in London seeing as rent there is twice what it is here.

I think I'd struggle on it in London, perhaps I'm just bad at managing money though.

No I don't think it's a reasonable salary, unless it's part time after 1-3 years of experience or a full time job for a year out university student (eg in retail). I'd expect anyone with a university degree to be on a starting salary of at least 28000 and then a standard 2% raise each year - more after a promotion.

I think the fact that you could never buy a property in London with it makes it poor.

It's totally subjective. If your outgoings and general spends/wants cost £24,999 then it's a good salary. If they amount to £60,000/£80,000/£100,000 then it's not.

As a new graduate it’s not bad. In my team it’s a second jobber, mid 20’s, salary. I personally wouldn’t take a job for £25k because it wouldn’t reflect my experience so no, I don’t think it’s a good salary.

I think it's low for London

25k is more than an ambulance dispatcher or emergency technician gets
Hearing or going to horrendous jobs, saving lives and for less than that!

Obviously it depends on your experience but it’s not a good salary in general terms.

I mean, you couldn’t live well unless you had cheap rent or still lived with your parents.

No I don't think it's a reasonable salary, unless it's part time after 1-3 years of experience or a full time job for a year out university student (eg in retail). I'd expect anyone with a university degree to be on a starting salary of at least 28000 and then a standard 2% raise each year - more after a promotion.

Might have been the case before degrees became devalued with the 50% targets.

25K is a reasonable salary, there is a reason why the benefit cap came in to be around that figure.

It's a globalised workforce, but there is a massive caveat of what industry we are talking about.

AbigailisFarty - Mortgage is £325 a month. House purchased for £83k four years ago with a 5% deposit in the North West. Two bed semi detached. Driveway. Front and back garden. Needed a new kitchen and bathroom so lowered the price a bit.

In London as a grad yes it’s okay
Otherwise no not really

We pay our apprentices just under £25K...

I’m a teacher one year out from NQT and earn 27K which seems OK but if you were to break it down with the hours I work it would come to about £3.00 an hour

In London I earned 40K 14 years ago.

I’m a new grad with a masters and I’m on a lot less than that in an entry level role! I hope that’s not all I can aspire to!

Not really a good salary no not a bad one either depending on experience and what you do

It's what I earn part time and suits me fine because we're already where we want to be property, savings, pension wise etc.
DH earns double, DD is now earning a living which obviously changes things.
If I were a lp with several DC, had debts etc, looking to save a deposit, then nowhere near enough.

In London, no - maybe ok for a grad scheme or similar that is going to show fairly fast increase.

For me, it’s fine, I expect a lot of flexibility in my job so I can be around for the kids a bit more. DH as main earner needs to be on 10-25k more than that for me to consider it acceptable for us to live the life we love

I'm a recent graduate in the North West - I graduated in July just gone, graduated from a red brick uni in the Midlands with first class honours in law. I am in my first graduate entry-level job here in my home city and my annual salary is £15.5K. All the other people in the same role as me have similar backgrounds and we all earn the same at my law firm. I have other graduate friends and family members and here in the North West I can't think of anyone who was on a starting salary of more than £17K post-graduation, and I'm talking about people from a range of different industries/backgrounds/universities. I'm utterly flabbergasted at the amount of people who think graduating and then walking into a job paying £25K is standard. The only person I know who has earned anything like that post-graduation was a friend who moved to London and got a job there, not anybody up here in the North West or indeed my friends from the Midlands.

On what planet do the people live saying this is a part time salary or retail gap year salary? 25k is not even supervisory level in retail!

www.indeed.co.uk/m/jobs?q=Retail+Supervisor

Burger King assistant manager £8ph
Mamas and papas supervisor £10ph
Odeon supervisor £8.54
Sweaty Betty supervisor £8.74

These jobs were in hove, Milton Keynes, east dulwich and oxford respectively. Just the first examples I from the link with advertised salaries.

I live in an expensive area in the SE, late twenties. Friends all university educated in professional roles - and some are on less than this. Nurse friend earns less than this. Editor friend earns less than this. Conference manager of an event space earns less than this. Account manager friend earns less than this! I'm not saying they shouldn't earn more, but this thread is definitely making me think that the people on the top tier of salaries have lost all perspective of what it's like to earn and 'average' salary. Friends above mentioned all have mortgages on flats and houses in said expensive areas, admittedly all with partners, but properties of 300k plus - all have nice holidays, clothes, and we regularly go out. Partners are police officers, recruitment consultants, bar staff, and construction manager so unlikely to be on huge salaries before anyone says they're relying on joint incomes. 25k although not by any means a great salary, is doable and not 'shit' as someone so considerately put up thread. I don't think there is any need to be so derogatory.

I used to earn £25k at a shitty little “family run business” where you never knew if they were going to be able to afford to pay you at the end of the month and the owners had to widen the doors to fit their egos through.

I left for the first job I was offered on £18k at a big, professionally run company and I’ve never been happier, so it was worth the pay cut.

I’ve got a degree and loads of great, practical experience but unless I go into hard sales I don’t think I’ll ever earn more than £25k.

I think a lot of people who went to university were sold a lie about how it would improve their career prospects - if I could go back in time I’d choose a degree that was for a job where you actually need to be qualified to do the work, rather than the very general degree I went for.

In London earning £25k for a graduate shouldn’t be an issue at all. Our lowest salary at work is about £20k and that’s an entry level admin role. Those on £25k are about 24 and have a couple of years experience. As I said in a previous post, it’s not a well paid profession and neither are they working long hours for the salary. They are grads but there’s nothing about their roles which means that they need to be graduates and I would happily recruit non grads with good paid or voluntary experience.

Not in London.

25k might be a good salary (or at least decent) in other parts of the country, but I would say that 25k in London is... not great.

It is not a great wage, but what are your circumstances? how many hours? Is there chance for promotion, what are you circumstances? There is so much to consider.