Please help settle a debate - earning £35k

[Johnnyfinland]

Two people are having a discussion. Person A is insisting £35k is a decent wage for someone at junior management level or just below. Person B says it's a bad wage, and you can't do things like save, go on holiday, treat yourself etc on that salary.

Person A pointed out plenty of people in the UK are on less, but person B thinks it's only just entry level for many industries, and that most people in "professional jobs" would think it's low.

What do you think? I am one of the people but I won't reveal which yet.

I earn 5k a year. 35k i would be rich beyond my wildest dreams. I am looking for a new job and anything over 20k here is generally management roles

That's the starting salary we pay our graduates in the south west in IT. Many seem to find that insultingly low.

@Anythingforacatslife not for a teacher in London. I'm on c 35 and I've only been teaching for 3 years.

Did you start on M3? You jumped a few years in pay to begin with I assume (unless you had experience in another industry before teaching, that isn't typical to achieve in 3 years)

In Inner London, (including weighting), the maximum a classroom teacher will get is £47, 298.
Greater London is £42, 498
Fringe areas out of London it is £37, 017
Everywhere else is it £38, 633

This is after 9 years in the classroom (at least if you haven't jumped a payscale to begin with) and only if you pass the performance management each year.

Therefore, that shows that even in the public sector, £35k is a low salary for that much experience for a professional.

However, I would not necessarily assume that all jobs in the media and in journalism are traditional professional roles either, OP, as they don't as a general rule, require additional qualifications (extra exams after an undergraduate degree, say, as a teacher, accountant, lawyer etc. would)

Sadly this shows the widening gap between pay in different industries.

We used to say teachers/accountants/doctors/lawyers are professionals. But the pay gap between teachers and accountants in London has gone silly.

This ^
That is top of the pay scale for class teachers, nurse, police officers etc., so I'd say it's a pretty decent salary for 'junior management'

It depends what is meant by junior management. New grads or non-qualified non-experienced professionals in finance - yes 35k is about right as a starting salary for a back office job. It will rapidly go up as you are promoted.

I think it’s fine but not if that’s the most you will ever earn

I just had a pay rise to just below that amount and I’m very happy. I will have £1k ‘spare’ money a month after bills, food and pension and I’m ecstatic. That’s plenty for holidays!

having said that it does depend on location. The difference between 35k & 55k is an additional 12k which could easily be swallowed up by higher rent/mortgage & commuting costs.

*Everywhere else is it £38, 633

sorry for my typo - Everywhere else is £35,633

Yes, good point, traditionally journalism was a school-leaver apprenticeship job. While it won't be that anymore and employers may ask for degrees (as they do in everything, whether the content is necessary or not) that doesn't make it a professional job. For that, professional qualifications and membership of a professional body would be required (though this view is biased in favour of long-established professions, over more recent ones).

The thing is, that some types of work are money-generators, in which case the employees want a cut of the profit (hence, footballers, bankers, financial industries and associated trades salaries). Some, public and charitable sector, are not. So however hard you work in the latter, there is no 'profit share' to aspire towards.

This is why working hard and being excellent bears no direct relationship to earning potential. Obviously.

I earn almost 37 as a band 6 midwife..... plus unsocial hours I am getting nearly 40. That's after 10 years. I think it's a decent salary. However, it's about half what DH earned in his first ever job (lawyer). Also about what my brother earned after ten years as a prison officer.

So basically it might be good or might be bad. Industry and life style dependent. I feel I earn OK but equally my salary is just fun money. If I needed to support a family on it I might feel differently.

Perfectly reasonable wage. Plenty of scope for holidays. What a twat this person is for suggesting otherwise.

Huh. Just when I think I’ve made it (promotion to £35k last year) I get thrown right back down for daring to believe I’m on a decent wage.

We survived as a family of 5 on £26k and had holidays as well.

OpenUp has a household income of £90K and can't afford a coffee? Oh purlease.

Openup clearly can’t manage money appropriately

@MumofBoysx2 "it's not a great wage"

Excuse me? I mean sure, some positions in some companies can pay much more, but to say it's not a great wage is silly. It's well above the UK average wage.

When I was earning that I was already feeling darn pretty well off, putting money into savings, multiple holidays a year, buying a nearly car with cash What we never did was push our lifestyle to the extreme.

There's the issue. £35k to someone with lots of expenses, often ones where they're trying to keep up with the Jone's, is different from those who run lean.

Neither way is it "not a great wage"

Perfectly reasonable wage. Plenty of scope for holidays. What a twat this person is for suggesting otherwise.

Maybe if holidays were the only extra desired but what if your transport season ticket was £2,000, your monthly childcare was £1,400, mortgage or rent was between £1,500-2,000 per month, eat, bills, wanting to save and then maybe a treat of a Costa coffee etc, whilst trying to save, all on a monthly salary of £2,257.

Yeah, it's all relative to living costs.

This is a silly question because as everyone else says it depends on the industry and location!

This. I am disproportionately wound up by it

This has made me recall the time a colleague of mine said how her family struggled living on their household income which would have been around £150k annually.... (NM my household income was £48k at the time)

Our grads jump up to 35+ as soon as they qualify.

You cannot answer the question without more detail.

Personally, I could live the (not very fancy!) lifestyle I do now on 35k as my outgoings are too high.

neither, I think it's both skewed thinking.

35K would be mostly disposable income for me, that pays for lots of luxuries. So B is wrong

However, 35k whilst good enough for junior management, there are people working in entry level jobs, like call centres earning this.
I know some women earning this with sales bonus, all entry jobs.

Could not!

When are mn going to get an edit button?!

gillybeanz what companies? I'm actually desperately looking for a new sector to work in but not prepared to move out of my managerial role in this sector unless I can get paid the same! Entry level jobs are fine for me if I'd be earning the same

Depends what they're doing, but in TV production, for a managerial role, that's v low. Depends what you mean by broadcast media.