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.

Was what I earned in my first job out of uni.
Thought I was loaded.
Wouldn't even cover school fees for 1 child now.

So imo it's an entry level salary.

What a skewed view of the world (or even the UK) you have.
Anybody thinking about even looking in to the idea of paying school fees is in a tiny % up there at the top of the wealth tree.

Also one thing to point out when people say I earnt X yrs ago this just highlights how much wage stagnation we have had over the last decade even in well paid job roles.

A relative got paid 80k over 20 yrs ago. They are in the same job now & earn 110k.

@ballroompink household income of £60k. I should think you could afford holidays. 😁

Openup you have 90k combined salary! How are you struggling?

We live London suburbs have a mortgage, 2 children with a combined income of 42k. We holiday abroad once and 4 short uk breaks a year.

I'm on that salary and live on my own in an expensive city. I don't have anything spare for holidays..

We get 41k combined a year and couldn’t even imagine a family holiday abroad outside term time.

35k in London is what my industry would pay people with 1-2years experience. Junior management would be more in the 45-50k bracket so it really does depend on industry / skill set

Unfortunately, all media jobs except the top 10-15 % or so do not pay well. They are used to paying nothing for staff to do entry-level work (they call it internship) because it's seen as a desirable, glamorous job. This means that most staff at low levels are a) ruthlessly exploited and replaced with fresh wide-eyed graduates at regular intervals ie before they have been there long enough that they might start thinking they deserve to be paid and b) almost entirely made up of upper middle class kids whose families can afford to feed and house and support them for a year or two.

TheSunAlwaysShines1 So much of disposable income depends on when & if your on the housing ladder though.

@Reanimated you are right about that, and it's completely wrong. I'm currently looking at hiring an intern myself and have been doing some serious maths with my budget to ensure they're paid - I completely disagree with unpaid internships. I've also been lobbying our director to raise freelance day rates. And for whoever asked above we're not in TV - I'm in digital but at a radio station (not BBC) and person B is BBC.

I earn slightly less than that in a management role outside of London. And in no way does it afford luxuries as a single parent. It affords me to live.

Our household income from paid employment went from £18k to £35k but we weren’t much better off due to our tax credits being reduced.

You can’t judge by the top line.

TheWorldAsh actually not every year as a matter of fact but the years we have not had holidays recently have been because I have been on maternity leave or because we've been paying out a lot for childcare. We also choose to overpay on our mortgage.

I think it’s quite good but then I’m a teacher in the north with not very expensive taste so what do I know!

Sounds like a good position to be in Agent. All other things being equal, people on £30k with inexpensive tastes are probably more content with life than those who live in London and have expensive tastes and say they still feel poor on £100k or even more.

35k is a brilliant salary. The costs of renting/mortgage in London do make it a bit less extravagant than if it were paid elsewhwere, and if it's for a single person or couple dependent on one income and with kids things may be more difficult. For the moment I'm a SAHM but when I wasn't both me and DH earnt a fair amount less than that (individually, not combined) and I've always considered us to be really lucky with our income.

FYI OP, on my calculator, the median for your situation (age, area, industry, job etc) is £33k.

It's really subjective and there's not necessarily a right or wrong.

Depends on age ..

I'm on slightly less than that (with DH on that amount). We think it's a fairly decent wage. We can't afford holidays at the moment but have recently bought a house up to our limit and have children in childcare. In 2 or so years time we will have a £200/£300 a month spare and so holidays and so holidays and savings will continue.

I live in the north east though where cost of living is much cheaper.

If you're spending £24k to have 2 DC in full time childcare, then £35k after tax isn't going to leave much for bills, let alone a holiday!!

Openup41 Commuting sucks, is there no way you could move jobs. There increasingly seems to be less of a gulf between London & other cities (below 70/80k)

(I realise the OP is about a person with no DC, but objectively saying you should be able to afford holidays on £35k is a massive generalisation, depends on your circumstances)