29.5k earnings who are you and how?!

[AtSea1979]

BBC reports today say the average salary in the UK is £29,500.

I earn 12k but i’m part time (otherwise 18k). I live in the north. I can only dream about earning nearly 30k. I’ve thought about retraining but I wouldn’t know where to start as the job market seems so difficult.

AIBU to think the majority of people earn much less and it’s just the minority fat cats pulled that figure up?

I earn more than that but a few years ago it was less than that. I got a great job with a big pay jump and then it jumped again about two years into the role.

DH also earns more but he's in his 50s and has a "professional" job.

I have 2 very good degrees but never managed to make it work for me. Id love to have moved into a graduate job and then have it go up quickly. Im bright and learn quickly but do get anxious.

Post kids 40s...local gov jobs all region of 20k. This cant be that uncommon on mn post kids .

I'm around about £30k, full time project manager in tech, middle management sort of level, I've been doing the job for 15 years or so and at this wage for the last decade. Not been able or motivated to go more senior, I need the wiggle room for dossing on mumsnet childcare etc.

I’d say that the average sounds right to me. I’m in London and the average here is higher. Most of my friends have fairly ‘normal’ jobs, eg teachers, working for local councils, managers etc. I’d say many are on around 30-40k, so average for London.

I earn that working for an housing association in asset management. Gcses only, have doubled my wage since i worked in retail 5 years ago. Started doing one job at 22k then they paid for training for me to do the job i now do. I feel very lucky.

Also south east and no one I knows earns that salary and one works in a school.... I'd love to make that so would my partner. Don't see how they have said that is the average wage 🤨

I have friends in London doing management roles on around £34k, friends doing London admin jobs for closer to £21k. I have friends in the South West earning £17k working in customer service jobs for the council. A friend is a pilot earning £70k+. I think the overall earnings of the country are looked at and a median salary came out of it. I don't think £30k is generally an average salary as a lot of people struggle to make it to that point and more people are working flexibly now, so their salary can vary. Ive heard of bloggers and influencers earning 100k plus, so that is possibly having an impact as those are fairly new careers to the market.

@Smilebehappy123

Aaah, I need to move. I’m a senior SW on £32k (pro rata as I’m PT) near London.

The most fascinating thing about these threads is now what people earn but how skewed people's perceptions are of what those around them must be paid. Thinking 40k is pretty average for anyone means you are in a bubble. Just stop and think a moment how many of your friends and relatives may be on less.

I am 40 and have a job that requires a degree. Been in the role 8 years. I assume others around, friends and me are on £40kish. But now I wonder. I am on £28k. I thought my 28k was woefully low.

I went to an online inflation calculator. I'm retired but earned around £18,000 in 2000. It would be worth £ 30,699.99 now. Certainly not a lot if living in London or surrounding areas!

Work in IT in the South-East and I'm in my late twenties, I earn around £47k with benefits and work FT. I pay a mortgage on my own but had help with the deposit on my flat from my parents. I don't have any savings but I can comfortably live month to month with the odd holiday. My first serious job post uni I was 24 and earned around £25k, it was a junior/entry level job with no professional training required or accreditation. I'm lucky that there are a lot of jobs in IT or similar industries where I live, so I have moved jobs a few times which has given me a more leverage with salaries. My friends of similar ages and backgrounds earn the same as me.

Agree that London and the SE pushes average salaries up.

I work in Finance (professional services) in London and my starting salary straight out of university on a graduate scheme was £30k in 2006.

We are recruiting for a junior member of staff, post-qualified from the accountancy world but no other experience required, for £50k - £55k.

Nhs,band 3 role, full time £20,795.

Also south east and no one I knows earns that salary and one works in a school.... I'd love to make that so would my partner. Don't see how they have said that is the average wage

Because it is. Do you understand what average means? If a pro footballer is on £300k a week, so £15.6m a year, then 1040 people need to be earning £14500 a year to balance out his salary to give an average of £29500.

£35k here - I’m an experienced teacher.

Doesn’t buy you anything approaching a small house in our area though (not London or Fringe so no extra weighting, just a super pricey area where sadly all of our support network/childcare live).

"Also south east and no one I knows earns that salary and one works in a school"

I agree, I am in the SE, and my DW earns less than she was 8 years ago as an R&D scientist (Masters degree), she is on £25K and there are plenty of her scientists on less than £20K.
I am in legal finance and the local rate for an accounts manager is £18K - £22K. I have 28 years experience in that field and have seen wages stagnate or fall back.

1. I never had maternity leaves - worked until in labour, back full time after 2 weeks of annual leave. that means no career break, no demotions, no part time hours or work = lots more money.
2. I picked work that pays well and deliberately moved to London (lawyer). It takes a minimum of 6 years just to qualify. After that you are only valuable once you have at least 3 years of experience - i..e. about 9 years after age 18. Even then you have to keep learning new law every week or indeed day - I don't think a day goes by without my looking at new case or statute so it is pretty continous education - even at my age - 50s.

My father earned well over £26k in the NE (doctor (psychiatrist)); my sibling in Yorksire - same job and indeed much higher pay than £29k. The key for this family is professional qualificatiosn which are very hard to get and most people could not pass the exams for etc.

My basic wage was about £28,000as a Staff Nurse but with shift allowance and unsocial hours it was more like £33-34,000 I did work a motor weekends and nights though.

A lot of*

I'm on 34k. Am a very senior editor at a publishing company. That's a little below average for this job but I love where I work. I pay nearly £6k a year to commute. DH earns way less than me, around £11k, despite being considerably more qualified than me (has a PhD etc) but he works from home and does all childcare. We don't have spare money but also feel very lucky as we have a secure home and enough to get by.
I've been really, genuinely poor - literally homeless, doing terrible things to make money, so I'll never not feel fortunate to be doing ok.

Agree re the professional qualification. In Manchester, salaries seem to hit a glass ceiling of around 30k if you don’t go down the degree, MSc, prof qual route. DP and I are an example of this.

I work in PR and earn just over 30k for 3 days (54k fte). All of my london-based friends would earn over 40k in fairly standard jobs.

Teachers, police officers, all earn about £45k if top of salary scale/one up from mainscale salary ladder.

I'm on £32,500 actual for 4 days a week. FTE is 41k.

My husband is on 95k plus approximately 30% bonus.

We are in London.

I'm a nurse and earn 38k - senior charge nurse