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?

@Lifecraft

I was responding to you saying:

**Nooooooo. That's not how average works! I've said it so many times on this thread.

1 footballer earning £300K a week, 1040 people earning £14500. so 1041 people and their average salary is £29500. But 99.9% of them are earning below the average.

You’re talking about ‘mean’ as if it’s the only way of calculating the average. It’s not. Median is another. Mode is another.

Besides your calculations are way off. If you calculated the mean of the 1041 people you have data for, it would be 14,774. The median would be 14,500. The mode would be 14,500.

Last year median salary in the UK was £28,400. So half of people earned more than this, half earned less. I’m assuming the figure quoted in the article OP referred to is median as it’s a similar figure to last year, but can’t confirm as it doesn’t say.

In any case my point wasn’t about what the figures are this year, it was about people talking about averages and not being clear or understanding whether they’re talking about mean, median or mode.

If I use my initiative at work, come up with new ideas, offered to take on extra work or worked seven days a week for a year, I would still only earn 20 thousand and if I’m lucky I may get a thank you. I want to move to another company but everywhere seems to treat you the same, I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. I’d love to earn even just 5k more.

I only know 3 people on that figure or more.
A stone mason, a teacher and an engineer.
I think 20k is the most common salary I hear. I’m in the SW

That sounds right to me.

Teachers, Nurses, most office jobs in London will pay that at the lower end.

Husband is a workshop controller in a main car dealership and earns that. We're in the south west. Its taken him over 20 yrs to work his way up for that pay though

ONS says that median weekly earnings in April 2018 were actually £569 www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/annualsurveyofhoursandearnings/2018

I'm 30. In SW. I earn £35,000. I've got a professional qualification and 8 years experience in my area.

The difference between the income some people take for granted and the choices that allows them compared to the income that many people live on is actually massive, (first world problems wise etc, blah blah.)

@HomeEdRocks18 DH was in the motor trade for years and was a workshop controller for a time. I always thought they were really badly paid for really long hours and often a lot of stress.

I'm a graduate in Scotland and I earn that - it's around entry wage for my branch of engineering.

I live in South Wales and it’s a relatively average wage for jobs in the city. I earn a fair bit over this and my DH does too in, in a skilled trade.

We are still skint at the end of the month and I don’t know how people would live on the ‘average’ wage in the SE where rent is a third of people’s salary

I'm a civil servant and earn £30k but it's taken many years of hard work to get to that point and I will never earn more than that.
My DP earns £24k as a trainee firefighter which will rise to £28k when he passes training.

I'm in the north and never expected to get past £15k. It really felt like it would never come. I couldn't afford university so don't have a degree to enable me to move into a field I actually enjoy.

Believe it or not, I find it difficult to live on any less than that in London. My fares are £200 per month, plus the occasional uber (I don't run a car). Council tax around £130 per month. Add rent/mortgage, utilities, broadband, phone, food and high prices when you do have an occasional treatment such as hair/nails. It's gone.. not much left to save or add to a pension.

*Median UK salary in 2018 was £28,400 so I’m not sure your suspicions are correct.

What's your source for that? I read that the median salary was around £18K. Average (mean) salary was £28400.*

Try this...www.theguardian.com/money/2018/may/12/salary-what-get-paid-talk-about-it-makes-brits-cringe

£30k was a starting salary when I graduated and now DP and I are on £100k+ with good bonuses. Both professional services though.

It sounds a lot but to someone else’s point, the housing around here is so expensive that £1m gets you only a 3 bed terrace.

The London salaries are on average higher than the north but at least the north wins on the “look at how much more house you get for your money” threads!

the median is 28.5K ie exactly 50% earn more and 50 % earn less
the mean ( adding them all up and dividing ) is 29.8K so slightly higher but not dramatically higher
these figures are for full time workers ie over 30 hours less than 30 is part time for statistical purposes

some figures include part time wages so then the figures drop considerably but it is not really comparing like with like if you add in the salary of someone doing 10 hours a week with someone doing 40
there are different figures to show household incomes which includes full time part time and benefits it is not 2x 29.5 (59K) but more like 35K as often in a 2 adult family with kids one is either not working or is part time or both part time

Almost everyone I know earns more than that.
I live in London/Surrey borders, from Newcastle. I’m a midwife and full time would be on basic rate £44k plus unsociable hours, high cost living.

I earn £22.5k for a professional role, DH earns over £30k for a similar role.

NHS nurse for 30 years in Scotland earn £40000 but soon to be £43000. The people I know on less than 29 are either young or have no professional qualifications

What is it that you do OP? Some jobs have ceiling on wages. If you want to earn more you need a skill or knowledge in an area that is in demand and hard to do. Usually experience and qualifications matter or entrepreneurial spirit. And how old are you? That will be a factor too. My 22 year old self earnt significantly less that now.

There was a thread here recently about Mumsnet women high earners 6figures and above and how to manage home life if you are in that bracket. Might be worth starting a thread on how folks have got there.

It all depends on your education and sector.

At 25 I was making £45k as a self-employed marketing consultant. In my 30s now and don't work.

DH earnings are variable. Although he pocketed £100k last week on a deal he was working on.

I'm in Scotland but a regional compliance manager for EMEA and earn more than double that .. but I knew I needed to go private sector and travel to get that.

I earn around 42k as a health visitor, in NHS but that's after 4yrs at uni, & 7 yrs experience before that in NHS I was on around £20k (11yrs ago).

So glad I went to uni as I never would have got further I don't think. Now I can go much further if I'm willing to go into management (which I'm probably not -too souless! )