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?

The mean is useless because it will be pulled by outliers too much.

Is the figure quoted the median then?

I'd just like to know what's in the middle, rounded to the nearest 1000.

So say out of these salaries:

11k 15k 18k 21k 25k 30k 35k 41k 200k

25K is the average (median)
Not fussed about mean as it isn't representative.

Does anyone know what the median salary in the UK is? I keep seeing wildly different numbers.

TBH these things make me feel shit so not sure why I'm trying to find out.

I'm shocked at so many nurses on 40k plus! Not that I don't think it's deserved, more the propaganda around how low their wages are. I'm on 26k four years into working as a probation services officer. I would class this as a professional role despite how many posters claiming not to know anyone in that kind of money unless in a professional role!

For example this

www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/nov/24/wages-britain-ashe-mapped

I know it's 8 years out of date but have things changed that dramatically in that much time?

OK ignore me sorry, I think those figures include part time. I'm really tired but should have spotted that :(

I'm a nurse on 40k plus but I've got a nursing qualification, a number of teaching qualifications and a masters degree plus 10 years working as a senior manager in health service then 10 years working in education. A nurse must have a degree qualification. If you go for procedures and small ops now you may find it's a nurse carrying those out. You wouldn't question it if it was a doctor earning 40 k would you? You do because it's stereotyping!

I have worked for charities for about 15 years and never earned more than about 24k. Maybe I need to change sector!!

Most charity roles except for the Chief Exec type seem to be 18-25k ish - particularly not living in London where a lot of the big charities are, mean there are fewer "layers"/opportunities for promotion and payrises.

I have a degree and it is a bit galling to see graduate jobs advertised at more than I've ever been paid but there we go!

I'm guessing the average MN wage is a lot higher judging by some of the threads on here.

I’m a social worker, employed in my first year and on £32k

I’m based in the north west

The median would be a better figure than the average. Stupidly high earners push up the average.

In any event yes I do earn more not by masses but I work part time. I’m in one of the traditional “professions”.

I'm a northerner, been in my profession (finance based but not an accountant) for 14 years. I left school with only GCSEs but did a specialist degree in my profession in my late twenties after I had kids.

Now in a management role in the same profession and prefer to take 1-2 year contracts Cos they pay a little better than perm roles and I can take a little time off between them.

Salary currently £36k with the potential for £5kish of bonus a year which is more than enough for a good lifestyle in the north.

I'm 35.

I was on that at at 27, at 35 I'm on just over 50k as a civil servant in the north. I think it's a reasonable average when you consider salaries of professions, lots of public sector roles like teachers, civil servants, doctors etc. and middle management type jobs.

34k here in NW senior manager in voluntary sector with 20 years experience and professional qualifications
Ceiling is probably 40-45k which is half of what I would expect in non voluntary sector
DS is in graduate role for local government and doesn’t earn much less than I do
DD works in NHS and is lowest paid of 3 of us but still doing ok

OP, what qualifications/further education do you have?

For all of the success stories of people who leave school with a few GCSEs and go on to earn well, I do think the key to a decent salary (other than starting a business) is qualifying in a profession and then working hard at it. I wouldn’t expect to have been able to earn much more than NMW had I not pursued further education beyond college.

We live in a very cheap area where the median salary is £16-17k. I’m on £37k (at 31) and OH £42k (at 27). I’m a psychotherapist with dual Masters level qualifications as a social worker and therapist, as well as an undergrad degree. He’s a doctor, just finished his F2 and moving into specialty training.

I’ll max out at £44k in a few years (NHS) and not be able to go any higher, which is more than fine by me! It’s a cracking wage. Though to reach where I am now it involved ten years of voluntary work alongside awful NMW often zero-hour contract jobs, three years of undergrad, a two year MA and a one year postgrad diploma. OH spent seven years in medical school (one of those years was intercalated). His salary will of course rise fairly significantly as he progresses.

I think we’re doing well and without a profession I reckon I’d have struggled to have made it out of NMW. There just aren’t many jobs around here (yorkshire) that pay above £20-25k other than ones that require significant schooling/training. I spent the first decade of my working life on NMW and to me, our household income now feels like it may as well be millions even though by MN standards it’s probably quite average!

Dh on £32k he's a telecommunications engineer. I'm on £13k,I'm a welfare assistant at a special school,both full time. We are in the north west.

If/when I am full time I would be on £50k as a business manager but my hours are part-time and varied - aka a zero hours contract...which suits me perfectly.

I'm in HR and earn a little more than that. North East so not the south. I think £30,000 is a middle of the road amount to earn for professional people with qualifications.

Sounds about right to me. Both I and OH earn over £40k and we’ve been working for 13 years approx. I don’t know any of my uni friends earning less than £29k to be honest who work full time.

The keys to higher salaries are;

• Educational achievement. Branson may have done OK without many good academic qualifications but for most people input equals outcomes. Good A levels lead to good university places which leads to good jobs and better promotion prospects. That is generally true.
• Flexibility and adaptability. A willingness to move for better jobs, a willingness to do something less than a perfect fit to gain specific experience or wider skills.
• Hard work. I don’t mean a shift as a carer - hard but not exceptionally so. I mean studying for a masters on top of two jobs or doing a second job in addition to your full time work to broaden your c.v.
• Consequential thinking. It’s much harder for a single parent with three children to climb the salary ladder. High earners usually want to have established careers and a secure financial and relationship situation before having children. It’s not impossible without but it’s much easier with.
• A positive attitude rather than excuses why you can’t do something.

That won’t necessarily make you a billionaire but it is more likely you’ll be comfortable and not struggle through a life of making ends meet.

Me ,just over as an ECP xx

Well if we are doing random anecdotes as a proxy for evidence, I don’t know anyone earning less than 29k.

Earlier there was a poster who said they were on 18k with a post doc. Fuck me that was a massively shit career path to take... Why don’t people check out their future earning potentially before going down the path?

Most charity roles except for the Chief Exec type seem to be 18-25k ish - particularly not living in London where a lot of the big charities are, mean there are fewer "layers"/opportunities for promotion

Also charity sector on over £50k. Would expect to peak at around £70/75k as don’t want to be a CEO. I’m not in a big charity

@CherryPavlova " Flexibility and adaptability. A willingness to move for better jobs"

I think this is key, promotion in my field is very slow, I'd be waiting years to get to the next level. The longest I've ever stayed anywhere is 3 years, long gone are the days that this is seen as a bad thing. I have a wide variety of skills in a variety of environments. I don't wait to get promoted, I do 2-3 years somewhere, act up where possible, then look for the next step up where I can find it. It's something younger generations are going to have to get used to I think. Now I'm in the civil service I'm hoping I can swap around government departments, but I will leave if I have to for the right step up. I'm not going to wait here for years for a promotion.

I didn't answer the how. I am from the NE> I got the best A level results in the school, sat 3 x 3 hour scholarship papers for university and won one, got the best results (in law) in my year and a prize for that in year 1, top prizes in two subjects in the last year. Made about 139 applications to law firms during my degree and had 25 interviews before getting a job to train as a solicitor in London - picked London and business law as I wanted the money that can go with that. That was the start of it - part of the how.

Lots of things have gone wrong but I just seem always to be happy and optimistic and just keep going. No maternity leaves when babies came and worked for myself since the mid 90s. Wrote 30 law books and that is not easy - it involved spending lots of time at weekends etc. I remember 5am to 7am on Saturday being key working time as the baby twins had not yet woken up for their breastfeed for example.

However it all worked out well. Luck obviously comes into it. I am just about never ill which may be because I don't do things like smoke, drink and eating a lot of whole foods but will also be luck as well.

Also in the case of my married child, of me and of my parents - working with two full time professional salaries, buying a house or flat before babies come.

Why don’t people check out their future earning potentially before going down the path?

It probably depends on their age. There was no internet when I was at school and we relied on advice from our teachers who hadn't a clue. If you don't have contacts who are in particular jobs you have no one to ask.

Obviously for a teenager these days it's different, because a quick Google will tell you.

@BlueSkiesLies I was niave about money, only focussed on getting a job I enjoyed which yes is VERY important but of course quickly got frustrated at the financial constraints and the reality. So I've slightly diversified using my qualifications but in a sector that values it more. I will be making sure my children look at money as well as enjoyment, there's a balance.