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?

Teacher 36k as part time (40k if I worked full time).

Quite A few comments On teachers again! Most teachers do not earn that much! If you google teaching pay scales you start at £22/23k and bearing in mind you will have a degree and years PGCE minimum at 9k a year, it takes six years min to get to the thirties range depending on school (a lot try to fail You each year) so the ‘average’ is utter rubbish. The forties bracket is mostly ten years service or a responsibility of some kind. Given that most people don’t make it past 5 years now the average is most certainly not £40k.

We live up north, my husband works as a mobile response driver in private security and he earns just over £30k per anum standard. He worked one extra shift a week for a year and it bumped his wages up to just over £38k for that year.

Unless you have actually qualified in finance or something along those lines, I would say the average earner is earning more or less the same as my husband?

Sometimes the average wage is down the sheer number of hours some workers do in a week. My husband's job isn't easy and he works 14-hour shifts for his £31k a year.

Mental health worker, (not clinical) 25k, plus mileage allowance of 4k, South of England, FT.

I’m with you OP,
We live in the North
Both me and DH work full time - I work in education, he the NHS
We’re both over 30 and we’ve both worked in our jobs over 10 years
Neither of us eat anywhere near that figure

• Earn

Ffs 🤦🏻‍♀️

@Oranginna I'm now a train driver. Not what I ever planned to be 😂

People making comments about NHS wages need to remember as well that

A) we haven't had a pay rise in donkeys and had to fight hard for the shit we got. we have little influence on salary and the perks are not what they were 5 years ago let alone 10 years ago.

B) once you reach the top of your band you have to be prompted to get a pay rise as no cost of living increases for ages either. I'm about to be band 7 and have been top of band 6 for years because I wanted a hands on clinical role. I've managed to find a compromise but it's bloody hard fought for.

@beccarocksbaby I actually answered this a few times
Summary the mega rich do skew it but not by that much, the mean average is 29.5k for full time workers which on minimum wage is about 16k to the tiny few earning millions. The median is a bit lower at 28.4k this means 50% of full-time workers earn more than28.4 the other 50% earn less
Only 5% earn more than 70k so the other 95% of full time workers earn between 16-69k as median is 28.4 the lower 50% go from 16-28, while the upper 50% has the wider range of 29-69 as only 14% pay higher rate tax ( and 5% are over 70k) that means only about 9 % are between 50-69k
Therefore 85% of full-time workers don't pay higher rate tax a gross salary of around 50k depending on personal allowances so about 18 million full time workers earn less than 50k, only about 18,000 have over a million per year and only 1.15 million earn over 70k about 1 in 20 people working full time and 1 in 35 of all adults

Obviously because of regional variations those earning the median average are not evenly distributed throughout UK the chances of meeting someone earning around 28k or above are much higher in Kensington and Chelsea than Dagenham, and Edgbaston as opposed to Sparbrook in Birmingham or Morningside Fergus

I meant Morningside versus Niddrie in Edinburgh

lilmishap I arrived as a baby to refugee parents in the UK and for all my childhood knew only unemployed or labourers in my social sphere. Education opened the door for me but even then I only got a 2:2 despite my shitty schooling where no one in my year even got 5 GCSEs.

Fast forward 20 years later and I'm in a job whose sales team will share a £1million bonus from a single sales deal and I typically will pocket what many people earn in a year as a commission on top of a high six figure salary excluding share options ..
yadeyadeya....you get the picture...

Anyway my point is yes it's a bit boastful but I got here by sheer utter stubborness in terms of work ethic, studying night and day to be an expert in my field, constant professional exams and qualifications as well as the ability to risk it all and change jobs every 2 years to leap frog pay rises... whilst managing two small children. Admittedly I paid a lot in childcare even if it meant paying for childcare on my credit card and I carried a hefty childcare debt for 2 years once owing on my credit card £8000 inorder for me to work (I was a single mother at the time).

I don't think there is a magic formula but there are certain character traits such as risk taking, common career attributes such as being able to adapt, move and be able to deal outside your comfort zone as well as your station coupled with outstanding social softskills.

Yes it's absolutely true we will only hire you if we think you are going to fit in. My company won't trust you to complete a £70million dollar deal if you don't look, act or speak the part. This took me ages to figure out. No one in my sphere ever taught me, I just taught myself with a lot of trial, copy and error.

Lilmishap social group has now come after the high earnings to the point I now don't know anyone who isn't middle class. I am not sure if that's a bad thing or not but my world socially and professionally doesn't provide many opportunities to collide with other social groups unless I actively seek it like on Mumsnet or volunteering.

I’m a teacher and yes most will earn more than that if full time and have been teaching a few years. I’m part time so earn £14 k for 2 days but would be on £35k if full time. As much as the full time money is tempting I’m a single parent and work in a special needs school with challenging behaviours. More than 2 days would finish me off as I’m already drowning in paperwork and I’d pay out for child care for the other days for the 2 kids. I’m am also studying to further my qualifications to eventually restrain as an educational psychologist.

I should also add it’s taken me 20 years teaching to get to the first point on the upper pay scale for teachers. I should have been on the top point of the main scale for about 10 years But time out to have children, work on supply earning about £6k a year due to budget cuts and schools no longer taking as many supply teachers on, plus maternity and a job outside of teaching for a few years has meant that I am 42 and earning the same as I did 10 years ago when I got a promotion to deputy head for a year (then I left to work outside of school). I’ve been at my current school 5 years now and have seen one incremental point pay rise in that time. I had to apply for it and be assessed. I’m hoping to do the same again this year. But take into account the part time wage I’m actually taking home the same salary I did as an not full time 20 years ago, so haven’t really felt the pay rises over the years when cost of living and bringing up children have been added to the equation.

I’m on £30k as a manager in the south east although lower end of the pay scale as my first manager position.

I have an MA and speak three languages. When I worked for a very big .com my salary was of £50k and it was home based (but originally London based). Was made redundant and now in Cornwall I make 18k and it's fairly average.

It would be interesting to know what everyone had after rent/mortgage, council tax, w.rates and gas/elect i.e essential utility bills but nothing else no tv packages, food , social money etc so disposable income but the bar minimum taken off.

I carried a hefty childcare debt for 2 years once owing on my credit card £8000 inorder for me to work

I'm in awe of people who have the self belief to be able to carry that sort of thing through. I've always been hard working and willing to learn new things but I've never had any sort of belief that it will all work out ok, (probably because it never has in the past). I was brought up to believe that I should be grateful if anyone wanted to employ me at all and I just can't seem to shake that feeling off.

I have an MA and speak three languages. When I worked for a very big .com my salary was of £50k and it was home based (but originally London based). Was made redundant and now in Cornwall I make 18k and it's fairly average.

This is why I left Cornwall. Poor income and incredibly high cost of living. It makes me sad, Cornwall is my home, my parents are there, but it was completely unaffordable for us. Jobs limited for him more than me (Nurse). We would never have been able to own our own home.

Live between Notts and Derby now, own a home which would be close to 250k in Cornwall and have decent incomes.

I miss home though and I will come back some day.

I lived in London and worked as a credit control manager in telecoms, I earned £43k plus 25% bonus In 2010. I remember considering a role in Warrington but it was 26k so moved abroad instead.

Quality Professional 48yrs old (GCSE Education) no degrees or diplomas (just 30yrs industry experience and track record) £61k but heavily influenced on starting in SE and transferring to NE where not as many "skilled/experienced" people available. I hate that I earnt 3-4 times more that local emloyees average but I've also worked damned hard for it and and made several personal sacrifices to achieve this.

I know Becca were trying to buy a house and we'll be able to but obviously by no means the house of our dreams.

I think as long as people are happy to pay the "premium" to live in Cornwall i.e. low salaries things unfortunately won't change.

I know so many people at the university who get paid 60% of what they'd get paid somewhere else but like the Cornish lifestyle so are happy with it.

South Yorkshire. My pro rata salary is £21k.

I'm in Scotland in a college and earn 26k for 35 hours per week. I get 49 days annual leave though (not term time) and am in local government pension scheme so I don't mind my salary so much as our benefits are so good. Also, our pay goes up pretty regular. I'm post graduate qualified however my position only requires an undergrad. Currently looking internally for a promoted post.

DH is self employed furniture installer, earns over £40k. I’m a qualified accountant / stock controller earning over 60k plus benefits. We both left school with basic education and trained / qualified as adults, going to college /Uni in the evenings and weekends. My daughter starts a Finance apprenticeship in September earning £18k. We’re in the South.

Not just fat cats. I don't know anyone who earns less than £60k pro rata. South east, mid forties.

^^I honestly don't know how to respond to this, you must have a terribly narrow social circle....