Average incomes

[flabbergastedfinances]

Found out that the average family income is around £30,000 a year and I can not believe it. I don't know a single family on anywhere near this low, lowest is possibly 70k mark between two teachers but majority have two earners pulling in 40+ each or one higher earner on 80/90k+

How on earth is 30,000 even possible in light of minimum wage and benefits/tax credits etc? What is even more shocking is that I used the where do you fit in calculator and we are apparently in top 98% of families in the uk. No chance, absolutely no chance.

We might have a high ish mortgage (still only £1000 so not outrageous) and have slipped into bad spending habits (Uber's, eating lunch out every day, new clothes now and then) but we are hardly excessive. We can't afford to run two cars, can't afford foreign holidays, can't afford the posher shops like Boden or northface new and yet this chart tells me we have it better than nearly everyone else in the country?! What am I missing?!

We have a child in childcare a few days a week, so that and mortgage are biggest expenses but combined that's only £1500 and I see everyone else buying £300 coats, spending 1000s on holidays, children in private schools and I am utterly stumped.

How can the average family income be £30,000? Which families are surviving on that? None I know that's for sure and I just refuse to believe that's an actual reality

We have a family income of about £53k . I KNOW how well off we are. We have a high mortgage but there is plenty of money for a nice holiday every year and great quality clothes for my child including treats and days out. We live in a lovely home and if we were on £70k we could also save several hundred a month. You really are living in a total bubble!! My child is having a much more privileged childhood than I had. It really is the people you are spending time with.
My husband grew up rich ( though has no perspective and thinks he was simply comfortable) and he thinks we are struggling!! Ha , ha , ha!!! You two should get together.

@hollygoloudly1 yes husband earns over £100,000 so it's a fantastic salary on paper and I now realise how incredibly fortunate we must be to have that income. We never seem to have spare though, mortgage, childcare, bills (council tax is £250 a month for example) plus travel for husband is over £500 a month so it just vanishes.
We are definitely guilty of spending lots on unnecessary things though, I probably buy the children more than they need and the meals out add up plus husband has expensive hobbies that he justifies as he works hard. I know we are lucky and reading these posts has given me so much to think about. I'm positive we could make some changes to our outgoings

It's also all relative I suppose. In the area we live, £1000 is very reasonable a month mortgage yet on here people are saying their rent/mortgage is £100 a week which means their salary can be much lower as their outgoings are much lower and we'd still average out the same disposable income wise?
Oh FFS! Seriously? I did give you the benefit of the doubt and thought you were woefully ill informed but willing to listen. Now think that you are either obtuse or deliberately offensive or have no grasp of maths. No, it would not average out the same. Take a moment to do the maths...

@flabbergastedfinances

Hi what is it you struggle with/on? Not sure if I’m wording my question correctly! Third time lucky?!

Over here op ...waving
We manage ,and pay a mortgage ( we bought years ago so it’s not huge )
4 kids one wage
No benefits as kids are over 18
No expensive holidays ,14 year old car .
Camping ,no eating out
£100 ish per child at Christmas and birthday

Is there any reason you live on one wage when there are 5 or 6 (if you have a partner) adults in the house? I think saying 4 kids one wage is a bit off when what you actually have is 4 adult children.

@LuckyAmy86 our outgoings are very high but things like mortgage, childcare and travel can't be helped and add up to more than £2000 a month. We do go out a lot but only to places like harvester or Pizza Hut so no more than £40 a time for us all and we tend to buy clothes from supermarkets or maybe m&s/next for special bits. We try to go swimming or to family fun things often and see family a lot which can work out pricey with fuel and days out I suppose?

so the Q is, why do you do a job only paying £18K? Either you love the job and are happy with that income, or you chose that degree and knew it was not going to lead to a high paid job, or you are not able or willing to try to find a different job . Very few grad jobs pay under £25K even badly paid ones like teaching and nursing so there has to be a reason why you are accepting that salary and indeed chose a job paying that.

I can and will answer those questions but the real question is why is that not one person accepts it but the whole team? Then multiply my team by similar other teams. Much like the men who benefit from the patriarchy can't understand that just because the system works for them it doesn't work for whole classes of society, capitalism is the same. We find fault with the choices an individual made rather than structural Inequalities.

In a nut shell, English degree, working class northern background, graduated into a recession, literally no idea of what a graduate does beyond receive a certificate, continue working in my NMW job I had in and off to support me whilst at uni. Retrain as a teacher, do very well, change of head teacher, do awfully, have a mental breakdown, do supply, do classroom assistant job.
All whilst being disabled from birth.
My low paid job utilises the skills and knowledge that I've built up. I am now training in youth mentoring in the hope to get back into earning more than £20k because despite all my qualifications and experience I can't get a job as a pastoral mentor.

I have made poor choices. But is that true of all poor people and not true of the rich? Or are some more advantaged than others?

@Sewingbea I think my maths is rubbish - in my head 1000 from 100,000 equalled 300 from 30,000 but I'm certain it's not now!

My dh is self employed, working god knows how many hours a week, 60+ and I work pt, with two kids under 4. We get by on 26k. I say get by but I've been very tight this year and we've put 6k into savings as we're hoping to buy a home in a few years and get away from renting. Things are tight but we keep outgoings low and we're not materialistic people. We're very happy with what we have

Lots of families I know live very comfortably on a household income of around 30-35k per annum. For example ds and her dh must earn around this. Ds is a TA on (12k), don't know exactly what her dh earns but he's a delivery driver so not much more than 20k I would guess. However they live in a cheap uk town, have owned their own house since they were 22/23 (I went guarantor for them for a few years), but they have a lovely BMW car (not brand new) , a gorgeous 3 bed new build and 2 kids. They have at least 3 foreign holidays a year and are always out for dinner. They work hard and enjoy it. Not sure if they have savings but they don't have debt (other than house). In comparison we live in one of the most expensive cities in the uk and earn 3 or 4 times more than them and have the same standard of living as them. I often joke about them moving here and they laugh and say no way as they could never afford to buy a house or even rent. We're incredibly lucky that we have been able to.

Also I can't believe you don't know anyone on lower incomes. Do your dc go to a private school? My dc school has about 40% free school meals (and that bar is low compared to 5 years ago). Unless your kids are privately educated then you must be coming into contact with families on low incomes but just don't associate yourself with them??

How do you know several of your friends' household incomes??

Surely you realise that a lot of NMW jobs are just that, and don't necessarily have room for progression or pay rises?

I have never really bothered to do the maths as such but I guess we are around 30k take home. Dh is a classroom assistant so on awful money, I work for the nhs 33 hours a week as a health care support worker (band 2). If you look at the wages for those kind of jobs you'll realise that plenty of families are on around this amount and a lot less. We used to get child tax credits a good few years ago but are no longer entitled, I believe we are slightly over the limit in terms of income. We do however get child benefit. We have 2 dc and a mortgage. I would say we are quite comfortably off though, but I guess we budget well and live within our means.

I know very few people on as much as £30k. You'd be considered quite well off at that round here. £20k for a full time job is normal. Maybe a bit less for some. So, assuming 2 adults, £40k for the household is the top end of typical. Less if not both working full time. Less still if out of work or zero hours, both depressingly common too. But £1k a month mortgage is also very rare unless you live in a 6 bed detached with a swimming pool or something. I pay less than £400 a month. I think this sort of thing is very area dependent.

this has got to be a goady post.

Please never visit the poorer areas of the north east and start telling people about the perils of a huge mortgage on a 100k+ salary

Just for a second imagine being on nmw, a single parent, renting from a slum landlord etc chances are you will always have to work, you will always have the worry about when the next big expense is coming etc

I’m guessing as well you probably live in a naice area, with plenty of facilities etc. Seriously google the worst places to live in the country and see if you would swap to have a cheaper cost of living

How do you know what people earn ffs ? I never tell anyone what I earn!!
I think you are forgetting sometimes the breadwinner is in full time minimum wage and the other is at home with the kids presumably getting some benefits which probably makes it £30 k .

Says it all that you consider nurses and office managers to be 'low level' jobs.

(council tax is £250 a month for example)

Council tax is one thing that doesn't increase in line with the local house price market though.

I live in a run down northern town where average income is half that of the SE but our council tax is about the same. For someone on £100k with a half million house, only £250 pm council tax is very low. So not all things are cheaper "up north" despite the vastly lower wages available.

Oh dear .. please stop being a tool OP .. yes people stay on minimum wage for a long time .. often forever .!! 🙄🙄..

I can’t think of how to phrase this un-patronisingly but have you thought about reading a newspaper?

Infant mortality was previously falling (as it should in a developed country!) but has been on the rise again since austerity was introduced, with the poorest areas being the hardest hit. Demand for food banks has gone through the roof. Poverty is real and a fact of life for lots of families, many of whom earn a damn sight less than 30k.

@Allmyfavouritepeople That's a sad tale. I had a similar background to you. And I'm much much older than you and could only find a teaching job my relocating south.

Have you thought of tutoring? Honestly with all your experience you could be earning the going rate- around £30 an hour in some areas- and earn the same as your full time job for 3 hrs a day.

In comparison to your lifestyle however OP meals out to a place like Pizza Hut night happen once or twice a year for a special occasion such as a birthday and are considered a big treat. Clothes tend to be gifts from grandparents or hand me downs for friends with older kids (which are then handed down again). We try and keep any travel to a minimum as petrol is so expensive. Holidays are camping locally (which we all love). You are clearly in a very privileged situation which is great. I have no doubt you work hard and deserve it. However jobs such as classroom assistants, health care assistants and many more also work very hard, but unfortunately it is not reflected in terms of pay.

£300 from £30,000 is the same percentage as £1000 from £100,000- however, I don't think anyone on this thread has said their housing costs are £300 a month, some have said £400 which is a bit different.

£300 wouldn't rent you a shoebox where I live in the SW, and our council tax is also pretty high.

The point you're also missing is that £8300- £1000 is £7300, whereas £2500-300 is £2200. I'm sure you can see that £7300 will buy you a lot more stuff than £2200. I know I haven't accounted for tax here, but you get the idea.

People on £30,000 may also have commuting costs and childcare.

I do understand how outgoings rise with income, but unless you have significant debt, there is no way you couldn't afford a holiday. It's possible you can't afford the sort of holiday you want to go on, I guess, though. But if you would like a holiday next year, then I'd suggest looking through your budget- because you absolutely should be able to find the money. You might want to look at your utility bills and insurances, too. Can you get cheaper deals elsewhere?

User149

I agree about council tax

I live in a pleasant area and a 3 bed semi house is averaging £2200 per year in band D with G being the top band anywhere coming in at around £3500 for a year tops £4K how is that proportional to house worth £3million or £300k

I recently applied for a job that paid £18k. It required a university degree and min. 5 years of relevant professional experience. The average income for that title is around 32k. Some salaries are shocking but not everyone is lucky to have choise.

Have you ever had a job, OP-you really don’t sound very bright .

Do you understand that many people are on Minimum wage and simply won’t have the opportunity for career progression?