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

My household is on approx £45000. It use to be £60000 before DC I now work part time. The drop has meant we have to watch what we spend. Our mortgage is £450 so not too high, we would like a bigger house but that will have to wait, we pay for childcare, just one car, occasional foreign holiday, we don't eat out too often. Hoping when DC are school age I will increase my hours again.
I would say 30k is low if it's a two adult household. Though in the NW where I live I imagine its is quite common. I have afew friends whilst I don't ask them their income I imagine they would even be on less. As they are single parents, in a council house, no foreign holidays, no car. I assume they get benefits but are living quite hand to mouth.

Full time admins where I work earn 14-
15k. Quite a few have wives who work part time because they have children. There you are OP. Life in the real world.

You are being completely disingenuous with your post - just because your immediate social circle isn't on a low income doesn't mean it isn't fact. Open your eyes and look around you and think. Let's just use one example, where do you do your food shopping? How much do you think the shelf stackers and checkout staff in the supermarket earn?

Wow you need to educate yourself on families that use food banks, second hand clothes, no holidays AT ALL, crazy amounts of debt and no chance of working due to high childcare costs, ridiculous renting with no chance of getting onto the property ladder.
Believe it or not you're not hard up at all and should be very happy how blessed you are.

Costs of living are going up and wages are getting lower or staying the same. It's simple OP

Lower end salaries topped up with benefits?

Nope. Not if you are single with no dependents. I am and not entitled to a penny of help. I work a NMW job and, as a with a lot of us on NMW, on contract hours rather than full time.

Last year I earned just under £10,000, out of which I pay rent and all the bills alone, which is why I can't afford heating.

I think you're forgetting all the single parent families out there too OP. Or all the families with only one parent working.
30k a year for single parent is a very good salary in some parts of the country and not all families can afford for both parents to work as childcare is so expensive.

Op be ready to get beaten to death by Oliver Twists porridge bowl!

You’re well-off, OP. And everyone you know is well-off. I don’t know about mode, median or average.... but you are well-off AND being v v unreasonable.

You might not know them, but the next time you’re eating out (which will be tomorrow apparently), or your food is delivered, just look at the person who delivered/served it. There you go. You’re probably looking at one of these mythical people you don’t think exist.

Please, please don’t respond with something a middle class eejit I know once said when talking about lower income families - “but they all have iPhones!”

Food shop at Morrison's or Aldi, not sure that's relevant

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.

Bless you OP. You really have no clue.

How much do you think minimum wage actually is?

A full time supermarket or factory job (or equivalent) will get you about £15k.
If one of you works part time to fit around kids, your total household income would only be approx £25k.

Our average yearly income is about 36,000. We live in a cheap part of the country. Our mortgage is only £360. We don't have any childcare costs and I think we do alright.

We have enough surplus income to have treats, go on holidays and also save some money for a rainy day.

ooooohbetty

That works out as below minimum wage. Unless they're not actually full time or you mean after tax.

I think I phrased everything terribly and I'm sorry.
I understand minimum wage might give an annual salary of around £17,000 but you don't stay on that for very long do you? Plus there are child benefits and hopefully credit things to top it up so on paper it's low but reality it's higher?

Both me and my husband are higher earners but in no way am I unaware of the struggles of many, many people.
My daughter works for a charity supporting young people who have been homeless and I volunteer with another charity.
I fail to see how the op cannot be aware-it's all over the media how hard things are in this country-zero hours contracts etc.
This is why people don't help (and vote Tory) complete denial.

it seems like rents can be much cheaper than £1000

Oh my...

Sounds like you're assuming every family has 2 parents who both have full time jobs.
Single prent here, with special needs/chronically ill daughter, which kinda rules out full time employment. 30k would be lovely and around double our actual income. I've always assumed there are lplenty of people worse off than us as we're nowhere near needing to use a food bank or anything like that and there's so much in the news about families who literally can't afford to feed their kids.

Are you a bit dim?

The national minimum wage for over 25s is £8.21 per hour. Working a full time job of 37.5 hours you would be getting about £16,000 per year gross. Yes they may be entitled to benefits (not sure where the cut off is) but how much do you think people actually get?

Never mind the fact that many single parents can't afford full time childcare when working on such low wages, so often end up working part time, if working at all.

And that's based on being over 25. There are plenty of people younger than 25 who survive on national minimum wage which is less than the above, trying to run a household.

I think you're just being a goady fucker. No one is that dense

People don't stay on minimum wage for long? Some are never ever above it!

I think I desperately hoped single parents families would get extra help, that tends to be the assumption so it's interesting to hear people saying they don't?

Oh and for context, your mortgage is 4 times the size of mine and I don't have childcare costs.

I am in a professional job (degree required) and I work full time and fit into this unbelievable group.

I'm confused by means and medians and what is actually average etc

Hey diddle diddle,
The median's the middle
You add and divide for the mean
The mode is the one that appears the most
And the range is the difference between.

I understand minimum wage might give an annual salary of around £17,000 but you don't stay on that for very long do you?

What does this mean? Do you think minimum wage is only a starting salary?

@Lifecraft that is brilliant, thank you