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

Qualifications do not automatically equal more pay. See my previous post. A degree is desirable for my £18k job and everyone on the team has one. Plenty more low paying jobs that want a degree too

Such as ? I assume the degree is preferred but the work doesn't actually need it?

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.

ROFL

Well, I'm sat at work unpaid hour lunch trying not to laugh out loud...I'm a retail manager, earn 22k...realistically that is the most I will earn...DH is retired... it took 9 years to get promoted...wrong side of 40...

As for the comment about not staying at NMW for long...really...I was on it for years...

There was a period of 3 years where I was working 30 hours per week and my earned income was between £6.9k-£7.3k pa. I had a mortgage and a young child.

I felt rich when I finished my studies and got a 35 hour a week role for £10,500pa. This was only 10-12 years ago. I did get tax credits and vouchers.

Lots of people are in minimum wage jobs with high qualifications due to physical and mental health issues, family breakdown or for a myriad of other reasons.

So you've never met people who aren't middle class and prosperous like you so therefore they can't possibly exist?

But the OP expressly said she did not class herself as 'prosperous'. So of course she thinks such people exists - she classes herself as such.

I assumed minimum wage increased yearly like a progress review or how teachers pay goes up. I didn't realise it was set and stayed that level for good. Lol forever

Again, have you ever had a job OP??
I am a very high earner now... but I've been on NMW, always been corporate, and therefore remain in touch with how actual businesses work.

They don't just pay you more. Like... they work hard to ensure they pay you as little as possible. That's how capitalism works.

Your DH is in finance.. even if you've never worked, have you literally never had a basic conversation with him about how businesses operate?

£30k is a great salary to me. I come from a working class family, none of us earn that much. The only person I know who earns more than that is my ex and he is a train driver so he's not in a "professional" job as such.

I'm a single parent and I get tax credits and receive maintenance from my ex.

I get
£175 a week wages (after pension contributions)
£120 a week tax credits
£20 a week housing benefit
£20 a week child benefit
£100 a week maintenance

So £435 a week, which is £22,620 a year.

I feel very comfortable on this. My rent is £100 a week and my bills are very low, probably about another £100 a week. So that leaves me with over £200 a week disposable income. I put away some in savings as I am saving to buy a house. I have no childcare costs as I work school hours only, don't own a car and have no transport costs as I walk to work.

You live within your means. I find MN pretty alien as I don't know any high earners in real life and tend to find that people on here who earn more spend more. Massive mortgage, private school fees. I don't want any of that and I don't really care about earning a huge amount as I don't place much value on material things. I'm comfortable in my affordable little midlands town!

Most people I know live in 20-35k households. I know some people who are on much more than that and some who are on less (struggling on universal credit).

I don't know a single family on anywhere near this low

Nursery staff
Supermarket staff
Petrol station staff
Delivery drivers
Bin men
Street sweepers
Library staff
Shop workers
shop cleaners
house cleaners
gardeners
play centre staff
recycling plant staff
meat cutting plant staff
garden centre staff
takeaway restaurant staff
litter pickers
pool lifeguards
gym reception staff
building maintenance staff
office cleaners

all the working people that the rich forget exist - even in the rich parts of the South East

OP I was starting to feel a bit for you but then you say something to try and mitigate your earlier comments which is incorrect. However you aren't alone as it's a common misconception that all teachers get a yearly uplift. SOME teachers are fortunate enough to get an uplift in their pay each year but many don't as its no longer a right, thanks to Gove, and many schools just can't afford it as their budgets have been cut to the bone. Just like the promises of higher starting salaries for new teachers which was recently bandied around in the press, even if it comes in its likely you'll only get it if your school can afford it. Many teachers earn well under 30k.

I think you need to educate yourself a bit more as you keep digging yourself further into a hole.

The percentiles are ridiculous as a measure clearly, that's my point. 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?

If it helps OP, we also live in the South East and our daughter is deemed by the government to be living in absolute poverty. I don't think people from the outside would know looking at our lifestyle. We do lots of lovely things together and we all look nice and so does our home. However I earn minimum wage and am a super bargain hunter also nearly all the things we do are free or are so planned that I've searched for the upmost cheapest way of doing it such as parking for free and walking 20 minutes to save the £1/£2 parking fee. I don't grudge folks with money and love to hear about expensive holidays or seeing friends spend £500 on gym leggings (yes actually happened) I find it fun to get a glimpse into their life and I don't think they realise I never buy anything on our shopping trips.

This thread is so upsetting and just shows how ignorant a huge portion of the population is to families who are actually struggling to meet basic needs of food and a heated house etc.

OP if your husband is earning 70k and you're highest outgoings are £1500 a month and you think you are only just getting by.... What else are you spending your money on that means you barely have enough!

If everybody who does a minimum wage job became more qualified doesn't mean to say they'd get anything else and also who's going to do their jobs if they all better themselves and go elsewhere, somebody's got to do the cleaning, waitressing, street cleaning, retail work and costa, pret starbucks etc would all close without minimum wage workers

I think OP that the difference in mortgage/rent isn't reflective of disposable income as you say, as the difference in monthly income is a hell of a lot more than £550 in minimum wage jobs and lower paid professional jobs than what your income would be.

Our household income after tax but before pensions is 36000

We’re both 40, and work full time but I’m minimum wage.

We get no tax credits as we earn too much, but receive £48 a week child benefit.

We have a good life.

We own our home and the mortgage will be cleared just before we retire. We drive a crap car and only have a holiday every other year but we can feed and clothe the children well and put the heating on without choosing what to sacrifice. The children do nice days out a few times a year.

We’re in the north obviously 😂

We live on 30k per year. 2 kids, own our own home, at least 1 holiday a year and we run 2 cars.
Maybe you should manage your finances a bit better.
And we don't receive and are not entitled to any benefits on that amount.

@Myunicornis how?!

You're getting a very hard time that I don't think you deserve OP. Mumsnet is like this; competitive knowledge of poverty.

I struggle to understand how that's the average too, but then Im a professional and work/live in London. The idea of two people earning a combined 30k and not seriously struggling is strange to me too.

Being surprised by something doesn't make a person disgustingly insensitive, it makes them honest and, erm, surprised. It isn't a value judgment of "eurgh so many poor people", it's being open about finding it hard to believe given your own lived experience.

Seriously, put the knives away.

Surely though even if you live in the south east it's common knowledge that property is cheaper in the midlands and the north? Most people I know pay around £300 a month for their mortgage.

OP..I have not yet read full thread. I just want to say I think you need to educate yourself. Look up Trussell Trust,and Crisis. Also have a google and look on Indeed and look at salaries. I think you are incredibly naive. If you have children I do hope they will have a broader view!

Please, come and stay with me for a week, or weekend. I can show you 100s of nifty tips,so you don't have to keep struggling. Tips like eating on less than £5 a week (including all drinks), how to survive without heating, how to cook enough meals for 2 months (saves on fuel).

I'm free any time.

So a family on 30k paying 300/400 a month rent us similar to a family on 100k paying £1000 a month? Both have similar outgoing percentages on housing I think? Maybe that's the thing, rent and mortgages as % of total income are so important when considering 'wealth'

YABU. It's just an average. Are you assuming all households have two full time salaries?

thank you @otterturk I am taking everything on board but it is eye opening.