To ask what YOU think a high salary is?

[minimummies]

Going off the back of the salary thread and the savings threads. A lot of people are aghast at the wages and say that ppl are lying!

What do you think is a high wage for say a woman in their 30's?!
Would you say differently for a man?

I think anything over 100k is a high wage for either. 25-35k would be low imo and anything in the middle would be a good salary.

It is all relative too those of you from north probably don't understand that most of us in london pay more for our mortgage payments or rent than what you are saying is a good salary. I pay 40k a year just for my 2 bed flat in central London.

Could you be more condescending?

The north isn't one massive conglomerate of cheap housing. I pay more for my mortgage now than my rent in London.

It is all relative too those of you from north probably don't understand that most of us in london pay more for our mortgage payments or rent than what you are saying is a good salary. I pay 40k a year just for my 2 bed flat in central London.

"Could you be more condescending?"

Yeah. We've only just managed to get on t'internet

@Jsnn

It is all relative too those of you from north probably don't understand that most of us in london pay more for our mortgage payments or rent than what you are saying is a good salary. I pay 40k a year just for my 2 bed flat in central London.

If I was living somewhere with a 500 a month mortgage then that would change a lot. If we earn 100k as household we are still spending over 50% of our net income on housing which is very high.

You realise that the north isn’t full of thickos who don’t know that house prices vary across the country?

The average salary in London is around £38k, so clearly not everyone there is spending £40k a year on housing either.

"It is all relative too those of you from north probably don't understand that most of us in london pay more for our mortgage payments or rent than what you are saying is a good salary. I pay 40k a year just for my 2 bed flat in central London."

No, I understand that you've just chosen a more expensive lifestyle.

It is all relative too those of you from north probably don't understand that most of us in london pay more for our mortgage payments or rent than what you are saying is a good salary.

Er, I'm 'from north' as you put it, and I've always had a perfectly good understanding of this, thanks. Especially as I've lived and bought property in the south-east. Please don't talk down to people.

I'm in London and have never earned more than £30k in FT management roles.

For me:
under £20k - low salary

over £30k - decent salary
over £45k - good salary
over £60k - high salary

It's all relative though and depends on circumstances. A single parent with three children may see things differently to a two-parent, one child setup. Our household income has always been just enough to get by, but not enough for luxuries like holidays etc.

Haha, yes, the original quote was from me @WowIlikereallyhateyou! You said in response to my quote that £100k was almost unheard of in my bit of the midlands with "Sorry, but there are lots of people on far more than 100k in east midlands, i would say there are fewer on £200k +, but you cannot generalise like that."

I didn't think I had generalised but I can see that I didn't clarify that this is the case for me, and I didn't clarify I was responding to OP's specific question about people in their 30s.

I don't disbelieve you - it shows how different micro areas can be and that THE NORTH or THE MIDLANDS isn't one homogenous mass of skint thickos who don't understand London house prices like PP suggests!

I do feel like £100k is nearly unheard of in every geographical area as a salary to be honest - but I had kind of forgotten about small business owners, dividends etc. I know I will never ever earn that much and if I did I wouldn't know what to do with it. We have a household income of £45000 and feel very comfy indeed. Although that said, private schooling and some other lifestyle things would be well beyond us.

"It is all relative too those of you from north probably don't understand that most of us in london pay more for our mortgage payments or rent than what you are saying is a good salary. I pay 40k a year just for my 2 bed flat in central London."

You mean it costs MORE to live in the centre of the most expensive city in the country?? 😲😲😲😲 No way!!!!!! We had no idea!!!!!!!!!! 😲😲

Sadly, the drive towards automation and the offshoring of office jobs will drive U.K. salaries down.

@Donoteatthekittens

Sadly, the drive towards automation and the offshoring of office jobs will drive U.K. salaries down.

Depends what you do. We specialise in a certain area, which could not be automated, and have year’s experience in it.

100k. In London. I earn mid 60s and consider it alright.

Depends, really. What's the job, what year are you thinking, what's the location, what connections did you need to get it (not education, but who you know/are related to), and if in the UK, is it before or after COVID-19 and Brexit? (Furlough won't last forever and there's no way this country will bring in a Universal Basic Income in my lifetime.)

I'd love to see a world where clinicians and teachers and those keeping the economy running were paid what they're worth in terms of what they contribute to society, while bankers and influencers were on minimum wage, but then I'd also like to see a world where unicorns were real and dodos hadn't gone extinct....

@NuniaBeeswax

"It is all relative too those of you from north probably don't understand that most of us in london pay more for our mortgage payments or rent than what you are saying is a good salary. I pay 40k a year just for my 2 bed flat in central London."

You mean it costs MORE to live in the centre of the most expensive city in the country?? 😲😲😲😲 No way!!!!!! We had no idea!!!!!!!!!! 😲😲

Ha Ha, love this. Yes, we are so ignorant in the north. Housing may be cheaper here, probably why we don't live in the south . Wages are much lower though, you get a much higher salary in the south.

Why don’t you use government data from overall population
Over 50k - well off high earner
Under £12.5 poor
Over £150 very wealthy/rich!

This is what the tax bands are set to.

In practice there is a lower scale for women and ethnic minorities. Only 1 in 15 women earn over 50k compared with 1 in 7 men. Women hold just 12/% of jobs at 150k or above

God, that’s depressing 🙄

I’m NW. Imo:
20-30 average
30-60 good
60+ high

I’m on 30k and I consider it a ‘good’ wage. I can afford my mortgage, utilities, kids activities, etc on my wage (I own a standard family, non-fancy car outright).

My husband earns nearly 50k and I also consider it good, but we don’t feel ‘rich’ or like we have a high combined income! We are quite frugal, buy 2nd hand, sales, go on caravan holidays.

So some might think our household income is high but because we are living it, it feels ok. It’s good don’t get me wrong, but I don’t consider us high earners. I think this question will differ completely depending on who you ask.

I definitely don’t think under 25k is rare & part time

Times like this I'm glad I live in a poor area of the country. I don't even earn £35k a year but we enjoy holidays abroad 3-4 times a year, have a very low mortgage and both drive decent cars because we don't have expensive council tax and house prices are reasonably low. We own 2 properties, one outright with no mortgage and I'm very aware that we couldn't do it in other parts of the country. Friends often joke that we are well off but after reading through these comments I feel very underpaid compared to what some people are earning and class as a good wage. Moral of the story, it definitely depends on where you live because I wouldn't even get a mortgage in London.

I'd also like to know where and what these 25k part time jobs are? I'd like to know where I'm going wrong 😂

@lunalucie most civil service jobs/office jobs, once you get up to a middle grade on around £35/£40k then £25k would be the salary for people who want to be part time.

@Lazypuppy that's where I'm going wrong. I'm working in the private sector not the public sector. Interesting to see what people earn in different careers as well though.

I think it’s difficult to say as a universal rule, as everything is relative to the amounts earned by those around you and the cost of living in that area.

London: £100k plus is decent, considering the extortionate price of property there. But if you lived somewhere very rural where property is cheap and most jobs are NMW, then £40k starts to look high.

@lunalucie

I'd also like to know where and what these 25k part time jobs are? I'd like to know where I'm going wrong 😂

You can do part time hours in posts of jobs, I know part time teachers, pharmacists, Doctors, senior civil servants.

Mostly they started of full time in these roles, then circumstances changed and they changed their working patterns.

Depends on age and location.

In general I would say a high salary is over £50k (so the high tax band). But that wouldn't go far in south east if you only have one earner in the household.

50k upwards is a high wage IMO

75-100k upwards is dream money

Salaries have stagnated. I remember as a student working in retail over 15 years ago, full time minimum wage was 12k a year and the concession manager was on 15k. At the time, office admin jobs paid around the 14-20k mark where I lived. The full time minimum wage is now around 17k and office admin / secretarial jobs are now advertised around the 18-22k mark. 15 years ago, an office administrator on 18k was seen as somehow higher up the hierarchy than say, a retail assistant. Now there isn’t much different between retail and office salaries. There are also far fewer admin jobs around.

London wages are also skewed. I was earning £45k as a City executive assistant in banking which is more than I now earn as a civil service middle manager outside London. But due to Covid , those well paid City PA/EA jobs have dropped dramatically as firms make redundancies or offshore jobs. You don’t need your PA in the office so might as well offshore to a cheaper country.

Anything over £150k I think. If you earn £150k you pay nearly £60k in tax and take home just over £7k a month. That’s obviously a lot of money but doesn’t seem that much when you consider the vast gross salary.