salary question...

[ohtobe4]

AIBU to think a salary of £70k in the South East (Berkshire) is a good wage?
A friend of mine has a new job and reckons the salary is "average".
I live in the Midlands, so I consider it to be a pretty huge wage!
I know it's rather crass to ask, but people in the SE….Where does a £70k wage fit ?
Voting….
AIBU = £70k is average
AINBU = £70k is a big wage

It’s huge in my demographic- in London, mid-50s, all top-university educated. I earn half of that. My DH earns much less than half.

@Ariela

Am I alone in belonging to an era where it's rude to mention salaries?

Not mentioning salaries is part of how women get left behind in the wage stakes. Keep it all quiet and Janet doesn't know that she earns less than John even though she's his boss.

@harverina

Why do you assume OP is talking about a man?

I don't think the friend meant average location wise. There are proffessions where this would be average

As others have said, it depends.

But, if you want a big house, nice car, kids at private school, nice holidays then forget it on that salary - you’ll be just about holding an average lifestyle together.

@jay55 this is spot on. One of the UK biggest emoloyer has a rule in place that telling your wage to anyone else, is gross missing conduct.

When I challenged an emoloyees wage on her behalf we were both threatened with gross misconduct 'charges'.

I pointed out that, that was entirely illegal and they couldn't even if they wanted too.

Not talking about what only benefits employers. Never employees. Especially female employees.

Not mentioning salaries is part of how women get left behind in the wage stakes. Keep it all quiet and Janet doesn't know that she earns less than John even though she's his boss.

^^ This. Plus people more jobs more often than the past so need knowledge of what they should be looking for as a salary.

I don’t understand these questions on MN. This is a question about statistics, not someone’s opinion. Here is a list of salaries by percentiles: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/percentile-points-from-1-to-99-for-total-income-before-and-after-tax and you can see exactly how nonaverage the salary of 70K is. I’m sure you can find similar lists by region. These stats take into account the whole working population.

Instead, you come to MN where a self selected small group will tell you theirs. It’s worse than wrong - the sample you will get is very skewed not just by people being on MN but by them choosing to answer a question about salaries. There’s is a thread like this every few months and it’s always 90% of incredibly high earners (the “70K is average I can barely get by” brigade) and 10% of very low earners (“I’m a single mum on £15K” kind). It should be clear from the replies that this is a skewed picture. Yet these threads keep popping up…

[quote thatonehasalittlecar]@harverina

Why do you assume OP is talking about a man?[/quote]
I’m not sure - I don’t know that I gave it much thought tbh. At 5.20am I still hadn’t slept 😴

Lockheart

Think whatever you like, why would that be unreasonable

Oh ffs lockheart, have a day off with this shit won’t you. Don’t you get bored of policing AIBU?

[quote Whiskycav]@jay55 this is spot on. One of the UK biggest emoloyer has a rule in place that telling your wage to anyone else, is gross missing conduct.

When I challenged an emoloyees wage on her behalf we were both threatened with gross misconduct 'charges'.

I pointed out that, that was entirely illegal and they couldn't even if they wanted too.

Not talking about what only benefits employers. Never employees. Especially female employees.[/quote]
Amen. My mum had a sam ething abroad. It wasn't even gender specific, it just looked like the company rolled dice about wages for each separate person🤦 She was doung the same job as a colleague, but for few k (their money zo hundred- two here) less a month! They too had a policy about not sharing

@burritofan

its probably about normal for a professional job requiring a university degree and 10+ years experience. Depends on the industry, surely?

Yeah it does of course.

its probably about normal for a professional job requiring a university degree and 10+ years experience.

How many teachers do you think earn 70k after 10 years? Just one example out of many.

Depends on age and sector.

I think it’s ‘good’.

It’s huge. But posters will come along asking ‘is that part time?’.

The fact is the average salary in London is £40k ish so it is significantly above average.

Does it go far? It depends on lots of factors.

An average is an actual measure so it’s not subjective

It depends on what you are doing for that wage really.

A role like my manager’s that would be average.

A role like mine it would be high but not unheard of.

Depends on your family set up.

It's more about household income rather than individual earnings these days, a couple both on 50k should be comfortable but a single parent on 70k may well be living hand to mouth.

The problem is Berkshire can be an area where there are some very, very high earners.
As a vet I see everyone and it is the full range those who struggle to find the £35 consult fee and then those who don't bat an eyelid and multiple thousand pound bills as they own their own software house.
Certain villages pool high earners and if you live there you could feel that £70K is a lower income.
Of course it is not a low income, but if you are now WFH and not spending much time out of your little area you can loose perspective.

@daisypond

its probably about normal for a professional job requiring a university degree and 10+ years experience.

How many teachers do you think earn 70k after 10 years? Just one example out of many.

I'm sure I'll get attacked for this comment but when people are talking about a typical professional salary in the way I referenced it we are not taking about low paying public service jobs like a teacher even though they technically are included.

We are usually talking about accountants, engineers, architects, etc in private sector.

It would depend on what was meant by average and who was included.

2020 statistics on salaries in Berkshire.
Average £42-50.5k, overall median £33.9k, local median £41k in Bracknell Forest.

The highest subgroup is mean for males, £46.6-£57.6k.

OP is NBU to think £70k is well above average or 'typical'.

Thanks all.
Yes I realise now I didn't give enough info.
Managerial role in a big electronics company.

I would rather ask on here than in real life, as I know discussing salaries can be tricky for lots of people.

I was just quite shocked to find out how much she is being paid! We are both around 50, and have degrees.

@Carboholic

I don’t understand these questions on MN. This is a question about statistics, not someone’s opinion. Here is a list of salaries by percentiles: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/percentile-points-from-1-to-99-for-total-income-before-and-after-tax and you can see exactly how nonaverage the salary of 70K is. I’m sure you can find similar lists by region. These stats take into account the whole working population.

Instead, you come to MN where a self selected small group will tell you theirs. It’s worse than wrong - the sample you will get is very skewed not just by people being on MN but by them choosing to answer a question about salaries. There’s is a thread like this every few months and it’s always 90% of incredibly high earners (the “70K is average I can barely get by” brigade) and 10% of very low earners (“I’m a single mum on £15K” kind). It should be clear from the replies that this is a skewed picture. Yet these threads keep popping up…

I agree with you on this. A thread on MN is not the best way to establish an average salary. It is completely relative to where you live, what sort of pension contributions your employer makes, how many dependents you have, how many hours you have to work for a large salary. if you work 60 hours a week to earn 70k, but 35 hours to earn 45k, you're worth more per hour in the 45k a year job.

There are some bullshitters on here too and some genuinely helpful people on good salaries that want to help other in their careers, but ultimately, we don't really know what others earn unless we see their payslip, so all we have that is more reliable is government statistics, which to be honest are also questionable at times.

Amongst my peer group it's fairly average. We are North West.

I live in London and 70K is certainly above average. It's still not great in the SE buts it's not average. Contrary to popular opinion most people in the SE are skint and not rolling in it even if our wages are comparably better.