To ask for ‘normal average’ salaries?

[Mamacita191]

After seeing loads of posts recently about what people earn, I feel like it’s a completely different world to what I am living in. I live in the midlands and a good salary is 30-40k which is what most people comfortably sit at. I certain rarely see jobs advertised for £60k or more (even 6 figures which I’ve read is what some people make!). Even the jobs that people advise to go into such as lawyers and accountants in a good firm etc don’t make 3 figures as I’ve read on here.

Is it just me who thinks 30-40k is a normal salary that a lot of people sit comfortably at? Am I missing out on something?

@julieca not that ridiculous…

£20 taxi in
£20 taxi home
£16 2 cocktails pre dinner
£30 for dinner
£15 for my share of the wine
£12 for 2 drinks after dinner

Typical night out with my girlfriends

So £43 just in alcohol in one night. And £40 in taxis. Does nobody at least get the bus there?

@stevalnamechanger do you have a big mortgage? I calculated that assuming our mortgage is around the same at £1k and nursery is £1600, 120k combined income should cover costs, £150k combined would be comfortable. This is assuming only 1 person pays student loans

DH on £120k plus benefits
I was on £100k but left last Xmas when I was pregnant with my second child.

Now down to one salary things do feel tight.

We both live in the North, he is late thirties... I am early thirties

I'm self employed and earn around 2k per month, working 30ish hours a week.

DH is also self employed and earns roughly double what I do per month.

We're in the NW and have good incomes for our area. Our mortgage is only £300 a month so we have a good chunk of disposable income.

[quote onlychildhamster]@stevalnamechanger do you have a big mortgage? I calculated that assuming our mortgage is around the same at £1k and nursery is £1600, 120k combined income should cover costs, £150k combined would be comfortable. This is assuming only 1 person pays student loans[/quote]
We both pay student loans , all in housing costs are 1900 ish ( mortgage / service charge £££ and bills) .

We both salary sacrifice a lot into pension currently which cuts our take home down.

We are very very lucky however weirdly I don't feel rich or wealthy because the quality of living in London comparative to outside of London is poor .

We both work in very well paid fields however we are at the lower end in our organizations so mix with very high earners day to day .

London is a real out of touch bubble ( I'm not from London and am from a fairly deprived area )

I'm a lawyer and make £36k. It's crap money for the job I do and it pisses me off no end that people think law is so highly paid (even careers advisors who told me to do it). Lawyers in London are high paid that's about it. My DP earns £38k plus bonuses and between us we still struggle.

Our joint income (not London but expensive bit of UK) is about £75k before tax; I would say most but not all of our friends earn more. We live fairly modestly. Our mortgage and essential bills including wraparound childcare amount to a very big % of our income.

I think it depends on your circle.

DH and I earn above average (as stated in the table posted above). We're the lower earners in our main circle but average and above average in other circles.

I do remember when we were both public sector workers thinking £40k was a great salary and that we'd be happy to earn that at the peak our careers. So I think views change on the sector you are in as well.

Overall, I still think 30-40k is a good salary.

So, not to sound silly but I have recently gone self employed and have salary guilt. They're paying me too much and it's weird...and my DD has recently started school so nursery bills have stopped at the same time.

It's so weird not to struggle as that was 100% normal for us and now I feel like I should up my charitable donations...

Earning guilt is a "thing" and I really am not comfortable with it - however twattish that sounds...

My pay is absolutely stupid. Interested of anyone else has felt really guilty about how much they're earning as I've never had this before...

Our combined income is 125k. We live in London but with 3 kids in nursery we feel very poor .

@itsharderthanithought89

DH on £120k plus benefits I was on £100k but left last Xmas when I was pregnant with my second child.

Now down to one salary things do feel tight.

You feel it ‘tight’ on a household income of £120k +?! I think you need to revaluate things, as that is so far over what most earn. Did your years of bringing in another additional £100k in your salary not set you up well?

[quote Nanananani]@julieca not that ridiculous…

£20 taxi in
£20 taxi home
£16 2 cocktails pre dinner
£30 for dinner
£15 for my share of the wine
£12 for 2 drinks after dinner

Typical night out with my girlfriends[/quote]
How often is this exactly? Curious

[quote onlychildhamster]@MrsPToBe123 i read law and my lawyer friends in high street firms are the same. Salary wise, you are better off working as an analyst in a investment bank than working as a solicitor on average and its a lot easier to get the former job than get a training contract.[/quote]
I don't think this is true... the pool of comparable candidates grade wise etc to investment bank analysts are big law trainees/junior associates. They earn comparable amounts at junior level (lawyers have higher base, but bankers tend to have higher bonuses).

High street law isn't comparable to top investment banking career.

@stevalnamechanger my mortgage (2 bed flat in London zone 3) is £1k, we overpay £1k every month, bills are £300 and service charge is £150. I consider us low income by London standards but we don't worry too much about money, have savings, go out to eat regularly, have holidays. We don't have a car though and don't want one so that does save us quite a bit

DH's mum's raised 4 kids on 16k in London (though her house cost 100k in 1997) so we are very lucky in comparison! UK living costs are actually not that high (groceries cost the same in London as anywhere else), it's the property prices that are the killer and wages are low compared to many other developed countries even in London. But for older Londoners, they don't need as much to survive.

@julieca

So £43 just in alcohol in one night. And £40 in taxis. Does nobody at least get the bus there?

I'm also surprised. I normally take public transport out at least. Share taxis with people or stay over at someone's. Maybe pp live in a place that's far from town with all her friends in opposite directions, and can't stay over. I have been to some areas like this.

@Royalbloo

My pay is absolutely stupid. Interested of anyone else has felt really guilty about how much they're earning as I've never had this before...

Out of interest, how much do you earn?

Don't understand why anyone would feel salary guilt. You're typical paid commensurate to your skills or demand in your industry. Or is it because your friends earn a lot more.

This thread is skewed by looking at median salaries. The highest paid people in the country often don't have a salary as they are not employees (this includes partners at most hedge funds, banks, law firms etc etc), so many are earning much more than this thread suggests.

In London, a salary of £100k does not go far. Progressive tax also means you pay more and more income tax the more you earn, lose personal allowance, often socially have higher costs (I.e. eating out etc), might pay school fees so London should definitely be looked at separately.

Newsnight had a feature explaining how the high number of people furloughed in lower-paid jobs has pushed the median pay figure up.

@stevalnamechanger when you earn a lot and mix with high earners you will definitely feel poor! Because these people go out for drinks, dinner out etc at the drop of a hat. While your high income is enough to put whatever you want in the supermarket trolley it's certainly not enough for takeaways every day.

I'm on a 'relatively' high income given my age - just above the average. When I first got to this salary I felt very rich, bought whatever I wanted at supermarkets etc and didn't feel it because just how much can one spend on groceries? I only bought fresh foods no alcohol etc.
Post Covid I started going out like everybody else - and was surprised at how quickly the pounds vanished. £10 here, £20 there, it all adds up and the best part is a fair amount of the people out every night were much lower earners. I suppose they had different priorities.

The conclusion is that - the definition of ;rich for people is spending without thinking. Once you have more things to spend on it becomes impossible. Also if you have a high income you can feel more poor because you think you 'should' be able to afford more... but if you have young children etc forget it

@EatYourVegetables

www.statista.com/statistics/416102/average-annual-gross-pay-percentiles-united-kingdom/

40K is the 80th percentile, so way above average. This is for all of UK.

Of course, no matter who you are, your social circle will not be representative. So if you’re a lawyer and hanging out with lawyers only, you will have a very skewed perspective of what people earn.

That’s why posts starting with “judging by me and my family and friends” are completely meaningless.

And MN is notoriously bad at this - the only people answering posts like this are usually the ones in the top 20% and the bottom 20%.

Completely agree with this. I am in a high earning profession (in my opinion - most people I come across on 6 figures or very close) but come from a working class background. Most people I know on a personal level either from school or family or friends from my teens are on the national average wage or below. My husband is on around 40k and I consider him a high earner - because statistically he is. Each year my income increases I feel like it must be a fluke because to me it is an unusually high sum compared to what I ever thought I would earn. I have felt like I was ridiculously comfortable since I bought my house with my husband when our combined income was about 45k.

On the other hand there are many people in my line of work from backgrounds where it isnt unusual to earn the sort of money they do. Many of those on 6 figures act like it is very mundane run of the mill stuff - but then they have friends in high places, went to some of the top public schools etc. One colleague told me at the start of our career that he would be devastated if he only ever earned 50k. I honestly said I would be made up because that is more than my Dad earned and I feel I had a comfortable and very happy childhood.

It is all very relative. OP, you're not going mad.

@daffodils123 even an operations analyst in a bank earns 50k and you would also hopefully progress. many of DH's colleagues do not come from Russell group universities. And 50k is better than what many high street law firms pay. Yes the IB analysts earn a lot more and they are comparable to Biglaw.

Ultimately your pay is also determined by what your employer can afford to pay and banks/financial institutions can afford to pay even it's most junior staff well

I remember it being leaked that Cherie Blair thought her family were poor because they were socialising with multi-millionaires. I also remember a woman who grew up in a road locally called millionaires row because every house was an enormous manor house type, saying she felt poor as a child because her friends all went on amazing holidays, which her parents could not afford. They may have both felt poor, but it is clear they were not.