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?

[quote TractorAndHeadphones]@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[/quote]
I could afford to eat out every night and do go on lovely dinners regularly however my priorities are to save and invest because personally I don't think the gravy train will last forever

... previous poster .. my service charge is more than double yours and I don't personally see much value in overpaying a mortgage given the low interest cost of it vs potential growth from other investments ( vs potential property growth) but I get it from a psychological perspective.

@stevalnamechanger oh it's mainly because I want to upgrade hopefully in the next few years and also I don't think low interest rates would be around there forever so I might as well pay off as much as I can while I have 3 more years of this low interest rate. I do have a pretty big mortgage even by London standards.

OP, have you definitely understood 6 figure salaries correctly? I just ask as you said
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.
A 3 figure salary literally means 3 numbers in total, so under £999. 6 figure is £100,000 plus. Ignore me if it's a typo of if I've got the wrong end of the stick and am being a patronising bitch!

@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...

I don't feel guilty nope, neither does my husband nor, as far as I am aware, do any of the other high earners I know. I worked hard to get to where I am and when on projects (I don't start my next one for another week) it is fairly intense with a lot of responsibility.

Both my husband and I only started earnings six figures each in 2017, before that I was doing my PhD and my husband was working for other people (but went self employed). I don't see why I would feel guilty for earning what I do.

I'm the south east I don't know many people who earn less than 60k in a professional career - I would say that's the average round here

@flippertyop

I'm the south east I don't know many people who earn less than 60k in a professional career - I would say that's the average round here

Do you not know any teachers or nurses then or are they not professionals? There are plenty of professionals in the SE on less than £60k.

@OnceUponAThread my head is spinning from all the numbers - and I'm a senior advanced analytics consultant

Wouldn't it be better to break down population into groups and then it's easier to absorb information that way?

Young singles: $30k
Young couples no kids: $25k
Couples with one kid: $20k
Established couples (30-50 y.o.): $45k
Single with one kid: $18k

(All per person, averages).

Easier to see 'what's going on' then, without processions a lot of information.

@TractorAndHeadphones you’re right I could get the bus in, that’d save me £18 so bring it down to £90ish but would take an hour plus a walk at other end compared to 25mins direct to the door in a taxi.
I don’t stay over mostly because it may be midweek and I’m working the next day or it’s the weekend and I gave commitments with the children.

Someone asked how often- maybe twice a month with different groups of friends.

Anyway my point was for those saying they couldn’t understand how it was possible to spend £100 on a night out… it’s not that inconceivable and hardly fillet steaks, caviar and champagne

I think to a certain extent it's about mindset and job security as well as income. DH and I earn a lot, however, we are savers not spenders and we work in industries where redundancies are high.

On paper, we look extremely well off, but we plan and save as one of us could be out of a job for an extended period of time. I probably don't need to work due to my husband's salary, however, I can remember how absolutely awful/ wretched I felt after being made redundant for the 1st time and how I got down to my last few hundreds of pounds savings before I secured another role. I never want to feel like that ever again.

Having worked in IT for years (contractor and perm), £60k salaries and upwards are really not unusual for middle management perm roles, largely because they have had to compete with contractor rates equating to 6 figure salaries.

[quote luckyJasmin]@OnceUponAThread my head is spinning from all the numbers - and I'm a senior advanced analytics consultant

Wouldn't it be better to break down population into groups and then it's easier to absorb information that way?

Young singles: $30k
Young couples no kids: $25k
Couples with one kid: $20k
Established couples (30-50 y.o.): $45k
Single with one kid: $18k

(All per person, averages).

Easier to see 'what's going on' then, without processions a lot of information.[/quote]
@luckyJasmin - is this income or salary? And is it median or mean?

Deeply alarming that couples without children earn less than singles. Why would that be?

I'd like to see the analysis on it.

I think you need all the numbers brought together to have an accurate picture. (But sorry for making your head spin 😬)

[quote Nanananani]@TractorAndHeadphones you’re right I could get the bus in, that’d save me £18 so bring it down to £90ish but would take an hour plus a walk at other end compared to 25mins direct to the door in a taxi.
I don’t stay over mostly because it may be midweek and I’m working the next day or it’s the weekend and I gave commitments with the children.

Someone asked how often- maybe twice a month with different groups of friends.

Anyway my point was for those saying they couldn’t understand how it was possible to spend £100 on a night out… it’s not that inconceivable and hardly fillet steaks, caviar and champagne[/quote]
You start adding a baby sitter into the mix at £50, you can smash through £100 very easily

salary threads are so hard. my husband earns £100,000 + but he is the lowest earner is in his friendship group. I think we have a great life and most of the time I'm really happy but then we spend time with them and I'm reminded how 'poor' we are!

Whenever the government release figures like national average, unemployment etc I mentally half or double depending on how it reflects on them..so unemployment is double, wages are half..😉😆

Sure babysitter costs would mean you can get over £100 for a night out easily. But as from the example given many people are just talking about taxis, drinks and food. We go out two or three times a week and spend under £100 a week on that for both of us. I would rather go out more often and see friends, than only go out once every two months and splash the cash.

They say the key to being happy in life is surrounding yourself by people who earn less (which sadly says a lot about human nature).

As to what people spend on things it is always interesting and people's budgets differ. I rarely go out but I am older and not interested in that at the moment. So my going out budget would be less than most yet I am paying about £50,000 this year for my sons' law school fees and maintenance which is a lot of money and is by change the same amount I was paying in the past when we had five children at home and oldest 3 were at private school so it never seems to end..... (although going out and school fees are all luxurious choices of the privileged of course)

On a thread about normal average salaries people still have to try to impress everyone with how ridiculously stretched they are with their double income £100k + salaries.
I know a few very high earners and they all know what to do with their money. They have huge houses, lots invested in property, shares and other assets like art, expensive hobbies - horses classic cars etc and a great lifestyle.
None of this 'we feel poor' 'we're frugal and drive an old banger and live in rags' 'we have to be so careful' bollocks in real life.
MN is amusing at times.

[quote onlychildhamster]@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[/quote]
You’re talking about people who work for investment banks - which is easy enough to get into. Compliance, Ops, Tech. ‘Even HR! ‘Analyst’ is the graduate grade

Becoming an ‘investment banker’ or ‘investment banking analyst’ specifically is very hard. Nobody gets a grad role without prior experience unless it’s some sort of diversity intiative.

@julieca

Sure babysitter costs would mean you can get over £100 for a night out easily. But as from the example given many people are just talking about taxis, drinks and food. We go out two or three times a week and spend under £100 a week on that for both of us. I would rather go out more often and see friends, than only go out once every two months and splash the cash.

It’s not expensive if you only go out for dinner. It is if you buy lots of drinks. @Nanananani has illustrated it quite well It depends on your circles bar hopping etc is quite normal among one group, others prefer to come home and drink

@OnceUponAThread a lot of the couples with one kid are likely to have a lower paid part-time earner? The figures don’t really make sense tho

@TractorAndHeadphones yes it is the alcohol and taxis. No wonder cocktail bars are always opening up if people spend so much on them. I buy a pint of beer for £4 and that lasts the night
I haven't changed since being a student, although then it would be a pint of cider.

@julieca

Sure babysitter costs would mean you can get over £100 for a night out easily. But as from the example given many people are just talking about taxis, drinks and food. We go out two or three times a week and spend under £100 a week on that for both of us. I would rather go out more often and see friends, than only go out once every two months and splash the cash.

Same here. We go out several times a week for a lot less. Usually go to the pubs, gigs, weekly, cinema once a month, meal once a fortnight etc. We have lots of stuff locally so don't need taxis very often.

I'm just about to start a new role at £30k after eight years of earning peanuts in part-time roles (charity sector) and six years before that of earning zero as a SAHM.

After so many years of seeing less than £800 a month take home pay, I feel absolutely minted.

Won't be changing lifestyle though. The extra is all going in savings for if/when the DC go to university. It will be nice to be able to save.

@Newmumatlast

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.

Great post. Every word of that resonates with me. Especially the part about some people's expectations compared to others.

I feel incredibly lucky to earn what I earn - I work in consulting after decades in multinationals - but some of my colleagues have, and apparently always had, huge expectations about what they'd earn.

We're only a small company and it was started 20 years ago by a guy who was in a senior, but not partner, role in one of the biggest consultancies and felt he wasn't paid enough(!) and I know for a fact he was was well into 6 figures when he quit.

Of the senior people in our company now, there's just me - humble working class background - and one other colleague - from a rough, Glasgow estate - who aren't 'monied'.

The others are all from extremely privileged backgrounds and wouldn't even know where to start with 'only' 30-50k per year; they would freely admit that. One has played polo competitively since he was at boarding school. Another's family is a household name in their line of business (food) and I imagine one day she'll do a great job as a board member there.

Don't get me wrong, these colleagues are clever, well educated and work as hard as the rest of us, but they were brought up with a level of expectation far, far above 'normal' people's expectations of their working life and salary.

When I was in industry I worked with many people for whom £30k would be a dream, even those working night shifts who received a premium. It really is a different world.

It honestly feels like pure luck that I now earn several multiples of all my close friends' salaries as I don't for a minute believe I actually work any harder, other than the travelling I have to do and the late/early calls with clients in USA and Asia.

Sofia's post is good and it also illustrates the issue of raising expectations. If pupils in a a school in a deprived area think a teacher on £30k is very well paid and they try to become a teacher - nothing wrong with that BUT someone should also tell them a god few women earn over £100k so why not set sights higher?

Someone mentioned Cherie Blair (Booth's ) childhood. Her father left when she was young in Liverpool and she went to the local Catholic school. Of course she was better off than some but it would not be fair to imply she was from any kind of a rich home (other than rich in love or attention or religion).