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?

I was on £33k as a nanny but I was working crazy hours and always tired. I'm now part time yet happier and DH and I still manage fine. He's just over £40k.

My son just graduated this July and started at 60k plus a sign on bonus. If he stays on after January, there'll be a bigger sign on bonus and higher salary. I have to say that he does work very hard for what he is paid though. I did tell him that I would not be disappointed if he decides this isn't what he wants to do as it'll take a toll. The jury is still out on this, he said.

I'm on 34k which to me is a really good salary, although I don't seem to have much more disposable income than when I was on 17k 5 years ago.

Funny how a lot of the people earning more are the ones moaning! We both earn c.£38k - so much more than my parents ever earned. We both have 9-5 jobs with flexibility and low stress, plus enough to pay our bills, go on holiday, have a few treats each month and save. I feel very lucky. The next step up for me is c.£50k but comes with more stress and responsibility and longer hours so it is in no way worth it. Yet people think I’m mad for not going for it and like pp think life is all about constantly striving for more seniority and money. They don’t take account of the fact that everyone is different and has different life goals.

@Foodie9 - which sector is your son going into? £60k sounds a heck of a lot for a starting wage

[quote Pipsquiggle]@Foodie9 - which sector is your son going into? £60k sounds a heck of a lot for a starting wage[/quote]
He is in Finance. Graduated with a Master's in C.Engineering though. Totally different field.

I would be on approx 25k if ft but I'm around 0.7 money worries me but there isn't much I can do about it to make it any better.

I think @Bulblasagnes describes it well.

It's not that I moan about not earning enough, it's that if I'm on £90k and someone earns £30k, unfortunately I don't earn 3x their salary. Because my tax is eye watering. Plus mentally accepting that we have to hand over half of our earnings.

@JesusMaryAndJosephAndTheWeeDon we're in tech/strategy/consulting/data.

[quote Nanananani]@luckyJasmin you’re complaining about your own choices. You choose to invest rather than spend on weekends away. Don’t you see that in itself is a massive privilege? (I say this as a top rate tax payer- you sound very much ‘my diamond shoes are too tight’)[/quote]
No - I'm earning diamonds but can only afford cubic zirconia shoes

@luckyJasmin

It's not that I moan about not earning enough, it's that if I'm on £90k and someone earns £30k, unfortunately I don't earn 3x their salary. Because my tax is eye watering. Plus mentally accepting that we have to hand over half of our earnings

Someone earning 30k takes home approx 2k
Someone earning 90k takes home approx 5k
Give or take pensions/students loans

You still take home more and have better pension contributions.

YABU

@luckyJasmin

I think *@Bulblasagnes* describes it well.

It's not that I moan about not earning enough, it's that if I'm on £90k and someone earns £30k, unfortunately I don't earn 3x their salary. Because my tax is eye watering. Plus mentally accepting that we have to hand over half of our earnings.

@JesusMaryAndJosephAndTheWeeDon we're in tech/strategy/consulting/data.

If it is so shit to earn £90k you could always drop to 50% hours and earn £45k. You'd pay less tax and I bet you'd have loads more left over money and be able to have better holidays then 🙄

My doctor siblings (a consultant) at one point stopped working on Sundays because tax rates were 50% and that was tipping point for whether to spend more time with the children. High tax rates are dreadful.

I’m not moaning at all, I’m incredibly grateful and marvel at my situation every day. I’m just creating awareness because I think many people don’t understand quite how much tax high earners are paying - we’re not all greedy tax-avoiding types! More knowledge and awareness is always good. In general I’m happy to pay the taxes as I believe in good public services and equality of opportunity. I disagree with the cap on tax-free childcare because childcare is a cost to work and having that cap impacts on women disproportionately (whether you’re the high earning woman who sees her childcare increase dramatically because you earn more or whether you’re the spouse of a high earner and it becomes less “worth it” for you to carry on working after having children).

I’ve not come from money and have worked my way up but I’ve seen so many people in my professional life who have enjoyed immense levels of success without actually being very good, usually due to a very privileged upbringing, the right face and right cultural background. I find that very wrong and it deeply saddens me that talented and hardworking children from challenging backgrounds have so little chance to do well in life.

*childcare cost increase

I earn £13k part time, care management. My oh earns £19k full-time, care job. We have 2 young kids, no help with childcare, so we have to work shifts around each other. If I was full-time I would earn a fair bit more. We are in Scotland.

Surely it depends where you live partly. We are in SE but one of the more affordable areas. DH is on about 10k (lost his job during pandemic and is now retraining in something more secure). I'm on around 45k doing a mixture of self-employed copywriting and tutoring, I work around 25 hours a week. My earnings are a relatively recent development though, I had to scale up massively when DH lost his job and we got into debt in the meantime so we just about manage our outgoings.

I'd say we fall at the lower end of our friendship group, but I can only judge based on houses/lifestyle. We would be quite comfortable if we didn't have the debts, but they were unavoidable because we had to pay for basics somehow when we suddenly lost our main income.

www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/average-uk-salary

@luckyJasmin you could afford diamond shoes but you choose Bitcoin instead HTH