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?

The big jobs that attract 6 figures aren’t advertised in the way ones at 30-40k are and offer don’t include salaries in the adverts when they are ( a bug bear of mine)

That makes a lot of sense actually. It therefore seems that there are a lot of considerably higher than average earners on mumsnet then from reading previous threads!

Possibly. It’s also possible that the high earners are the ones most likely to post about their salaries.

I earn £14k part time (full time it would be £23k). DH earns roughly £27k. We have two young DC with childcare costs. We live in the NW so house prices not as high as the south. Whilst we don't feel in any way rich I don't feel completely impoverished either. I'm hoping in a few years to increase my hours again as would definitely like abit more money to get a 3 bedroom house.
If me and DH both started earning £30k I think we would feel rich .
Before DC we both worked full time on the above salaries and managed to save for a house with a few nice holidays each year!

I am in the midlands and earn £28k, partner earns £25k. I think we are around the norm for our friendship groups

@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%.

I disagree with the idea that only 20% are on the lowest pay packet

You go down the highstreet you will see maybe 20 shops - if each of those employ 20 people each, 4 of which are managers, only the managers will be getting above minimum wage (at around 24 - 26k per year)

On the same street you might have a bank, an estate agent and a lawyer - the majority working in the bank and the estate agents will be on slightly above minimum wage - maybe 20k a year

The lawyers office will be where the small amount of these 30k plus earners will be working

So the majority of people on the highstreet will be on minimum wage, an average is pushed up by higher earners, the reality is the majority of the population work in unskilled / semi skilled minimum wage positions

My DP earns about 29k and I about 11k (part time). Where we live it is very cheap to live so I’d say we’re very “comfortable”. Although, my home city is much more expensive. We bought our house here for 120k. You wouldn’t get anything remotely decent for less than 200K where I’m originally from.

I’m on 30 k and my partner is on 25 k, we live in London very comfortably although we don’t have any children yet which probably makes a huge difference here, but I’d say that without children, these are two average salaries that you can live comfortably on, even in London

I’m on 22k but I was earning over £40k at one point. I had a career change though. My husband is on over £100k but at that level jobs aren’t often advertised. He’s been head hunted for all positions he’s had over £50k.

It does sicken me when he’s earnt more on the Monday than I’ll earn all week.

DH is in Finance and earns around £50k. I work 20 hours a week and earn £22.5k. We're probably average earners for our area but would be pushed into high if I went full time. We live in the Midlands.

Definitely depends where you are. I earn 85K and don't have change at the end of the month.

I earn 47k and live in the NE of England, where it's (I think) quite a bit above average. If I was earning this salary down south I imagine it would be middle of the road.

I earn £70k, or would if I was full time though I'm not quite. I consider this a good salary and certainly my parents, who don't live in London, do, but I was amazed that I was one of very few people at dd's ordinary state primary who was eligible for the free 30 hours childcare. Loads of families there, who don't come across as terribly flash (no car, always holiday in the UK, fret about bills from time to time) must be on over £100k. Or is that threshold £150k? So I do think it must be very regional-dependent and there's something about London that's not just London-weighting but rather the concentration of opportunities to get ahead in your chosen field.

But then equally the cost of living here is massive. Not expecting violins at all, I have a good quality of life, but it isn't flashy. I have no savings to speak of, a 12 year old car, a terraced house in a not-quite gentrified neighbourhood with pest control regularly visiting and overlooking a trainline. I honestly think people on average salaries would struggle to get set up here now without family help or housing benefit, which I don't think is a good state of affairs for anyone.

OP - A senior associate in Nottingham in a tier one would be on at least £80k. I assume you weren't a solicitor there as you have indicated the level of salary you are on. I wasn't looking to argue that this is an average salary. I was asking whether you were looking for average salaries on the whole or average in various professions because you were stating lawyers and accountants don't earn that in the Midlands when they definitely do.

My dh earns just under 80k...he is 4 days on and 4 days off. He isn't even in a senior role and has no degree. I earn 40k...7-3 5 days a week and paid overtime if I go over.

We both work part-time and have rental income. Slightly higher than average because dp has own business but does a bit of consulting and I am a manager.
Me £22k
Dp £30k
We have no mortgages and lots of investments and savings so pretty well off, retiring early next year with no money worries.
We have focused on net worth and building assets rather than on income.

Ime six figure salaries aren't advertised in the "usual" media. Often a firm of headhunters will be appointed to fill the role and subtly approach people.

Well the median salary is £23-£24k IIRC. But I’m not sure what you think is unrealistic about the high salaries people posted on a thread specifically asking about high salaries?

I live in the NE and plenty of friends and relatives (and DH and I) are in that £60k+ range but we’re all in professions (medical, education, accountants, law etc) with many years post qualification experience.

Bham here both DH and I are what you’d probably term ‘middle management’ he’s higher up in a different company to me but me I’m 32k and he’s 45k. We feel like we do ok, i feel quite average salary wise and we don’t have a lavish lifestyle just the usual mortgage, car 1 soon to be 2 kids (nursery eats up a lot of cash 😭) , but realistically I want a pay rise/ promotion/ new job.

We live in the north east. Myself 63k and partner 110k. Neither jobs were ever advertised. Head hunting is what happens for middle management positions like ours.

Very good salaries for region. Most of our friends are earning 50 plus. All degree educated and career minded with families as well. Looking at the kids at their school id say most families are similar. Very nice suburb on edge of deprived city so money goes a long way.

Ive not always been a high earner. Salary has gone up 35k through promotions since i got my youngest to school and going back full time. We are in our 40s and were nowhere near these salaries in our 20s and 30s.

It won't last forever so intend to enjoy it and save hard.

Professional qualifications and niche fields will probably pay higher. I work in tech and do something fairly niche and I'm on £60k, but that is the top end of what I could get I think.

I think it varies across the U.K., but on the whole I think you are right.

People earning £30-40k would generally be fairly comfortable in most parts of Scotland (where I am from) They might struggle to buy in certain areas of Glasgow and Edinburgh, and other nice areas. But overall it would be a fairly good salary.

Salaried £60k and above would be fairly senior in my area.

These threads always amuse me because there is such solid data for average (median) UK salary and you can very easily find the splits for region, profession, educational background, age etc. But I'm going to join in anyway.

I'm in London and earn around £55k. It's more than I ever expected to earn, and more than others in my life (outside of colleagues obvs). But as a lone parent without family wealth? I have a lot of month left at the end of my money. My housing costs (literally just rent/mortgage/service charge, not including other bills) take about 60% of my net salary, for a fairly small flat in a fairly rough area.

But if there were two earners in my household, even if the second wage was much lower, it'd be a different story.

The london weighting component of my salary is small, so if i relocated to another city, it'd be a different story.

If I were 10 years older and had got onto the housing ladder 13 years ago rather than 3 years ago, my monthly repayments would be much smaller - again, different story.

So - I know it's a good salary (other than by MN standards ) and I know one day - fingers crossed - it'll feel like that. But crazy housing market in the place I'm from + crazy childcare costs means I still need to live frugally and (other than my pension) won't have anything like 'savings' for many years yet.

Average salary where I am for a senior construction consultant is about 50-60k. We can’t get enough staff at this level at the moment so I expect to see that to start rising soon.

@wallysally

My dh earns just under 80k...he is 4 days on and 4 days off. He isn't even in a senior role and has no degree. I earn 40k...7-3 5 days a week and paid overtime if I go over.

Where do you both work and can you get me a job?

Should add, this is not a London salary.