Depressed about salary

[Porcupinesky]

I’m feeling pretty down at the stories today around the national average wage now being £35k.

I only earn just above this amount. I had been offered a better paid role about 4 months ago but found out I was pregnant so turned it down, as I get a good maternity package in this role (25 weeks full pay) so it made better financial sense to stay. I’m waiting for a promotion but the company is tightening finances so I’m uncertain when this can be processed. I’ll probably get a small payrise in April before I start mat leave.

Is anyone else feeling this way? It’s what I think about most of the day. Luckily DH earns a decent salary and pays more bills but it’s a real knock to my self worth as I thought I would achieve more in life.

If it makes you feel better, anyone who is any good at trading is not on YouTube telling others how to trade their strategy. Those people make their money by getting you to sign up to their course/book/etc.

I work in trading, it’s impossible for some Joe in their basement to beat the bank/fund that has millisecond latency to the exchanges and more market data than anyone outside an institution. If they did, they’d be working for Citadel trading some serious AUM.

Feet now, that does seem lucrative!

I earn £35k which is rising to £42k in August.

It's all relative though - my wife is a SAHM and I have two young children. I call us comfortably poor - we take breaks in the UK and Ireland not abroad, we have a 10 year old car, we don't worry about bills and don't have to think, can we afford this, when we have takeaway once a month and eat out at a restaurant once a month too, or go and do things at the weekend (in the summer mainly).

There's no point in comparing to others. I know a 21 year old with 5 million subscribers on YouTube who is earning multiples of my income. Good on him I say, if it was easy, we'd all be doing it.

50% plus of people in the UK now go to university. You are the epitome of average if you have a degree. You can't expect more than average unless you accept many with degrees will earn less than average. I'm guessing statistics was not a popular degree choice on this thread...

Plumbers, electricians, and builders often earn more than graduates in things like veterinary science.

This is what happens when you open out education. The extra education does not equate to the increased employability/earning power. After all, only 20% could even pass the old O Level, and more like 5% went to uni in the old days.

You've been sold a lie and mis-sold student loans to achieve degrees that actually don't get you further than a GCSE and a bit of on the job training. I've got 4 of the bloody things and my 18 year old apprentice daughter earns more than me (I'm on 29k, she's on 32k)!

You earn way more than me so stop moping.

You were offered more money but turned it down, so you can’t have your cake and eat it, and there is certainly no reason to be depressed about it

@Crafthead so true. Awful

What change do you want OP? Are you being paid a fair market rate??? I don’t understand your complaint. Are you comparing to another country? Another industry?

Don't forget that includes people who earn six and seven figure salaries, those people are a minority but their wages being counted will skew that figure somewhat. Myself and DP earn around 40k between us, he works FT I work school hours. 35k is a decent salary. The better question to ask is are you happy in your job? Do you feel useful? Valued? Like you're doing something worthwhile?

This sounds very much like the town I live in in Bucks, I grew up here and cannot believe how expensive the town is to live in now, it never used to be, was always a fairly reasonable priced place to live.

We never had food banks for people, most people could afford to live (at least heat the house and eat)
the increase between rich and poor is so marked now, I hate it and worry for the future
The country appears to be going backwards and the government doesn’t seem to want to change things.

Earn about 75% of average salary. Would have liked to have that, but really my pension is good and job security is good. After few serious health scares, I'll stick with where I am. When a health crisis arrives, money becomes worthless.
Be comfortable with what you have, anything above that is a bonus

Median average is £31k, mean average is £36k. If that makes you feel better.

Check out indeed look at current job vacancies in your area - most people earn significantly less than £35000. The UK average wage would probably be significantly lower if it only included lower and middle income brackets

I am nearly 30, 3 kids and final year nursing student. I live in the south where a very mediocre small 3 bed is £500k+ in the rougher parts of the area. £35k sounds like a dream right now.

I earn half that. My wage doesn't come close to covering the bills anymore. Very depressing OP, I feel you ...

Good job youre not employed in the charity sector in the north. I know plenty of CEOs who arent
on £35k

Hi OP, if it helps when I was 32 I was not long back from mat leave and earned around 36k, with some job hopping and upskilling I have manged to work it up to 77k at the age of 36. I'm in Yorkshire so it's achievable even outside London to move up the salary scale and career ladder quickly in your 30s, you still have plenty of time

Husband and I both earn well under this. I work in civil service and TBH it’s a really stressful role and what I get annoyed about is people thinking that as I work for CS I must be minted.

I get paid £17500 a year (part time) and DH is on £30000. It’s a struggle with 2 small kids

It's misleading though, the national average has increased quite a bit but the top end hasn't increased as much. A large part of the increased average is the increase in minimum wage / living wage. You may feel disappointed that you are just above average but this is leagues above the minimum wage.

Don't despair! 32 is very young to be judging yourself. Not many people reach their maximum earnings by 32!

Average is across all ages so you are likely outperforming your age. Also you have scope for progression in your career.

We live in an age that tells us we can have everything all at once immediately, but in fact financial security is a very long and arduous journey.

Celebrate your pregnancy and let life unfold, there's plenty of time.

You earn above average and your husband has a decent salary but you’re depressed? You do know there’s a lot of families out there with children who both earn well under 35k!? You should feel lucky you are in a much more comfortable position compared to most!

I earn 26k per year and I’m full time so count yourself lucky.

OP if you look at the earnings percentile you'll see that cast majority of people earn an any income around the average wage and to get to the next percentile does not take "relatively" huge amounts of pay increase. Means that most peiple are stuck on low to middling wages and those people are also the ones that contribute the most by virtue of being so many.
On a tangent when someone says you should tax the rich more it would help if there was more people in the highest earning category. Probs is a lot of rich buggers have things that is not easy to tax (yacht etc)

You see money isn’t the be all and end all. I work part time and earn 0.4 of my full time equivalent which means I earn £18.5k. I don’t find this depressing. If I worked the full time hours (as a teacher) I’d not be coping. This is the top salary I can earn without taking on responsibility. I tried taking on responsibility over 15 years ago and walked out of a £35k salary then. Not sure what that equivalent would be now but probably well over £50k. I’m quite happy at the moment with my work life balance as the main carer for my kids, one of whom has a disability and when I got the job and was only offered part time worked well for me as I would have needed a lot of time off unpaid if I had been full time whilst she was under assessment before her diagnosis. Being the only person in the home to carry the mental load for myself and my kids means that something else would have to give if I worked full time. It does mean I have to claim a top up benefit and I do t have spare money for holidays and fancy lifestyle but that’s actually fine for me. I was also looking after my father a lot during my non working days before he passed away. I also do some volunteer work on my non working days which is no where near the type of pressure that teaching would have me under. I’m not depressed about my salary or lifestyle as fulfil my time well. I do hope to retrain in the near future and be able to go back to work full time in a different but related field which will give me better earning potential and work life balance.