To think UK jobs are on the whole badly paid and IDK how a lot of people are managing

[AnonymousBleep]

I know there are some industries/roles where the money is good, ie tech and finance, but roles in the civil service, public sector, marketing and creative industries are absolutely woeful. I was thinking about moving (as haven't had a payrise in three years) but there are hardly any jobs in my sector worth applying for, and I can see from Linkedin that they've all had hundreds of applicants anyway. The average salary is abour £30K but that'll be bumped up by including London salaries - which actually don't go far as London is insanely expensive. £30K (roughly £2K a month after tax) doesn't go far at all either in the rest of the South East - especially as the cost of living is still continuing to soar. Everything is expensive - went into Superdrug yesterday to get some toiletries for my teens and was shocked at how expensive cleansers etc are now (just as a random example), and food seems to go up every week. How are people managing?

Am I wrong? Maybe Mumsnet has given me a weird lens on this as there seem to be a lot of very well paid people on here!

I think a lot of people aren't managing (see cost of living crisis). I work in healthcare (NHS) so not great pay but I've got up to a relatively high banding so I'm comfortable. My trick was to move to North West where housing is much cheaper but my salary is the same to make it go a bit further. I've also decided not to have kids because me and partner can't afford for 1 of us to not work to provide childcare and couldn't see a feasible way to make it work.

Because food is dirt cheap here compared to the EU, education and healthcare are free, and in work benefits are quite generous.

Also - there are a significant number of people who are in social housing, own their own home outright, or have been in the house long enough that the mortgage is manageable.

I'm looking at emigrating. I can't believe it's come to this - I love my home. But there's just no opportunity here. There's no tech jobs in the UK either any more so sorry to take that dream away. We are all leaving because of it. Many people in my network are going to the US and Singapore.

I am OK on my salary plus child support but it doesn't leave any money for extras like holidays - I freelance to pay for those. I have that option in my industry but tbh it means I'm doing a full-time job and a half. It does seem a bit mad that you can be a highly qualified professional (I have a Masters) and still need to do two jobs to provide a fairly basic standard of living for your kids.

I think that over the last few years, the cost of living has increased significantly faster than wage increases and so yes, living in the UK is becoming very expensive. I think this was happening even before Covid - government liked to tell us inflation was very low but most of us could see that things were more expensive - but Covid has really really ramped this up. Rent/mortgages are rapidly getting more expensive, ditto gas/water/electricity, as are day to day things like food. But few people have had significant wage increases and certainly at the lower end of the scale, pay is largely stagnant.

The latter (apart from social housing) mainly applies to older people. It's easier to be comfortable now if you own your home outright or have paid a lot off, but that won't be most people born from the late 70s onwards.

YANBU salaries are absolutely terrible here. In many other developed countries like the US, Canada, Australia, salaries are much higher for the same jobs, and the CoL is lower so people are much better off. When I found out what my SIL (librarian in small town library) earns I almost fell over, plus her pension and the amount she'll get in retirement is mind-blowing. Here, with the same job, she'd be earning a pittance and looking at a very frugal retirement indeed. I think a lot of people don't realise how badly off we are here and it's that ignorance that keeps people from rioting.

This is my observation too. I don't know how people can afford the basic tenets of living on a full-time minimum wage job.

What's also interesting is that a lot of things have got more expensive, and so many of us arepaying more, but obviously someone is benefiting. Examples are, for example, private medical care - when I started the process of getting DS support because the NHS couldn't, I was getting quotes for specialists to assess him at between £750-1500. Now, I'm told by friends who are going through the same that you can't find a specialist for less than £1500.... and that's cheap. £3,000 is more normal.

But then I think I saw that Sainsburys is about to do a load of layoffs because they need to rationalised so maybe the increased costs I'm paying at Sainsbury are not just going into someone's pocket?! It's very hard to undertand what's really happening.

But DH has worked as a freelance person in a role that's not dissimilar to say tutoring, but doen through a big company - he has been receiving the exact same amount per hour since he started doign this job in 2019. Not a penny more but I know the company is charging more. And yet, he tells me that they're also stressing about finances and cutting back so....

UK wages are the pits- we’re supposed to be grateful for cheaper food and free healthcare and benefits but it’s bullsh*t! Government after government allowing big corporations to exploit the workforce, bump them up with benefits and then demonise them through the right wing press for being on benefits. I’m appalled that jobs in the sector I’m in pay what they did 20years ago- yet housing fuel and food have rocketed.

If I moved to America, I'd be earning three times as much as I do here, for the same job.

(I wouldn't want to live there, mind you - and couldn't anyway so it's a moot point!)

I live on FT min wage and it's hard. I'm single so no chance I can ever afford a child on this
Luckily I have a mortgage but £600pm

This has got to be the first post on MN i have seen the poll be 100% YANBU… says it all… with the new increase in April making £24,000 the new NMW we are not going to be any better off anytime soon🤷‍♀️

The wage difference between promotions is also minuscule due to tax + NI + student loan + auto enrolment deductions. People get a £2k pay rise and they end up with £100 a month.

Also often meaningless in context of cost of childcare, housing etc.

My increase in nursery fees for 2025 requires me to earn an extra £6k a year. My mortgage will go up by 50% next year when I come off my cheap fix.

I have seen so much commentary on the decreasing birth rate - I need to earn £30,000 (an average salary) just to cover my monthly childcare cost. The mortgage is more again on top.

I don't know. A few years ago, wage stagnation was manageable because everything else was fairly low, mortgages at 2%, a unit of gas 2.2p,a trolley of shopping was £60. Just subsisting is far more expensive. Childcare costs are exorbitant.

We are at the other end, about to put three kids through uni when the maintenance loan seems to be stuck on 2017 and looking at topping up £8k/year each.

The problem is that supposedly cheaper food (I'm not convinced) and free healthcare are all very well and good, but when mortgages and rents have gone through the roof, those things aren't enough to compensate.

I know lots of people in other countries whose rent/mortgage is a much smaller percentage of their earnings than here. eg my brother lives in a three bedroom, lovely flat just outside of a major city in Europe. He pays Eur1,100 per month. Flats like those don't actually seem to exist in England - maybe in big cities but would cost a fortune - but SIL lives in a "house" on a nice estate on the London-Surrey border (so slightly further from London than he is from his city centre) that is also three bedrooms. Her living space is a bit bigger and she has a (small) garden, yes. But she pays £2,950 per month. She lived in a similar house a few years ago, same area (but not part of an estate) and was paying £1,700 pre Covid....!

That's what I don't get - even a couple with a combined income of £60K (so roughly £4K a month) couldn't afford what your SIL is paying per month for a bog standard three bed house on an estate. Not once everything else was factored in, including savings (sensible to have some). If you have to pay childcare as well - absolutely no chance.

I’m in Ireland and, while taxes and cost of living here are definitely higher than the UK, I am shocked about some UK wages.

As part of my job, I’m constantly speaking to companies in England in our industry and looking at their costs and wages are often very low. One recently was a role we pay €48k salary, the UK company was paying £21k. This is a skilled role requiring good experience. Obviously there are differences in terms of gross to net costs when you look at different taxation etc, but that’s a massive difference for the same work with the same education/training requirements in comparative areas.

@AnonymousBleep I know lots of families in London that are spending £3-4k a month on housing, and £3-4k a month on childcare.

It’s absurd.

This is exactly right and to be honest, she can't afford it either. so is getting more and more into debt. But she looked for cheaper, and honestly, there was NOTHING. NOt even some shitty little place. So her only option would have been to try and move really far away, which isn't practical.

DH and I between us earn well. but we always seem to be struggling. And prt of it is because we're freelance so we've got ourselves into some debt in the past and it's a never ending cycle to pay it back. And part of it is just that our bills are huge and keep going up. We looked at our expenses a while ago and honestly, there wasn't a bunch of fat or luxuries int ehre. But we're going to have to do it again, and try to find a way to cut back. But when the first £4,000+ a month is just set bills we can't do a thing about - mortgage, insurance, gas/water/electric, council tax, car payment, fuel, DS meds plus some extra for debt.... it's really hard.

Marketing for tech companies will solve your problem. Especially remote jobs at US tech startups, but even UK ones will pay you more.

Definitely avoid the public sector at all costs if your goal is high salary now.

I get it! I'm the same. About £4K just on basics which wipes out most of my pay immediately after pay day! Got some debt (from separating/moving) that I am stuck in a cycle of paying off/running up again. It just feels like I am treading water, even though my salary is OK (not great, but OK). And I really worry (as I am now nearly 50) about my earning potential going DOWN from here on. I am a older woman, after all!

I'm a single mum in my 60s. With a business degree, and decades of experience, the most I earned in a year was £75k, outside London, plus a good benefits package (car etc).

I'm moving towards retirement now. I've taken a local job, well within my abilities and earn about £50k.

On that I can pay my mortgage, council tax, half school fees for my ds and generally have a nice life.

What I do not have are: multiple foreign holidays (a week in Portugal last year), gym membership, new cars on PCP, gel nails, facials, spa days, takeaways, expensive hobbies, tattoos, weekly meals out, weight loss drugs, shop-bought lunches, take out coffee, Netflix, Pay TV, the latest phone .....

I think people's expectations have risen and priorities have changed. So much stuff is touted on social media and most of it is completely unnecessary or of little benefit. There are regular posts on here from people with £120k a year who claim to be 'just managing'.

The major necessities now are housing, student debt and childcare. Waiting until late 30s to have a child is becoming the only way. I had ds in my 40s, I was lucky, but it is unfair on those who may miss their chance.

Depending on where you live though, the cost of living in the US can be insane. I have friends in California who are living a similar quality of life to me but are spending something like $3000 a month on rent, and food is crazy expensive too if you want to be in any way healthy. So yes they are paid a lot more, but it runs out real quick!

I would not call Canada low CoL. I'm currently there and not even in one of the major cities (Toronto, Vancouver).

I am paying £1200/month rent for a 1-bed flat. The average price for a detached house here is £600000. Grocery shopping is costing me at least £100/week for 1 person. I don't even eat meat, but things like a bag of salad leaves cost £3-4. Absolute cheapest bottle of wine, £10. Most cheap wine brands are closer to £15.

CoL might be a lot lower in somewhere like Saskatoon (house prices are anyway) but in any of the more popular parts of the country it certainly isn't cheap.