What is a good uk salary?

[OneSparklyGoldBear]

The salaries in this country are a bit underwhelming. On top of the high tax rates, what is even considered a good to very good salary in this country these days? I believe anything from £38k to £50k to be good to very good salaries. Anything from £60k to £80k to be excellent. Beyond that you are in the small percentage of the country who are lucky.

Depends what sector you're in. Public sector pay is awful these days in general. You need a senior management equivalent job to be earning anything decent in the likes of the civil service

Average is known - just under £36k.

Good 150% average salary.

Probably anything over the median salary which seems to be just over £35k depending where you look.

I'm just outside London, and I would say £50k is good, £65± is very good.

I'm on £45k, couldn't afford to live where I do alone on just my salary. DH is on £85k, between us we live a decent life. We don't have heaps disposable income, but we have a nice life. Still cry a bit if unexpected expenses show up.

I also don’t agree that those that work and study hard all have access to a high income. I am a qualified and experienced senior social worker, I have been qualified 20 years and have a post qualification MA. I work long hours and the majority of my colleagues are committed and hard working, and provide many free hours of work.

However, it is public sector, and, as such, I earn 35k with no option to increase this, unless I want to go into management. The problem with this is, you no longer have the opportunity to do case work. Yes, we do have pensions but they are not what they were and we also contribute a significant chunk to it.

I think I chose the wrong career! 😂😂 My sister went into the private sector and earnt more than double, with a car, health insurance etc, and better ts and cs, and worked far fewer hours than I do. Ah well!

I'd say £80k living in the 'burbs, commuting to London is above Good, getting close, or perhaps at Very Good. A long way from Excellent though.

When I was working (now early retired) I was on 65k - public sector role in the SE. I think it was an ok salary. Good to me would be anything over 80k and very good over 100k as a single wage.

You will however get a million different answers depending on occupation type, age and locality.

It depends on where you live - the UK is a big place

Quite. Mumsnet is an odd demographic of posters earning six figures in 'demanding' jobs while married to 'high earner' husbands.
I think the opposite- I see a lot more posts from people on nmw with no chance of increasing, living hand to mouth. The high earners here keep quiet as they are shouted down and laughed at (I’m not rich btw but hope to be one day (I’m an author and am just below min wage) and hate how people are treated here)

Where I am, 75k of income will get you a mortgage on a 3 bed semi.

If you had that and a 25k second income you could get a mortgage on a 4 or 5 bed detached house, not in the fancy parts of town though.

I don't think that mortgage would be much fun once you had nursery bills to pay.

Meant to say 75k would put you in the top 5-10% of earners round here.

These are my feelings too

I’m up north, but it’s not the affordable utopia people seem to think it is. Dh earns about 70K which is decent. I earn 52K which is ok. We’re fine, but definitely not rolling in it, no private school, drive fords not Audi’s, one holiday a year etc. The kids do expensive clubs though (especially dd). I wouldn’t consider 38K to be a good salary personally (unless you’re young and just starting out).

I would call 30k+ a good salary, however with kids to support it doesn’t seem to make much difference whether on 30 or 60k once all deductions and benefits taken into account, inherited/prior wealth accounts for an awful lot too as if bought house 30 years ago or get regular gifts from family then makes a lot of difference

For me, it used to be anything over 50k was good. With COL, I’d probably now say over 60k.

I’m now on 80k which I absolutely could not imagine or dream of 5 years ago, I’ve been hugely lucky.

The anything over 150K if you live in London posters will be along soon but the reality is a ‘good’ salary is one that allows you to pay all your outgoings, save a bit, spend a bit on stuff you enjoy and be able to reasonably deal with an unexpected bill. Be this 23K a year or 123K a year.

That is a large income between 2 of you so it is a bit strange you are not in luxury?

My last job I was on £48k (in London) and hopefully about take a new one at £50k. The last job was the first time things really felt like 'plenty', but then also I have paid of mortgage and don't have childcare costs anymore, which is a big difference, but I still think £50k is a good salary in London, so outside London/SE £40k would be equivalent.

@OneSparklyGoldBear - there are times DH and I have pulled in £120k a year and we still would not have been able to send even one child to private school, even without a mortgage, nor have we ever owned a new car (albeit that's kind of a choice on our part on how we spend our money, I guess). £120k is in the top 3% of earnings nationally, apparently, which gives you an idea of just how wealthy the 1% must be because we do have the 'luxury' of stability and not worrying about a roof over our heads, but not at all a high-end lifestyle.

Were you living in London?

I have a company in London offering me 110k but not sure where to live as a family in terms of outside London?

That is insightful especially as north is cheaper than south.

I have a company in London offering me 110k but not sure where to live as a family in terms of outside London?

How often do you have to be in the office? What does your partner earn? (If you have one) do you have kids? How many? What ages? Do you want to privately educate? Do you already own? How much does out/equity do you have?

I earn £42600. On paper a reasonable salary, however I'm a single parent, 2 teenagers which are not cheap to support. I earn just too much for any other financial support that a lot of single parents get and we just about scrape by. Just.

My son earns just over that and lives in Berkshire and uses the Elizabeth Line and NR to commute in. He can get to work door to door in 1 hour 15 mins. His wife is currently a SAHP looking after their baby.

Due to high house prices any salary can feel like not enough.

I earn around £45,000 and that feels plenty enough for me - although I don't have a mortgage or childcare costs so that makes all the difference. I think it's all relative, really.