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What is a good salary in the UK at present?
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Too vague. What do you mean by "good"? What size of family, are you married, where in the country, what standard of living do you expect, are you a homeowner or renting, etc?
The mean UK salary is about £35K.
The mean UK salary is about £35K.
Whilst I would broadly agree with @AlterEgo, the question is too broad, I do think that this bit:
Is correct. It seems to me speaking very generally that you're likely to be able to have a higher standard of living on a lower salary if you live in the north rather than the south. But, even then, details will matter!
Is correct. It seems to me speaking very generally that you're likely to be able to have a higher standard of living on a lower salary if you live in the north rather than the south. But, even then, details will matter!
Some UK statistics here
https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentan...ayasyouearnrealtimeinformationuk/december2023
https://www.gov.uk/government/stati...1-to-99-for-total-income-before-and-after-tax
Ultimately the data shows the money people have to live on. They adjust their outgoings depending on that.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentan...ayasyouearnrealtimeinformationuk/december2023
https://www.gov.uk/government/stati...1-to-99-for-total-income-before-and-after-tax
Ultimately the data shows the money people have to live on. They adjust their outgoings depending on that.
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Good meaning comfortable living not worrying
Its not just a question of "ingoings'" but "outgoings" as well!
Snow1964
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Median is near £35k, good would probably be at least 25% higher
But what people need will depend on family size and outgoings.
Most people I know consider need a household pension of least £1500/month (18k) plus state pension, assuming cleared mortgage to live reasonably comfortably and not worry about bills.
So around £28k once mortgage is paid and no children to pay for. If still paying for either of those ads it on.
But what people need will depend on family size and outgoings.
Most people I know consider need a household pension of least £1500/month (18k) plus state pension, assuming cleared mortgage to live reasonably comfortably and not worry about bills.
So around £28k once mortgage is paid and no children to pay for. If still paying for either of those ads it on.
Okay, but how would you define comfortable? Just avoiding the feeling of living hand to mouth? Or are you thinking of a specific lifestyle?
Not worrying about paying off gas electric etc
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Your referring to retirement but I am talking about currently
London is interesting.
Quick Google search says the average London rent is £1600 a month; rentlondonflat.com. so that's £20,000 straightaway gone.
I have always suspected to have the same standard of living as a train driver in say Manchester I.e. Mortgage, 3/4 bedroom house, 3 year old Ford Focus and a foreign holiday once a year etc you surely must need a salary of £200k. Sounds flippant and may be a little but it's probably not wide of the mark.
Quick Google search says the average London rent is £1600 a month; rentlondonflat.com. so that's £20,000 straightaway gone.
I have always suspected to have the same standard of living as a train driver in say Manchester I.e. Mortgage, 3/4 bedroom house, 3 year old Ford Focus and a foreign holiday once a year etc you surely must need a salary of £200k. Sounds flippant and may be a little but it's probably not wide of the mark.
Snow1964
Established Member
Actually Salaries are quoted gross, not take home, as a general rule of thumb multiply by 1.4 to allow for PAYE, NI, employees pension contributions. Exact marginal tax rates vary, but usually good for quick idea.
So to cover £20k expenditure, need nearer £28k
telstarbox
Established Member
The average household will have nearer to two earners than one, certainly for working age people.
So 200k salary for an okish lifestyle in london? Lol
Compared with say living in Leeds, Manchester, Cardiff, Glasgow, Chester for the same lifestyle probably. As I said little flippant but not far off. What's a 4 bedroom detached house going to cost within the M25, and the Mortgage cost alone will need a good income alone.
What about living outskirts and commuting in
Islineclear3_1
Established Member
Don't forget you might need to factor in additional costs for travel/commuting/ULEZ/congestion charge
Not to mention council tax and household bills
Not to mention council tax and household bills
Depends on the sector, but it is not uncommon for pay anchor points in such roles not to have moved between 2008 and 2022.
A combination of low levels of inflation, challenging circumstances for many industries, and 'because we can' approaches of senior management suppressed inflationary increases in favour of rewarding progression. That isn't necessarily a bad attitude, as focus should be placed on higher achievers, but catches up with employers over time. Clearly there is a function of supply and demand for workers as well.
Snow1964
Established Member
I think this needs to be broken down
late 2008 was the banking crash
2009-12 was loss of lots of higher paid bank / finance jobs
2013-19 started to get back to normal, with token increases
2020-22 COVID cut output, freezes or some cuts
2023 high inflation, putting pressure on pay
There seems to have been a realisation during 2023, that working from home has trashed, succession planning, mentoring, on the job training, staff development etc. Many companies are now starting to work out what they need to do to move forward.
My own daughter is due to graduate in 2024 with a masters, and from what she has been hearing at recruitment events, there are lots of job specific pay grade supplements. Not general pay band increases, but for specific roles where there are shortages. Even Councils are doing it to fill vacancies where they have to meet statutory responsibilities. Seems if your crystal ball forecast where skills gaps are, and then did appropriate training or graduate course then employers are highly likely to offer more
There's far more revealing data on the ONS pages. (Note these are interactive charts so can't easily be copied)
Of particular interest I think are Charts 9 & 10. The former shows the geographical differences in gross weekly incomes across the UK, and the latter shows the spread of median wages by industry types. Just using the two demonstrates what whilst the median for the entire UK is around £35K (ranging from about £31-£41K depending on region), this is far from an average wage for much of the country.
Of particular interest I think are Charts 9 & 10. The former shows the geographical differences in gross weekly incomes across the UK, and the latter shows the spread of median wages by industry types. Just using the two demonstrates what whilst the median for the entire UK is around £35K (ranging from about £31-£41K depending on region), this is far from an average wage for much of the country.
They are interesting figures, not least because we appear to have a lot more professionals than I'd have guessed, and they are the only people who are doing comfortably. Also, it seems like there's a lot of people just above median balancing out a lot of people who are far below median - if you took the mean salary for the middle 80 or 90% I don't think it would look good at all
WelshBluebird
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That sounds like a claim you need to back up with hard evidence.
For us (I work at a software company), it is changed mentoring and how we bring in junior's absolutely, but it absolutely hasn't "trashed" it. We've had grads come in during both summer 2022 and 2023 who have been absolutely great and have progressed well (just as well as the grads who we had back in the office days). Don't get me wrong, it is harder, but it is still absolutely possible. I suspect the people who think it doesn't work either haven't tried it, haven't changed their processes to adapt to it, hire people who don't want to learn or don't have good mentors in place.
It's a very broad question really. It all depends on your lifestyle and whether you're living beyond your means. I live by myself. My take home pay each month is £1900. My rent is £900 per month. My council tax and utility bills all combined are around £250 per month. My weekly food shop is £40, so that's £160 a month. That leaves me around £550 per month for discretionary spending. Most months I manage to save around £300 - £400. So I have no problem getting by and am not struggling at all but I live by myself. If my salary was having to support a family then it might be a different story.
Pretty much nobody is buying a 4 bedroom house in London based on their salary. The vast majority of such purchases will be based on huge deposits, whether from profit on a smaller home that the buyer is selling, or assistance from elder relatives/inflation. If you haven't got either of those you've got very little hope of buying somewhere in London.
Assuming a 4.5% 40 year repayment mortgage and a couple sharing the cost on higher rate tax, an extra £13.5k on salary each will pay for half a million extra on the cost of a house, so you can certainly live in a reasonable house inside the M25 and pay for higher commuting and other costs for a salary of £20-25k more than it would cost in Manchester.
I think the whole thing is pretty subjective anyway tbh. I know people who were on £150k ten years ago and genuinely thought they were part of the squeezed middle struggling to get by, and I know people on £25k now who feel like they're doing reasonably well for themselves. Your best bet is probably to start off on enough money to get on the housing ladder, and then get smallish pay rises progressively through your career.
To stay (mildly) on topic, graduate scheme posts at Network Rail had a base salary of c.£20k with some regional uplifts/additional salary for specialisms in c.2004. This was increased to £25k by 2014, and is now at £29k. Not completely stagnant and actually fairly good relative to inflation, but it's a competitive market for graduates with the right ability. Given you can earn a starting salary of £29k doing just train planning with no management responsibilities, or around £45k as a National Grid analyst, the salary is not necessarily as good as it sounds.
As for whether it feels like a good salary, if you don't want foreign holidays and you're not renting/paying off a mortgage, then £19k is a perfectly doable salary as a single non-parent. If you need to be paying for housing near to employment or of half-reasonable quality, I think you now want to be looking at more like £30k. Add children and it all goes out of the window.
renegademaster
Established Member
Families are increasingly not living in London anymore and schools have been feeling it. Anyone with children in London is either filthy rich, lucky with inheritance, lucky with social housing or is living in a severely overcrowded house. You *might* be able to scrape by a decent lifestyle if you live right on the fringes of London in places like New Addington (aka little Siberia) or the bits on the border with Essex
Haywain
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You’re not kidding. Another factor being overlooked is that of the influence your mental state can have. Someone who is not happy in their work may find life more expensive as they spend more to find ‘happiness’. I was in this situation 20 or so years ago, but when I changed jobs the lower salary didn’t see a detrimental lifestyle change simply because I was happier - if anything, I was better off.
WelshBluebird
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I think it depends on childcare basically. If you can rely on family (or other "free" options) then that means you can both work essentially full time and provide the income needed to live in London. If you have to pay for childcare then one of you may aswell not work because of how expensive that is, in which case you'd be reliant on one very high salary (or the other things you mention).
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