What is a good salary?

[BlueHammer85]

Get North mate, that will go much further

just the 200 miles to the office the only sticky point.

 

[stonerblue]

I've not had a 'salary' for 20 odd years, and back then it was called 'wages'.

 

[stonerblue]

just the 200 miles to the office the only sticky point.

minor inconvenience

 

[Kompany Car]

Honestly in life you need enough for you and your family to be secure. Security brings happiness not having the biggest house, fanciest clothes, nicest car etc.

How do you classify being secure ?

• A normal sized house in a good area with low crime and decent schools.
• Being able to service the mortgage on the house and household bills, with a mortgage that you can pay off before you retire.
• Having enough money to put food on the table, one holiday a year somewhere sunny and go out once a week.
• A couple of grand in the bank as a rainy day fund.
• Be able to run a car no older than 10yrs old.

Other than that what more do you want ? Everything beyond that is just bigger and fancier which dont bring any more happiness.

Now try to achieve that on an average salary.

 

[oldius]

Median UK salary - 31k
AV house price - 270k
AV UK rent - 1188 pm
AV UK Council tax - 158 pm
AV utility bills £208 pm

Net take home £2043
230k mortgage £1131

So without children, a car, food, entertainment, childcare, travel expenses, insurance, or clothes, someone on the average UK salary would have 546pm left.

 

[Tricky_Trev]

Sigh. I knew I shouldn’t have read this thread.

 

[Kompany Car]

Median UK salary - 31k
AV house price - 270k
AV UK rent - 1188 pm
AV UK Council tax - 158 pm
AV utility bills £208 pm

Net take home £2043
230k mortgage £1131

So without children, a car, food, entertainment, childcare, travel expenses, insurance, or clothes, someone on the average UK salary would have 546pm left.

Which is kind of the point I was making without spelling it out. To be secure and live a reasonable life, but by no means to excess is well out of the reach of most people. You are probably looking at double the average UK salary.

 

[oldius]

Which is kind of the point I was making without spelling it out. To be secure and live a reasonable life, but by no means to excess is well out of the reach of most people. You are probably looking at double the average UK salary.

You are right. I have lived in the UK and I have lived elsewhere. The cost of a decent life in the UK is now extremely high in most areas, but wages have not kept pace.

 

[Kompany Car]

You are right. I have lived in the UK and I have lived elsewhere. The cost of a decent life in the UK is now extremely high in most areas, but wages have not kept pace.

Its the oldest trick in the book, pay people just enough to stop them revolting but never enough to feel comfortable.

 

[oldius]

Its the oldest trick in the book, pay people just enough to stop them revolting but never enough to feel comfortable.

Sadly, many people (even on this thread) have condemned workers asking for 'inflation busting' pay rises, despite the simple fact that their pay has barely moved in a decade. The same people then believe the politicians who claim that awarding such rises will be terrible for inflation, completely ignoring the fact that the soaring inflation we have has come at the same time as wages being stifled. Meanwhile:

• FTSE 250 CEOs saw a similar 38% pay increase, with median pay rising from £1.25m in 2020 to £1.72m in 2021.
• FTSE 100 CEOs annual bonuses leapt to £1.4m compared to £828k in 2020 and £1.1m in 2019. 90% of CEOs received a bonus.

I don't think it is too much to ask for someone on the average salary in the UK, to be able to buy the average house, to be able to heat it and and be able to buy some clothes and have a holiday.