What's a good salary?

[JDH1]

Think I've lost touch with what people get paid. On another thread, noticed a number of people earning 6 figure salaries. Last time I looked they were quite rare. What's considered a good salary these days for someone in maturity phase of their career? And where's the good money being made? I'm talking about paid employment now, not self employment.

[evenflow]

Depends on your background and viewpoint I suppose.
One man's 50k is another man's 500k!

[eightseventhree]

a good salary is enough to pay your bills with some left over for savings and luxury's

[Asterix]

Where do they live?

Are we talking individual income or as a household?

I'd say that over 80K means that you're in a good professional range and would have, as a single bloke, a reasonable life.

Dunno really - been out of the UK for a few years now.

[scorp]

Asterix said:

I'd say that over 80K means that you're in a good professional range and would have, as a single bloke, a reasonable life.

Depends were you live, 80k p/a in london will probably see you worse off than someone on 60k in leeds for instance.

[anonymous-user]

Age x 1.5 is a good starting point

[crofty1984]

Oop north (from Doncaster - living in Leeds now)
As a degree-educated engineer, I'd feel I'd really "made it" if I saw £50k. I'm on less than average wage ATM.

[RacingPete]

Mac. said:

Age x 1.5 is a good starting point

£45 a year... I should ask for a pay rise

[MikeyT]

Asterix said:

Where do they live?

Are we talking individual income or as a household?

I'd say that over 80K means that you're in a good professional range and would have, as a single bloke, a reasonable life.

Dunno really - been out of the UK for a few years now.

I think if I was single on 80k a year I'd have a bloody excellent life - if I wasn't working 100 hours a week ...

[Apache]

How do you possibly nail that down?

What you're worth? what your qualifications are worth? what you should be earning by a specific age? how you live ie above or below your means?

[anonymous-user]

RacingPete said:

Mac. said:

Age x 1.5 is a good starting point

£45 a year... I should ask for a pay rise

you know what I meant - git

[Asterix]

scorp said:

Asterix said:

I'd say that over 80K means that you're in a good professional range and would have, as a single bloke, a reasonable life.

Depends were you live, 80k p/a in london will probably see you worse off than someone on 60k in leeds for instance.

Agreed - hence my first question.

Reason I stated 80k was that even if it was London, then it would still be reasonable.

I live in Dubai where its difficult to compare as somethings here are ridiculously cheap, yet other things are outrageous.

I can only judge that I have quite a bit left over now at the end of the month (thanks to a position change and package negotiation) and if we bring my fiancé's salary as a household sum - then I'm/we're in a very lucky position to say that all is well.

Sorry - not meant to be a brag of any kind but the tiping point from hand to mouth to no major wories only happened when there was a major shift in my career in my mid 30s that made the difference. I'm not sure that simple linear and regular increase make a diference thanks to inflation (in the high teens here) and the ability to be protected from them.

For instance - rent in Dubai is higher than London and New York but I've been in my place for 4yrs now and have been largely protected - this had made a huge difference especialy in the last two years.

[Timmy33]

Depends so much on where you live.

£100k in London....you'll get by.

£100k in South Wales....MEGA money.

[kambites]

As long as you aren't in London, 50k is comfortable (but not excessive) for a couple with a 90% mortgage on a small house/flat.

[Firkin Dogbolter]

eightseventhree said:

a good salary is enough to pay your bills with some left over for savings and luxury's

Mac. said:

Age x 1.5 is a good starting point

I can dream...

[roboxm3]

Mac. said:

RacingPete said:

Mac. said:

Age x 1.5 is a good starting point

£45 a year... I should ask for a pay rise

you know what I meant - git

Yeah I'm £2k short! Therobbingbds

[kambites]

Firkin Dogbolter said:

Mac. said:

Age x 1.5 is a good starting point

I can dream...

I'd be very happy to be on "age x 1.5", but then I only work 37 hours a week, some people on here seem to think it's normal to work 60 hour weeks.

[lunarscope]

Mac. said:

Age x 1.5 is a good starting point

For a 'non-city' worker I've always considered "Age x 1" as a pretty decent salary.

Unfortunately, over the last few years the 'cost of living' has risen greatly compared to my salary so this now feels a little low.

It really depends on location (and associated differing expectations)

So at age 42 I reckon these are decent annual salaries:

North Wales = £42K
Midlands = £50
Manchester/Leeds = £55K
London/South East = £80K

At those rates you would probably be in the top 10-20% of earners.

[Dupont666]

I good salary is being able to buy things and not worry about where the money is coming from, everyone states this 50k a year in london bullst about just scraping by and not being able to aford anything.

Do remember the average wage in UK is 25k
In london excluding the city boys its 34k
Including the City boys its close to 44k

(all from memory I might add)

So 50k is above the average and if you are struggling on that, then you are doing something massively wrong.

[Fittster]

lunarscope said:

Mac. said:

Age x 1.5 is a good starting point

For a 'non-city' worker I've always considered "Age x 1" as a pretty decent salary.

Unfortunately, over the last few years the 'cost of living' has risen greatly compared to my salary so this now feels a little low.

It really depends on location (and associated differing expectations)

So at age 42 I reckon these are decent annual salaries:

North Wales = £42K
Midlands = £50
Manchester/Leeds = £55K
London/South East = £80K

At those rates you would probably be in the top 10-20% of earners.

Is Manchester/Leeds more expensive than Birmingham?

I thought the average annual UK wage was £23,700. For some reason most of the stats I can find are weekly. I didn't think it was common to be paid on a weekly basis anymore.

Edited by Fittster on Friday 2nd May 10:59