Income brackets: what is prception of low/middle high

lostinrates

Often I read, and refer myself, to low, middle or high earners. I wonder what othr posters mean when posting the same hrase, because I oftn think we have very differnt perceptions.

I used to feel that the tax guidelines were woefully inadaquate (with high earners starting at 40kish) which in parts of the country is not a lot of wealth. High to me suggests some ability to have some luxury, low suggests a

I'd be intersting in comparing this with other posters and finding out what you all class as low/medium/high (superrichhigh?)? and if your perception changes when talking about couples rather than individuals (as that often comes up in deabte too.) Is high differnt to super rich-making four categories or inclusive of it

For sake of argument the new tax bands would lead to the definition of the 40k-150k earners being 'middle earners'. Mean/average-wise, well, I consider that very unlikely:rolleyes: , but looking at the stats differently I wonder how it looks?

neverdespairgirl

Living in London, I'd say low was under £25k or so, and high over £100k.

beecher

I'd say a low earner was under about £18,000, a middle earner £18,000 - £30,000, high earner above that.

I remember seeing a graph which showed that most people's wages are lower than the average wage but can't find it now. It probably gives a better idea of what the 'norm' wage/.

olly300

There are lots of people who live in London who earn £25K or below. The only reason they survive is in general they are either graduates who are doing their first jobs, they have secured their housing before this recent housing boom or they are part of a couple where the other partner at least works part-time.

Someone earning over 100K even in London is seen as a high earner. There are various surveys around that state that the average salary in London (using the mean) is about £34K. Of course the median value is much lower.

olly300

beecher wrote: »

I'd say a low earner was under about £18,000, a middle earner £18,000 - £30,000, high earner above that.

I remember seeing a graph which showed that most people's wages are lower than the average wage but can't find it now. It probably gives a better idea of what the 'norm' wage/.

Are you talking about Scotland in general or just Glasgow?

SingleSue

I would say an average earner in my area is around the 15-17k, low earner a bit below that and if you earn 40k you are blooming rich!

Countrywide though, I would think that 16k would be seen as low, 40k as middle and 80-100k as high.

beecher

olly300 wrote: »

Are you talking about Scotland in general or just Glasgow?

I'm talking about my perception - isn't really relevant to Glasgow or Scotland. The graph I'm talking about is for the UK and shows income stacked up behind the average.

Mr_Matey

Perception of what a high/medium/low earner is is swayed by the circles you mix in and the area you live in.

You can get average wage info from the UK statistics site on your local area, or in fact London in general. I can't find the link, but have seen it on mse before. It's like this, but also had by area:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_labour/ASHE_2008/2008_all_employees.pdf

I would say the bottom 30% of the population are low earners, next 40% middle earners and top 30% high earners for any given region. Although don't look at too small a sample - e.g someone earning 50k may be a low income earner for those living in the city.

I think for London anything over about 50k is a high income earner.

When talking about tax, let's not forget NI which steals a hefty chunk out of my paycheck every month!

Cleaver

Interesting discussion.

The average wage figure always makes me laugh though as it's a bit like publishing an national average weight figure which you compare yourself to. Unless you take in to account age, sex, height, general health and a whole host of other factors it's pretty meaningless. In the same way it's hard to define a high / medium / low wage without taking in to account your age, location, personal and financial circumstances etc.

That said: Low = 13.45k, medium = 38.26k, high = 58.27k.

MrsTinks

Interesting... I could class as anything from middle to high on my own in those brackets and honestly I don't feel like I'm high income... I know between my Dh and I we are probably technically the high end of middle income then I'd certainly not call our house hold income "high"...
Are there official figures on the definitions (other than the government tax brackets...)?

beecher

Mr_Matey wrote: »

Perception of what a high/medium/low earner is is swayed by the circles you mix in and the area you live in.

I think that's very true and definitely something I've seen on here.

As for averages, I liked the BBC article which reminded people that the average person has less than 2 feet