Income brackets: what is prception of low/middle high

SingleSue

MrsTine

We did have something a few weeks back which showed the mean, average etc salaries by district and sometimes towns.

No idea which thread is was on though but I do remember it was extremely interesting.

Edit - Found it! http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1288451 is the thread and http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_labour/ASHE_2008/2008_work_la.pdf was the link given in that thread.

lostinrates

Cleaver wrote: »

Interesting discussion.
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.

Yes, this is part of the point I was taxi-ing down to. I think all the factors you mention are relevant, indeed.

Which is why I always grimace just a little when using the trms and reading them. I think trying to understand the middle point for all of us is relevent in undrstanding many of our points of view in many of our discussions.

olly300

beecher wrote: »

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.

The reason I'm asking is that quite a few years ago I lived in the North West. There as a new graduate in a graduate position you were considered loaded if you got a job earning more than 16k there as in London you needed 26K to be in that position.

Mr_Matey

SingleSue wrote: »

We did have something a few weeks back which showed the mean, average etc salaries by district and sometimes towns.

No idea which thread is was on though but I do remember it was extremely interesting.

Yes that's the one I was talking about, although my quick search couldn't find the thread (maybe it's been moved? haha ).

Good point Cleaver, in general wages go up with age, to a point. It all depends on what line of work you're in. I definitely earn a lot more than I did as a graduate, and hopefully will be earning more still in 5 years time.

beecher

Interesting link SingleSue - £20,801 is the median wage for the UK. I think many people would find it hard to believe that as many people earn less than that figure, than earn more. Does put a lot into perpective

dad-of-4

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.

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!

i looked at a calculator a long time ago on c4's web site (i think) that expressed any given figure as a percentage of the polpulation, and i was shocked how little you needed to earn to be in the top 10% of earners.

lostinrates

Mr_Matey wrote: »

Good point Cleaver, in general wages go up with age, to a point. It all depends on what line of work you're in. I definitely earn a lot more than I did as a graduate, and hopefully will be earning more still in 5 years time.

Maybe I saw those graphs too then I'm looking around my brain and if I saw thm I've misplaced the memory . Sorry.

re wages and age. This is a very interesting point and highly interesting to me.

EG. I magine DH's wage and that of his mother when she bought a house are roughly similar in relative value. She bought a home she knew she could raise a fmaily in (despite being single and young at the time).

Someone on the same wage when younger, it might be argued, might need a bigger mortgage (less time to have saved/no value from a previous property) but it could also be a point that they can service a loan over more years in a normal work life and that their wage might go up more, increasing spending power later. EG, DH is ..due in part to previous career, six years older some 7/8 years older than others on the same payscale as him at work. I can see an argumnt as to why thy should b abl to borrow a little more than him.

baileysbattlebus

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.

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!

You are right - it does depend on where you live and the circles you mix in -
we live in the Wokingham Council area - lots of London commuters - and I agree with NDG, under £25k a low earner and over £100k a high earner.

SGE1

Isn't it all relative to age? I would say that someone earning £40k at the age of 40 is a mid earner. But someone earning £40k at 21 is a high earner What about earning as many k as you are old?

low earner: <your age -10k
med earner: your age +(-9k to +10k)
high earner: >your age +11k

michaels

What always disappoints me is that public sector workers insist on fairly equal wages around the country - resulting in huge differences in spending power across the country - it would be best if wages were negotiated locally so that they were set at an appropriate level across the country - for example currently teachers are well off in some parts (Wales for example rarely has teacher vacancies) and not in others - London for example so the Welsh schools get the pick of good teachers whereas London schools must almost take who ever applies and thus standards in London are much lower