75k salaries?

freelancegal

Hi,

Bit of a random post maybe, but I was just reading an article on the BBC website and was intrigued. Apparently, government have based their figures on student loan repayment on an average graduate salary of 75k, or something like that.

It got me thinking, I don't know many people on that type of salary. Come to think of it, only one person, he's in sales on 100k plus.

I imagine jobs like lawyers, doctors, dentists and roles in financial services pay around this, and much more in some cases, but wondered if anyone knew what other kind of roles do?

Obviously, I understand senior management/executive jobs would be in this bracket, or have the potential to be, in most industries.

mustang121

What ever the industry, with great money comes great responsibilty.


It's not all fun and games "at the top". Although I am sure the huge wage helps.

Then again its all relative. People on huge wages have a tendacy to get greedy and purchase larger propertries and cars which sucks up thier wage.

freelancegal

Yeah, I just thought it was interesting that 75k would be considered an average salary for those projections...made me wonder.

Don't get me wrong, I understand working your way up, in most jobs, would have potential, just was interested in what industries/types of jobs typically paid that at a lower level type thing.

Wyndham

I'm not sure where that figure came from. I'm a manager in the public sector and am on £40K. That's with two degrees and 20 years experience. I can see that in 'industry' I could probably earn half as much again, but I'd be very surprised to be on £75K - or more as if £75K is 'average' then there are those above and those below.

Acc72

freelancegal wrote: »

Apparently, government have based their figures on student loan repayment on an average graduate salary of 75k, or something like that.

Of the large number of graduates I have met/worked with, very few earn around £75k - from my experience, the average is less than half that.

If prospective students are reading these surveys before committing themselves to large amounts of student debt, the vast majority will be disappointed (so will the taxpayer when they cannot repay their loans at the amounts used for the Government calculations).

maninthestreet

£75K? That's over 3 times the average annual income - what percentage of the working population earn that?

LunaLady

NQT's dont earn that, or newly qualified nurses, midwives or any other HCP.

heretolearn_2

Perhaps they don't mean graduate in the sense of newly graduated in a first entry level job.

Perhaps they meant 'graduates' as in people with a degree, regardless of age/point in career. Generally on average graduates earn more than non-graduates...so the £75k average would make a lot more sense then as it includes all the high flyers.

pinkteapot

Here is the BBC article in question:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-20066813

Hepi is also concerned that the government has overestimated the future earning potential of graduates at £75,000 per year, down from an earlier assumption of £100,000.

It doesn't specify how far in the future this figure is - i.e. how many years after graduation they're expecting people to be earning this money.

Graduates who enter jobs in the investment management sector in the city have a reasonable chance of earning this salary, often within 10 years. But this is a tiny minority of the total number of graduates. Beyond that, I can't think of many sectors that would lead to these sort of earnings unless people are in very senior positions.

Of course if the government forecasts are over the long-term (say 20 years from now) then you have to factor in inflation which will make quite a difference. £75k in 20 years time (assuming they are talking in nominal rather than real terms) will very roughly be equivalent to about half that amount today (i.e. upper £30k's).

Data below shows that for 2007-08, a little under 5% of UK workers earn £75k+:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_in_the_United_Kingdom#Percentile_points_for_income_of_individuals_before_tax

Given that far more than 5% of school-leavers now go to university, as it stands it seems somewhat unlikely they'd all reach these levels!

JimmyTheWig

Did they mean £75k in today's money? Or in the future taking inflation into account?
Assuming 3% inflation, a salary of £31k in today's money would be £75k in 30 years time.

Andy_L

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Did they mean £75k in today's money? Or in the future taking inflation into account?
Assuming 3% inflation, a salary of £31k in today's money would be £75k in 30 years time.

Or is that £75k what they think the upper quartile/decile/2nd standard deviation etc will be earning not that the average graduate will earn that.

As far to often with journalism the're reporting on someones press release about their report on someone elses report without referencing the primary source