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Is £20,000 a decent wage these days
Soundbox
Posts: 6,247 Forum Member
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I thought that £20,000 was in the 'fair to decent' category these days for semi-skilled work (engineering) however two agencies have told me that is wrong and I should aim for £30,000. One laughed at my 20k suggestion! To me that is too high and people these days don't give wages freely so there is some catch I feel. I have said I thought 20k was about right but they disagree.
Most advertised jobs are 16-21k 'depending on experience' so what is right? I can't believe there are high paying jobs just sitting about these days.
Most advertised jobs are 16-21k 'depending on experience' so what is right? I can't believe there are high paying jobs just sitting about these days.
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I guess though it all depends on where you live. Around here you're looking at £1000 a month for a studio flat or one bed flat so it wouldn't really be enough to survive on unless you were sharing.
Sadly Im stuck on the Rock n Roll
As other have said, 20K wouldn't be good enough in say London, but may be plenty in other areas.
Yes, mine is
As others have mentioned, I think location is even more of a deciding factor. Being on 20K is all very well if your mortgage/rent is £500/month, it's not so much fun when you're paying double or triple that (i.e. London). I don't know how some people survive in this city.
20 grand sounds marvelous.
There's a woman I work with who lives on her own and I know she struggles to make ends meet some months. I have every respect for people like that and would never take my job for granted.
As others have said a lot is dependent on area but £20k pa is low. Unfortunately income levels are kept low by the increasing use of casual labour on a hire 'n fire basis.
That, of course, takes into account the hundreds of lawyers and exec's who're earning millions each year and the millions of people who're sweeping floors and flipping burgers for £10k a year.
Simple fact is that if you look at stuff like property prices, rents, mortgages, utility bills and taxes it's easy to see how the "average" family is likely to need to find at least £1,000 per month to keep a roof over their heads and the lights on so, that being the case, it's not outrageous that such people would expect to earn a wage that means that the majority of their income is not immediately consumed by expenses.
Sure, if you're a youngster living in a shared, rented, flat then you might be happy with £20k a year but we should bear in mind that's just one end of the proverbial "bell curve" and most people are in a different situation and, that being the case, they're likely to have higher expectations.
A telecoms engineer working for BT can expect a starting salary of £21k to around £25k, depending on experience.
This is great advice.
Sadly a lot of engineers only end up earning up to £40K-£50K at the top end. Which obviously is still pretty good and well above average wage, but when you consider it being one of the hardest degrees to study with the required A level grades to get into it being the amongst the highest, its quite low, in comparison to other careers with similar grades needed such as Law, Medicine or Dentistry.