How Wealthy Are You? What its the Average UK Wage?

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The media is constantly reporting on stories of other peoples incomes, whether its bankers bonuses or benefits claimants there’s scarcely a day when there isn't a story about someone else’s income.  However, apart from these high profile stories, income tends to be a shy topic of conversation in the UK and the reality is that most of us probably don’t have a clue what our neighbors earn or where we fit on the grand scale of income.

What is the UK National Average Wage?

Unfortunately it’s not that simple, the first question to ask is what do you mean by the term average salary?  Here we can use the mean or the median and not surprisingly this results in two separate answers:

Average Mean Income – This is the average income taken by adding up all the salaries of those in the sample and then dividing the answer by the number of the sample population.  The problem with mean income is that the figures are skewed by those at each end of the spectrum who earn exceptionally large or exceptionally small amounts.  At the end of 2010 HBAI data put the UK mean income at £519 per week or £26,988 pa.

Average Median Income – Most prefer to use the median as a way of measuring the average income.  The median income represents the figures at which exactly half of the population earns a figure either side of this level.  In 2010 HBAI data put the UK Median income at £414 per week or £21,528 pa.

So depending upon what you mean by average, if your monthly income is £2,249 (Mean) or £1,794 (Median), congratulations you’ve hit the national average.

What do Other People Earn?

OK so now you know the national average, here are some other average earnings just for fun:

Annual Salaries

·         Office Administrator - £16,296

·         Retail Store Manager - £21,392

·         PA - £24,250

·         General Manager - £35,325

Hourly Wages

·         Retail Assistant - £6.06

·         Admin Staff - £7.64

·         Dental Nurse - £7.96

·         Electrician - £10.99

So there you have it, for better or for worse if your income is in the £21k-£27k band, you’re probably doing just about average.