Huge salary gap?

I lived in the UK until I was 21, and the salaries I was looking at when graduating from uni back then don't seem to have changed in 17 years.  Is it really the case that people are still earning £10,000 a year?  How do they manage?

When I look at jobs that require education and experience, they seem to top out at £30,000 a year, which is $39,000 (ish).  In NJ someone with education and experience would probably earn around $65,000.  I'm not sure how to adjust to the difference.  I know living in the UK is cheaper, but still.... that's a massive gap.

Are there tiers/levels of employment in the UK that aren't advertised online?  Are jobs in the £30,000 + level going through agencies?  Or is it the case that you have to get into a job under £30k and then work your way up to higher salaries?

I just can't see how we'd earn enough to live (fair enough, we'd save $10-20k a year on healthcare, but still...) and have anything left to travel/save/enjoy life.

I'm baffled as to how there is such an enormous difference.  If house prices were cheaper in the UK (say £180k for a 3 bed in Hampshire) I'd get it, but they're not.  It's £385k for a 3 bed house in Hampshire.

This is the bit we're really struggling with.  I don't want to sound smug "we earn SO much"  , but it's hard to sell my husband on the advantages of UK if we have to take enormous salary hits, with no chance of recovery, and living costs aren't *that* much cheaper...

Sorry for the ramble.  I'm short of friends in the UK who I can whine to about income levels without sounding like a total ars*. 

If you look through the history on here, you'll see that's a running trend. Salaries in the UK are much less than in the US for numerous industries. From what I've gathered, years of austerity have caused stagnant salaries and left the UK far behind the rest of the world in a lot of industries. Friends who have been recruited ended up moving to other European countries because they could be given appropriate salaries there. (No one will move across the world for a pay cut and cost of living increase while at the top of their field!) Definitely do your research, but you honestly may end up with a $10-20k+ drop in salary. I'm not sure if there are better sites for gauging salary within a certain industry, I'd just been following job boards for quite some time in mine.

Is it really the case that people are still earning £10,000 a year?  How do they manage?

Well, UK minimum wage for someone age 18-20 is £5.60 per hour, for age 21-24, it's £7.05 per hour and for someone 25 and over, it's £7.50 an hour.

Based on a 37-hour week, that would be an annual minimum wage of £10,774 for someone age 18-20, £13,564 for someone age 21-24 and £14,430 for someone over 25.

When I look at jobs that require education and experience, they seem to top out at £30,000 a year, which is $39,000 (ish).  In NJ someone with education and experience would probably earn around $65,000.  I'm not sure how to adjust to the difference.  I know living in the UK is cheaper, but still.... that's a massive gap.

It depends on the field, but on average, you can expect to earn about half the salary in the UK that you would earn for the same job in the US. Then again, you don't have to pay for health insurance, and you have the benefits of more paid leave and currently there are legal restrictions on how many hours you can work in a week (EU Working Time Directive - no more than 48 hours per week).

Living in the UK is not generally cheaper though - some things are, like most groceries and things like mobile phone plans/TV/broadband and second-hand cars, but a lot of stuff is more expensive - housing, rent, bills, petrol, eating out etc.

The average UK salary is around £27,000, with about 90% of the population earning £40,000 or less.

Are there tiers/levels of employment in the UK that aren't advertised online?  Are jobs in the £30,000 + level going through agencies?  Or is it the case that you have to get into a job under £30k and then work your way up to higher salaries?

What higher salaries? .

I've been in my job as a civil servant (science field) for almost 7 years and I'm still on less than £25,000 base salary. However, I do get shift allowances, weekend pay and overseas allowances which boost my salary a fair amount, and working overseas for a few months a year since 2013 has allowed me to save enough to buy a house. If I get a promotion, it'll go up to about £28,500, but I probably won't earn much more than that over the next few years.

I just found a website that shows the average you can expect to earn at different ages and experience:

The average salary of someone in their 20s is about £23,000, in their 30s, it's about £27,000 and in their 40s, it's £27,000-£33,500.

The average salary of someone with 1 year's experience is about £20,000, while the average salary of someone with 20+ years of experience is about £39,000.

That fits with my family: my brother (age 26) has recently started a new job in the leisure industry - he's earning just under £20,000 (he's just moved back from Switzerland where he was earning the equivalent of about £50,000). My mum is a computer programmer and has been in her job for 27 years... she earns around £40,000.

Nope, there's no hidden salary tiers, nothing you're missing. Salaries in the UK are extremely low and cost of living is extremely high. My husband and I are both educated professionals, and we earn about £40,000 between us. Honestly, I think it's obscene. I like living in the UK and for many reasons would prefer to be here than back in the US. But something needs to be done about the salaries here. They haven't changed significantly in 40 years and with costs of everyday things continuing to rise, we will very soon be at a point where two full-time salaries cannot support a family.

There are other reasons to live in the UK, lots of factors to consider, but you'll definitely take a salary cut if you choose to move here.

If you can buy a three bed in Hampshire for £365k, jump on it! 

If you can buy a three bed in Hampshire for £365k, jump on it! 

Yeah, UK house prices have soared in the last few years.

My house was built in 1997 and sold for £55,000 at that time. In 2001, it sold for £57,000. When I purchased it last year, it was on the market for over £150,000.

My parents bought their house in 1999 for £134,000. Its estimated value on Zoopla is now £471,000!

This will be like comparing apples to oranges but...

My ex-husband in the US earns in 2 days what it takes my current husband to make in a month, including all the overtime he works plus bonuses and incentives.

I will never be able to afford to buy a house here.

I'm trying to convince my ex husband that property in Scotland is a great investment, especially houses that have a washer and electric dryer and a large kitchen.

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Thanks all.  Yeah, all my friends in Hampshire/London have made a mint on property they've owned, even if it was horrid/horrible area.  Whereas here in NJ we made 0 on the house we owned for 10 years.  Nice.

I think the living costs thing is almost a wash, as NJ is very expensive.  Our property taxes alone come out to around £800 a month.  I know most people in Hampshire pay £100 to £150 per month for only 10 months a year.  Bargain!  Car insurance is cheaper.  Housing here is pretty expensive (although you obviously get more space than in UK, but by NJ standards a "small" house is still expensive).

It seems we would have been better off moving to the UK 10 years ago, before our careers really got going.

My husband is in a field that recruits directly from agencies (nothing is advertised) so he's already in touch with one, I think we'll float his CV and see what they say might be a reasonable range and then go from there.

Thanks for humouring me.  I did search through posts on here and read some of the stickies, but they can be quite out of date now.

It's so hard because although I'm British I've been here for most of my adult life so the reality of UK living is a mystery not explained each time I go on holiday there for 2 weeks.  And most UK friends/family aren't exactly in a rush to explain their finances and reveal salaries to me!

Thanks all.

And most UK friends/family aren't exactly in a rush to explain their finances and reveal salaries to me!

I've found this to be one of the cultural differences I've struggled to wrap my head around. No one ever wants to talk about the reality of life, good or bad, and if you ask a question you just get non-answers.

Hopefully your husband can get some solid answers from the recruiters




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I've found this to be one of the cultural differences I've struggled to wrap my head around. No one ever wants to talk about the reality of life, good or bad, and if you ask a question you just get non-answers.

In the UK it's considered not to be good manners to discuss money. 

I've found this to be one of the cultural differences I've struggled to wrap my head around. No one ever wants to talk about the reality of life, good or bad, and if you ask a question you just get non-answers.

Hopefully your husband can get some solid answers from the recruiters

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I've never talked hard figures with any of my US friends, at least not salary wise. We may talk about rent costs, car payments, student loan payments, but we never say exactly what we earn. You can get a general idea about what they earn but I've never actually asked as I was taught it's rude to talk salary with anyone but your spouse/family maybe absolute closest friends.

I moved with my family to the USA in 1987. It was a company assignment with the same job title and responsibilities. My salary in the USA was set @ 2.9x my UK salary but in $. £17k/year became $49k/year. 5 years later when I came to return I couldn't get an equivalent salary at my company and faced a huge drop back in the UK so I accepted a permanent move to their US subsidiary.

23 years later with that much higher salary we weren't both able to retire at age 55 and having now moved back to England our US pensions mean we have a very comfortable living indeed.

Thanks all.  Yeah, all my friends in Hampshire/London have made a mint on property they've owned, even if it was horrid/horrible area.  Whereas here in NJ we made 0 on the house we owned for 10 years.  Nice.

I think the living costs thing is almost a wash, as NJ is very expensive.  Our property taxes alone come out to around £800 a month.  I know most people in Hampshire pay £100 to £150 per month for only 10 months a year.  Bargain!  Car insurance is cheaper.  Housing here is pretty expensive (although you obviously get more space than in UK, but by NJ standards a "small" house is still expensive).

It seems we would have been better off moving to the UK 10 years ago, before our careers really got going.

My husband is in a field that recruits directly from agencies (nothing is advertised) so he's already in touch with one, I think we'll float his CV and see what they say might be a reasonable range and then go from there.

Thanks for humouring me.  I did search through posts on here and read some of the stickies, but they can be quite out of date now.

It's so hard because although I'm British I've been here for most of my adult life so the reality of UK living is a mystery not explained each time I go on holiday there for 2 weeks.  And most UK friends/family aren't exactly in a rush to explain their finances and reveal salaries to me!

Thanks all.

Have you had a look at the financial requirements for the visa?

You need to have earned a minimum of £18,600 in the 12 months prior to application AND have a job offer for the UK paying a minimum of £18,600 a year starting within 3 months.  Unfortunately your husband's earnings cannot be counted.

Alternatively you need £62,500 held in savings for a minimum of 6 months.

Have a read through the visa information here:
https://www.gov.uk/uk-family-visa/overview

And the financial requirements document, which details the different financial categories you can qualify under:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/636618/Appendix_FM_1_7_Financial_Requirement_Final.pdf

By the way, under the "Give proof of your income" section, it states that:
"You and your partner must have a combined income of at least £18,600 a year"

However, this is only true for employment income if the US citizen partner ALREADY has a visa that gives the right to work in the UK. If you are still both in the US and he has not applied for a visa yet, his employment income CANNOT count towards the £18,600 requirement. But if he has non-employment income which will continue in the UK, it can be used.

Once he has a visa and you have moved to the UK, his employment income can be combined with yours to meet the requirements for the next visas in 2.5 years and 5 years' time. But for the initial spousal visa, only your income can count.

In my limited experience, I can certainly confirm the massive taboo here about talking about salaries.  This is absolutely propagated by the upper classes so that the lower classes do not figure out how bad they are being ripped off. 

Because of this silliness, whoever asks for the big salary will get it, unless your manager is also earning just over the minimum wage. 

I am absolutely gob smacked at how little people earn here.  Someone very close to me is a lecturer at a University famous enough to be mentioned on page 1 of the da Vinci code.  Almost everyone in their department earns just slightly more than they would at Burger King, but they all work weekends and nights for free because they are terrified of losing it.  Management has terminated people who worked there for 15 years just a week before retirement!  The union is toothless and the chancellor earns more than £300,000 per year.