It's all about the money!!

Although the National Living Wage goes up each year, and in some instances seems quite decent at £7.83 for over 25’s; for a full time worker after tax and NI this only comes to £265 per week. However statistics state that one working adult with no children averagely spends £347 per week. Then one working adult with two or more children averagely spends £421 (ons.gov.uk). None of this takes into account any benefits like tax credits and child benefit, or additional costs like childcare and a vehicle. So that gap alone raises concern.

The strange thing is that when you look at the average weekly wage on profession the rate is a little different; the lowest being in wholesale, retail and hospitality at £356. Followed by other sectors ranging from £504 to £660; the highest rate in the finance and business services. These rates were taken in July 2018 (ons.gov.uk).

Subsequently the average annual salary is 18,512 at the lowest and 34,320 before tax and NI. Although on the minimum living wage you would expect £15,268.

Something else that we all might like to take into account is the average annual salary (March 2018) for graduates, by occupation; the minimum average is in elementary occupations at £15,496; the highest in manager, director and senior officials at £44,980.

It is concerning that the minimum average salary for a graduate is only £228 higher than the minimum living wage. Unfortunately statistics for graduates are for over 21’s and the average living wage is over 25’s. Therefore a true comparison cannot be made as the difference in the minimum wage from 21 to 25 years is 45 pence per hour; making the annual salary 14,391.

Obviously there are always variations to the average, but these figures will raise a lot of questions for many.