uk average wage is not realistic don't think that their are more people over 39k its an illusion, most people are on the same wages or their abouts, min wage and above, if a professional football player is on 100 grand a week it pushs up the average wage but majority are on lower wages think about it. Some people are just chucking the job because it is so bad not necessarily have somewhere to go, or jobs up to 20 hours, most jobs don't get back to you when you apply other than u were unsuccessful, it may look like theirs a lot of jobs online but majority either are scam fake jobs that copy previous job adverts from places like local councils but they don't exist, they just want ur personal details to pass onto companies who want to advertise to you once they have ur cv. Royal mail is one of the few places people can get a job because of the high turnover.
I think you are wrong on this because the £39’000 figure is actually the median average, which means its not distorted by high earners. Essentially if you write in a (very long) list the wage of every person, the middle figure would be £39’000.
(Got this from chatgpt so perhaps i am also wrong )
thats it London salarys for most jobs because of high rental costs are a lot higher than rest of uk so the average uk salary is not a reality, most folk are on similar wages ,majority are near minimum wage so would take that average salary nonsense with a pinch of salt, if someone is on 200k its going rocket the average salary up.
Should the pay rise not be based on inflation for the entire year since last April? Why is it based on just the last month? Or have I got that wrong?
Because If inflation is high every month then it settles down that still means things are way more expensive than they were last year.
thats it London salarys for most jobs because of high rental costs are a lot higher than rest of uk so the average uk salary is not a reality, most folk are on similar wages ,majority are near minimum wage so would take that average salary nonsense with a pinch of salt, if someone is on 200k its going rocket the average salary up.
I think you’re not understanding what median average actually is. Which is fine, i fail to understand lots of things too.
Should the pay rise not be based on inflation for the entire year since last April? Why is it based on just the last month? Or have I got that wrong?
Because If inflation is high every month then it settles down that still means things are way more expensive than they were last year.
It's based on the last 3 months (Jan, Feb, Mar) of the financial year.
Ive double checked with chatgpt and it seems pretty certain that the MEDIAN average salary is not distorted by higher earners.
“ the median is specifically designed so that high earners don’t distort it. That’s the whole reason economists use it for salaries.”
True enough, but jobs in London that pay more will skew it a bit.
No, i think the point is that the median is the exact middle salary of everyones salary if they were in a line.
For example out of the following:
20000
30000
40000
50000
6000000
The median is 40000. The 600000 does not skew the median. I think.
Yes but if you have 10,000 jobs paying £25,000 in the UK, and those same 10,000 jobs in London paying £35,000, the median salary becomes £30,000 (the average between £25,000 and £35,000).
So it does have potential to skew it. Plus there are a lot of jobs in and around London.
Last edited by Saturn1 on 15 Mar 2026, 00:02, edited 1 time in total.
Ive double checked with chatgpt and it seems pretty certain that the MEDIAN average salary is not distorted by higher earners.
“ the median is specifically designed so that high earners don’t distort it. That’s the whole reason economists use it for salaries.”
True enough, but jobs in London that pay more will skew it a bit.
No, i think the point is that the median is the exact middle salary of everyones salary if they were in a line.
For example out of the following:
20000
30000
40000
50000
6000000
The median is 40000. The 600000 does not skew the median. I think.
Yes but if you have 10,000 jobs paying £25,000 in the UK, and those same 10,000 jobs in London paying £35,000, the median salary becomes £30,000 (the average between £25,000 and £30,000).
So it does have potential to skew it. Plus there are a lot of jobs in and around London.
I'm pretty certain there will be a dispute any time soon. The caveat enabling the company to reopen negotiations, will be used when they pleed poverty.
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