chinaman Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 Does anyone have enough information to post up a UK salary distribution curve? I heard somewhere that if you gross over 50K pa then you are in the top 10% of earners. Is this true? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haggis Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 Does anyone have enough information to post up a UK salary distribution curve? I heard somewhere that if you gross over 50K pa then you are in the top 10% of earners. Is this true? I recently read in the Times(?) that 46K puts you in the top 10%. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misfit Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 I recently read in the Times(?) that 46K puts you in the top 10%. Yes that is correct I have read it in the Telegraph and it was the figure on the Dan and Peter Snow programme Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mitchbux Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 I recently read in the Times(?) that 46K puts you in the top 10%. 46K and over was the figure for the top 10% on "What Britain Earns". 20% of the earners are on less than 10K. The 4,500 top earners in the country earn the same amount of money as the 3M at the bottom. I've had a quick dig and can't find it in a distribution curve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoctorJ Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 According to the calculators you are in the top 8% or earners if you earn 31K. - Not sure about that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silver surfer Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 The average household income in Britain is £32,779. The median individual income will be considerably lower. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frozen_out Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 The average household income in Britain is £32,779. The median individual income will be considerably lower. Is that right? Wow. I though the mean individual wage would be about £32k. As for the distribution I would hazard a guess it would be something like lognormal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Steve Cook Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 (edited) I just took a look at the UK National Statistics site. Funnily enough, you can only find the mean or the median salary. It doesn't tell you the mode. It doesn't, either, provide a histogram of the salary distribution curve. By looking at the shape of this, it is easy to establish which of the three measures of average is most appropriate. Given that the histogram is conspicous by its absence, and also the mode is not provided, one might be forgiven for suspecting that the histogram distribution shape favours the use of the mode and that the modal wage is actually really crappy. Much crappier than many might think. Just a suspicion Steve Edited March 3, 2008 by Steve Cook Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frozen_out Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 I just took a look at rhe UK National Statistics site. Funnily enough, you can only find the mean or the median salary. It won't tell you the mode. It won't, either, provide a histogram of the salary distribution curve. By looking at the shape of this, it is easy to establish which of the three measures of average is most appropriate. Given that the histogram is conspicous by its absence, and also the mode is not provided, one might be forgiven for suspecting that the histogram distribution shape favours the use of the mode and that the modal wage is actually really crappy. Much crappier than many might think.Just a suspicion Steve I think the modal salary would be most appropriate. What is the most common wage? I would guess around £15-17k. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lepista Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 I think the modal salary would be most appropriate. What is the most common wage? I would guess around £15-17k. Actually, I would guess that the modal salary is minimum wage (about 11k). Either that, or "nothing" (i.e. benefits). Actual income in that case, though, I would guess varies significantly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Steve Cook Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 (edited) Wierd..... I have just typed "the UK modal salary" and, as an alternatve, "what is the uk modal salary?" into Google...... Nothing..... Absoloutly zilch......... Checked the first five pages of Google results.... No authoritive information on this key descriptive statistic at all........ Steve Edited March 3, 2008 by Steve Cook Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Steve Cook Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 Can't find a straighforward, uncluttered histogram of income distribution either. It must be available, surely.... Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qetesuesi Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 Wierd.....I have just typed "the UK modal salary" and, as an alternatve, "what is the uk modal salary?" into Google...... Nothing..... Absoloutly zilch......... Checked the first five pages of Google results.... No authoritive information on this key descriptive statistic at all........ Steve You seem to contradict yourself twice here: What could the second search phrase bring up that the first wouldn't? If nothing turned up, what are the "five pages" you got? BTW I checked for "uk modal income", and again no result. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frozen_out Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 Actually, I would guess that the modal salary is minimum wage (about 11k). Either that, or "nothing" (i.e. benefits). Actual income in that case, though, I would guess varies significantly Why would modal salary be minimum wage? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Steve Cook Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 (edited) You seem to contradict yourself twice here:What could the second search phrase bring up that the first wouldn't? If nothing turned up, what are the "five pages" you got? BTW I checked for "uk modal income", and again no result. A small change to a search term may or may not always be effective. However, in my experience, even quite subtle changes to the search term can occasionally bring up search results that the first might not. Its really not more complicated than that. Regarding the first five pages that I looked through. These were various related documents, but none that dealt directly with the statistic in question. There were one or two results that did deal directly with it. However, they tended to relate to specific work sectors rather than the economy/population as a whole. I take it you don't search on Google much? Steve Edited March 3, 2008 by Steve Cook Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnlyMe Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 Not UK, but stumbled on this graph yesterday of banded US income and expenditure. "How Amercans spend their money". Looks like trickle down economics (from top earners) has no chance of working and that the lowest 1/5 really are totally and utterly in the soup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lepista Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 Why would modal salary be minimum wage? er.... because it's the one that most people are likely on. The thing about minimum wage is, if an employer wants to pay less than this, then... they can't. they have to pay at least minimmum wage All employers would pay minimum wage if they could get away with it. You can actually have a fairly good stab at the curve if you know a few points on it. I doubt that it would look hugely different to an educated guess. with it drawn, you can estimat numbers of people in each category, and then see if you think that any portion of the curve looks wrong. I'm thinking it would look quite like a bell curve with a long tail on the right hand side, and maybe a big spike at the minimum wage position (obviously curtailed here). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrGUID Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 Does anyone have enough information to post up a UK salary distribution curve? I heard somewhere that if you gross over 50K pa then you are in the top 10% of earners. Is this true? Here's what you're looking for: Rich-O-Meter But your figures are way wrong - to get into the top 10% you only need around 30K. I suspect the curve is a typical polynomial distribution, with the top .1% earning way way more than the rest of the top 10%. My small business has got me into the top 3.8%, but having bought a flat at the peak of the boom I sure don't feel that wealthy. At least I have real wealth coming in though, and not debt fuelled wealth... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpj Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 Take a look here. A very good source from the IFS (includes the use of equivalence sacles for household size aswell) http://www.ifs.org.uk/wheredoyoufitin/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lone_Twin Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 Take a look here.A very good source from the IFS (includes the use of equivalence sacles for household size aswell) http://www.ifs.org.uk/wheredoyoufitin/ Thats what I was looking for. Good find thanks. . Puts me and the gf in the top 4% as a household of two of us. . We are temp in a shared house where if we put in all our combined earnings the result is: Your income is so high that you lie beyond the far right hand side of the chart. . Now I know I live in London where costs are high but with those kind of %'s I would have thought I would feel a bit richer. . ST Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ignorant Steve Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 Thats what I was looking for. Good find thanks.. Puts me and the gf in the top 4% as a household of two of us. . We are temp in a shared house where if we put in all our combined earnings the result is: . Now I know I live in London where costs are high but with those kind of %'s I would have thought I would feel a bit richer. . ST It's all relative. Surround youself with like minded high earning individuals and you don't feel rich. Drive a couple of hours and have a drink in a working mans club in some god forsaken midlands city and you'll soon feel immeasurably better off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redgenieuk Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 Here's what you're looking for:Rich-O-Meter But your figures are way wrong - to get into the top 10% you only need around 30K. I suspect the curve is a typical polynomial distribution, with the top .1% earning way way more than the rest of the top 10%. My small business has got me into the top 3.8%, but having bought a flat at the peak of the boom I sure don't feel that wealthy. At least I have real wealth coming in though, and not debt fuelled wealth... Goof dins, but 6 years old now, so you 'd need to add about 20% at a guess to get a good reflection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrGUID Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 > Goof dins, but 6 years old now, so you 'd need to add about 20% at a guess to get a good reflection. Not to worry - I'm even richer on the other link! I still don't feel that rich though - I get a small basket of groceries in Adsa whereas other people are walking around with full trollies the size of small cars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DisplayNameChanged Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 (edited) Found this on the national statistics web site:- Main page for "Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE)" http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=13101 Example: Following the links - 2007 - Table 1: All employees - Gross weekly earnings by percentile http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/the...007/tab1_1a.xls What I guess the xls means, is that if you earn 814.8 gross or more a week you are in the top 10% Edit: Last sentence Edited March 3, 2008 by ds_t Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zaranna Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 http://www.ifs.org.uk/wheredoyoufitin/ If it's true, this one really does show how ridiculous house prices are compared to household earnings. And it blows out of the water some of that bull rubbish about "FTBs should not aspire to buy the average house because they don't earn average salaries but below average salaries so shoudl be buying below average property". On this chart my husband and I have a household income that is "beyond the far right hand side of the chart". We're so far above the average that we're not even close to it -- we're way above the average household income just in general! Yet we really, truly, simply can't afford to buy even the smallest properties on offer in our town/area -- I work it out on a regular basis and we couldn't borrow either the capital amount OR afford the monthly payments! Something is definitely NOT right here. If the average household should be able to buy the average house, and we're so far above the average household income that we don't even register on the graph, but we can't even afford a 2-bed flat or a 2-bed terrace (which in my area cost 260k+, no exceptions) -- then all of the justifications and rationalisations for HPI are just quite clearly bonkers as hell. How on earth are any young people affording to buy property in the SE? How is anyone without an equity cushion of about 100-150k doing it? Simply not sustainable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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