Is £90,000 a year a middle class income?

When being interviewed on the radio, I was told by the broadcaster that £90,000 was only ‘middle-class income’ and not enough for MPs. She was, very clearly, out of touch with reality.

#uk #money #economy #politics #government #tax #labour #starmer #keirstarmer

ABOUT RICHARD MURPHY
Richard Murphy is Professor of Accounting Practice at Sheffield University Management School. He is director of Tax Research LLP and the author of the Funding the Future blog. His best known book is ‘The Joy of Tax’.

This video was edited by Thomas Murphy.

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[weeksy]

£90k is a lot in the north.

£90k is a lot if you’re in your 60s, at the tail end of your mortgage and house value has tripled since buying.

£90k is a lot if you’re in your 50s, kids out the house, earning interest on inheritance from deceased parents.

£90k in the South East, paying 5% interest mortgage, commute costs, childcare costs, etc. is barely hanging on.

[machidaman]

Interesting how the MP's were awarded a 5.5% pay rise by an 'indepent review body' and they are just fine with that. Another group, .offered the same amount, are being gas lit by the government and attacked by the public over it. This other groups have seen their pay lag significantly behind inflation, whilst the MP's routinely receive above inflation pay increases. Odd that.

[V.stones]

The median salary in the UK is around £33, 000. So, £90, 000 is nearly three times that. But then again, I think it depends on where you live and your lifestyle. In London, for example, £90, 000 can feel pretty middle class due to the high cost of living

[cianog]

Two people on 45k take home more money than a single individual on the same amount

[tnsquidd]

Its ironic that the upper class think 90k is unlivable, but dont do anything to help households earning 20k or less because they "have enough"

[aaronogden]

I live up north. It’s a sea of minimum wage jobs with the odd better paid one here and there so even the £35k average is more than most people make.

[karlkerr]

My wife is a care worker and society thinks its worth being in the bottom 10%.

[silvafox]

Average wage for a teacher £44K
Average wage for a police officer £38K
Average wage for a nurse £35-40K
Average wage for a social worker £37K
Average wage for a firefighter £37K
All essential services. All more useful than journalists.

[richt]

£90k is absolutely peanuts in London if you have kids.

[IDK]

You missing the point. Westminster isn't attracting the best and the brightest. As a country we have suffered severely because our MPs are at best second rate induviduals with limited or no experience who spend their time playing the Westminster game, popping up on TV and backstabbing each other. No one has a plan fir improving the country.

[bdorman]

Suffered through the full video. For an “intellectual” the bias here was extreme. The sarcasm makes it even more painful to listen to.

First let’s define what middle class means - middle class is not middle income. Middle class means some level of financial security, paying for essential costs (home, groceries, travel), a few luxuries and some money left over to save for retirement (& possibly help family).

So if we take £90k & remove tax it leaves £5, 000 a month. Now you live cheap part of the UK but it’s important we look at data for housing costs in expensive parts of the UK.

The average rent for London is £2, 100. The rent for a family home starts at £3, 000. Costs to buy with a mortgage is even higher.

That leaves £2k - £3k. Now let’s add council tax, groceries, travel costs and utilities (essentials). The £2k - £3k becomes £500 - £1, 500.

If our MP has children, the remainder would be consumed by childcare costs. If they don’t have children then the small remainder is enough to put them in “middle-class”.

In reality £90k is plenty of money if you either; live in cheaper part of the UK, have wealth or managed to find your way into a council home.

Remember we live in low wage, high tax economy now where wealth is far more important than wage. Owning your own home outright literally halves your outgoings.

So perhaps next time, before spouting nonsense on YouTube. Do thorough research and consider other perspectives. £90k is a great income for Sheffield and marginally middle class for London.

Both you and politician is out of touch as your both over simplifying a complex issue. The cost of living is very different depending on how much wealth you have and what part of the UK you live in. Making broad generalisations without doing proper unbiased research does nothing to progress conversations about salaries, tax and living standards.

[James__]

The problem is if you’re young, 90k a year isn’t enough to have what middle class used to mean. We’ve been ruined by people who thought they earned enough not pushing for raises so professional jobs have been squeezed and don’t really pay enough to justify the work required to be qualified to do them.

[mainame]

Middle class doesn’t mean the median earner though. 80% of people in the country are working class, 20% are middle class and a statistically insignificant number are upper class.

[keithheaven]

I don't mind MPs getting a higher salary, provided that a) they earn it and b) don't have any side hustles. Unfortunately, far too many wrong 'uns among top decile earners have been exposed in Private Eye.

[leehumphries]

I remember seeing the figure a few years ago stating half of the UK's population who are working earn less that £21k per year. And people wonder why the high streets and communities are stuggling to stay open and thrive.

[anthonyhiggins]

There are people who have studied hard and learned to do some amazing and very vital roles within our society and absolutely deserve to be rewarded well for the work they do. What is unacceptable is having people do jobs - that are clearly important or the jobs wouldn’t exist - that pay so little that the people doing them can barely afford to exist let alone have a decent quality of life.
What is communicated by that is “you are an unimportant member of society and do not matter” and if that’s the case why should people in that position even care about the society they are meant to be apart of.

[mygtavideos]

These are household figures too. If you are a single adult in one of the bottom groups life is practically impossible in this country.

[alexfielding]

Don't forget MP's also get allowances, residential assistance and additional awards for sitting on committee's etc

[gr]

It does show how incomes have fallen among the professions. A University Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor etc used to be pegged to MPs wages.Where does that put school teachers? I'd reckon that MPs will be the only grouping that hasn't suffered a sharp decline in real terms pay over the last 15 years.

[trickydicky]

90k is not a uber high wage in London. 200k would be that. 90k is a smig above confortable, but it doesn't mean you can spend carefreely!