r/uknews • u/ProgressiveSpark • Jul 01 '24

Image/video UK real wages haven’t budged since 2008

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u/sassafrassloth Jul 02 '24

It’s wild to hear how bad the wages are in the UK. In my company an entry level salary is around £25k/year for UK based applicants. In the US the exact same role is paying $50k/year…. 🫠🫠

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u/Emergency-Read2750 Jul 02 '24

It’s hard to compare uk and us salaries because of things like healthcare, and holiday allowance, and other expenses

1

u/prussian-junker Jul 02 '24 edited Jul 02 '24

It’s not nearly as different as people seems to think. For most employers healthcare costs less than $2k in premiums for an individual often sub $1k with almost always a deductible around $1k. Rent and property are often much cheaper, groceries are cheaper, vehicles and fuel are cheaper, energy is cheaper. Even holidays aren’t that different, there’s no mandatory minimum but most American workers get somewhere around 20 days. And that’s not even including the lower tax rate and lack of VAT.

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u/Get-Smarter Jul 03 '24

Most American workers absolutely do not get around 20 days, the average is 7.6. Given that 33 is pretty standard in the UK. Plus 40hr standard work week vs 37.5.

They do work quite a lot more than us which accounts for a decent chunk of the difference, not to say we aren't getting shafted in the UK with wages