Interesting Facts

According to a study, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, teenagers in the UK would be more likely to study maths at A-level if they were told what salaries it would help them earn in the future. (Telling students that pupils who received the information on graduate earnings were 39 per cent more likely to study maths than those who did not. Now if they could only convince them that maths could get you onto the X-Factor, and help you become famous, the take up would be 100%.)

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) has decided that MP's salaries in the UK are lagging behind that of Civil Servants. (So, are they going to bring Civil Service pay in-line with pay for British MPs? No, of course not; it looks like they're going to award themselves a £10,000 pay rise.  A massive 25%. MPs are currently paid £65,738 a year, and in a recent poll they (the MPs themselves) thought they should be paid £86,000 a year (some thought they should be paid £100,000). On top of that you have the "expenses". But before 1911 MPs weren't paid any salary, and in today's money that first salary would be worth, £39,000 - around Band 7 in the NHS for "specialist workers". An IPSA spokesperson told the Sunday Times: "There is no recommendation yet, there are no proposals yet. We are working on that. We are going to do this in a very public and proper way with consultation. We will be consulting before the end of June and a...

According to research by online bank First Direct, the cost of living i n the UK   has gone up by 163% in 20 years. (The problem is average salaries have not kept pace, increasing by just 100%.  I knew I felt poorer!) 

According to the High Pay Commission, in the UK the average salary is £25,900, but the average Chief Executive (Managing Director) pay is £3,740,000. (That's 145 times more than the average worker. According to the CBI (Confederation of British Industry) you have to pay this kind of money in order to be competitive. A strange argument, given the times we are living in. Come on shareholders! These people are not worth it! They are paying themselves more than ever, but I bet your dividends haven't increased.)

According to the Daily Mail, there are five times as many full time male staff who earn over £200,000, which is more than the prime minister does, as women at the BBC. (In addition, there are twice as many men on more than £100,000 at the BBC and the average man's pay is £41,916 while it is only £36,827 for female employees. They spent £212 million on star salaries last year, but I guess with a budget of £3.5 billion, they can afford it. I have to say I wasn't surprised by this story, the BBC is a perfect example of the "old boys network" in action. My question is, is there an ''old girls network'', and how do I get in it?)

According to a survey by the BBC, around 38,045 state employees in the UK take home £100,000, or more, each year. (Going by official figures, that leaves about 545,000 privately employed people earning £100,000 or more a year, after tax, this works out at £65,310. And after average expenses, there should be around £33,310 a year left over.  According to David Kuo, from the investment advice website Motley Fool, the average person in the UK spends around £32,000 a year. This is made up of £25,000 on basic expenses (transport, food, clothing etc) and £7,000 on mortgage repayments. So, the average household needs a gross salary of about £45,000 just to break even.  In his opinion the average person in the UK won't be happy unless they earn around £50,000 a year.   And that may still be a hand-to-mouth existence. Someone earning a salary of £100,000, should be able to retire in reasonable comfort provided they invest their disposable income carefull...

The median salary in the UK is £20,801. (The average salary is £26,020, and for full-time employees, that figure rises to £31,323. The top 1% of salaried earners, earn over £118,027, and people who earn £150,000 - the amount that triggers 50% income tax - are in the top 0.6%. Interestingly, in 1654, Oliver Cromwell was paid a salary of £70,000 a year. Kind of puts things into perspective really.)

powered by ODEO According to social website alljoinon.com, if housewives got paid at the going rate for doing household chores, they would earn around £30,000 a year. (The average mum works around nine hours a day every day, and if she were paid for the amount of time she spends doing the chores it would look something like this:- For £8 an hour a nanny would earn £36.80 a day. Cleaning and tidying for £7.10 a day. Cooking £17.30 a day. Making the beds is worth about £1.29 for a chambermaid. Washing up for £2.57. Doing the family finances for 39 minutes, would cost £12.50 if an accountant did it. A taxi driver would earn £2.53 for the 23 minutes of ferrying children around. And a mystery shopper £2.10 for the 18 minutes a day of grocery shopping. Ah - but we all know that mums are priceless.)

According to the Spiegel, a German carworker earns just under €50,000 a year on average. (Wendelin Wiedeking, the chief executive of car maker Porsche, in case you were wondering, earned more than €60 million in 2006.)