![\"What](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/102053073-15088985-image-a-26_1757604907081.jpg\")
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What would make you feel richer? A champagne lifestyle or just having more money coming in each month<\/p>\n
And often nibbling away at our self-worth is the feeling peers, friends and neighbours are on more than us. A common theme that runs through behavioural finance studies is our – frequently mistaken – belief others get paid more.<\/p>\n
Our new salary and earnings calculator<\/a> tells you where you really fit in and how your income stacks up for your town, your job and across the whole of the UK.<\/p>\n Plug in your salary, self-employment profits, or if you are retired your pension income, and you can see if you earn more or less than the typical person in your neighbourhood or profession. You can also check how much tax is eating up and find out who is earning the most and the least.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a great tool to play around with \u2013 and we have also analysed the figures alongside it. As a teaser, I can tell you someone at the cusp of the higher rate tax threshold on \u00a350,000 earns more than 76 per cent of people, while those breaking the six-figure mark on \u00a3100,000 are in the top 6 per cent of earners.<\/p>\n You may note that snapshot doesn\u2019t chime with the current mood on whether people are well off.<\/p>\n In fact, there\u2019s something of an epidemic of high earners complaining that while they may be on bumper salaries, they don\u2019t feel rich.<\/p>\n Don’t worry I’m not asking you to suddenly start welling up with emotion for the plight of Britain’s hard done workers scraping by \u00a375,000-plus salaries, but it is worth asking why this is happening.<\/p>\n The key, of course, is it\u2019s not just what comes in that\u2019s vital, it\u2019s also what goes out.<\/p>\n The ONS measures disposable income as \u2018the amount of money that households have available for spending and saving after direct taxes, such as income tax<\/a>, national insurance and council tax, have been accounted for\u2019.<\/p>\n NI has been cut in recent years, but frozen thresholds and tax traps mean there is an income tax squeeze going on and council tax is eating increasing amounts of people\u2019s budgets.<\/p>\n Household disposable income is below its 2020 levels and broadly level with 20 years ago, latest ONS statistics show<\/p>\n The latest ONS stats show that median household disposable income adjusted for inflation<\/a>\u00a0was broadly steady over the financial year ending in 2024 but is still below 2020 levels.\u00a0<\/p>\n There’s a reason why people feel poorer than they did five years ago. Effectively, they are.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not just post tax income that is important though, it is also what happens next with our essential spending on everything from rent and mortgages to cars, food and commuting.<\/p>\n Some recent figures on discretionary income from Asda\u2019s income tracker<\/a> highlighted the pickle we are in on that.<\/p>\n It divided households by income quintiles aka fifths. The lowest fifth spend more than they have coming in and end up at minus \u00a373 per week on average.\u00a0<\/p>\n Meanwhile, middle income households have just \u00a391 per week leftover after essential spending. The top two fifths are doing much better at \u00a3289 and \u00a3916, respectively.<\/p>\n However, when you consider this leftover money is what needs to be used for regular non-essential spending, enjoying life, building saving pots, investing and pensions, and setting money aside for holidays and future big spends, even \u00a3289 per week or \u00a31,189 per month won\u2019t go that far.<\/p>\n For a family with two adults and two children, it equates to each partner having just under \u00a3600 per month or \u00a3150 a week to cover their non-essential spending and still try to do some saving.<\/p>\n Combine the cost of doing things nowadays with also having some money to save and invest and \u2018discretionary income\u2019 is swiftly eaten up.<\/p>\n So, it\u2019s hardly surprising even people on substantial salaries say they are having to be very careful about going out for dinner, spending on fun, and even think twice about takeaways.<\/p>\n This judicious spending has had a big knock-on effect for hospitality and leisure businesses and retailers.<\/p>\n Restaurants, pubs and shops are all suffering. People are prioritising other things above spending there. For example, saying we will stick to trying to afford holidays but almost completely cut back on meals out.<\/p>\n Some of that is just good old-fashioned budgeting but when even higher earners are saying we can\u2019t afford the pub or the local restaurant, it proves a massive headache for our consumer economy.<\/p>\n The general vibe that things are getting worse and the tax squeeze is going to get tighter is not helping.<\/p>\n Businesses are lining up to tell the Chancellor this. Over the past few days, we\u2019ve had the John Lewis boss<\/a> and Lord Stuart Rose<\/a> chip in, but the message doesn\u2019t appear to be getting through.<\/p>\n Rachel Reeves should heed what they are saying, as her Tory predecessors should have done too. We need people to feel they have more money and get a financial confidence boost, or we will forever be stuck in this rut.<\/p>\n So, do yourself a favour and use our salary calculator<\/a>, it might tell you that you are better off than you might think.<\/p>\n![\"Household](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/102053233-15088985-Household_disposable_income_is_below_its_2020_levels_and_broadly-a-28_17576052280.jpeg\")
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