Err...its above average I would have thought.

Ah, about average depending on the job.

Err Ah, the average wage is a little under £25,000 (figures from the Office of National Statistics). So there is nothing average about a wage of £40,000.

I don't want to get in a debate, but when I said average wage I was thinking of an educated professional that has quite a few years of experience under his/her belt. Not average as in average in the whole of UK which includes people on min. wage.

That said 25000 pounds is not bad of a salary either.

That's what average salary is - the whole of the UK! The OP said a pharmaceutical company and that could just be sales, which is not an educated professional IMO

Until the UK decide to leave the EU

I had assumed when she said 40000 that she/he was some sort of educated professional of sorts. But yes what you said is considered "average"
If they decide to leave the EU

What you find if you decide to visit the UK is that alot of people have never wanted to be in Europe an it's a massive issue in regards to elections. Many people want to leave the EU and many other parties that are promoting this are getting more votes.

I've gotten a small snapshot of this through BE... My impression is its fairly divided. Personally I don't think the UK will leave the EU.

Also "average" is generally quite a bit higher than "median" since it is averaging the upper middle class, the millionaires, and billionaires to get the average and those incomes combined more than offsets workers on minimum wage. So it's likely that over 2/3rds of the workers make less than "average" income.

Actually the current median UK wage is a little higher than the UK average wage, but there is not much in it. Median wage is £26,884 (according to the Guardian).

I suspect that is median household income since it is impossible to have median income greater than average income since even if everyone below 50% made median income, that would mean that everyone above 50% would also have to make median income to cause median income to equal average income. Therefore it is mathematically impossible for median income to be larger than average income since that would require someone in the upper 50% to have less income than someone in the lower 50% or someone in the lower 50% to have more income that someone in the upper 50% which can't happen since that would cause someone to move from the lower 50% to the upper 50% and someone in the upper 50% would move to the lower 50%.

The only thing I can find to back that up is Wikipedia which indicates £21,300 for the 50% and £33,300 for the 75% for 2012-2013 estimates and the mean or average at £29,900.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_in_the_United_Kingdom

Therefore average means very little since a few rich people in a very poor country could have a high average income for the country but the average person may live on £1 a day. Median is better for comparisons but also isn't great since distribution of income may tell more which is the GINI index but is difficult and complex to understand and also doesn't give a complete picture. Therefore tables like the one in the link give a more accurate picture.

Sometimes the Guardian can be confusing like the following article. I don't understand why medium household income rises as people have children and where they actually get those statistics from since governments usually don't collect that type of statistics except possibly during a census year. That may have nothing to do with children but more to do with age when incomes tend to rise. For example, 90% of the single people are probably young and probably most of the couples with two children may be over 30 or 35 and as people retire, their incomes usually drop and children are no longer part of the household. Therefore single young people and single retirees tend to have the lowest incomes and a high percentage of married couples without children as part of a household are retirees.

UK incomes: how does your salary compare? | Money | theguardian.com

Median income is the point at which 50% of the population earns less and 50% of the population earns more. It is perfectly possible for the median income to be more than the average income, or less.

And, with the greatest respect, your reply is gibberish.

Mathematically impossible. OK I'll try to put it in a simpler way. Give me a 10 numbers with 5 greater or equal to the other 5 where the median will be more than the average and you won't be able to do that because it can't mathematically occur since the sum of the top 5 numbers will always be at least as great or greater than the sum of the bottom 5 numbers.

As can be demonstrated very easily:

Take 10 Lilliputians earning, $1, $2, $3, $4, $5, $6, $7, $8, $9 and $10.

Their average wage is $5.5. Their median wage is also $5.5.

But the best paid Lilliputian gets a wage rise to $20. The median wage is still $5.5, but the average wage is now $6.5. So the average pay is higher than the median pay.

Then outrage at the excessive pay of the richest Lilliputian causes a revolution. Pay scales are reformed and the pay of the ten is now: $2, $3, $4, $5, $5, $6, $7, $7, $7, $7. The average pay is now $5.3. The median pay is still $5.5. So now the average pay is lower than the median pay.