Hello everyone and welcome back to Britain under the Microscope advanced.
Hi everyone.
So in today's episode we're gonna be talking a little bit more about money, especially attitudes to money. So we're gonna be looking at how people think about money and also we'll be discussing a little bit about how much people actually earn in the UK.
Exciting. To talk about the general British attitude towards money, I know it's one of embarrassment.
Yes.
Like right now, you probably don't feel very comfortable talking about money in that way.
Not particularly no, for example, we wouldn't tell each other kind of how much money we spent on something or how much money we earn. It's seen as something quite embarrassing in the UK, and very private as well.
So during the summer I spent like a month or so in London again and I saw a commercial on TV. It's like a financial service provider and then the whole commercial is about how people feel very uncomfortable talking to each other about money, even among family members. Is that true?
That is true.
Do you know how much your, for example, your sister makes?
I have a basic idea but I don't know the exact figures.
Oh, so you truly don't talk about, it's not something people talk about.
Well no, and that's actually sort of quite surprising because money worries are among the biggest cause of anxiety among people.
Just because you don't talk about it doesn't mean you're not thinking about it all the time.
Well no, and if you consider in the UK as well that we start earning money from quite young age. So for example children are able to work part time jobs from the age of thirteen.
I was meant to ask, so does that mean when people have a very private attitude towards money, does that mean that they also have a very sort of independent attitude when it comes to the money I make is mine. I'm not … generally for children when they grow up, they're on their own.
Yes and it's seen as quite a positive thing in the UK about twenty percent of teenagers get a part time job and it's seen as that you need to start making your own money, you need to start being somewhat independent. Obviously. You know you still live with your parents, they still feed you, but if you want pocket money, for example, you have to make the money yourself. Like me when I was thirteen or fourteen.
Wow, thirteen or fourteen. What can you do at the age of thirteen or fourteen?
Um for me, my first part time job was to go around delivering flowers. So someone would drive the van, I would sit next to that person and I will be taking the flowers to the door.
Oh it's like a delivery type of job and that is completely legal in the UK.
Yeah.
I suppose this attitude, it's as you said, it's seen as very positive for kids to or for teenagers to do some part time job. It's not necessarily because family's short of money, but it's more to make them feel like they need to be independent.
Yes. And one of the reasons why as well is even though some families they do have the money, but it's important to remember the cost of living in the UK is quite high.
Yeah, I often get students asking me like, people in the UK they must be living a very good life because they make a lot of money or the salaries are very high. I said, well actually the salary is not as high as people think and also the cost of living is very high.
Well, Britain is a rich country. According to the statistics, according to the economy we are a rich country. Our minimum wage in the UK is seven pounds eighty three.
Seven pound eighty three. So basically any employer cannot go below that, it is illegal.
But you have to also think because people are earning so much money for their work. The cost of labor is actually quite expensive.
So everything is expensive as long as you're paying for labor. So let's talk about the average income for full time workers in, let's say 2000, the latest.
So the average income in 2019 of full time workers is just under thirty five thousand pounds.
Thirty five thousand pounds. That doesn't seem a lot. I suppose for average income, this is pretty high.
This is OK.
But you also have very high taxes once you reach a certain amount.
Thirty five thousand pounds roughly you will get taxed twenty percent.
That's not too bad.
Over fifty thousand pounds you'll get taxed forty percent.
40%, wow. And what about different field? Say different line of work, let's say, a manager.
A manager would get around fifty nine thousand pounds.
Fifty nine thousand, what about like doctors?
Well, doctors on average and bear in mind though, there are lots of different types of doctors, this is the average, is around forty one thousand pounds.
That sounds extremely low actually for doctors, I suppose you're counting more the doctors in NHS.
Yeah, junior doctors as well, as I say, it's an average.
Yeah, but if you go into private, you probably make a lot more.
Well, if you are doctor then you will keep making money as you progress.
What about teachers?
Teachers get around thirty nine thousand pounds.

Well, that's not bad! What about manual laborers?
Manual laborers actually get an okay salary in the UK. You remember I said about cost of living and also the cost of labor, a labor will get around twenty eight thousand pounds.
So it's not really that much of a difference between laborer and people who work in the office.
Well, if you work in an office you'll get lower, you'll get twenty five thousand pounds.
And that's for just general clerical work.
Yeah, kind of secretarial work mostly, by working at reception for example. Uh it's because laborers, there is a shortage of laborers in the UK.
I guess a lot of the times you think of the very very high earning, very high income in the UK, a lot of that idea comes from people who work in finance, people who work in the city of London which we're gonna have alike a complete separate episode to talk about them. Now coming back from income to payment method. Do you find it, when you go back to the UK, do you find it not as convenient as in China where everything is scanning a QR code?
Well, in the UK now, I have to get used to taking out wallet because when I'm in China I just take out my phone and I know that any purchase I wanna make, it's easy to do using my phone, using Wechat or Alipay. Mobile payment is not as common as it in China, but having said that Apple Pay is now used a lot more.
It is getting more popular.
It is getting more popular, but it's not as universal as in China.
I guess it's also because at the aging population, a lot of your older generation is not very accepting of the whole new mobile payments.
And obviously the Apple Pay is only used if you're using an apple phone. At the moment, people use credit cards still quite a lot. Still very very common and we have contactless payment.
Contactless payment means you don't have to swipe the card. You basically use it as almost like a bus card. You just touch it. And then what about pin? You don't have to key in the passcode?
No, we also have chip and pin as well. Contactless payment is only for purchases under thirty pounds.
Oh, so small amount.
Yeah.
That makes sense.
And chip-and-pin is obviously for slightly higher.
One thing I have noticed is that there's still quite a lot of people in the UK using personal cheques which is so foreign to me. I don't think individuals in China use cheques at all.
I've never seen cheques in China. In the UK we generally use them for more official type of things. So for example we wanna make a payment through the post or we even use cheques to send money for birthdays and Christmas.
Oh really? So it's very common for people to have their own cheque book.
Every time you opened accounts they will give you a cheque book.
Okay.
Personally I don't really use mine too much, it's a little bit old, but they are dying out.
It's a bit of a hassle as well. Now talking about spending, so we talked about the general attitudes, now attitude towards spending because nowadays in China one of the most talked about topics, one of the worries people have is with debt, with credit card debt, especially among younger generation. Is it the same in the UK with spending the money that you don't yet have?
Well yeah, credit card debt is increasing. It is quite common in the UK to have credit card debt and apart this is the effect of the Recession. So since 2008 there has been wage stagnation. So for example wages haven't been increasing in line with the cost of living increase. So on average …
People are feeling the pinch.
Yeah because on average, the British household is over fifteen thousand pounds in debt.
On average fifteen thousand pounds. Well if you're talking about house loan mortgage, that's not too much of an issue. But if you're counting people who are just renting, fifteen thousand pounds is quite a bit …
Yeah.
What about savings?
According to some statistics I read, half of all British people between the ages of twenty and twenty nine have no life savings.
Twenty and twenty nine, half of them?
Have no life savings.
So our listeners, if you're between the age of twenty and twenty nine and you have some lifesaving, you are already better than half of your British counterparts. So if they do save, when people do save, how much do they save?
Probably around a hundred fifty pounds a month. That's what the average is.
As little as a hundred and fifty.
Yeah because obviously is the cost of living.
And also I guess there's not that much of a saving culture in the UK.
It's not as strong as it is in China. That's because in the UK obviously healthcare, education is free up to a point. So people don't feel that same sort of urgency or pressure.
I guess so. All right, so even though there's still a lot to cover in terms of money, right now you know the basics. So if you have anything to say, feel free to leave your comment in the comment section. And if you have been to the UK or lived in the UK before, tell us what you think as well.
So until next time.
I'll see you next time.
Bye.
Bye.

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