How much do you earn? (From Daily Echo)

How much do you earn?

9:00am Sunday 3rd February 2008 in

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IT'S the question we all want answered but are too polite to ask; how much do you earn? The answer is often surprising and the comparisons are truly fascinating.

For example, did you know that a RAF pilot and a pole dancer have more in common than just flying through the air? Well they both take home roughly £30,000 to £40,000, according to a recent survey of wages.

The pay packets of train drivers (£37,231) far outstrip paramedics (£21,720), nurses (£23,044), secondary school teachers (£31,340) and even dentists (£31,747).

Criticism of company directors for their "fat cat" salaries seems justified according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.

Directors and chief executives of major organisations saw their salaries increase by more than 30 per cent to £212,910 to make theirs the best paid job in Britain - perhaps after Premier League football stars who will earn on average a whopping £1.1m this year.

The sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe last year labelled Chelsea captain John Terry's salary - believed to be £6.8m a year - "obscene".

More surprisingly fillers and drillers enjoyed a 24.7 per cent increase on their earnings last year taking them to £31,747, thanks to the property boom.

Skilled workers in Southampton - which has seen thousands of new flats go up in recent years - are in high demand according to local recruitment agencies and training colleges.

Andy Gannon, careers manager at Southampton City College, said many workers unsatisfied with their office jobs were switching industries for a more lucrative career.

"We are finding adults who have done four or five years in an office job coming to us saying they want to learn a trade or a skill. They often talk about having made the wrong decisions and they've realised that they might be happier doing other things," he said.

"They probably wouldn't have as much money as if they were in full-time work, but there is financial support to help them through those studies and in the long run they could be earning a lot more money by working in high demand industries."

The manager of leading Southampton recruitment agency, who did not want to be named, revealed there had been a downturn in the IT industry with many jobs being taken by migrants willing to work for less money.

"The country has been flooded with highly skilled people over the last few years and that has pretty much knocked out the IT industry, so things are really shifting. People coming into the country will work for less and you'll find jobs with a base salary of £25,000 a few years ago has now dropped to £18,000 for the same kind of skills," he said.

While it might only bring cold comfort, another survey found money doesn't always bring happiness, with 90 per cent of wealthy families who earn £88,000 a year feeling that they don't make enough.

Instead they say they would need to earn about £150,000 a year, own more than one property and send their children to a private school before they felt rich.

WHO EARNS WHAT

1. £0 to £10,000:Cleaners, hairdressers, some agricultural labourers, people on benefits, fast food restaurant staff, school cooks, fine artists, holiday representatives, swimming pool attendants, broadcasting/film runners.

2. £10,001 to £20,000:Manual workers, sewer cleaners, call centre staff, mortuary assistants, farmers, electronic assembly line workers, nursery and care workers, imams, Army privates, bus drivers, checkout staff, landscape designers, fishermen, charity fundraisers, junior civil servants, local government administrators, soil scientists, florists, counsellors, air cabin crew, miners.

3. £20,001 to £30,000:Junior MI5 officers, rabbis, vicars, social workers, NHS nurses, naval cooks, electricians, carpenters, binmen, international aid workers, health service managers, media buyers, plant breeders, textile designers, museum administrators, lorry drivers, map makers, journalists.

4. £30,001 to £40,000: Newly qualified RAF pilots, London Tube drivers, some television presenters, London police officers, pole dancers, sandwich shop managers, bishops, London cab drivers, vets, paramedics, architects, diplomats, timber merchants, trading standards officers, zookeepers, probation officers, opticians, literary agents, immigration officers.

5. £40,001 to £50,000:Air traffic controllers, solicitors, RAF Flight Lieutenants, theatre managers, office managers, foresters, engineers, TV producers.

6. £50,001 to £75,000:Marketing and senior managers, senior police officers, commercial airline pilots, Royal Navy captains, education administrators, top PAs, fashion designers, town planners, MPs, senior social workers, tax inspectors, medical sales representatives.

7. £75,001 to £100,000: Senior managers, senior civil servants, Army brigadiers, secondary school heads, celebrity stylists, some plumbers, advertising executives, senior PRs, distribution managers, accountants.

8. £100,001 to £500,000:GPs, High Court judges, Prime Minister, business whizzkids, Cabinet ministers, Chief of Defence Staff, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, chief executives, senior company secretaries, NHS chief executives, private psychotherapists, financial advisers, quarry managers.

9. £500,001 to £1,000,000:Director General of the BBC, heads of larger companies, including the managing director of Arsenal and the chief executive of Sainsbury's.

10. Over £1,000,000: Chief executives of the UK's biggest firms, celebrities, footballers, bestselling authors, football managers, senior solicitors, investment bankers.