I've been looking through career profiles and according to our Province anyway, I find that the avg is usually only like 50grand or something, so I wanna know what you guys think. What is considered an "above average" but not "rich" sort of salary?
Is that Canadian? I'm not sure about Candian currency exchange rate/cost of living/taxes etc., but for me I think a decently-above-average salary in USD would be around $70-80k. I'm hoping that when I get a job etc. My starting sslary will be around $50k and then eventually I'll be earning at least $100k a year, hopefully $150k. But of course that's all far away. Right now my dad's salary is about that.
In Ontario (at least where I am) average is around... 80k? Thats what my Dads is. and then My Stepdads is like 200k, so really it depends on your Job.
Middle-class is like 50k-200k USD. As you can see, its a big category. Comfortable living would probably be in the 80-100k/yr range though. So for a single person, I'd say 90/100k is "above average"
America is a unique country in that it has an abnormally large middle class. The distribution of wealth in most place around the world are concentrated almost entirely within the few people in the upper class, with a small or almost nonexistant middle class, and everyone else concentrated at the bottom. In the US, you have your Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, of course, but as you go down the wealth chart, the the number of individuals within each section of the wealth chart increases. I don't remember the exact numbers, but in the US there are 2 people with 30 billion or more (Gates and Buffet), then there are like 500 people with between 1 billion and 30 billion, then like 100,000 people between 100 million and 1 billion, and then like 5 million people with more than 1 million dollars, then 10 million with more than 500,000, a whooole lot more with more than 100,000 but less than 500,000, then it starts decreasing. Does't answer your question, but just food for thought lol. The average yearly salary is probably around $35,000, at least in the US.
Just had a quick look on Google and found that, apparently, the average salary in the US is between $30,000 and $40,000 and in the UK, in 2008, the average salary was £26,020. Couldn't find much info on Canada, but apparently it's significantly lower than the UK equivalent as living costs are lower. I earn £24,500 at the moment (in the UK) and this is considered a good salary by most standards, but I would expect to be earning at least £30,000 by the time I'm 25. What you consider a good salary personally depends on so much... Your age, education level, the area you work in... It's impossible to quantify so generally really.
The problem is that the salary is often base on the living cost of your region. Quebec's average is ~47K per year. It's enough for a "normal" living. A couple doing this for both are quite comfy. But in vancouver, at 47K, you won't even be able to rent a place to live.
I don't think there's really an "average salary" I mean... of course there is. you just average up everybody. but you can't compare yourself to it. you need to take into account your field, education, and experience.