I guess I was assuming almost $20k a year back then would have been livable back then, like it was for much of the US excluding a handful of cities like NYC or SF at the time.
I think minimum wage was around £9k/yr back then so I assumed 25% above minimum wage was acceptable (not great, but acceptable)
Clearly not though.
It’s substantially higher than the rest of the UK, and minimum wage in London has generally been higher than the rest of the UK (either in law, or as a de-facto standard, with companies paying a “London bonus”)
More like Chicago in my limited experience, but the pre-tax salaries are way lower in London than for similar roles in the US.
I never understood how people can afford to live in London by the late 2010s/early 2020s.
> It’s substantially higher than the rest of the UK, and minimum wage in London has generally been higher than the rest of the UK (either in law, or as a de-facto standard, with companies paying a “London bonus”)
Ofc, I'm just assuming London used to be relatively cheaper 20+ years ago and the cost of living ratio was not as bad then compared to today.
Like Tower Hamlets seemed to have only started gentrifying in the early 2000s.
You're excluding the reasonable comparables. London is the UK's equivalent of NYC or SF.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Minimum_Wage_Act_1998...
20k USD was not livable for either of those cities.