I have been doing a bit of digging around looking at issues of pay differentials in and around Leeds.
A top professional footballer in the UK can expect to earn in the region of £140 000 every week. It might take an average Leeds United player about 6 months to earn this much.
The post of Leeds City Development Director is advertised at £140 000 per year (you would think we would attract a decent candidate willing to work for that)
A Teacher on an average salary in Leeds would take 4.5 years to earn £140k.
A Registered Nurse would take nearly 6 years, as would a Police Constable.
A Healthcare Assistant almost 9 years.
A Teaching Assistant just over 10 years.
A Qualified Playworker (L2) would need more than 15 years.
The poor kids dad would take almost 30 years to get this income on current benefits.
A young person on the Job Seekers Allowance would be an old person – at least 72 – before they accrued JSA payments worth £140k, if it were possible.
Health Warning
All of these calculations should be treated with care.
They are based on current wages as researched on the web. In most cases, but not footballers, these are average wages. I have done my best to check the maths but no guarantees! I have done nothing sophisticated, just calculated how long at the current salary it would take to accrue 140k. Having said that I think the numbers are illustrative and enlightening, even if they are not entirely accurate. Any economists who fancy doing more accurate calculations and sharing them then please do let me know.)