Search icon

Entertainment

31st Mar 2018

Time to switch jobs? Ed Sheeran earns UK average salary in just eight hours

Will Lavin

There’s rich and then there’s Ed Sheeran rich.

Did you know it would take just one day for Beyoncé to earn enough money to buy the average UK home? Not only that, Ed Sheeran earns the UK’s average salary in just eight hours.

Thanks to a new interactive tool from Solution Loans people are able to compare their earnings to several music stars and see how long it would take them to earn what those a the top of the music food chain do.

The tool is designed to give people a relatable way to think about what high profile music stars earn. It shows not just how long it takes these superstars to earn that money but also shows how many times an average Brit would need to win the lottery to match their earnings and considers what everyday items like a pint of milk and cup of coffee represent to these super-rich individuals.

Even the UK’s highest paid group of professionals (brokers etc.) earning an average of £133,677 per year in the UK aren’t even close to what some of these musicians earn. At that high rate it would take a broker 387 years to earn what Adele, another musician on the Solution Loans list, earns in a year.

“We hear about the huge earnings of sports stars but it’s often hard to put that into perspective,” explains Amanda Gilliam of Solution Loans. “We made this tool, so users can compare themselves and their earnings to the super-wealthy.

“Hopefully people won’t find it too upsetting that they’d have to work thousands of years on their current salary to make what these people earn in twelve months. After all, there are only a tiny number of these ultra-wealthy individuals.”

Solution Loans looked at the reported year on year wealth from the music stars and used this to estimate their annual earnings. They also looked at average lottery winnings, house prices and costs for consumer goods to build the tool.

To find out how your annual wage compares to the likes of Adele, Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber and Madonna, check out the tool here.