What is the "national average" wage in the UK?

UK: What's the % of tax taken from our pay packets & the national minimum wage?

• For example, my friend has been out of work for a year, she doesn't know the national minimum wage, she's now 22, at her last job she was getting £4.10 an hour working behind a bar, she had to wait until she was 22 to get the minimum wage which was £5.50 at the time. She's now heard you have to be 25 to get minium wage at some companies. She lives on her own. We worked out from her new job that if it's 25% tax at £5.75 an hour for a 36 and a half hour week, then she's loosing out on one week's pay (£209.875) because of tax. Is this right? I don't know any of this because I'm still a student.

• Answer:

  The minimum wage for someone aged 22 is £5.80 and hour This rises in October this year to £5.93 an hour She will have a personal allowance of £6475 before any tax is taken off and the tax rate is 20%. So take her gross annual wage, subtract £6475 and the remainder is what she's taxed on. Tell her to visit the HMRC website where there is an online calculator for working our net wages,taking off Tax and N.I.