Senior managers outside of London barely get 40K!
But rents outside of London also don’t cost 40k. 
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It’s true - Although rent is more expensive than you think in most places.
The “London range” is also getting wider, with places like Milton Keynes and Northampton now coming under the “commute to London” category.
Rent prices go up… But salaries in those Towns/Cities don’t!
Do young people (under 28), really get 40K for jobs in London?
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In software engineering they definitely do. Not sure about other fields.
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Off topic of Living Wage, but on topic of living outside of the main office, Maria Gutierrezes talk on making distributed teams is great:
The Living Wage Foundation promotes a living wage of £10.20 per hour in London. So about £20K?
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I would love a job earning 30/40k. I don’t love in London I am about 40 miles outside in Basingstoke.
40K is A LOT of money. My partner in London earns around 25 which is enough for living (bills, food and a certain amount of fun) as described above.
I understand that 25k is not enough to get on the property ladder or decent pensions or investments but understanding living wage as enough to live and get by 25k is enough for it, especially if flatsharing
Not that I’m advocating lower wages (hell no) but 40k seems to me completely unrealistic as a minimum living wage unless you have an expensive lifestyle like a daily pint after work or daily takeaways or living completely on your one (which I consider a luxury in London)
So, I wouldn’t say that 40k would class as minimum living wage but a decent wage that lets you also save for other stuff besides just living and spending it all
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35-40K if single but living costs go up significantly if you have a family. I would say 55-60K for one child family 
I am basing this on child benefit thing.
I think if someone has 60K income they are required to pay back some of their child benefits, if they were claiming of course.
The Living Wage, as @anon75875116 points out, is a recognised actual figure, so regardless of anyone’s opinion about how much they’d actually like to earn, the figure is £10.20 per hour, for London.
Quick calculation of hourly rate x hours worked x weeks in the year (£10.20 x 40 x 52) gives a ‘salary’ of just over £21,000 per annum.
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And to add to @j06’s point, it is based on a standardised spending allowance so it can be calculated, adjusted and tweaked (for example if you don’t drink alcohol, you save money…)
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I have a friend who is on 25k and is always in credit card debt because once all the bills & rent are paid she has only like 100£ left for herself to live for the end of the month. So sure, you could survive on that but I definitely wouldn’t consider that living.
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Agreed. This, I think, is why I said I probably posted on the wrong thread.
Options are great, and my comment was largely borne out of what’s (relative) privilege, but sometimes cash flow has the crown - if you’re young and struggling to live off your salary, a future windfall (no matter how great) isn’t going to help, necessarily.
They should rename it to a survivable wage instead of living, or maybe the wage that’s survivable but will push you in to debt.
Living wage it certainly isn’t.
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When someone says living wage, to me it means: 1) Being able to pay all your bills, 2) Being able to pay rent and save something for a mortgage or pay your mortgage, 3) Able to afford travel costs, 4) Have some small amount to be able to spend on other things. £21k in London I couldn’t see that happening but maybe my definition isn’t entirely the same as the official definition. £30k though seems more than reasonable
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I don’t live in London, but 21K does not sound like something you could live on (survive, perhaps).
That being said, when people talk about “living wage”, it’s massively open to interpretation on what you class as “living”.
For example, we all know about @anon23935806’s Deliveroo addiction! And I’m sure he’s not alone when it comes to money being spent on eating out. It’s the same for the little things as well that you might not realise - £7 quid per day on coffee for example, drinks on a night out? So many different examples that might not be of relevance to someone else.
So what Londerners say they “need” for a living wage, might not apply to people not used to that lifestyle (I’m generalising here, there will of course be people who fall into the opposite categories).
That being said, the ability to afford rent, bills and food is literally the necessity, and I’m not sure 21K does that if you live in London!
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Fair enough. It also depends where in London you actually need to live. My only concern with such a low wage is the inability to save for emergencies. While 25k should be enough for a living, should anything happen, not many people will have saved that extra £500-£1000 or more to deal with such emergency.
I’d stick the minimum living wage around 30k