Even with the fat cat salaries, it doesn't skew it that much.
I think you'll find that a lot of people who live in Hyndburn work outside it. I see a lot of people driving into Manchester every day and some idiots even drive as far as Knutsford
I'm sure Baxenden must be a ghost town during the day!
Hyndburn was always a manufacturing town which is historically low paid, with that now gone abroad it seems to be service industry related that is holding it up. Again one of the lowest salaried industries.
My advice to people is to be prepared to travel and to be ambitious. There are so many people I meet who will happily(???) plod on through life doing the same job etc. If you want better pay you have to go after it. This may mean working a distance away, it may even mean looking long and hard at what skills you have and deciding to make a significant change.
Up to now I've sold TVs and HiFis, worked the pub restaurant industry, done Call Centre work before arriving where I am currently in IT. If IT fell through I'm sure I'd find something else, plumbing/sparky would probably be my next port of call but TBH I would be happy to do anything in teh short term till I set out my new plan for world domination.(Actualy I fancy being the bloke who hires out sunbeds on a nice beach somewhere
)
Not everyone can/wants to make these sort of changes I know but if IT is your choice to stay in that job then you can't then complain that wages in Accy are rubbish.