Do you begrudge high earners?

Precisely. And as CEOs are directly responsible to the shareholders, the shareholders will be inclined to reward their good work.

Lets face it, any savings on CEO salaries would go right into shareholders pockets. It isn't going to trickle down to the cleaners, and it certainly won't be reallocated to nurses.

So if the CEO’s salary was dropped to your current salary, what would yours drop to?

I begrudge those who earn lots in jobs that should not equate with the money ie footballers, useless reality “stars”, etc
And I begrudge those who are crap at their job and get promoted through the old boys network or nepotism
I also begrudge those who earn tons of money but never give anything to those in real need.
Finally I begrudge that jobs in business making money pay far better salaries than doctors and nurses saving lives are paid.
Other than that crack on.

Bullshit ! If you think about high earners are CEOs they all have the same degrees lots of us have . Do you really think I don’t know what my boss does ? I get paid a high wage ( 55k to 100 k ) he gets paid 500k . This idea that people in high Ola es have some sort of skill nobody else has is utter ridiculous!

If you didn’t have people at the top earning high salaries, there wouldn’t be jobs for the people at the bottom.

People are typically compensated based on how much they know rather than how hard they work. They are compensated based on how much responsibility falls on their shoulders and how much a company relies on them. If I walked out tomorrow, my boss would be mildly inconvenienced until I am replaced. If DH walked out tomorrow, it would cost his company millions.

If people weren’t paid hundreds of thousands a year, imagine how much more tax the rest of us would need to pay. Think of all the things one high earner’s tens of thousands of tax pays for every year. Our economy couldn’t survive without them.

Nonsense. Everybody deserves a decent salary. But there is no need for a cap.

Nobody deserves a salary of 300k . Absolutely nobody works hard enough to make that amount of money . So I suppose that yes I begrudge them . I also begrudge the idea hard work means good pay .

Not really they tend to be paid about 50p more a hour, which is about 20 quid and about 15 after tax.

They are still paid more.

Depends what the job is. I dont begrudge all high earners. And you cant take away from people who work hard and put their time and energy into what they do. BUT - as a senior grade NHS employee, in a role that requires an advanced degree and a huge commitment including many extra hours a week, it makes me furious there are professions that pay new graduates what I have worked up to over years and years in the NHS. And which I still need to supplement with freelance work, meaning I am working the equivalent of 6 days a week.

Supervisor positions are usually paid a tiny bit more and carry a whole load of responsibility. You only do it if you think you have a reasonable chance of progressing up.

perhaps not in your circle but statistically yes it’s true.
https://www.legalcheek.com/2020/09/over-half-of-city-law-firm-partners-went-to-private-school/

https://www.suttontrust.com/news-opinion/all-news-opinion/nearly-two-thirds-of-new-cabinet-attended-independent-schools-and-almost-half-attended-oxbridge/
https://peoplemanagingpeople.com/news/average-ceo-uk/#:~:text=34%25%20of%20the%20CEOs%20in,school%20vs%20the%20UK%20population

Do you think they are being hard done by? Or is it that even a Tory government thinks that’s a fair slice?

Same here.

I like my job, but I work to live rather than the other way around.

I don’t think @BusyCM is saying they don’t, just pointing out that others who don’t earn as much equally work as hard.

Nope, state school educated as is most of the other high earners I work with.

Nope.
I only begrudge them when they act like they’re the only ones who work hard. Plenty of much lower earning jobs like care worker or nurse or teacher work very hard - harder than me. I can recognise this, so super high earners should too!

Not most at all. I went to my local state high school. From my friendship group of seven, four are high earners. One had a little help but the rest all got their 100% on merit.

What upsets me is that most are from privileged backgrounds & were privately educated. Not all, I know and not their fault at all, I’d send my children without a second thought if I could, it’s just a cycle of wealth and shows our world is not fair.

No more comfortable life for me. DH gave all that up after having DS. He wanted to be around for him physically and mentally. He takes home about a third of what he used to and we’ve downsized the house and massively downgraded our lifestyle. We now have to watch every penny, but we get quality family time.

I've always been a low earner but DH is a high earner. All money in one pot so reason to begrudge him. He has specialist skills but doesn't work long hours or weekends, he's home for dinner at 5.30 in the week. He likes his job and the office conditions are very nice (free meals, free gym and casual dress). Never has to work away from home, and we live close enough to the office that he can pop back for assemblies and sports day, so he's very involved with family life.

Be interesting to see how Mumsnet would judge the two of you if the sexes were reversed.

These were my poor choices and I can't blame anyone else for them.

but ultimately you are living a very comfortable life despite those choices, because you made a good choice of partner.

@PotatoPudding I was never a high earner and would never have worked with a hangover. But then I worked with vulnerable children. Not easy middle class jobs where people seem to piss about and still get paid.

And I will never forget the very posh and very smartly dressed man brought in on a ridiculous high salary to bring about change management. He sounded brilliant at the first few meetings. And then it became clear he had not a clue what he was talking about and it was all style over substance.