to be fed up of hearing 'I've worked hard for my money'

Everyone can feel like they work hard. Give it a rest.

I didn't grow up "rich". I had less than what today's UK poor have. DH and I lost both lost a parent young.

I'm not.

Bloody well done.

I just don't see why they're upset at paying a very slightly higher tax rate when poor people have had their incomes eroded to the point food banks are now common place and some people have died.

I am working hard and I am Grateful

As a family we only make £150-155k . We don't go around seeing those on higher salaries and think "damn I wish the government took more of their salary". Kudos to your sibling for what she's achieved. And kudos to you for raising your lovely DC.

Because people who are high earners are constantly been made to feel they have to justify what they have worked for

people are very quick to slag them off if they earn over 100k but never mention they pay about 37k into the public purse and dare I mention they have to pay for their own child care

I don’t. I do know the intricacies of my own job, and I can tell you that it didn’t save anyone’s life during the recent pandemic.

I can tell you I’ve never had to wear a bin bag as PPE on an ICU ward, like my SIL.

Compared to that, my job really is just “tell people what to do.”

Nursing salaries are a joke. Teacher salaries are too. We trust these people with our children and our lives and pay them £5k above the FTE for NMW. Disgustingly low.

A decade spent abroad missing out on family -very much a choice you made.

You’re a “product of the welfare state” yet seem to resent a portion of your husband’s tax payments going towards welfare.

So that explains the surgeons higher pay? Yes?
Which they do get. I understand that.

But they should ALSO be exempt from societal rules because they are more important and more at risk? So their renumeration should be higher or they should have higher societal standing?

Not being a dick, sorry, Im neurodivergent and don't always get it first time round!

I never really see it as a competition. When someone says it, it doesn’t mean they are saying they worked harder than others, it’s a simple statement of fact, they worked hard for it. It isn’t a competitive statement,

I don’t get the fact someone says I worked hard for it, and what someone like the op hears is I worked harder than you. That’s not what is said or intended,

But @forestdance you were able to study through circumstances, ability to find, opportunities. Carers also take qualifications and look after people unable to look after themselves, often antisocial hours and sometimes subject to physical abuse even. They don’t deserve such a pay differential just because they aren’t good at book learning. We have a team of carers looking after dsd 24/7 and I feel guilty about how little the council pays them.

I don't think it ever leaves you. I'm sure if I could be arsed with therapy all paths would lead back to that 😂

What are you actually trying to say? That it's ok for the cleàner to lose theirs but not the surgeon? The cleaner must be better? I'm not sure what you mean
Missing the point completely. The cleaner 'oy' loses their job. They can easily find another one. Their lifestyle is unlikely to be affected. They even get as much income from the UC they can claim to make up for the loss.

The surgeon loses their job....their credibility, the respect and work for years to gain. They are unlikely to find another simular job without having to move miles away if at all. It is unlikely to happen for a long time. They will likely be sued by the family and spend years fighting to not end up in jail for manslaughter. They will have to put their house for sale to pay for legal costs. Their family life will fall apart...

The two are nowhere near comparable. THAT is one of the reasons why the surgeon earns much more (in addition to skills and experience).

And you don't know the intricacies of another.

Everyone is important or the job does not exist.

Or are you calling for the scheme for full employment?

And what about social inequalities?

As a 7 year old I used to sit on the stairs at nighttime and listen to my parents argue about how they would pay the electricity bill or buy my sister a birthday present. I thank my lucky stars everyday that I don't have to worry about this, that my children will never have to worry about this and that we will hopefully be in a position to allow my children choices and opportunities that I never had...
To me that makes it worth it...
Honestly though, it is taking it's toll on my husband and we do often consider our options!

Very true op. Salary rarely reflects how hard you work.

They both lose their job.

What are you actually trying to say? That it's ok for the cleàner to lose theirs but not the surgeon? The cleaner must be better? I'm not sure what you mean.

Completely agree. The hardest jobs i've had were the ones that paid the least, and as I've climbed the ladder and my salary has increased the work has become easier and more pleasant.
I'm sure some people work hard to earn their big salaries, but there will inevitably be people junior to them doing a lot of grunt work for a fraction of their pay.
They will no doubt argue they worked hard earlier to get there. Which is all well and good, but there's only so much room up top, so a lot of equally hard workers won't get there, because they were less fortunate in one way or another.

That is not the fault of the person who has no say in policy or management
Because low skilled workers never do anything wrong....there is thread about a cleaner who didn't show for her job because she couldn't park in the driveway, so she left. The consequences, a house not cleaned.

What if the surgeon who is due to do your life saving surgery decides to turn back because he couldn't find a space in the staff car park?

Who do tou think is going to experience the worse outcome? The cleaner at worse will just get another job within a few days. The surgeon...no job, most likely struck off for some time, loss of credibility and respect in their field and the list goes on!

You don't know the whole intricacies of his job.

The skill, managing other senior colleagues, managing the project, client relationships. Very stressful, long hours. A starting pay of £30k for a nurse is fine.

We've literally just had 15 years of the burden mainly placed on the poor.

Tell me how society has improved.

It was literally called austerity.

It was a Tory policy. How has that worked for society. What is better?

No they are not on the ward as much

but they are certainly on the ward at times,
will be in assessments, will be present at recalls and will often be the one that patients feel the most anger towards which can put them at risk

they also make the final decisions and some of those decisions can weigh very heavy

I would LOVE to do this, and train and have your jobs, but having severe AuDHD means I never could. I have to take jobs at my level that doesn't require too much remembering things because I have the memory capacity of a sieve. I cant retain information for very long. Even memories with friends I forget. Today I discovered that I can't recall the name of a guy I dated about 20 years ago...but that might say more about him.

The point is I still work hard. I used to work for a charity on minimum wage, I worked weekends, evenings and on my maternity leave. But I couldn't ever progress to being a boss with the next pay package because I absolutely cannot fucking do that. Limitations are not because people are too lazy or don't want it, they do, but people are not built the same. We cannot all do the same thing.

And at the end of the day, that's a good thing for society because you still need cleaners and shop assistants and carers and whoever else to support you whilst you do your job. Doesn't mean they aren't working hard, some will even be doing 80 hour weeks.Doesn't mean they don't dream of doing your job. But maybe the opportunity to do such a job isn't afforded to them for a whole variety of reasons. Including poverty in childhood.