AIBU to think many Mumsnet posters seem to be high earners?

there is also a bit of a weird attitude to school and uni as if it’s all that dictates your future.

ive seen weirdly often “my husband is 52, a first from Oxford and 30 years experience and can’t get a job” what sort of 52 year old thinks an employer cares about their degree?!?

or I have 3 degrees and a PhD and only earn £32k - er, yeah well clearly you aren’t in a high paying role or discipline. Why would you earn any more than that?!

Top surgeon isn’t where the money is. My friend in finance I’m sure earns triple a senior doctor at least - and she’s not at a top/high pressure company but has been there over 15 yess

I wouldn't class £60k as a high income, as a single mother living in the south east! My mortgage payments are huge and I get no maintenance from my child's father. My friends in couples are much better off but as a single person, I'm not rich. I do find it amazing the number of posters who can afford £10k on a summer holiday 🤯

The more you earn the more flexibility, generally, because you're paid for holding risk more than just your time. Plenty of people will use that flexibility to fanny about on Mumsnet.

Even if you read this thread, you'd think 100k jobs were ten a penny and achievable, or even available for everyone! (And thats its basically the average salary for London)

If you read any threads about people earning 6 figure (and then some) salaries its all because they worked hard, took risks, had drive, took opportunities.....but i think in many cases (not all!) there is an element of natural aptitude for something, potentially a private education, networking or chance/good fortune as well as being hard working and driven, but that is often left out.

I see this a lot on here too. If you are a low earner, it is because you must have fucked about in school.
Without the people in the low earning jobs, the country would grind to a halt.

What I have noticed since joining fairly recently, after seen a few threads regarding incomes of posters, is the odious belief that they put in extra effort at school or whatever, unlike the lower earners, who it is inferred, did not apply themselves.
Tell that to my friend, who earns a little over minimum wage, caring for young adults with disabilities. Blood, sweat and tears is certainly ‘effort’. Just one example. I despise arrogance.

That isn’t true. If a huge company decides to open a head office in London and brings in some American execs who all earn big salaries then they pay tax and pay for cleaners, taxis, restaurants and create jobs for people below them. That’s why countries what foreign investment. You have clearly never lived in a country like South Africa where of a foreign company leaves thousands of people are very badly affected.

The idea that having a hierarchy where senior management earn more than those below them is bad for those below them is ridiculous. I know people who have worked as PAs for bankers in London earning upwards of £60k and they only had to go into the office twice a week and were only working for about 5 hours some days. When the MD they covered was on work trips abroad there was literally nothing to do.

I think much of the disconnect comes from some people believing that high earners are a different species. In reality there really isn’t that much difference between someone earning 50k and someone earning 250k. I’ve earned below the lower limit and above the upper limit of that range but was still the same person throughout. I’d argue my lifestyle didn’t even change that much either.

Im not sure this can be entirely true, for example on 50k (unless you had a high earning partner) would be nigh on impossible to send kids to private school. A 5k holiday would be 10% of your gross income, Paying 1k for a mortgage would be more than a third of your take home pay etc

Someone on 250k would likely either live in a more expensive house/area or have a lot more disposable income for extras such as holidays, hobbies, eating out etc
And i think (in some cases) its comments like that, which people can be bemused by. Even taking into account the higher tax brackets and losing personal allowance someone on 250k is likely to take home 3-4x as much as someone on 50k....and thus have more choices for just about anything.

I see a mix on here... from people on £150k and people on benefits. However, I do notice the high earner threads more because they are more humble bragging. One that stuck out to me was OP on £100k+ and saying they were having to cancel Netflix.

I'm a low earner in a caring profession and part time. I'm above min wage but when you take into account the lower hours I'm equivalent annually of less than min wage. Dh is a high earner, 250k approx. I hate saying 'my husband is a high earner' cos it makes me sound a bit silly but we are collectively a high income couple. I suspect if someone stalked me here they would accuse me of being a liar because on some threads I'm talking about the frustrations of my low status work and on others about city breaks or bathroom renovations. Throw in my ND kids and it's MN bingo. But I assure you I am very real.

I think you have to split MN users into two categories - those who are here to read and scroll and those who are actively willing to post and tell you how much they earn. When a person is so willing to post their income and lifestyle on a message board, you’ve kinda got to ask why.

This. My husband is in finance and has a structure similar to this. I earn probably just about average in my line of work/area!

A lot of posters say they are going to or have given their kids deposits for a house and paying their kids uni rent or fees. Anyone who can afford to do that must be a high earner as they must have a lot of savings to be able to do that.

Nah, they are just the ones who have more free time to waste online 😉

Mumsnet largely represents the average middle in every way.

You’re joking about the farm … surely?

If people were just making it up, why wouldn't they just make up their qualifications or their jobs?

Marry me

Why not start a thread asking about income and charity instead of this hostility?

Probably because higher earners have more time to fanny about online. Also depends loads on where you are in the country. Average salaries vary by region so you might know lots of comfortable families on average income and I know lots of people on double or triple that in london who feel skint cos their london mortgage is 3k and their nursery fees are 2k a month.