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

I get told this a lot: "Wow, your work must be so satisfying." It's kind of the same as when people refer to my tiny house as cute. Satisfying pays no bills and cute is a neat euphemism for crowded. For years, I too subscribed to this backward notion that if you were lucky enough to be able to serve the greater good through your employment, you were, ...well, lucky, even if you were also chronically under-valued, under-resourced and under-paid. I think it was a kind of psychological hack to protect myself from the glaring cynical injustice of it.

Wow, I would! Amazing 👏🏼

My perspective is that it's a range - those on benefits, low earners, middle earners and high earners....just like real life 😁

Consider me schooled.
it wasn’t meant to be patronising, the poster mentioned that the sector was highly competitive; ergo, to get into it would be rewarding/satisfying. I apologise if it sounded condescending.

I don't think most people are lying about their salaries because I refuse to believe people are that daft!

I do understand how high salaries can seem totally unachievable and unrealistic. I actually feel this way about my own previous salary!
I knew I was overpaid for the role at the time (working remotely for a London company) and would unlikely get the same salary again. I left after a couple of years for various reasons but mainly I wanted hybrid and I live in the North.
I now earn considerably less and would have to manage a huge teams of people to get close to my old salary but I'm happy with just the one direct report.

Top surgeons in the UK can earn 500kbplis, I don't think there will too many on those kind of salaries though

My partner and I are high earners on paper but of the £10k that is paid into our bank each month £5,500 goes on mortgage and school fees for the child we have who is autistic (mainstream state was a total non-starter). Then we have (very high) commute costs, council tax, utilities, insurance, car, food, other kids hobbies, put some money in the holidays / Christmas / birthdays pot and there’s no way I can afford Sky, fancy mobiles, etc etc. My mum pays for our Netflix, we cut each others hair, we watch every penny. But it’s worth it as the school means our daughter can cope with life instead of constantly trying to harm herself.

So yes we earn well but the money disappears rapidly every month.

I have an ex from years back who works in the same field, but his focus is bats.
He is not on great money either, but he is living dream life working in that field. He is autistic and has always had a special interest in bats.

Work takes up a large proportion of your life. You are winning if you have a job you love.

I think the issue is we have real income inequality in this country. And it's so localised by area. So if you earn £30k and everyone around you does, the idea of someone else earning 100k or 200k seems unfathomable. And similarly if you live in London in a (non trendy) neighbourhood where the average terrace costs £1m, you can't see how anyone could live on 30k.

We've had low productivity and stagnant wage growth for 20 years, which combined with the cost of living crisis means even people who thought they were earning well are struggling more. I think if you earn high amounts it's easier to avoid this - a 5% raise on 100k is a lot more than a 5% raise on 30k.

I don't really think it's beneficial to compare to the average, because I consider we're quite a low paid country. But we're all (salary earners) far more in the same boat than the super rich, whether we earn 30k or 400k , I think that's where we should be directing our ire!

Nope. It’s only small and it’s more for fun than to make a living from. I may become pretty self sufficient though.

It varies so much across the UK though. £60k might seem like a lottery win in some areas whereas in central London you’ll feel skint as fuck and probably have to live in a house share with 5 other people.
I think to feel well off in London & environs you need to be making over £200k. Sadly I am not 😂

Thank you. I didn't mean to come across as quite as brusque and embittered as I probably did either. I've had jobs which served no-one but my capitalist pay-masters, and which were inconceivably dull -I know which I prefer, obviously. But MN has been a real eye-opener for me in terms of how our society assigns value, and how this is reflected in earnings.

Easy to call it “fun” when you don’t need the land to make a living.

Boo fucking hoo.

"We earn plenty and we spend it all" is the biggest pity-party confession of all time.

"There's no way I can afford Sky." Yes there is. It's fifty quid a month. You prioritise other things over Sky, that's all.

Yep, have seen the same on here multiple times. You get a high earner trying to tell someone on UC that they get too much if they can afford Netflix... but the truth is that the high earner is utterly shit at budgeting if they can't afford Netflix. Too easy to punch down.

Yes.

I'm state school (comp) educated, from a very ordinary small town 2 hours from london.Parents were teacher & mid level manager in a utility company, comfortable but not loaded!

I did a professional qual after uni. Worked my work up through roles in large companies and reached a director level. Earned just shy of 200k last year.

DH is similar. Friends who earn this sort of money include lawyers, finance & accounting, engineers , doctors, vets, senior HR, marketing, sales & commercial roles, IT, experienced trades & construction, architects, senior recruiters, pilots, civil servants, designers & other creatives.

Yes I think so. Anecdotally I've seen enough comments on kids like 1 or 2 DC max otherwise how will you pay their entire way through university, gap year and still give them a house deposit? Um...

😂 you just described me! I earn £80k before bonus and can post freely on a Wednesday because I do condensed hours and Wednesday is my day off to spend with my little one which lead me to being on mums net as regardless of income, a parent is a parent and will google stuff, mums net popped up. Shame I don’t do mergers though 😉

Pardon - you're on £80,000 in the Midlands and you wouldn't class yourself as a high earner?
WTF.

I am a high earner with sensible attitude, so I am on MN to patronise the poor who really belong on Facebook. That’s what the sign-up offer said?

What the hell do they do for a living???

It's a different world isn't it. I have made friends through work, neighbours hobbies, church and through having DD, and none of them work in finance/law/other really high paying careers. We don't live anywhere near London BTW.

We are both retired and DH worked in engineering and my background is in sales, marketing and website content. Friends and family have been in teaching, various roles in healthcare, police, civil service, architect, IT, social work, prison service, the navy etc, so I can say with a reasonable amount of confidence that none of our friends were earning the best part of half a million a year.

Without the people in the low earning jobs, the country would grind to a halt.

Exactly @XenoBitch . They only got appreciated during lockdown.

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

I agree. They always say they work hard and the implication is that people on NMW don't. It simply isn't true.

Another thing - I don't understand the bonuses that these highly paid individuals get - I'm looking at CEOs of water companies more specifically. I only ever received bonuses for achieving and exceeding targets. What have these CEOs done to justify their bonuses?