If you're on the 'mumsnet six figures' salary what do you do and what geographical region is the role in?

[flashbac]

I'd love to earn six figures and keen to look into how I could make this happen if possible.

[quote ihearttc]@SmallThingsEverywhere

Yes as I have already said, I clearly didn’t read the thread title properly. I assumed (wrongly) that it was any 6 figure salary because in the area where we live that’s quite rare. Clearly not the case on Mumsnet.

I’ve already been told once, don’t need to be told again and again. Feel shit enough as it is that I cannot possibly ever earn enough to partake in threads like this, so telling me it’s pretty pointless is also rather shit.[/quote]
I thought that. You can, or earn more, if you want to and are willing to study and retrain. Nothing is impossible. It's harder for women, for sure, which is why these threads are about women and their salaries - to show that it's possible, to show we shouldn't accept the default sexist position that it's always the bloke who is the high earners, to show that things are achngung, if not for you then for your daughter's

There isn’t any need to feel shit about it. I’m also not on any 6 figure salary but earning well above national average and I know the extra sacrifices I would have to make to get there, such as staying away from home during the week etc. You do what’s right for you and the family at the right time. I’m more interested in how women do/did it. Sorry to the men on the thread but they aren’t the ones who have to take time off to have kids and most of the parenting of young children is still done by women.

@Sonex

Thank you! I was also trying to make the point that DH is only on his salary through bloody hard work and determination. It wasn’t handed to him on a plate. He has no degrees etc which is often the same for women, he worked his way up from stacking shelves in a supermarket to joining an insurance company and working up from the very bottom.
As much as I’d love to earn that much, TA’s get paid around £12,000 a year for working bloody hard. Even if I was to go to Uni and train to be a teacher I’d be no where near that much.

You can, or earn more, if you want to and are willing to study and retrain. Nothing is impossible. It's harder for women, for sure, which is why these threads are about women and their salaries - to show that it's possible, to show we shouldn't accept the default sexist position that it's always the bloke who is the high earners, to show that things are achngung, if not for you then for your daughter's

Exactly this. My DC are adults. For high earning women in my age bracket a substantial number of them have retrained, changed career or changed direction and plenty of them started out without any higher education (in my generation women are far more likely to have worked their way up from the shop floor than men).

The point of these threads is surely to let other women know its possible, the areas where it has been achieved and some of the tactics used.

Men's career patterns are irrelevant unless they have had the same interruptions. They rarely have to manage delays for parental leaves, being the default parent, changing jobs to be local, reducing hours and the many other compromises women routinely navigate. That applies as much to men who start on the shop floor as men who start with Oxbridge degrees - both benefit from the labour of wives when they are fathers.

My friend is a TA so I really sympathize

It's a vastly underpaid role imo for the value of it - whats more important than caretaking the next generation?. I know teacher training is the obvious one, but not easy for people with kids, I know.

@HandScreen - you are very lucky if you can earn 6 figures and all the childcare you need is nursery from 8-6. I earn 6 figures and needed a nanny when dds young and now after school club daily and an au pair. Most well paid jobs have very long hours.

@anon666

Qualified as an accountant first. Then 25 years of solid graft, long hours, political turmoil, hideous stress, climbing the ladder step by painstaking step, taking risks.

Not seeing my kids beyond 6 months of age, having no social life for 20 of those years, very few real friends. Hanging onto sanity and marriage by a thread at times.

Director of large public service organisations. If you are prepared to accept that they own you every minute of your waking and sleeping day, then you can earn a six figure salary after a 25 year solid career.

This isn’t my experience at all and is quite far removed from many other posters here

Senior copywriter for a big global insurance firm - only recently got the job and start next week! I'm still in happy shock - it's double my previous salary. I really went for it in terms of my LinkedIn profile and CV, read up on interview techniques, prior to that I'd just got jobs words of mouth over many years - but I decided I really wanted one last go at a big career (I'm 45 - and have been working part-time since my DS was born 10 years ago. Before that I had a fab - but poorly paid - career on a national newspaper. After a year of being a SAHM , I began doing commercial copywriting part time. Now - I'm going full time for the first time in a decade (though fully remote). Excited but scared!! I did English at university! So it's not only maths that gets you the big bucks. I was very mediocre at maths. Marketing, HR - you can earn big money there. And internal comms.

PS - I really never EVER in a million years expected to earn six figures - I'm a writer! - and still feel a bit like it's a dream! So it can happen!!! At the moment I've booked my children in for after-school care - but I may find I need more help at home. But going to wing it for now. Quite scared..but excited. I really really wanted it - and can't believe it's happened. So willing something to happen and positive thinking (along with always doing stuff to the best of your ability - meaning I've worked for some big brands which looked good on my CV) can help - I truly believe that. It happened for me.

[quote CayrolBaaaskin]@HandScreen - you are very lucky if you can earn 6 figures and all the childcare you need is nursery from 8-6. I earn 6 figures and needed a nanny when dds young and now after school club daily and an au pair. Most well paid jobs have very long hours.[/quote]
That isn’t my experience, or that of my husband or most of our friends. Sometimes there can be long hours involved, but we all do our share of nursery / school runs and have time to load laundry during the day etc. 8.30-5/5.30 are pretty standard hours for us

@pjsgalore
Very best of luck with your new role.

I think it’s really different posting partners salary not your own. Reality is - it’s still in many cases the mother who is responsible for taking the majority of leave when children are born, going to pick them up when they are sick, in my case doing all of the night wakings when I was working full time until they were about 3-3.5 and slept through. It’s not often that mothers have the opportunity to focus solely on their career and therefore more difficult to reach 6 figures.

Thank you @Chazs

Congrats PJ and good luck!

Thank you lovely @Sonex!

[quote CayrolBaaaskin]@HandScreen - you are very lucky if you can earn 6 figures and all the childcare you need is nursery from 8-6. I earn 6 figures and needed a nanny when dds young and now after school club daily and an au pair. Most well paid jobs have very long hours.[/quote]
When my kids were at the age they needed childcare I did a few years of part time and then my husband did a few years of part time. The rest was using a child minder.

I didn't earn 6 figures then.

Now they are 9 and 13 so we just need a bit of after school club. I'm on low 6 figures working 35 hours pw. HDH earns about half my salary.

Head of department within a financial services company, based in the City.

[quote CayrolBaaaskin]@HandScreen - you are very lucky if you can earn 6 figures and all the childcare you need is nursery from 8-6. I earn 6 figures and needed a nanny when dds young and now after school club daily and an au pair. Most well paid jobs have very long hours.[/quote]
Oh I work 2-3 evenings a week, 8.30-10.30 pm, when the kids are in bed. Easy peasy.

Finance lawyer in a niche industry sector. I work 4 days a week. WFH now, but previously City based. Degree, Masters, MBA and about 20yrs experience.

Creative Brand Director
Cheshire

Sector is enormously important, and there are a few posts here already that indicate that.

Highly regulated industries, such as pharma, utilities and insurance, pay a lot more across all functions: HR, marketing, legal and finance. Global roles pay more than in-market roles.

I earn far more at a global medical device firm than I would doing the same job for a UK FMCG manufacturer. So the type of role is sometimes less important than the field and will let you make a big jump in salary.

Sorry to hijacker’s a bit. As a SAHM I’ve been reading and feeling very inspired but ever so slightly like I gave up too easily. Just wondering in all honesty if most of you feel the support around you was a big factor (as it would be for a man and certainly was for my husband to be successful).

I gave up my job after my second child as my husband worked longer hours then a nursery would cover and I had to work away. We didn’t have family who could consistently help out. After this I did a few part time jobs but actually found things harder when kids went to school. There were child minders who we could have used after school but the 6 week holidays were impossible to cover even part time. Did you/ do you use holiday clubs, take alternative leave to the children’s other parent, do you have grandparents helping out? These holidays… were always such an impossible hurdle for me with every job and still are if I’m honest.

My mum got a PHD as a single mum of 4 children, worked full time… (although even now as a professor will never hit 6 figure salary). But openly admits she could never have done it without my grandmother and all the childcare she did.

Not meaning to go against the ‘just put your mind to it’ mentality, which I really do wish I had had a bit more of at the time. Just wondering how much family, friends, a school with good wrap around care you all feel came into the equation.
Maybe I’m just feeling a bit like I should have tried harder. No violin strings here though, healthy happy life. Just sometimes think what if….

Also hats off to all your ladies. Amazing role models.

Another also, I think those posting about DH salaries just misunderstood the question. Replies to them are a little harsh. They were just trying to help out by letting people know what roles hit that salary mark not realising the thread was more about jobs women have managed to progress to that point in.

I am in the US so we have camps here. My kids go to camp for most of the summer. I spent one summer doing research in the UK and both kids went to a local holiday camp from 8-4 as well (not 5 days a week- DH and I took a day off each week so it was 3 days). Other friends have nannies at great cost (almost their entire salary) but it enables them to stay in the game. I think with childcare you have to a) make it equal with your spouse b) think long term.

I live in a country with decent subsidised child care. Ours go to holiday club.