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.

I run an organisation. Wfh. Scotland.

Footwear design for a luxury brand, London.

Did an art degree originally then specialised in leather-work and accessories at Cordwainers.

I've been in the industry for almost 10 years and have experience at a couple of similar brands.

(If I was prepared to move to Paris or New York I'd be on a lot more).

South of England, software delivery, no qualification except some very poor grade O levels, just worked ground ground level up and had some luck along the way

Compliance partner in top 10 accountancy firm, West London but wfh
(6 figures if benefits included)

Strategy Director for a global software company specialising in a specific vertical market.

Six figure basic plus same again in on target bonuses.

I think it refers to the fact that in RL (I think) about 7% of people earn a 6 figure salary, whereas on MN it seems more like 50%

Not only that, but they manage to earn it through a part time job or have a very understanding employer, whereby they can spend 75% of their time on Mumsnet.

I run a small, specialist independent psychology practice.

SE so don’t earn a salary, but do make 6 figures pro rata ( I’m very idle and love hanging out with my kids so don’t work full time and won’t return to full time).

Niche role in commercial real estate. The City.

IT/investment banking in the City. What are your qualifications and skills? It seems a lot... but I have 18 years experience a d 3 degrees.

[quote SuffolkBargeWoman]@ShirleyPhallus
Because some women want to earn well??
Not sure why that's a problem?[/quote]
Because there are SO MANY of these threads and the usual ways to earn that money are by going down the law / business school / university route and now work in law / finance / consulting but have 20 years experience behind them

I don’t really believe that these threads are ever started beyond a way to hopefully get rich quick with some shortcuts tbh

I agree with the above comment. Which is why I pointed out that it took DH and I 12 years to get our first academic jobs (from our first year at Uni to finishing our PhD) and if we were in the UK even at full professor in the Humanities I wouldn’t make 6 figures.

@ShirleyPhallus

You may be right about the intent of starting these thread. I know that several of us who post on them post to raise awareness that women can, and do, earn high incomes. I think too often we are sold the story of the high earning ambitious man. High earning women are seen as rare, aggressive and/or people who have had to sacrifice relationships and family to get there. That puts women off trying when in fact you can be successful and have a family. You don't need to be a ball breaking bitch but you do need to be resilient and assertive.

I want women and their daughters to be thinking "If Chazs can do that, then so can I".

[quote ChazsBrilliantAttitude]@ShirleyPhallus

You may be right about the intent of starting these thread. I know that several of us who post on them post to raise awareness that women can, and do, earn high incomes. I think too often we are sold the story of the high earning ambitious man. High earning women are seen as rare, aggressive and/or people who have had to sacrifice relationships and family to get there. That puts women off trying when in fact you can be successful and have a family. You don't need to be a ball breaking bitch but you do need to be resilient and assertive.

I want women and their daughters to be thinking "If Chazs can do that, then so can I".[/quote]
So do I, I think it’s a great message to say that women can and do earn that money.

But the reality is, that either women need to be able to go back in time and make different choices at university and possibly put off having children; or they need a supportive spouse to be able to put the hours in needed to do the training and achieve what’s needed to command that salary

In a nutshell mainly money making jobs then, tech jobs to enable more efficient money making, legal to protect said money, HR jobs to collar the most talented money makers.
Nurse here, critical care. Nowhere near six figures. Not jealous before anyone asks but it makes you think.

@Berlinkreuzberg

In a nutshell mainly money making jobs then, tech jobs to enable more efficient money making, legal to protect said money, HR jobs to collar the most talented money makers. Nurse here, critical care. Nowhere near six figures. Not jealous before anyone asks but it makes you think.

I think you can perhaps expand that out and say that a prerequisite of earning six figures, broadly, and with the exception of the very top positions, is “not paid through public money.” I have a couple of friends who nurse in private hospitals and whilst they don’t earn quite six figures they do make almost double what they would with the NHS and generally with better benefits and conditions. Likewise, many (most?) solicitors, finance bods, programmers, IT specialists who opt to work in the public sector or civil service won’t ever see a salary anything close to what they could if they worked in the private sector.

Director of acquisitions and internal development.

Basically when we expand a department, create a new one or buy a company, I run them for the first year. Spot the issues, sort them out, put processes in place etc

In yorkshire. Not university educated. Had my kids young. My career took off in my mid early 30s. Around the time I became a single parent. Director level made being a single parent alot easier as I manage my own diary.

I do need to point out that when I took this job, I was head hunted and said I would only go to them if they gave me shares. I joined the company as part of a plan to sell it, so wanted a big pay out when we do. 60% of my income comes from the shares. Not my wage.

In fact non of the people earning 6 figure in my company do so through just wages. Including the MD. So, I suspect, non of us would be included in the official 7% of 6 figure earners.

@TenoringBehind

Dh not me (sadly). In house lawyer East Mids.

You’re the second person to mention their DH’s salary. I agree with PP this is just embarrassing. Let’s keep the focus on ourselves and not the spouse/partners.

put off having children

Whilst this advice is always intended well, it inhibits so many capable women who have already had kids. I got pregnant young, and if I had listened to the negativity out there around careers and childcare I'd still be on minimum wage now. Thankfully, I have always been stubborn and followed my own beliefs, I was career orientated and I wasn't going to let being a mum be a reason for me to go back to my career later.

Actually, there is quite a bit of support out there for lower income parents, the irony is we got most of our childcare bills paid for by tax credits, now my kids are in primary school I have studied and progressed and am now a higher rate tax payer (not a 6 figure one yet, but I'm only early 30s so plenty of time )

There are so many myths and misunderstandings about having a family and career. I think threads like this open people's eyes to what is out there because let's face it career advice in school is dire, and for mothers it's straight up shite. The kind of myths I mean are the cost of childcare: look at what state help is out there, the threshold for childcare is often much higher; how will I cope in the holidays, illness etc: many employers have flexible working policies and nice managers, it's not always so rigid and usually the more you progress the more flexibility you get. Ok this sounds very simplistic and some career paths will be harder than others, but so many women put barriers up for themselves and others without even trying.

Sorry for the ramble, but the advice is ALWAYS to have kids later and yes that can help in some respects but I fear so many women think they can't pursue a career because they have already had kids. I say this as someone who had a partner in a job that took him away and no family support, I always like to caveat that. I fully expect to be a 6 figure earner one day and I had children at 22. To make this ramble more pertinent to the thread, I work in cyber security.

@HerculesMullligan

I agree that’s it’s a bit pointless (and cringy) to put your husband’s income on these threads.

This is mumsnet and most of the women posting here will have combined their career with having children in a way different to the average man’s career trajectory. What I find interesting on threads like this is the mothers who have managed to reach these high salaries.

Well said.

Previously investment bank, city of London.

Now a diplomat based overseas in a hardship posting.

A lot of my friends (London unis/oxbridge) have similar jobs, but I think I’m the only one who went to comprehensive school. A mixture of luck, quite decent grades, and a little bit of affirmative action from employers trying to diversify from their typical recruitment base (I’m bame and female).

Join my MLM....

joking.

And of course I think not having had to take maternity breaks yet helped unfortunately. I’m 30 and women I work with typically wait till late 30s/40s.

@Exhausteddog

What is the Mumsnet 6 figures salary?

I think it refers to the fact that in RL (I think) about 7% of people earn a 6 figure salary, whereas on MN it seems more like 50%.

It really doesn't. 7% is about 1 in 14. You can exclude the very lowest earners from MN as they are unlikely to have internet access, plus MN skews middle class/higher educated than average so at a guess maybe 1 in 10 MNers are part of a household earning 100k+ and that would seem about right with responses on threads about income.

There's only about 120 posts on this thread, that's not half of MN, although it is a good chunk (which 10% fits with).

Yep, no get rich quick route to 6 fig salary. I did a 4 year Bsc then a 1 year Masters, then worked for 15 years before I got anywhere near that in my forties.

As others have said, women need to believe more that it's possible for women to earn like men. I never believed it either and would agree with the "oh they're all lying as they can spend so much time on MN thing" until I got there and realsied that being senior at work means you manage your own time. I often work in the evening and occasionally at the weekends, but equally I can spend an hour during the day surfing the internet if I'm not busy or don't have any meetings, of course I can.

It really winds me up when people talk about "our salary" and the bonus "we got" when it's their husbands that aren't it though! That's how we get to young girls and Only Fans and sugar daddies and all that hideous stuff.

@ChazsBrilliantAttitude

OP you need to give us some idea of what you want to do and what your current skill set is. I work in the City and have done so for all my career. I earn what I do because I am well qualified with shedloads of experience. People pay me well because they can chuck a complex situation at me and I can sort it out. I suspect the same is true for many of the people on this thread. We are paid for our insight, our ability to cope under pressure, our experience and the courage and clarity to make complex decisions. What are you an expert in (or would like to be an expert in)? How resilient are you? How do you cope under pressure? Can you see both sides of an argument and weigh up the right course of action quickly? Can you persuade others if needed? Can you make difficult decisions and handle the consequences?

Most of the above will apply to the academic, medical, business and legal roles people have posted about.

Completely agree with this. I’m a senior in house lawyer in London.