"High earners"

[JoanThursday1972]

I see this a lot on here. Exactly what makes someone a high earner? Over a specific figure? A high earner in Hartlepool will not be the same as one in the City of London. How high is high?

To me, it's over £100k.

A high earner is a high earner regardless of where they live. It's just outgoings that are different. To me anyone in the 40% tax bracket is a high earner.

I think the general rule is following the tax brackets, higher rate starting at £50k and the additional rate is £125k.

I think a big issue when discussing wealth and inequality currently, is the big push from media/government that talks about money mostly in terms of annual taxable income. Most of the wealth in the country/world is not held as earned salary income, but through holding assets such as property, shares, natural resources etc. it’s very much about letting the ‘little people’ squabble amongst themselves.

Cue everyone coming to this thread to say "we earn over 100k but we're not high earners because we spend 3k on the mortgage and 1k on childcare" you ARE high earners, just with high outgoings.

How long is a piece of string?

I used to think a household income of £80k+ was high until we reached that and realised that actually it didn't stretch as far as you'd think and we still couldn't afford luxury holidays (but could definitely do a supermarket shop without thinking about a budget 🙄)

Now I reckon one person needs to earn maybe £100k? Difficult to say!

@BranchGold
“I think a big issue when discussing wealth and inequality currently, is the big push from media/government that talks about money mostly in terms of annual taxable income. Most of the wealth in the country/world is not held as earned salary income, but through holding assets such as property, shares, natural resources etc. it’s very much about letting the ‘little people’ squabble amongst themselves.”

This^

The answer is generally double what rhe person answering earns.

It’s over 100k for me too. DP earns £120k and I know that puts him in the top 5% or something in the country. Weirdly though we live more frugally than most people I know. Old cars, rarely have holidays, no beauty treatments, no hairdressers. The kids do do a million and one extra curriculars so money does get spent there. State schools. I always get the impression that Mumsnet thinks those people warming over 100k are somehow living like kings. Not in my experience.

So true

I'd say over £100k is a high earner.

Definitely depends on area and lifestyle expectations, probably the people you surround yourself with too. I am just in the higher tax bracket and feel very comfortable, but someone trying to live in a big London house and pay school fees, 2 week holidays in the Maldives etc would consider my wage akin to poverty levels. The problem those people have is that they've been conditioned by the inherited wealth set to think those things are normal and they genuinely feel like they would be missing out if they didn't have them.

I think it's a bit of a falsity to act like you couldn't have nice holidays and hairdresser apts and a new car though. You've just chosen to spend your money on something less flashy.

Christ that's me then. I'd never have put myself in that category.

"Christ that's me then. I'd never have put myself in that category."

🤣🤣 so the whole point of your thread was to tell us you're a high earner. Fucking odd 😆

40% in Scotland at a much lower salary than England.

Its complicated as high earner doesn't necessarily mean high disposable income. Obviously some things are choice (bigger houses, fancier childcare etc) but other stuff isn't... the fact that a 2 bed flat in London is more expensive than the same flat in Hartlepool, or council tax.. or a childminder costing £70 a day in one place or £40 in another place. Number of dependents makes a difference, although children or pets could be seen as luxury.

This is an interesting reference for these kind of discussions: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/percentile-points-from-1-to-99-for-total-income-before-and-after-tax

£60k puts you in the top 10% of tax payers by income
£80k puts you in the top 5% of tax payers by income

I guess you’re right. It’s what everyone chooses to prioritise. I don’t care about a lot of the stuff we don’t spend money on. I’d rather have the safety net of savings and DP is the least flashy person I know so he’s not spunking it on watches and cars.

Over 250 k

It’s all relative. A high salary doesn’t always mean lots of disposable income, someone could earn £130k have a high mortgage, support a sahp, credit card debt, multiple children, pay child maintenance, student loans and have an expensive commute and be running a car, whereas someone on £30k single with no mortgage or debt may have the same amount if not more left over each month and live a more comfortable life.

A person earning £100k+ I’d consider high earner, but I wouldn’t consider a household income of £100k particularly high.

DH used to earn £100k+ 10 years ago and when we had no DC it was great but we weren’t rich. Now he earns a fraction and we have DD it’s tight. I’m part time now on £49k (£60k FTE) and DH full time £25k (he had to start from scratch in his 40’s) and we struggle due to childcare etc.

At £100k joint we’d only be just comfortable. But if one of us was £100k and the other earning £50k then it’d all be grand.

It’s always about double what you have, whatever that is!

A high spender doesn’t stop being a high earner just because they spend a lot.

So true, it's actually quite funny how many people consider themselves "just getting by" on some mental figure like 120k because they chose to get a humongous mortgage, or whatever else.

I'd consider anybody earning 50k+ a high-earner. I really don't think most people ever hit earning that much around where I live.

It's obviously subjective but I always thought it was higher rate tax payer

The median uk wage is about 33k. London about 40.

So anyone above 50 is definitely a higher earner

Regardless of where they live or what they spend it on.

No it was not at all. You're a treat aren't you Martin, not many takers at that market stall?