Can we talk about money?

[BrandySnaps1]

Seeing a lot about the national wage being £35k.

As women can we share our stories, age and salary? I'm 35, been in my industry for around a decade. Currently on 45k, going up to 46k after a little negotiation. Just started the role and am pregnant.

Dont think my new employer was happy (I told them wayyy in advance when i was jus gone 12 weeks) and not expecting any kind of maternity pay from them as will only be in the job 6 months before i have to leave.

Some of my friends get paid 70/80/90k in finance. Whats the average of everyone here?

56 and on £33k FTE.

These threads make me wonder what the fuck I've done with my life.

Don't. Money isn't everything. Health is.

I've just about had it with these posts. Congratulations you earn more than me, well done.

I earn well below £35k, even second job to top me up. I guess all you high earners are just cleverer and work harder than me. 👏

I disagree, I imagine some will be luck (definitely partially down to that for me).

I earn £70k, 35. Started in a very female, low paid career (but professional, required degree and masters) in my 20s. Got to £30k
at 30 and would have maybe got to £50k in 10+ years. I felt undervalued financially and thus more broadly.

Decided to take a side step into something more corporate, compliance related, had enough experience to do a side step and then the employer paid for the qualifications needed. Was then able to progress a couple of jumps in 3 years to £70k.

I have a really good balance right now between pay, pension, working hours and flexibility. I would like to get to director level but that would mean loss of flexibility so right now I am concentrating on experience at this level, leadership, new quals etc until my youngest starts secondary school and I no longer have school runs to do, that'll be next year.

Yes agreed - it’s a cut your losses thing

I spent most of my 20s in a silver circle firm - working until 3am on more nights than I want to remember (my boss even called me on my wedding day about a sale agreement.. nice)..

some people can continue that but I couldn’t and didn’t want to - hence moved

I just don’t think people on here are lying. Apart from the 20 year old on £500k. Ultimately this is quite a middle class forum, many women on here are highly educated and earn well.

i think this kind of discussion is massively important. What people have to realise though is that these salaries yes, come from choosing perhaps a high paying sector.

you dont increase you salary by staying in the same role or making sideways moves. You need to be prepared to move jobs and often companies every 2 years or so in early career, be prepared to maybe travel and not expect to clock off at the end of your hours and take yourself out of your comfort zone.

obviously personal circumstances don’t always allow this and maybe you don’t want to take on more or bigger roles but if you’re a bad 5 nurse and can’t get a band 6 role in your trust you might need to move to another one and then take on more training and move again to a band 7.

if you’re a teacher then maybe you need to consider moving into a headship career path. If you’re in a call centre look to manage the call centre and then manage a group of them.

if you work in retail apply for manager roles and then area manager roles.

the bigger salaries regardless of sector don’t come from sitting in the same role in the same company getting little increments here and there.

No- a lot of the time it is just luck - often times it can be connections that they didn’t earn the right to have

I don't put my 61k salary down to luck. I studied master's qualifications whilst caring for young children and whilst other friends were jetting off to Marbella I studied. Sometimes it is luck but mostly it's choices.

It’s not about being cleverer or more hardworking at all. How can you earn more? Can you apply for higher roles, can you travel to a higher paying role, do you need to do more studying to get there? Are you willing to leave a job you might like for one you might not? It’s more about Macon strategically and putting yourself out of your comfort zone to move up.

we all reach a point where we have gone as far as we want are or able to. I would love to earn &150k but I know that in my sector my stretch end point will be the £100k roles if I want to push myself that far but more realistically I’ll probably level out at about £85k level when I’ll say I don’t want to push myself more. I have a plan to get there in the next 5-7 years. It might mean moving roles and organisations a couple of times and it might mean a lot more stress but it is about planning how to get there and what you need to do to do that and if you want to

@decionsdecisions62 as a higher earner there is always luck involved and it's important to be humble and recognise it, life can change on a dime. I'm lucky I have my health that has enabled me to prioritise my career, I'm lucky I had a good childhood that equipped me with the self assurance, confidence and education that got me today, I'm lucky my children are healthy and only require mainstream education, etc etc. Of course I am proud of my achievements, I have been strategic, I have worked to get to this stage, but there is always a healthy dose of luck too.

Luck, your personality and the ability to be flexible.

I had a bit of luck with my job, but I'm also a people person and a people pleaser. This for me is a big thing, you're far more likely to get a promotion internally if people like you. Being flexible is also a plus. I moved 100s of miles several times in a 10 year time period, working for the same organisation which made me stand out and I got promoted several times off the back of it. I also used to volunteer for the jobs no one wanted to do, the boring, shitty ones. Add that to the fact I've had a smattering of luck in roles means I'm now earning a good salary.

I left having dc to my 30s which meant I was on an ok wage by the time they arrived, and had the ability to pay a childminder so my job wasn't impacted (I was a single parent from my dc ages of 6 to 15). I was absolutely skint until they both went to secondary school, but at least I was able to do this. I also had a pt job to up my wages

So no, it's not about showing off or who's better than whom, im genuinely proud of myself, I grew up on a council estate, left school at 16 with a handful of GCSEs, went to an apprenticeship earning £29.50 a week and have never had more than 2 weeks off work (excluding my maternity leave) in the last 35 years, I'm now earning £65000 a year and looking to retire in the next 7/8 years

@yickytee that's your story not mine. I had an abusive childhood, I have a daughter with profound disabilities. I just plough on through. Luck has played no part in my life!

Im 36 on £68k plus bonus of up to 10%. I work in financial services risk and compliance coming up for 10 years experience, in Scotland.

@BrandySnaps1 its great you earn well both fir you and your friends.

But if the average wage is £35k. Then it automatically means many people earn much less than that. Simple maths!!

Plus ofc you can add the number if food banks, level of poverty etc…. That will tell you a lot about how part of the society lives in too.

Yes same - I made certain choices

but some people don’t know about the choices they are able to make

a lot of it comes down to knowledge and opportunities - and that can be luck. That doesn’t always mean well off - but even pushy, working class, immigrant parents (in my case) meant I was luckier than some because they were so pushy

Luck starts with the family you were born in.
It carries on with the place you are living in.

Thats what privilege is.

Bad luck is also being ill and unable to work.

All the story about ‘I worked hard and didn’t spend my 20s jetting to where ever’ is what meritocracy is based on.
The reality is that many people work their ass off, two jobs etc… and still dint earn much.

that's your story not mine. I had an abusive childhood, I have a daughter with profound disabilities. I just plough on through. Luck has played no part in my life!

I didn't say it was your story, I said clearly it was mine. I'm very sorry for the challenges you have faced and I can understand why you're being defensive, life isn't equal and it sounds like you've had a tough journey, but there is always someone worse off, and I think it's important to recognise where we have had advantage, life is so black and white to mean hard work = reward, I'm sure you've had some (merely being in the UK is an advantage in many respects), if you don't want to acknowledge that, fine.

*isn't so black and white

I'm 45 and am on £118k but work 4 days only, so 0.8 of that. I've been with the same large corporate for 15 years

26 and 0.4 contract at 16.5k a year, 38k full time term time only

Full time carer I am on the clock 24/7, I get approximately 5 hours broken sleep a night, I had to give up all social life and exist in four walls. I have a medically complex disabled child, a common cold virus nearly killed her. I am always in a state of chronic stress and pretty sure I've developed ptsd from nearly losing her to a cold, the government say I'm worth £76 a week to the rest of the world. So I'm 37 £40,000 in debt and my payrise this year is £4 a week.

Same although I'm 58 and am prob a spine point ahead on the EO scale at 29k (depends with Gov dept you work for too)

As I said. High earning women will be accused of making things up. It was ever thus, on MN.

Oh, and accused of showing off and being smug.