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?

You are lucky in that you have intelligence and good health, as well as no disabilities or conditions that prevent you from working long hours and taking risks. That doesn't mean you haven't also worked bloody hard and overcome a lot of challenges along the way too.

There’s no such thing as a “normal” salary everyone’s reality is different.

@Rhdlj, forgive me if this has already been asked, but what is your role? I'm a PT teacher earning similar to you. The stress of my job is seriously impacting me. I'd love something flexible and stress-free like you describe.

Good luck!

I work for a consultant mainly proofreading the documents he writes. I also do other administrative tasks he needs me to do as and when. Some written work, bit of audio typing, summarising long documents into manageable chunks of information for him etc. It's just reading and writing tasks mainly which suits my skills well. I would find teaching very hard I think!

I earn about 25k per year but probably only work 15-20 hours a week; less in the school holidays.

Self employed Mental Health professional.

Thank you, that’s really helpful! I currently look after a backlog and prioritise the items but it’s all for experiments but sounds like I could transfer that knowledge.

I probably need to look into getting some scrum training etc but find life is hard to find time when you are working full time and have a toddler. I’m exhausted after work and doing bedtime and weekends we try to do a lot of family things! Need to get better at organising my time.

Solicitor by profession working in local government senior management. £110k. Long hours including some evening meetings but there is some flexibility around that too. Youngest is 8.

Now that is patronising. We who do these roles ought to be getting paid properly, not being silenced with the implications associated with "it's not for the money" and "the job is rewarding".

I am irritated too by the "these women are all lying" posts. I'm not lying, why would I? This is an anonymous forum.

Also a point worth making, I think, is that the more senior you are the more likely it is that you're paid to deliver results and not by the hour (unless you're a lawyer or someone who works on billable hours to an end client) so actually, you do have much more time to do things like post on Mumsnet during the day. Because nobody is checking what you do: you're senior enough not to need that kind of management and so you might have half an hour between meetings and post here.

I'm proud of my high salary. And I'm proud that I earn it as a contractor - we're judged on our results and if we aren't good we are fired. We don't have any employment protection or sick pay, which is fine, that's the risk we take.

And I've shown my daughters and sons that you can earn a lot of money, still be a good parent and not necessarily work stupid hours. Whilst I might sometimes have to take a meeting at 6pm, it's rare and I pretty much do 9-5 for my £700 a day. And because I'm not employed I can take time off for school plays, appointments, whatever, I just might lose my day rate, which is my choice.

@QueenofTheBorg Totally agree with everything you've said!

"The OP has done the virtual equivalent of walking into Waitrose and asking the women with the nicest coats how much they earn."

Fantastic analogy

I hope you find something soon. Sending you luck

Hybrid, i was doing a lot of ad hoc blog work for finance companies. maybe around 8 years exp but theres a ceiling when it comes to needing copywriters and marketing especially with chatGPT

Owning a property is a great achievement in itself. not many people can do that

39, NHS admin for 15 years. Band 4. DS is 11 so for 11 years I have worked 30hrs. On about 20k. I work in Research. Pay is shocking, but the hospital is local to home. Annual leave is generous (i think). No WFH options though.

Hello, again. I would like to be paid more for what I do but the job market dictates otherwise. My job, however is commutable by bike (I work in vrs community gardens) and local. We manage as a family because we have to, and I am on my 3rd career. Project management was my first and if I'd stayed then I would have been in the 70/80k bracket - however when my kids were born it was less likely that you were able to get part time working hours and I was made redundant when pg with my second child

Then pivoted to FE education, so I had the holidays with the kids, which was useful, then made redundant again and turned my hobby (gardening) into my job. Have a decent pension, own my own house, still married and life is generally good. My salary might not be spectacular by my work/life balance is fine.

I may ask to go part time when the kids have finished uni but as currently subsidising them is costing all my pay I'll have to hold off for now

Top tip - make sure that you're saving for uni costs - mine are going to come out with loans, but we pay their rent which is a big cost.

Glad someone said it