To think that SOME high earners don't work that hard?

[Usernamemcname]

I'm a domestic cleaner. The people I clean for are usually quite well off, five bedrooms in a posh suburb of an expensive city. They are often in whilst I clean, sometimes they come back whilst I'm here.
I see a lot and I know they are in quite high paid jobs. Yet they always seem to be 'working from home' also known as fannying about the kitchen a lot and playing X Box. A lot of them either start late (10am so they miss the traffic) and finish early. One dad picks his daughter up from school every day even though his wife is at home!
I was always told that you have to work hard to get what you want in life, so why do I have to work two jobs whilst my partner works 45+ hours and we just scrape by? What have these people done to be so lucky? They're not old, seem around my age, what jobs do they do and why can't I do them, I have a degree.
Life just seems unfair sometimes. Unless it's a doctor, I'm sure I could have a crack at it.

Though i agree re luck....

@annasgirl, but your Congolese mine worker knows nothing more useful than how to wield a pick and shovel. There's a reason that CEOs are paid more; their decisions govern what thousands of people earn, based on the deals they negotiate for the goods and services they are selling. Thousands of jobs depend on them performing well. They are better used making money for the business than digging holes. Because they are better educated and probably cleverer.

Op, you definitely seem to be more interested in blaming others for your situation instead of taking advice being offered to you. Also, no everyone earning only what they need it a ridiculous idea.

I am not a high earner, nowhere near it and probably will never be. I earn less than £50k. I came from a decent family who encouraged me to go to Uni but I chose a degree in a subject that wouldn't lead to a realistic career, spent a good part of my 20s moving around different sectors trying to find a career path that worked for me. Overall, my job now is OK and it's in a good industry that has a lot of promotion opportunities and will always have work, its also very flexible which is something that I hope to utilise one day when I have kids. But its not my "dream job" and if I'd been more clever when I was younger, applied myself and done a different uni subject than I'd be earning a lot more. My point is, my earnings and career is nobody else's fault but my own and I'm OK with where I am now. Yes, privaledge does exist and there are certain obstacles that I can't control.
You need to accept responsibility, your life and career is where it is because of choices you made. I'm sorry that you think it's unfair but moaning about high earners is not going to help you and certainly insisting you should just be paid more isn't something that will happen unless you make it happen. Stop waiting for someone to give you something because life doesn't work that way

Obviously privilege and luck exists, but you have a whole thread of people telling you what they did to become a high earner through hard work. You've been given lots of advice, as your OP sounded as I'd that's what you wanted, but now it sounds that's not what you want.

I don't think I've been lucky at all - I described what I did earlier. I consider myself privileged to live in the UK with the benefit system and NHS. I'm an ethnic minority, my parents did understand the education system or how to apply to uni. I left my degree as I found out I was pregnant, was a single parent by the time DD was 6 months. Was on income support for 4 months. I'm disabled. Had no family, money or connections to fall back on. I'm not sure how I'm lucky with any of this?

Over the summer I had my DPs parents cleaners son job shadow me. Their cleaner asked as he is interested in my field. Her son is bright and driven and is clearly taking every opportunity he can to gain experience at 17.

In terms of how much money is enough, that depends on what you want. I couldn't afford to take DD away or buy her fashionable clothes when she was younger (most months I couldn't afford food for us both, so she ate and i ate once a day). But now i can afford these things for her, and that was the only reason I chased every promotion. I'm going to make sure she doesn't struggle as much as I did, I would like to give her a deposit for her house, pay for uni and other big life expenses.

It is much easier to say I deserve an income of £100k if you can show you have generated £1m in net profit

To a point yes although I'm then a bit underpaid as I saved my employer more than that last year . Seriously though, it is a valid point and the reality that lots don't seem to get is that many people are paid for the skills and technical knowledge that result in profits or savings.

Salaries aren't dictated by how physically hard you work on a given day or how much good you feel you do for society. You can argue that nurses, teachers etc should be paid better (and I'd agree) but that won't change how much an accountant, dentist or bank cashier earn. If you want to earn more look at what different jobs pay and consider how you can get a foot in the door.

@CrystalShark thanks, I'm really proud that I can give DD the experiences I could only dream of when I was younger.

I agree that shes not much of a friend, and it's been really hard to distance myself but it has to be done for my own mental health.

Well done on your achievements, like yourself I love seeing/reading about people (woman in particular) doing really well. Congratulations on your pregnancy and wish you both good health.

many people are paid for the skills and technical knowledge that result in profits or savings

Exactly, thats why dh is well paid. He doesn’t do anything useful for mankind...he makes money for the company

Not read through a lot of this but..you can earn a lot of money doing nowt. Especially once you become a manger, however some managers seems to like to take the high horse that they are willing to work late, takes calls late etc from home/office etc. Its all bull. You can effectively as you get older, working in the city, coast along pretending that you are important, making big decisions and do sod all...I know first hand! Life is not fair, however to do this while you are young is what I would call lucky!

I heard somebody say once that if hard work paid then African women would be the richest people in the world

Too true, too true

I have a hard long hours job - and when I read threads like this and 'DH works v long hours' and the hours indicated are ones which sound aspirationally low for me - I sort of fell sorry for myself

But I then think of the conditions I've seen porters, construction workers, miners etc work in developing countries and I then realise how utterly privileged I am. Working in a physically safe environment, sitting down and having clean water to drink and being able to eat on the job

My job is well paid (not 6 figures currently but not crazy far off) and my job is a doddle. I work from home. Dress and shower when I fancy it. Never have stress. See my kids at lunch and whenever they need me. Can chill and take my work at my own pace. I’m very very lucky and aware that my cleaner must think I’m lazy and privileged.

But my path here was unusual and involved a lot of hard work and risks. It’s paid off though and that’s mostly luck.

What is your line of work???!!!!

OP, I have to say that I find you frustratingly insular.

You say-
I fundamentally disagree with people earning more than they need

Your child doesn’t need gymnastics lessons. You could afford them up until recently so you earned more than you needed. But she wants them, and you want to be able to give that to her. It’s human nature.

I earn very well, but I spent 5 years after university sitting some of the hardest professional exams around to qualify in my profession.

The thing about my job is that the work isn't evenly split across the year. At financial year end work is totally crazy, and crazy to a certain extent at quarter ends. The rest of the year can be quite quiet and fairly stress free.

Are you an actuary?

You’d like to think so, OP - but no, it isn’t true.

I find it utterly depressing to see so many examples of posters starting from humble beginnings and making huge successes of themselves, just to have their success disregarded and attributed purely to “luck” and, worse “privilege”

My dh got home from work at 6, chatted with the kids, ate, played a game of Xbox and then went into office and started coding. He'll come up to bed about 2 after writing about 1 or 2 000 lines of code. He takes 2 nights off a week. But he is ridiculously intelligent, got his job by being in the right place at the right time and earns over 50k. When he tells people he's in computers you can see people either look impressed or roll their eyes. We went into severe debt when I left work a few years ago and had to pay our mortgage and rent because I'd had a 3rd child and in laws kept telling us they found it shocking we couldn't manage a high wage. They still declare us to be rich, and yes, now we've caught up, we definitely have it worlds and worlds easier so we're so lucky he's so excellent in a field that has possibilities. It isn't fair that some people earn more for the same amount of work, or that people have opportunities others don't, but I think you have to stop thinking about it and don't begrudge anyone anything, especially not in their house.

By the way I shop at Aldi and Tesco. When in Aldi, I get my fruit, veg, natural yoghurt, cheese. Tesco I get the brands-coffee, waffles, processed type food. If you met me at Aldi, you'd see me as healthy, you'd tut in Tesco. You can't judge people from a snapshot. You don't know if the person was up over the night working, or got up at three in the morning!

Next thing we know everyone will be voting Jeremy Corbyn in and taking away anything these people have worked hard for in life just to make the green eyed monsters feel equal.
Plenty of high earners vote Labour, me for one. Earning lots of money is great, but earning lots of money and living in a decent, considerate society is better.

Everytime I see someone trying to put down high earners by saying "I work just has hard/even harder than you, I could do what you do"... I think, well... Why don't you?

THAT is the big difference.

Lower paid jobs are easier to get. The job itself may be hard, but the opportunity is significantly easier.
Higher paid jobs are harder to get. The actual job itself could be easy as pie, but the steps to get there (qualifications, promotions, travel, timings, risks etc) are a lot harder.

People often use Nurses as the low-paid, hard-worker example.

But up until very recently, one could take a Nursing degree for free (and the entry qualifications were quite low) and then get a job as a Nurse very quickly, as its an in-demand role. It also has a distinct pays ale, so you are guaranteed a certain income which steadily increases along with your experience.

A lot of high earning jobs have a far less linear entry path, far fewer job opportunities and are more competitive to get into.

When it comes to being highly paid, the hard work isn't restricted to just what the day-to-day tasks are.

@ShirleyPhallus it’s annoying, but so too is the “I did it all by myself and screw the rest of you layabouts” brigade. You can be proud of your hard work/skills AND also grateful for your breaks and good fortune. It doesn’t have to be either/or.

it’s annoying, but so too is the “I did it all by myself and screw the rest of you layabouts” brigade

Please could you quote anyone who has said “screw the rest of you layabouts”?

I've only skimmed the thread but I really hope that not all cleaners and service providers have such a low regard for their employers.

I have a friend who earns about £200-250k in finance and works 9 till 5 every day. I asked her if her job ever stresses her out and she said not at all, and that it really is the best of both worlds

I'm not sure I fully believe this...

OP, you have a job you enjoy and are good at. That's very positive. Now you need a plan for how to make more money. I think you could explore the writing. I have a friend who has suffered a lot of setbacks in her life such as chronic illness. She has gradually built a successful and rewarding career entirely at home which is quite flexible, writing blogs and articles.

Have I missed something here, a 10YO can clean a house without any qualifications. Sure they work hard,, but so does a junior doctor after 12 years of study. I agree with one of the posters, you do have to make the money work for you once you get that far. I know people that dont drink dont drive a car, dont smoke and rarely go out, in order to pay for their education. It is very rare to come across people that are well off, and dont work hard, the likelyhood is that their job is dangerous, such as a steeple jack, deep-sea diver, test pilot, or working in a nuclear power plant. I certainly dont envy those people.

I’m genuinely trying to think of where my husband or I had any ‘lucky breaks’. We worked hard and wisely over many, many years to improve our financial situation. I’d be grateful if we’d had any but we didn’t.
It was lucky we were born with good brains but other than that it was hard work, very hard work, high level and professional qualifications, a willingness to wait and not expect immediate gratification, a willingness to move around the country, supporting each other, deferring children until we could afford them, building support networks through good relationships at work and with neighbours.

I think age comes into it too. I wouldn’t have expected to be a high earner in my twenties. Some are but most have to plan and work towards it over decades.