To think more than 1.6mil ppl are on £80k if mumsnet is anything to go by?!?

[KimchiLaLa]

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/22/question-time-80000-super-rich-earning-workers

This article is saying 1.6mil ppl are on 80k. How is that possible when a salary thread comes up on mumsnet, practically everyone claims to have a 100k plus salary?!!

Expecting high earners to pay more tax to help fund infrastructure and eradicate child poverty isn't chastising those high earners. It's saying that relative to the rest of society you can afford it.

It's not saying you don't work hard. I know plenty of very low earners that work incredibly hard for little job security, no pension and low wages. Being successful has been shown to be mostly about luck- yes you have to use that luck and work hard, but the luck is first.

People do make up complete shit on here, remember when that poster got caught out posting pictures of a 5 star paris hotel as their bedroom?

Really? . I missed that.

MN is skewed because Londoners come for the Education boards and stay.

I know a lot of lawyers and senior civil servants, household incomes easily £160k and the rest.

If anyone is interested in the actual data I was just reading about this on the bbc news app and there is a graph that explains it. Sorry I don't know how to link to it in an app

I agree though it feels like there are lots of rich people. I always wonder who can afford expensive holidays etc

The bbc article is called

does £80,000 put you in the top 5% of earners?

• MN is unrepresentative. To be posting on here you need internet access, a decent standard of written English and to not be working all the hours there are on NMW to try and keep body and soul together. There are lots of people in the labour force who don't tick all those boxes and they're not at all visible on here.

• People bullshit, about income as about anything else. This includes people pretending to be poor as well as pretending to be rich.

• People overestimate the number of posters actually claiming to have this level of income. I know OP obviously you're indulging in a bit of hyperbole in your post, nowt wrong with that. But I have seen threads about money where a few posters talked about earning or being married to someone on that level of income and others essentially interpreted that as thinking everyone on MN was claiming to, even though the very large majority of posters on the thread had said they weren't. It's become a bit of a trope. People expect to see it so they focus on it.

You can tell from some people's detailed posts that a good few do have their own or a husband's salary over £80k. Eg someone writing in detail about working in London in a City law firm probably has been or is on over that.

Plenty of us pay school fees - I was paying 5 sets at once so that probably indicates a fairly high income rather than people lying.

However I don't think most threads on all topics illustrate women earning over £80k a year. Perhaps people just notice those more.

However for women who don't earn much and would like their daughters to earn over £80k MN is quite a good place for advice about how to set the odds higher for that child in terms of schools, A levels and universities and career choices so anyone wanting higher earnings for their daughters might well find MN quite useful.

I get the impression there are far more people on benefits than £80k on Mumsnet. You get pounced on if posters get a sniff that you’re wealthy and don’t take any problems you have seriously

Mumsnet demographics aren’t representative. I don’t think there is as much lying as some people make out. What would the point be. It is easy to be in a bubble. For me, it was a pretty straight forward path to £50k as I was on a grad scheme. It was harder work increasing from there. I never hit the £80k but got close before mat leaves etc. I’ve reached my ceiling though. Different sectors will have different ‘attainable’ salaries without having to be director level and I think you base perception on what you know. Eg if you’re a teacher, head of department is probably attainable for lots of people at some point in career but most people won’t be a head.

Good points. Same with law - if you are one of the very few able to get a top City job you will get about £40k in London when training and £80k+ when qualifying but most 10 years after that are not partners on £500k+.

I agree with a lot of the posters on here

But especially with jacobs last post

But also the op said on mumsnet, practically everyone claims to have a 100k plus salary

People like me who mention Our husbands earnings are probably skewing the results

Although I obviously wouldn’t go on a thread requesting my wages and quote dhs...but i would go on a thread about household income or the current ‘high earners will leave the country’ threads

I think most of that 5% will be public sector employees.
NHS/ councils, who publish salaries.
Ime in the private sector once people are in that bracket they make themselves limited companies and get paid as self employed, corporation tax rather than paye. They aren’t in these stats.

Think off the bbc and their employee salaries- lots are ‘missing’ because they aren’t classing themselves as employees.

Dh is paye

As are the other higher earners in his firm

But i agree that there are probably a fair few ‘rich’ people missing from the stats

“Even in this thread, which isn't remotely asking people how much they earn, you've got numerous people posting about how much they or their husband earns!”

Er, the thread title is implying that many people on MN must be lying about their family’s incomes because of the “5%” govt stat. How can you respond to or challenge that without stating the fact if your own income and the demographic you are in? We can all only speak for ourselves.

As I said, have a look on the schools threads. Every year the threads about getting into certain independents go on and on - often multiple threads with hundreds of contributors. It’s is quite London-centric to be honest, but there’s a good proportion of people who live all over the country, talking about this or that boarding school. They find each other on here. I discovered MN through googling info on application processes / reviews about London Day Schools, so it’s reasonable to expect that many others cross over to AIBU via this route into the site.

I think it is representative of MN. Because a lot of us posting throughout the day are sahms/housewives who have the time to do so.

A good number of us doing so, are enabled by DHs income, as in his income is high enough to not require me having a second income for the household.

The household income of two professionals on £60k mean neither exceed the £80k threshold, but combined household does. Many people are in this situation, but they're at work, not posting on online forums during the day.

DH is on 6 figure salary. So, there's really no need for me to add a marginal amount to that with a part time job which will essentially get wiped out with the childcare costs. And that's why I'm at home with the ability to post on MN as and when. For balance though, technically it's not my income, so whilst DH falls into that bracket, I, on the other hand very much don't.

It's because MN isn't representative of the population. Otherwise we wouldn't have Tory Government as literally 99% of people on her wouldn't vote for them ever and don't t know anyone else who does.

And I agree, many so called “high earners” will not actually be “salaried” at all. The 5% will be far from the full story. There are investors, shareholders, entrepreneurs, non-exec directors of multiple companies. People often have multiple business interests and their money is in various asset management schemes. It’s not a case of a defined salary. People pay school fees through dividends on shares / investments, or via portfolios on the City Index, for instance.

But verily then that means more than 5% earn £80000. What about those working in private companies?

I don't think I know anyone on over 80k (colleagues aside - I work in a hospital so the consultants will be on more). I'm now part time but when I was full time I earned less than even half 80k (DH under 30k too).

@cosima1 oh I believe you all right. The statistics mask a lot. Once people start getting shares and options, or indeed start and retain ownership of companies, incomes (not salaries) become huge. I’m almost shocked when I see clients ‘only’ earning £80k... but that will get you hung out to dry here.

Ive got clients who’s salary is £400k, but actually by the time they have all their shares etc it’s around the £2M mark. I’ve got plenty taking £600/800k and lots on 300/400k, but it’s not ‘pay’ as such, it’s shares that really make the difference. Oh and I’ve not even mentioned the £800k- £1m ‘partners’ in LLP profit share.

There’s a lot of money in the UK.

The population of the UK is about 66 million.

About 60% of those are between the ages of 18 and 60 - 39.6 million.

That makes for 1 in 25 working age adults earning over 80k - but not all working age adults will be working, of course.

There’s a lot of money in the UK.

I agree, there's a huge amount of money in the UK. And if we assume that everyone on MN who says they or their husband earns over 80k is telling the truth, they're not actually saying that they earn 80k as a PAYE employee, just that they earn over 80k. So in that sense mumsnet versus the official statistics needn't necessarily be contradictory. The London - centric nature of the site also makes it more likely for people to be high earners I suppose.

Earning a big salary is fine by me, well done anyone who has achieved that. The only thing that bothers me is when people insist that the reason they earn it is because they have a better work ethic than other people. They certainly have a better work ethic than people who can't be arsed working, or who ring in sick because they've had a late night, or who spend their work days avoiding doing anything. But the same can be said of low income workers who turn up on time every day, work hard and don't take the piss.

As far as I am aware, I don’t know anyone who earns 80k.

I am friends with a few people who earn that (and more) on their own. Most of my couple friends are on that (and more) as household income. DH and I don’t make it to £80k joint but obviously £80k joint gives more take home cash than £80k single earner.

The only thing that bothers me is when people insist that the reason they earn it is because they have a better work ethic than other people couldn’t agree more. I do think they often work differently though. Hard work, is just that though, hard work. It bears no relationship to how much you get for doing it.

Tbh, I actually don’t believe that most people are lying about their high salaries.
As other posters have pointed out, threads about salaries often attract those who earn loads of money and want to boast about it as they are probably not able to do so in real life. Furthermore, if you read those threads there are many who claim to be on minimum wage. However, we focus on those with the high salaries.
My dh is an accountant and there are many people who earn a whole lot of money (150k+} but they are usually business owners .