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?!!

There’s a lot of money in the UK
Yes there is , it’s one of the reason why many foreign companies set headquarters here.

If you start a thread asking about holidays in Thailand most responders will be people who've been on holiday to thailand. That can make it feel like most people have been on holiday to thailand. It would be weird if the thread was a list of 'havent been's.

I used to work in an NHS trust and had access to payroll information. The people earning £80k plus were the directors and some doctors; a very small percentage of the 3,000 employees. Heads of departments were on £50-60k. (I was an accountant on £40k).

@isabellerossignol At what level does the sliding scale stop? Perhaps its to do with the industry in question. The accountant works in biotech and the secretary works in a private hospital.

I imagine (from the amount of disposable income they have) that most of my friends (or friends DH, if they are SAHM) earn 80k+ but I have never thought about asking them, and it has never come up in conversation.

I'm amazed at the amount of MN that know what all their friends, neighbours and work colleagues salaries are. (I know my work colleagues because I do payroll) How does this crop up in normal conversation?

I don't know anyone on 80k in my area 30k is seen as doing well

I don't believe 95% of the population are on less than £80k. Put it that way !

Ooh! London/SE centric viewpoint perhaps.

DH and I might earn about that between us.. and we are better off than most of our immediate counterparts. Most round here will struggle to hit the UK 'average'.

I'm amazed at the amount of MN that know what all their friends, neighbours and work colleagues salaries are. Well, if you now what their job is it is pretty simpe to wotrk it oufom job adverts!

As in I know what a TA earns. And can see local ads come up for carers, warehouse workers etc.

I think a lot of people state household income rather than personal income on here.

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 peoplecouldn’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.

This ^
I've brought this up before and a lot of posters absolutely wouldnt accept that there isn't a linear graph correlating hard work to earnings.
There is a lot of talk about responsibility and mental load but I still stand by the fact that that you can't 100% say harder work = higher salary.

No, a lot of people(myself included) do not have a household income of £80k. My first salary as a teacher was more than my parents household income.

i wish i was on £80K salary a year more like £10k

I'm amazed at the amount of MN that know what all their friends, neighbours and work colleagues salaries are

As well as access to publicly available salary data, I see salary, pension, benefits and tax information for everyone in our Company. I also have access to reports such as Hayes and Croner. Sometimes people simply tell you what they earn because theyve had a pay rise or redundancy.

I'm not surprised tbh. I'm 24 and most of my friends are on £35-40k. I know a good 3 people on £80k+ already

Once again, are we talking I dividusl or household earners. Mn has a high than average number of sahm and pt workers, also overall quite young (ie 40 and under).

The number of households earning over £80k in their 50s will be much higher, 2 working ft on £40k is not that exceptional. I know quite a few in that category. I know few people earning £80k and all are in their late 40s onwards.

Loving doctors can easily earn that and higher when only a couple of years out of uni

Loving doctors? Actually they don't. Most doctors earn around £30-40k. Even consultants don't routinely earn over 80k

we are talking about individual salary, not household. However in the bubble, there are many, many, many households over 50 with much lower household incomes. You are still pretty privileged to earn that as a household.

@CoastalWave I don't believe 95% of the population are on less than £80k. Put it that way !

Well they are. You are entitled to your own opinions, but you aren't entitled to your own facts.

Threads are limited to 1000 posts that’s not even a half of a percent.

Also, this is an anonymous forum. I could be Victoria Beckham and you’d never know.

However in the bubble, there are many, many, many households over 50 with much lower household incomes
We're back to the same debate, living in the North vs South, couple both working ft since living education, vs at least one being a sahm for some time and then working pt, ambition to earn more vs happy on a lower income and less stress etc...

It is not surprising that a couple that has always worked ft changing jobs for promotions is more likely to be earning £80k jointly in their 50s than a couple who have made different choices.

I don't earn anywhere near £80k, but my DH does and so do lots of his colleagues, it's just the norm for the specialised work they do. That said he knows he's in the top 5% of earners and is quite happy with paying a bit more in tax if it means that local services can be properly funded.

I have no idea how much my friends earn, but the wealthiest people I know are not on PAYE! I do know that all my friends have a nice life, have fairly senior jobs so 80k as a joint income doesn't sound very far from the truth, it would be more on the low estimate.
I do know that most people around me don't qualify for child benefit, why would they lie and moan about that?

The only people I do know have a very low income are the school TA. It's not a judgement, the salaries are well know. Funnily enough, they have the nicest cars on the car park.. either by choice, or because their partner is not doing too badly.

What I do know is how much houses cost around here, and how quickly they sell and how many household are paying for very expensive improvements. So I don't know any of my neighbours or friends financial situation, but they clearly have money from somewhere and are nowhere near the minimum wage.

It's also my job to know how much people are earning, and posters who smirk at the notion of high earners haven't got a clue what the real world looks like!

@Dontdisturbmenow my parents live in the south east, very near London, a commuter area. They are early 60s and have never earned that amount. Me and DH are early 40s, and if we lived where my parents did we would earn very similar to what we earn now (just outside fringe). Me and DH will never earn a combined amount of 80k. We are both educated, professional jobs.

Picture your journey to school or work.
The bin men you see won't be on £80k
The cafe, shop, hairdresser workers you pass won't be on £80k
The secretary, nurse, TAs, teachers and pretty much everyone in school except the head won't be on £80K
The bus drivers won't be on £80K
The many many admin, junior, lower and middle management people you see won't be on £80K
The people who work in your staff canteen, at your gym, in your post work cocktail bar won't be on £80K
Your cleaner won't be in £80
The staff at your child's nursery won't be on £80K
The soft play staff won't be on £80K

In your company a few senior people will be on £80K. If its a big company then quite a few people will be, but a lot more won't be

In any given work place, with a few notable exceptions, £80K represents a fairly senior position, one of the top few if not the actual head. In many work places even the head won't be anywhere near that

It isn't hard to believe that out of 100 normal adults you pass in the street each day only 5 of them will be earning this much or more

I live in a pretty wealthy neighbourhood in an average city, my street is one of the priciest and it counts as 'Liberal elite'
Most of my friends and neighbours have one income somewhere around £80K and a second one closer to £40K

These people are not average earners. They are the wealthiest group in a city of hundreds of thousands
I used to live in London and lived in a much less celubrious area. I had friend on all income bands there, we were in the top two or three couples we knew income wise with salaries very like those mentioned above.

A lot of middle class people have salaries between £40-80K. Not that many earn much more than this.
A much bigger lot of people have salaries more in the £12-£25K range. A LOT. Just because you don't mix with them doesn't mean they don't exist.

To all those saying they only know people on £80K+ salaries: Walk around your local town centre in a Saturday and play guess the income. You'll soon see 'people less like you' earn a lot less, and there are a lot of them

but some of us are talking about household income too - 80k is easily reached by many.

More interesting are the studies, not the views and opinion of random MN posters, on how much disposable people actually have, when you compare a higher salary but with higher tax and 0 help, and a much lower income BUT much lower tax rate AND benefits (including but not only child benefit and so on...)