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Original poster

To think the headline about young MP giving away half her wage is misleading?

198 replies

SarahH12 · 15/12/2019 02:07

A friend shared an article with the headline "Britain's youngest MP vows to only take home £35k of her £79k salary" with lots of comments that it's great she is giving away half her salary.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/britains-youngest-mp-vows-only-21094591?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mirror_main

By the time you take into account tax, NI, pension, possibly student loan etc her take home would be in the region of 40-45k. So whilst it's great she's planning on donating 5-10k and it's a lot more than a lot of people, she is nowhere near giving away "half" her salary. Also she mentions she wants to take home a "working" salary. The average nurse takes home way less than 35k!! I work for the NHS and I don't know a single one of my colleagues who takes home that much.

OP posts:
SecondaryBurnzzz · 15/12/2019 07:58
Biscuit
Original poster
SarahH12 · 15/12/2019 08:18

@Santasleftboot after tax, NI, pension you take home 30k? Wow! In my health board and those surrounding it, top gross salary for a band 5 nurse is just over 30k.

OP posts:
TheCatInAHat · 15/12/2019 08:23

You’re criticising someone giving very generously to charity? I can only assume you give far more of your salary or time than she does?

Original poster
SarahH12 · 15/12/2019 08:23

Although I see I worded it badly. I meant most of us don't take home anywhere near 35k.

OP posts:
DuckWillow · 15/12/2019 08:26

Honestly OP, she’s doing something nice and you’re moaning.

What a stupid thread.

MLMsuperfan · 15/12/2019 08:28

Call for more fairness, you get accused of hypocrisy if you don't personally sacrifice, and virtue signalling if you do.

TheCatInAHat · 15/12/2019 08:28

Just because she earns more than you doesn’t mean it’s not incredibly generous of her to donate so much of her salary.

Original poster
SarahH12 · 15/12/2019 08:37

I don't care she earns more than me @TheCatInAHat. I also said in my OP I think it's great she donates so much. I just don't think she should be making it about taking a worker's wage when she's got her head in cloud cuckoo land if she thinks it's anywhere near the average worker's wage.

The average UK take home without a student loan and based on 5k pension is £27k.

OP posts:
Walkaround · 15/12/2019 08:38

SarahH12 - she is receiving less than half her gross salary. If you are complaining that a substantial chunk of that is already taken away in tax, NI and student loan repayments, then frankly you are worse than the misleading headline writer, given that based on a £79,000 gross income, she will be paying a substantially higher proportion and amount of all these things than you. Until you pay as much tax as her, you can fuck off trying to exclude that from any of your petty calculations. Also - do you receive any tax credits? And are you including those in your income when complaining about her income being too high? I certainly hope so.

SaskiaRembrandt · 15/12/2019 08:40

No, most people don't take home that much, but that doesn't change the fact that what she is doing is extremely generous.

TheSultanofPingu · 15/12/2019 08:41

You sound really mean minded Op.
A newly elected MP is donating some of her salary to local charities and you start a thread slagging her off. Who cares that it's not actually half her salary? All you can think about is that she's doing it for attention.
Bah humbug! Shame on you, misery guts

Original poster
SarahH12 · 15/12/2019 08:42

@Walkaround I'm not in the slightest bit complaining she pays tax etc. Just pointing out that donating 5-10k to charity is very different to donating 35k! Far from it. And no I don't and never have received tax credits or any other handout from the government.

OP posts:
FilthyforFirth · 15/12/2019 08:43

Not answering the question on how much you give away I see.

What a vile thread and sad life you must lead to start it.

Original poster
SarahH12 · 15/12/2019 08:43

@TheSultanofPingu if not for attention why the need for a news article? Plenty of us donate a huge percentage of our income without the need to publicly announce it.

OP posts:
BigChocFrenzy · 15/12/2019 08:48

What a mean OP

The new MP is donating a huge amount of her pay that hardly anyone would even consider doing.

I hadn't heard of her before, so at least this thread has gained her more admirers !

gamerwidow · 15/12/2019 08:48

She didn’t write the headline. Why drag someone who is trying to do a good thing. Why not have a go at those MPs claiming a good wage then claiming a load of expenses or getting big kick backs from lobbyists. What a weird thing to focus on. ‘Woman does good thing but not good enough for me’. Odd.

BigChocFrenzy · 15/12/2019 08:50

"Plenty of us donate a huge percentage of our income"

I don't believe you donate anything remotely as much

Walkaround · 15/12/2019 08:51

SarahH12 - how about child benefit? Or are you childless? Do you realise if she has children, she is not even entitled to that, because of her gross income? What exactly do you want? That she pay less tax and get more benefits, to be more like other workers?

TheSultanofPingu · 15/12/2019 08:51

Well maybe she wants to draw attention to the fact that there are people in her constituency that are really struggling Sarah.
You can try and make her out to be the attention seeking bad guy all you want, but you still come across to me as having a cruel unpleasant nature.
Sorry if you're a really nice person and all that, but it isn't coming across on this thread.

AllergicToAMop · 15/12/2019 08:51

You are not only unreasonable, OP, you are also being absolutely ridiculous.
Headline doesn't imply she donates half. Clearly states she will take home 35k from 79k.
"Workers wage" adjusted to the fact that she will have to make decisions which will affect well over 66 million people, and couple of billion when it comes to Brexit issues, is more than 35k take home imho...
And lastly. She is a public figure, her wages are public matter, it's a pr too, obviously it will be announced!

gamerwidow · 15/12/2019 08:52

Also she’s just 23. When I was 23 I was blowing all my salary on booze and clothes. I didn’t have the moral fortitude to think of others like that.

Sandaled · 15/12/2019 08:56

Do you donate nearly £20k then OP? I thought not.

Mlou32 · 15/12/2019 08:57

I can see what you're saying however she is at least giving some of her wage to charity. She is still on a tidy sum for not having that stressful a job compared to many lower wage jobs out there. And when politicians do this kind of thing, it is just more of a publicity stunt than anything else, like if no one was going to find out about it then I doubt they'd do it. But overall it's a good thing so it doesn't bother me too much.

Sandaled · 15/12/2019 09:00

not having that stressful a job

LMAO

InTheBleakMidwinterIWouldSing · 15/12/2019 09:03

OP. In the spirit of Christmas, and basic humanity, you really would be a happier person if you tried to find the good in people and the things they do rather than criticize. She is a young person who has become an MP and wants to highlight the plight of others and actually try and do something about it.

This bears repeating.

I don’t think I donate more than about £250/year to charity. I do give lots of things to my local charity shop, but that’s about the extent of it. She’s doing so much more than I am!

The glass is half full OP. Try changing your outlook.

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