High Earners on MN?

[BitOfFun]

How? The actual leader of my county council doesn't earn more than £100K- where and what are all these super-maxed out occupations? I genuinely don't understand how mumsnetters (often relatively young) access these magic jobs I've never heard of.

YABU- they are there for the taking, you just made poor choices

YANBU- people here are very creative and there's an outside chance they may be lying exaggerating.

God I sound like a knob

I echo what others have said regarding taking some posts regarding salary with a pinch of salt.

Absolutely there are high earners on here, but anyone can say anything on an online forum and no one has a clue if it’s true.

Strangely I tend to believe most other posts.....

I earn a six figure salary. I work 4 days per week and do not overtime, ever. No calls/ emails outside work hours. I don't have to manage anybody, or have the stress if running my own business. But that is because I have technical skills people need.

If you work hard at academics etc when young and work crazy hours in your 20s then yes, by your early 30s you can chill a bit. I have a lot of flexibility now to work when I like, even before Covid I mostly worked from home. I never work weekends, I work hours to suit me around childcare etc.

Salary rates are about scarcity of skill. NME jobs are those that anybody can learn to do fairly quickly (I have done many in the past). If you learn rare or difficult skills that are in demand, and work for matching qualifications if necessary, and are good at what you do, then you get paid proportionately more for that because you are more difficult to replace.

Many people resent people on higher salaries but ignore the fact it meant spending all of their teens and 20s studying and working relentlessly to get to that point. And that they then pay much higher taxes that subsidise everyone else.

And no, I didn't have some gilded life. I've lived on my own since I was 17 and my childhood was shit. No private school, no leg up, no contacts. Just hard work and motivation.

I really agree with the poster who said we need to educate girls better on this. Plenty of well paid careers out there, and salary should be considered as a factor when deciding what to study.

@JudgeRindersMinder

You can’t compare high end salaries with local government salaries-local govt has never been massively well paid, but has traditionally been quite secure, so it’s a bit of a trade off

Agreed. My dp is senior public sector and has 100s of folk reporting up to him... I'm private sector in a lucrative industry with zero direct reports... I make ~£150k, he makes ~£100k (non UK). The difference is he has a large pension waiting for him and a great deal of job security, in theory I have little.

I work 9-4 M-F, at most (I'm paid for results not hours), and take no work home ever. I don't even have push notifications for work emails set up on my phone.

I have a bachelors degree in nonsense from an awful university as well. I am an immigrant who arrived with no network. I got where I am based on being a confident public speaker, a very good writer, a quick study, and reasonably attractive/charming.

That and an ability to smile, nod, and clean up messes for other overpaid people, without making them feel bad about themselves folk will pay the world for that service.

@Crazycrazylady

I'm Irish and Dh and I are both what I would term high ish earners. He is 100k and I'm 85k but cost of living here is high too.. we take home about 8kish between us Mortgage is 1700 Childcare is 2000k 2 cars 800- (two decent commutes ) Kids activities 500. Groceries 1000 Electric / bills etc 500

We're absolutely comfortable but I definitely don't feel 'rich' by any stretch of the imagination.
We have a take away every weekend and do holiday twice a year but don't have loads of savings.

This. People don't realise how much tax is paid, then the mortgage/ childcare costs. Then not much left after bills and food. It looks like a lot on paper but isn't in reality. Not if you move to an area where those jobs are in the first place.

I am a single mother with minimal contribution from my children's father most months and my outgoings are similar to yours but have to be met by one salary while I also single parent so have limited flexibility etc.

My children don't get a holiday usually, but I hope to change that when my salary improves or my childcare cost reduces as they get older.

If people guess at my salary and think I'm "rich" without considering these costs, then they simply don't get it. It is hard to provide for the children alone with the high cost of living here (but can't move as my job only exists here!) and I am a bit fed up of being painted as "the rich" who have spare money to chuck around/ be taxed even more: I do not. Especially to support two parent households when I'm trying to do it alone, it is a massive kick in the teeth to keep seeing in the media that apparently I am not paying enough! 🤷🏻‍♀️

God I sound like a knob

You don't sound like a knob 😂

I do disagree on the mental health aspect though and want to see the end of mental health being linked to the ability to succeed. I thnk women are 40% more likely to develop a MH illness than men so that's just that really, but it must not stop us teaching our daughters that below par mental health could impede their career. Workplaces are obliged to have inclusion policies in place (i don't how many do in reality) which should cater for mental illness. If we lead our daughters to believe they can't talk openly about any MH issues they have at work then it will just feed into the narrative that it's something to be ashamed of and can even worsen our health.

I also believe (just my opinion) that certain mental illnesses can actually aid a successful career! Mine gives me a scarily good ability to compartmentalise and also the skill of disassociation which both loan themselves very nicely to some things I have to do at work. Quite handy really 😂

There's another thread going on at the moment about people being able to lie on here about being a high earner and I'm pretty sure i said this at the start of this thread, of course some people lie in life but i think it's worth sifting through a few lies about salary because the majority will be true and I'm a big advocate of women discussing salary openly (should they want to). We have nothing to be ashamed of. We can be ambitious, fight for jobs, we can want the extra money. And the more we hear about other women doing the same thing the more normalised it will become.

@JaneAndMichaelStamp I more meant that it's far easier to succeed if you don't have to contend with a major mental health issue like depression, BPD or PTSD.

@JaneAndMichaelStamp admittedly my MH opinion is based on two or three people I know.

Two very talented women on my BA course who did excellently in first year. One developed depression the other anxiety and their grades just utterly tumbled. They managed to get thirds, and I was very proud of them because they seemed utterly broken by the end.

And a sibling of mine who I think has BPD. She got a fab career but now is teetering on the edge of losing it all. Men, mistakes, booze, suicide attempts. They can really steal it all. She cannot do her job if she continues as she is and it's like watching a really slow car crash.

coriander you make a really good point and i guess it's important to say that while i advocate very much for women being open to and to expect to be supported at work if they are having mental health issues, it's crucial that they are in the right place to receive that help. I've had some extreme nervous breakdowns and when i think back one of my workplaces was really trying to help but i ignored it and carried on destructively. More recently, maybe because I'm older and have more to lose I'm much more aware of my part to play in my workplace accepting me mental illnesses and all! There's only so much career development you'll be offered if you're not seen to want to help yourself or lack awareness of the impact of your mental health on your job.

The attitudes of some posters on here towards high earning women is very depressing. Almost as depressing are the women who decide that we are all lying and then mention their husband's 6 figure salary; te women who believe we are not worth anything to society because many don't have caring roles and the women who believe that we don't work hard.
I may have come across as flippant in my post but I have worked my arse off in the last 30 years to reach this stage in my career where I am an international expert in my field. I've worked in very difficult and sometimes dangerous situations, I've worked long hours and unsociable hours and I've studied for higher and professional qualifications alongside. I've also undertaken research projects and published extensively in collaboration with organisations all over the world. I've taken every and all opportunities and when I decided I wanted to go freelance, I first spent 2 years building up clients and doing that work alongside a full time job.
I've earned every penny of what I've been paid.

Girls need to hear from women like me to understand that they can achieve the high flying careers and the high salaries. They need to know that their options are more than marriage, babies and part time roles and an unfulfilling life if they don't want that.

Spot on secretspad

@SecretSpAD

The attitudes of some posters on here towards high earning women is very depressing. Almost as depressing are the women who decide that we are all lying and then mention their husband's 6 figure salary; te women who believe we are not worth anything to society because many don't have caring roles and the women who believe that we don't work hard. I may have come across as flippant in my post but I have worked my arse off in the last 30 years to reach this stage in my career where I am an international expert in my field. I've worked in very difficult and sometimes dangerous situations, I've worked long hours and unsociable hours and I've studied for higher and professional qualifications alongside. I've also undertaken research projects and published extensively in collaboration with organisations all over the world. I've taken every and all opportunities and when I decided I wanted to go freelance, I first spent 2 years building up clients and doing that work alongside a full time job. I've earned every penny of what I've been paid.

Girls need to hear from women like me to understand that they can achieve the high flying careers and the high salaries. They need to know that their options are more than marriage, babies and part time roles and an unfulfilling life if they don't want that.

This. Well done - you sound like an inspirational woman. Girls (and boys) in school would benefit so much from having women like you as regular speakers.

I call BS on most of it. We live in the most affluent part of an expensive city, between me and my husband we earn £90k a year and it's a lot. We have money mostly because that is actually more than decent take home pay but also some inheritance money in the mix. Very few people earn over £100k, even fewer women and again even fewer women under the age of 40 with kids. A dad at school probably earns more than £100k as a pilot but he hates it and his wife can't work because of his hours and the kids. Maybe by husband's cousins earn over £100k at he works in the city and she's a London solicitor but again, they're in the minority. Not many people can pull a Cambridge degree and rich parents out of the bag. Your earnings in this country are nearly always decided by where you were born and who your parents are. Anyone claiming otherwise is denying some sort of privilege they have, or is otherwise really optimistic about this country being a meritocracy!

Not to say there isn't any value in hard work but if you're earning above average I think that's a good wage, especially if you can pay your bills and have a nice quality of life. People should be proud of that and it takes ambition, qualifications and hard work to get there for most people. Saying anything under £100k is low is unrealistic. People earning £30k, £40k are doing well and is say anything over £50k is well paid.

frazzled because I'm in the south East (i imagine?) i know many people who earn over £100k. All of the men in our close family friends do and yep - all Cambridge or Oxford grads. All their wives gave up work when they had their first babies. Except me. I now out earn all those men by some way. I have more kids than any of those couples. I just say this to agree with you. I am very much an outlier in this group of people. It's definitely unusual (especially because they are all basically posh and I'm rough as they come!) I really hope by the time my kids are in work that this is not the case.

I often wonder how all these lawyers and doctors etc have the time (and the will) to be on MN

In the previous financial/tax year, I earned an equivalent of about £500k and my husband makes even more as a senior counsel in international law.

To be honest, on a day-to-day, I don't have as much to do. The pressure is only I take the final responsibility for the division I head.

I have more freedom/flexibility/benefits than most would imagine as others on the same level in the company I work for.

It’s really not that surprising that in certain fields a lot of people (including women) earn over 100k. In the top 5-10 U.K. law firms, lawyers are earning 90k on qualification - that’s after completing just a 2-year traineeship, and there are hundreds of them in any 1 year cohort. By 1-2 years post-qualified they’re already on 100k. Salaries were lower when I qualified but anyone I know who stayed in law having started at a top law firm is on more than 100k. A lot of women have dropped out over the years but those who haven’t are generally on a good wedge.

You’d have to be on that salary to afford a mortgage in London. But most directors and senior managers are in that bracket and that’s a case of climbing the ladder or running your own business. You have to have drive and energy plus you’ll need to put in the hours but it’s an achievable goal. I worked abroad when I was younger and made $100,000 on one contract. And that’s in a medical field. You have to have drive and energy plus you’ll need to put in the hours but it’s an achievable goal. Remember, driving a tube train pays £60k , see what I mean.

Sorry, repeated myself there.

Thank you frazzled - I find this thread very depressing to read ... but somehow can't stop ... it's weirdly additive.

@Frazzledme

I call BS on most of it. We live in the most affluent part of an expensive city, between me and my husband we earn £90k a year and it's a lot. We have money mostly because that is actually more than decent take home pay but also some inheritance money in the mix. Very few people earn over £100k, even fewer women and again even fewer women under the age of 40 with kids. A dad at school probably earns more than £100k as a pilot but he hates it and his wife can't work because of his hours and the kids. Maybe by husband's cousins earn over £100k at he works in the city and she's a London solicitor but again, they're in the minority. Not many people can pull a Cambridge degree and rich parents out of the bag. Your earnings in this country are nearly always decided by where you were born and who your parents are. Anyone claiming otherwise is denying some sort of privilege they have, or is otherwise really optimistic about this country being a meritocracy!

I actually agree with you @Frazzledme

Seems like 1 in 3 people earns £100k. I call BS on it too!!

@Autumnchills

It’s really not that surprising that in certain fields a lot of people (including women) earn over 100k. In the top 5-10 U.K. law firms, lawyers are earning 90k on qualification - that’s after completing just a 2-year traineeship, and there are hundreds of them in any 1 year cohort. By 1-2 years post-qualified they’re already on 100k. Salaries were lower when I qualified but anyone I know who stayed in law having started at a top law firm is on more than 100k. A lot of women have dropped out over the years but those who haven’t are generally on a good wedge.

That’s right in what you’re saying, but they can’t all be on here?!

As you point out, the top 5/10 law firms. There is a ceiling on the number of employees that could include.