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.

It’s all relative isn’t it. I earn well for my age and location but it’s a drop in the ocean compared to my friend who does a similar job in London.

SonjaMorgan that took me a minute. 😁 Probably why I’m not in the high earning bracket. 😳😁

In London both DH and I earned 6 figures. Neither of us have private education, but we have worked incredibly hard to get where we are. DH is a lawyer, I worked in banking and insurance and now we live in a different part of UK, I do some part-time consulting and DH commutes to London and works in regional office also. We're in a fantastic position now, but it hasn't always been the case. Early years (me working, him studying) were really hard.

There are lots of useless careers out there that pay well - crazily well, in relation to what it is that they actually do. I don't know many people who earn big money but then I'm a nurse and many of my friends work in nursing, teaching etc.

My job is notoriously low paid for what the role actually is and many people have no clue exactly what it is a nurse really does besides the day to day tasks that they see them carry out. But I love my job and wouldn't swap it for one that pays 4 times the amount!

Absolutely when I was younger I wanted to do biology because I loved animals. It was my dream to work with them sadly these jobs paid peanuts so I did a stem subject then went into software. Now just shy of 100k income.

These jobs are available to girls but you need to apply to them, you need to study for them. When I see young girls aspiring to do dance or other professions i often wonder how they will pay the bills and is there actually an aspiration gap. It is criminal that on my university course 10% were female. Not because women were rejected but they chose not to apply. Compared to medicine it is awful as over 50% were female. Come on ladies join me in tech there is plenty of money to be made. To quote that perfectly acceptable advert from yesterday Fatima's next job may well be in cyber and I bet she will get paid a shed load more for doing it.

No one in my local work, social group or friendship group is on anything less than £80k -its just a fact of life in bits of London - lawyers, doctors, accountants, hedgies, not much media where I live...

Around 3% of UK taxpayers earn over £100k.

www.gov.uk/government/statistics/percentile-points-from-1-to-99-for-total-income-before-and-after-tax

Sorry that last post was a reply to @Quandaries

Agree thoroughly with PP who said we need to be starkly honest with girls about what you earn in different careers. I frequently get wheeled out to talk at DH’s school (significant number of pupils would qualify for FSM) about finance and the opportunities it offers women because they simply don’t have the experience of seeing women in those roles. I don’t earn six figures (unless you start including employers pension contributions and bonus) but I earn enough to make my life a million times easier than if I were doing the same hours for half the money.

In my case a privileged background, serious academic qualifications followed by a decade of working 70 hour weeks before flight into industry is how I got my well paid role.

The actual leader of my county council doesn't earn more than £100K

The CEOs of borough councils in London earn well over 100k, as do directors on a couple of layers below them. These roles are all benchmarked so if that's the going rate in the public sector then private sector roles will be way above that. Course these roles aren't all there for the taking, it takes the right blend of experience and calibre (although there's some ineptitude for sure), but the pay structures are clear to see for anyone planning their career. Thing is most people can't or don't plan their career so tend to reach a limit for one reason or another.

The funny thing, people earning around £100k don't consider themselves high earners....

I am not being goady, before some poster jumps in who believes "high earner" is anyone earning more than them...

but once you pay tax, nearly half your salary vanishes in this country, commute for many, no help, an expensive mortgage - sorry but you have to live somewhere and 1 to 2 hours away from the office is more than enough even to get a cheaper one..
well, there' not much left.

"high earners" might end up with a lot less than someone working less hours and many really don't see themselves as high earners - especially the ones dealing with people who earn a lot more, in salary or bonuses.

Between DH and I we earn 120k but most of that is DH - he gets 95k as a software developer in FinTech.

He also gets an annual bonus which I haven't included in the above. It's usually about 40k.

I don't have any trouble believing there are megabucks earners on here or that they post. I would be wary of believing that everyone who claims to be a megabucks earner is one, though.

@nongnangning most high earners I know already wfh 1-2 days a week so I'm not sure tbh.

I take it all with a pinch of salt.

*To be in the top 1% of income tax payers in the UK (i.e. to be among the 310,000 individuals with the highest income), a taxable income of at least £160,000 is required.£236,000 is required to be in the top 0.5% and nearly £650,000 to be in the top 0.1%.

The top 1% of income tax payers are disproportionately male, middle-aged and London-based*

The above is from the IFS. I'd say there are some wealthy, high earning posters on MN, but you are more likely to meet them on the Education board or Style and Beauty than AIBU.

The CEO of the company I work for earns about 2 million a year. 2 MILLION. The gap between the top and the bottom in our company is absolutely insane. Bottom is about 12k......

Our combined monthly income is about £6800.

I do think getting a 80k job is achievable without having to go to private school, Oxbridge etc but in many industries the highly paid 140 plus jobs are hard to access. I don't think I know any MC law partners that didn't go to private school although that is changing.

[quote thedancingbear]Around 3% of UK taxpayers earn over £100k.

www.gov.uk/government/statistics/percentile-points-from-1-to-99-for-total-income-before-and-after-tax[/quote]
All 3% of them must post on MN.

Doctors, dentists, maybe headteachers (?) might get to 100k plus towards the end of their careers.

A junior banker or lawyer with a few years' experience working for a top firm or bank in London will get there easily by age 28. But you have to have a good degree and be prepared to sacrifice your entire life for your job. At that age, they are paying for your 24/7 availability and ability to cope with extreme stress.

DH grew up in a poor mining village with an abusive father. He got free school meals. He is a very high earner now. He worked hard, chose the correct profession and didn’t let his childhood experience hinder him.
He worked incredibly long hours in his 20’s/30’s but not so much now.
I earned just over 100k 2 years in a row, but it almost killed me. I’m much happier being at home with the kids (I work a day and a half a week too).

Also wages imo have stagnated (not maybe in tech). The jobs that paid 80k-100k 5 plus yrs ago still seem to pay that.

There are a lot of fantasisers here.

I’m in this bracket. But when a 4 bed in my corner of London is approaching £1mi and school fees are beyond reach, I’m clearly not the only one.

I’m ambitious, worked bloody hard and have a job where I have to constantly risk manage and make decisions.