I earn a 6 figure salary...

[herehearher]

Just reading another thread and pretty much every post is going on about "6 figure salary" - as if this is some sort of meaningful marker.

But obviously there's a massive difference between someone on £100k and someone on £900k. So by "6 figure salary" are they just essentially saying they earn around £100k? If they earned £250k, how is it acceptable to describe that?

@gnilliwdog

Exactly.

Bit odd people are denying thats the the case

You'd think that with the amount of stealth boasts, but what an odd thing to lie about! People don't know you, they really don't care anyway, and it won't make you any richer in real life!

Why do you ask?
What relevance does it have?

Most places have more inequality than the UK.
That's why immigrants come here, surprise!

Well - it's the sort of country where you are murdered for supporting the wrong political party, being the wrong religion, for being poor.
Where a poor person's murder isn't even acknowledged let alone investigated.
Where poor people's homes are bulldozed to make way for foreign dignitaries hotel stays.
A country where a whole state is put into lockdown so the police can go in and murder and burn down minorities' homes.
So, if the natives of these kind of countries do well in a country where they face racism than you can understand why I don't understand what UK poor people are complaining about. Your country, your language, you are white, state schools are free, you have libraries.
Honestly, I don't have sympathy.
If you want something, you'll get it.

Health is the only variable that no matter how good a lifestyle and clean diet you keep, can still fail you.

Not all uk poor people are white.

Quite a lot of poor people in the UK are not white.

I imagine most people want not to be poor.

Why arent they getting it?

@Topgub The righteousness of wealth is riddled throughout politics, the church and the class system. It's a wonder anyone wakes up to the ridiculous cruelty of it really.

I think it’s often just chance. I work in financial technology and have averaged 100k plus for at least the last 20 years. I am in my 60s, have no job security, and have to continually learn new technologies but I struggle to imagine not doing what I do.

I am not cleverer or more hard working than people who earn less, but I was lucky enough in my 20s to fall into an industry which pays well (I made a random move from a tech role in a local authority to a similar role in an Investment Bank) and to have a DH whose job has allowed me to prioritise work (which was very much expected earlier in my career).

I am completely shit with money, partly because accumulating wealth does not interest me ( I am more than happy to pay higher rate tax) and partly because I don’t generally think about what I spend.

For me not having to think about money is the best thing about working in an industry where it is easy to earn a lot more than I need. It also means that I can choose new roles on the basis of whether they look interesting, not whether they maximise my salary.

The vast majority are white simply because it's a predominantly white country!

I can't speak for recent immigrants because I don't have enough interest to look into the issues of every immigrant group here.

I'm talking about the immigrants of the 60's, 70's, 80's - whose kids are in decent jobs.
People that are 40 plus now.
Usually that age group earn the most.

In my school year in the 90's - 300 kids - 30 non white.
6th form all non white.

It's the culture.
Education isn't valued for a start.

@Topgub

I don't see the 99% stat anyway - the first link has a paywall.
'Inequality' isn't quite relevant because the top 1% is so skewed, equally the mean makes no sense. Only the median.

If you read my posts I never said that everyone could become a top earner. Only the degree of possibility, in the UK. If you want to discuss the rest of the world then you're shooting yourself in the foot, because compared to a majority of the world the UK is heaven. Many countries don't have benefits, schools, running water or even allow people to go to university.

@TyneTortoise

The data supports the fact that wealth inequality and social mobility are poor in the UK and globally.

You can Google your own links if you like.

No one is denying its possible to work your way from poverty or even average earnings to be a 'top earner'

Just that statistically it's unlikely. You're more (much more) likely to be a 'top earner' if you come from top earners.

Hard work plays a small part. The more money you start with, the smaller part it plays. Regardless of how hard you work.

But that's not logical is it? There is a finite number of highly paid positions and the demand for people to do them won't suddenly increase in line with capacity.
Quite the reverse. If more people equip themselves to be capable of these jobs the value of them would decrease.
So, no, more people than we think can't get top jobs. The same amount can as already do, which is the amount needed to fill them.

@IVFPrayingForBioChild In the 70s one earner could support a household, education including uni was free, many jobs had security, pensions etc, it was a different time with more opportunity for all of us really. Many immigrants work really hard to build a life here, but I think it is harder now for everyone.

A user called 'savebuckbeak' has created an adjacent thread called "For those on 6 (or almost 6 ) figure salaries - how old are you, what do you do, and how did you get into it?"

To which I'd add what role did luck or privilege play? (That's not meant in a hostile way).

Out of curiosity I had a look to see what £100+k jobs QMUL (where I already work) has in play and it turns out I'm not qualified for either 😁- that said technically I could lecture on metabolism... a bit... and could probably also say some useful things about liver disease but, sadly, not at the level required ;)

Clinical Senior Lecturer in Metabolism - Salary: £84,559 - £114,003 plus LW £2,162

Clinical Professor / Reader in Advance Liver Disease - Salary: £84,559 - £114,003 plus LW £2,162

Jo

I was the first generation of university kids that had to pay university fees (if only I was born 2 months earlier).
Some really poor kids didn't have to pay anything.
Isn't that the case now - really poor families get free education at university level?
Plus, if you take on student debt, what's the issue, you only pay it back once you're earning and at a low rate.
So, what's stopping people?
Plus, you don't even need university education these days - lots of training courses via workplaces.
This doesn't lead to £100k but it helps you out of poverty.
Why do people spend so much money?
Why do people need holidays abroad?
Why do people drink, smoke, gamble?
This is all a waste of money.

Unless you have health issues, you can make a difference in your work and income life sections.

Is there a finite number of highly paid positions? I know that there is not an infinite number of them, but there may - as @TyneTortoise says - be rather more capacity than is apparent.
It's not just Tory ministers that have a strong herd instinct, Magic Circle law firms are currently fighting over new graduates, banks decide that they want experts in machine learning or people to build complex models and people are drawn from other industries. I know an animator for feature films who was a physicist working at CERN until he received an offer that was too high to turn down.
For those wanting to pay their bills for forty or fifty years, it's depressing to think that fad and fashion may be key drivers of their future career but there are many ways to make £2,000 per week.

I still think this is an interesting thread even though I have had a few kicks!
What would have been useful at my sink school would have been talks by successful people. This seems to happen in private schools but not really in state ones. I wonder why that is?
Big money usually means big expense. Even down to clothes, cars etc. Wealthy people keep many artisan businesses going.
However there is a price to pay. Many top executives are unhappy or have addictions. I did say in my original post if I had my time again I wouldn't take the same career path. Shock, horror I would be a teacher.
I am at the final stages of my career. It is too late for me to change but I will be working for free after I retire. Someone else can earn my big fat salary but I hope it's a woman. We're not all selfish gits.

@PrimoPiatti I think your micawber thing has a great ring of truth - My DB and DIL earn less than DH & I but live in less expensive area of the country ( which is fine for their jobs and they like it ) I would bet they have have a better standard of living than us ( so eg holidays weekends away nice cars ( though they need them for jobs ) - the very great difference is they have been lucky enough to get jobs close to family but in an area where house prices are a fraction of where DH & I live. Less than a 6 figure salary ( not sure what they earn combined - but doubt it gets to 6 figures - a guess - never asked ) goes a very great way where they live to having a nice lifestyle.

But surely its the rarity of the skill set that keeps the value high? If companies had large pools of potential applicants to choose from they wouldn't have to pay such high incentives to attract the few. Which is the reason we don't pay road sweepers 6 figures. Nothing to do with how hard they work, simply because we don't have to as, with no disrespect, it's not difficult to find someone with the skill set.
I think if more people 'tried harder' or whatever it is people believe would put such jobs within the grasp of more people, all that would happen is the creation of an employers market with more people competing for the same jobs. Possibly a new demographic of people might be able to win some of the jobs away from the traditional people who do them, but this wouldn't mean 99% of the population still didn't have one.
And yes, it is sometimes possible to create a demand and fill it. But this invariably just means a new industry taking custom and income away from an existing one, as there's only so much business to go round.

Do you have a link to that, to only 1% earning a very different amount to their parents?

That seems very low.

Yes, the rarity of the skill tends to lead to the higher pay - that applies to footballers as much as those who can do neurosurgery and top lawyers and bankers and management consultants and actuaries. Also how popular it is - some media jobs and arts and fashion jobs (not all) are low paid (a) because a lot of women want to do them and are not as forceful as men (sadly) at insisting on higher pay and (b) so many people want to do them whereas some less popular sectors have higher pay.

There are lots of interesting issues on this threads so cannot address them all. Usually people do well for a variety of reasons - not only luck and not only hard work but a mixture. Eg I am very lucky just about never to be ill or is that genetics (I just got my genetic test back from a website and I am just blown away by the lack of inherited disease last week - I feel like I won a health lottery but of course it's not a lottery in that sense - it is DNA from the ancestors) and partly I am not ill as I don't smoke, drink etc etc.

IVF said - "Isn't that the case now - really poor families get free education at university level?" Yes, Labour sees it as one o f its key wins that under student loans ( as well as grants) the less well off your parents are the more help you get. it is one reason people want to move to the UK from abroad - the free education in state schools and at university stage particularly those from cultures abroad which value education more than many in the UK. The UK is 3% black and 12% non-white which perhaps those in their little circle of inner City living might forget.

It’s astonishing how many people on here need a major lesson in privilege.

@JoBrodie

I think you have good points but the word 'luck' gets people's backs up.

I use the word 'fortune' or fortunate which seems to work better in this context.

For example:

I am fortunate that my children didn't have any additional needs which meant I could really focus on my career and travel freely when I needed to.

I am fortunate that I've been fit and healthy and haven't had any unwanted breaks in my career.

I am fortunate that I didn't have any conditions or mental health issues that stopped me from putting myself forward for projects and promotions.

All of these things have definitely made my career progression easier and I genuinely recognise that,

I'm on seven figures. To two decimal places.

Not many people will be earning that amount of money.

Also for some ''earning'' will include having inherited wealth and maybe owning/letting several properties which to me is not really actual work or they are adding a partner's salary into the mix.

Or you might be a business owner/self-employed and you make make that amount in profit but your earning will actually will be much less once you have paid what you own in your tax every year.

So I do agree that there is a lot of embellishment here about how wealthy people are and the idea that ''hard work'' is all it takes to get a high salary is rubbish.

People who actually work the hardest (nurses, teachers, cleaners, care assistant) will never manage to earn that amount of money.

You only have to look at the current government...their money comes from privileged backgrounds, having the right contacts and not from ''hard work''.

I'm nearly on that.

I moved in with my Mum to commute to London after my home was repossessed. I moved out and was skint. I married an abusive DH. I took a promotion, moved to another job, then kicked out DH and am bringing up DD alone.

I then completed a masters and sacrificed any "me" time and evenings I had. Then I was made redundant and have been searching for a new job for three months.

Tomorrow I'm starting my first Director level job. I can honestly say I've had to persevere through some massive challenges to make it this far.

From the outside, I may seem "lucky" but no one knows how much effort I've put in to get this far. I just don't tell them!

What annoys me is that two people earning £50k each are much better off than one person earning £100k. The whole system seems to be swayed to force women to live with a partner...

And daily hard work is different from acquiring new skills and competencies, imo. I used to be a cleaner and worked hard, but wasn't learning anything new to offer to the market.