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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

I earn a 6 figure salary...

552 replies

herehearher · 09/07/2022 09:49

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?

OP posts:
WhileMyGuitarGentlyWeeps · 10/07/2022 20:20

@Topgub

If you choose to spend your wages on a huge mortgage, big bills and buying cars then that's a lifestyle choice. Your 100k is still going further than someone else's 30k.

Exactly this ... The sheer level of ignorance, arrogance, and bloody-mindedness from several posters here is shocking. And the level of disingenuousness too. 'Oooh I am considerably richer than YOW!' Also; my £100K is just a drop in the ocean. It's NOTHING when you have all my outgoings.' Bore off. Hmm

sst1234 · 10/07/2022 20:20

What was a reasonably lively debate has turned into a few posters ganging up on one poster @Crystalvas . Aka pile on in MN language.

Really lowers the tone when threads descend into this farce. Use of bad language, 2 or 3 people picking on one poster. Not cool or mature.

Crystalvas · 10/07/2022 20:20

Topgub · 10/07/2022 20:15

@Crystalvas

Its hardly rocket science is it?

The average UK wage is around 30k.

If people on that can manage to live and raise kids, then so can people on 100k.

If you want your lots of money to go further, make different choices on how you spend it.

I’m talking about after tax. Its take home pay that matters.

Crystalvas · 10/07/2022 20:22

sst1234 · 10/07/2022 20:20

What was a reasonably lively debate has turned into a few posters ganging up on one poster @Crystalvas . Aka pile on in MN language.

Really lowers the tone when threads descend into this farce. Use of bad language, 2 or 3 people picking on one poster. Not cool or mature.

Your very right thank you.

RudsyFarmer · 10/07/2022 20:22

Topgub · 10/07/2022 20:10

@RudsyFarmer

If you choose to spend your wages on a huge mortgage, big bills and buying cars then that's a lifestyle choice. Your 100k is still going further than someone else's 30k.

@IVFPrayingForBioChild

Ummmmm.

We'rent you saying earlier it didn't matter where you lived or who you knew?

Still not true. Where did I say any of those things were ‘fancy’? Our house is a pretty standard price for the SE, the cars are four years old, kids go to state schools. There’s nothing in the slightest but fancy about our lives. Which was the point.

Topgub · 10/07/2022 20:25

@sst1234

They're responding and being fairly rude in their responses? Hardly a victim

@Crystalvas

Yes. I'm aware it's after tax. So is most people's wages

You.still.have.more.

You still have lots of choices and options you're higher salary affords you

It is a lot of money. Stop pretending it doesn't go far.

It does.

Topgub · 10/07/2022 20:27

@RudsyFarmer

I didn't mention fancy.

But im sure your average SE house isn't a crack den huh

sst1234 · 10/07/2022 20:28

Topgub · 10/07/2022 20:25

@sst1234

They're responding and being fairly rude in their responses? Hardly a victim

@Crystalvas

Yes. I'm aware it's after tax. So is most people's wages

You.still.have.more.

You still have lots of choices and options you're higher salary affords you

It is a lot of money. Stop pretending it doesn't go far.

It does.

It’s still a pile on. Bullying. If you don’t see anything wrong with it, that’s your prerogative. Carry on behaving like that.

ImJustMadAboutSaffron · 10/07/2022 20:30

herehearher · 09/07/2022 10:06

No DecimatedDreams, of course it doesn't matter (like a lot of things on here).

It's just something that struck me glancing at the Russell Group uni thread - eg, "I went to such and such... and now am a mystical 6 figure earner..," post after post.

Why is "6 figures" a mystical salary? Why not just say what you earn? Yes, I get that it's higher than the average salary , but after tax, it's not that much at all somewhere like London.

I went to a Russell Group university. I am now an academic in one. I don't earn six figures.

TwoLeftSocksWithHoles · 10/07/2022 20:30

I do, and if I regard the decimal point as a figure then it's a 7 0figure salary.

Whoopy-doo!

LittleMissUnreasonable · 10/07/2022 20:34

I think sometimes it looks as though those earning below 100k are harder workers as they're normally in the caring professions (carers, nurses, vets, junior doctors, most healthcare professionals) whereas those on 100k plus are assumed to be in more "cold" professions (business, finance, banking, IT) and so it creates an unfair bias.

I say this as someone who, even if you quadrupled my salary, it wouldn't reach the 100k mark, and as someone who has worked bloody hard as a HCA.

Itisasecret · 10/07/2022 20:34

I’ve just looked at this thread (I have notifications off and always have). I’ve been out all day with family. I’ve been personally attacked and tagged multiple times and I’ve not even been on this thread since yesterday.

There are a lot of bullies on this thread, posting prolifically just to attack people whilst protesting they “don’t care.”

Angry, bitter or just not very nice, hard to decide. Certainly they “care” enough to be on this thread all day.

Topgub · 10/07/2022 20:37

@sst1234

I'm not behaving like anything.

They made a point I disagreed with and have responded to me a few times.

Other people also responding separately isn't relevant or bullying

sst1234 · 10/07/2022 20:41

Itisasecret · 10/07/2022 20:34

I’ve just looked at this thread (I have notifications off and always have). I’ve been out all day with family. I’ve been personally attacked and tagged multiple times and I’ve not even been on this thread since yesterday.

There are a lot of bullies on this thread, posting prolifically just to attack people whilst protesting they “don’t care.”

Angry, bitter or just not very nice, hard to decide. Certainly they “care” enough to be on this thread all day.

Yes, and it needs calling out. Holding strong views is one thing, expressing them in an impassioned way is also ok. But getting personal, efffing and jefffing, picking on people, ganging up while pretending to be righteous is not ok.

It’s incredibly sad that grown women behave like this. That they cannot have a lively, even sharp debate without being rude. It’s far too common on threads like these and not ok.

Topgub · 10/07/2022 20:43

@sst1234

Tone policing doesn't make you any more right.

🤣🤣

sst1234 · 10/07/2022 20:46

Topgub · 10/07/2022 20:43

@sst1234

Tone policing doesn't make you any more right.

🤣🤣

You, and a couple of other posters, have well and truly killed this thread. Especially with the pile on. Sad that you find it funny and see nothing wrong with this behaviour. Anyway, good luck and all the best. I’ll leave other posters to engage with you. Should they so wish.

Nocutenamesleft · 10/07/2022 20:49

LordEmsworth · 09/07/2022 10:04

Well... 1% of the UK population earns £120k+ so we are broadly talking about the top 1% of UK earners. There are half a million individuals in this group. So it's a pretty elite group who are going to be very different to the "average" across the other 53.5m UK adults.

0.5% earn £236k+. 0.1% earn £650k+.

So if you really need to differentiate between those earning £125k and £250k then "the 1%" or "the top 0.5%" would do it. But I am not quite sure why we'd need to differentiate between "these quarter of a million people who earn over a quarter of a million, and this quarter of a million who are just on a six-figure salary". The point of saying "six-figure salary" is surely to HIDE your actual income while making it clear that it's high - otherwise someone could just tell you their income?

www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/comment/article-7357395/Who-1-Britain-one-them.html

I always tell people about mummset

i then say the top 1% sit on Mumsnet. Seeing as apparently 90% of us are on the 6 figure salary

talking out of their arse!

pilkywilkymoansalot · 10/07/2022 20:52

£30,000 staff nurse 12 and a half hour shifts, nights, weekends, death and dying,, blood shit vomit dementia, relatives, no breaks, love it!

Lalalolol · 10/07/2022 20:53

@Perfect28 yes teachers and nurses work very hard and are not paid same as bankers or senior management in private sector. But the salaries are not dependent on just one criteria of hard work.
No company will give you a 100k plus salary to do a 9-5, easy job. In the end, companies are there to make profits, increase shareholder value, not to make their senior staff rich. But certain positions especially the ones at higher levels, require certain skillsets, which is a mix of technical / industrial knowledge and strong team management, leadersip skills, ability to take decisions, which comes with certain amount of risk. So all this plus how much money the industry you work in make money determine the salary.

Certain sectors pay more than others for same level of responsibility. Of course, there is a lot of pressure, stress, working away from families in senior roles.

Now on the topic of nurses and carers, unless these sectors make more money, some staff members will be paid less as you can't pay doctors low salary or you risk them migrate to higher paying countries or choose different career options.

To increase the salary of lower paid healthcare workers, we need to either pay very high tax, which results in government paying them higher salary or privatise healthcare.

In UK, we want everything, we want free heathcare, we also want staft to be paid same as bankers.

To provide free healthcare to 60million people, how many nurses do we need? We need a lot more nurses than bankers. Plus banks and private sector make money but NHS does not. So how does NHS pay so many nurses similar salary to bankers?

I agree that it's a shame that despite working hard, nurses and carers are paid so little. But I don't know if this can be solved maybe unless we have healthcare system like in Germany or Switzerland.

Topgub · 10/07/2022 20:54

@sst1234

Oh stop being so over dramatic

I'd you cant cope being disagreed with,thats on you

Topgub · 10/07/2022 20:58

@Lalalolol

You do know that we're in the situation of carers, nurses and teachers leaving their professions in droves?

Never mind doctors.

We cant keep pretending they don't deserve better pay.

higher levels, require certain skillsets, which is a mix of technical / industrial knowledge and strong team management, leadersip skills, ability to take decisions, which comes with certain amount of risk.

These are all true in nursing too.

The difference being the risk is an actual person's life

Misunderestimated · 10/07/2022 20:59

As the level of vitriol has increased, I'm wondering about how we compare or contrast our incomes to others.
During the first lockdown, I was earning high five figures but WFH, saving £500 per month in commuting costs - although my working day stretched to cover the saved time.
I felt guilty for my personal good fortune while so many others were losing everything and gave a lot to charity. Someone used to having a lot more told me that the guilt and doing something about it was just plain stupid.
It would seem that for some, doubling a salary to say £400k just ratchets up future expectations and brings no joy whatsoever.

Crystalvas · 10/07/2022 21:01

Itisasecret · 10/07/2022 20:34

I’ve just looked at this thread (I have notifications off and always have). I’ve been out all day with family. I’ve been personally attacked and tagged multiple times and I’ve not even been on this thread since yesterday.

There are a lot of bullies on this thread, posting prolifically just to attack people whilst protesting they “don’t care.”

Angry, bitter or just not very nice, hard to decide. Certainly they “care” enough to be on this thread all day.

Yes the vipers are always out. Their lives must be so full nothing else but mumsnet… 🤣

Mycatsgoldtooth · 10/07/2022 21:02

So much bitterness on this thread. The opportunities are there if you have your health and a few hours a week and can find some way to finance it. There are ways of you look. I said up thread about how much, in part to Mumsnet and hearing what was out there I’m retraining.
We have so much opportunity in this country, despite it being skewed to the public school oxbridge funnelled types. So many people on this thread have worked their way up from working class backgrounds being told it’s just luck, you don’t go to Oxford from a council estate or as a refugee without putting in a ton of work.

23457gdsdv · 10/07/2022 21:03

@Lalalolol And what is wrong with the Swiss system. It demonstrates very well that nurses and doctors can be paid very well. In fact, in most of Europe public sector workers are paid much, much better. The UK is a low wage economy, it doesn't have to be like that but it is. In my profession I would be earning double in say the US or on the continent. Do you think my value or skill set or even capital conditions is really all that different? Are the external consultants employed by the Civil service actually better or is the government simply happier to pay externals than internal staff despite their ridiculous billables.

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