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?

On a related note, I’m in that bracket and I’m miserable in my job at the moment and having panic attacks.

People on mn usually mean in the £100ks

If it is higher it’ll usually be presented in another way

Not that it really matters, it does crop up a lot granted

YellowHpok - good for you and I completely understand people were just mentioning "six figures" as some sort of indicator of reassurance to the OP - that its ok to not go to a RG and you can still earn .., well ... 6 figures! I don't know, maybe it's my weird sense of humour, but some expressions like 'six figure salary' are very MN and just strike me as funny. Like, "I am a teacher but he earns a six figure salary." I agree with you it makes anything above £100k sound "mystical.' Why not just say, "he's a banker and he's on £250k pre bonuses" or whatever the case may be?

Millions of people still live in London on low wages, even min wage.

Another one here who earns six figures and is always amused to see herself described as 'mythical'!
Part of the problem is that we don't talk to our daughters about what various jobs actually pay. We encourage them to think about what they love. Which is great but ignores the reality that some roles pay a lot more than others.

Well, I’ve read it all now when a hundred grand salary “isn’t that much” .

give your head a wobble op.

If you earn £54,000 your take home is just under £40,000

If you earn £110,000 your take home is just under £70,000

It’s obviously a lot of money but I don’t think people realise how much is taken in tax from higher earners - as it should be.

That’s hard. Will you move to something else?

I must say I alwsys assumed they earned around £100 k not £999,999. But its an interesting point.

You know, we cope just fine. We have multiple children we can afford to put through uni, a large five bed house in the south, holidays abroad and I don’t have to add my shopping up anymore. Opportunities we never had.

We have a nice life. My point was, he puts in a lot of work, some days he is pulling 17 hours, others he doesn’t. He works a lot of hours, is responsible for a lot of people and their careers. His speciality is high stakes and he is very good at what he does in his industry. In contrast I am a teacher. He often stated it isn’t fair that we are as equally qualified on paper. The difference is, he is a specialist in demand with big business. That is because most people with his specialism run off abroad for even bigger salaries and less tax. His job is pretty essential nowadays for businesses and services to function.

The suggestion that people earning 100k+ plus just sit on their arse is what I have an issue with. They don’t. He works bloody hard for what he’s achieved and he still does. If he earned over 100k and was borderline he’d deliberately keep it under.

It is a lot of money, not wealthy but comfortable. We’ve been on the absolute bones of our arses in the past reliant on benefits. I’m very left leaning because of our roots, so when I see my husband’s tax bill which much higher than my salary as a teacher I wince and move on.

@Alliumpoppyrose … what.. are you trying to say?

Yes exactly. Best comment so far.

@DameCelia same here but my mum categorically steered me away from the caring profession I was interested in and towards tech. I have earned about £144 for the past 4 years after tax. Now around 95k after tax. Appreciate it's a significant salary however I'm not rich but comfortable and grateful too.

… but anyway if someone says 6 figures they obviously mostly mean 100-250, because that’s the most common 100k+ salary bracket, and most will be at the bottom of that.

If they earn more, they will usually specify - mid six figures

I work in senior recruitment. There’s an awful lot out there who earn 100-150k or so but far far less that earn more than that. So in most cases six figure salary to me means “a bit over 100k”

virtually no one on MN is being truthful about their salary. If they were it would mean that the top one percent of earners were all Mumsnetters - highly unlikely as most of these will be men anyway

I’ve found that the higher up you get, the less work you do, but you have a lot more responsibility.

The issue is not high earners. The issue is that you think it's justified. Plenty of not high paid jobs require great degrees, lots of hard work and dont get you 100k. I am glad that he is in a well paid sector but seeing as civil servants, teachers, etc etc all need that but have largely been on a pay freeze since 2009, its just a bit crass. Hence lots of unions demanding 30% pay increases to make up for all those loss of earnings.

I am a teacher. He chose a different path and specialised in a current field. Those were our choices. He was in the public sector, he left.

I think a six figure salary is enough to say they have meaningful choices in life, access to a good standard of living but they can't afford a yacht

I thought the point of the op was to say that if you're getting a sense of how comfortable someone is then "six fig" isn't very useful.
Because someone on 100k has much the same available spending money as someone on 70k, they'd both likely have a mortgage and a car and have to choose whether to go on holiday or not and worry about retirement and the increasing price of energy and bills and food. While someone on 250k has different choices and will be easily able to afford private school, two homes, several trips abroad a year and investments. Obviously both are vastly different lives to going round lidl with a calculator and both are rightly highly taxed.

But the 100k earner who goes into their overdraft now for childcare bills each month due to the cost of living isn't necessarily living the insanely aspirational luxury life that the "Six Figures!" expression suggests.

@Martinisarebetterdirty Jesus, that kind of hard is not limited to 100k plus earners. statistically there will be far more people earning under a 100k - from teachers to small business owners to content producers to graphic designers - who have the experience of work taking over 24/7, than people earning over it.

I don't
I work part time on a lower than average wage, and my life/work balance is perfect. I love my stress free job, get on well with my managers and workmates, and have enough free time to do what I want. Being near retirement age, we have no mortgage and are solvent. I wouldn't mind more money, but I don't need it.

I also live in a part of the UK where 6 figure salaries are not commonplace at all. The female average salary round here is £28,000.

I worked 3 jobs to get myself through Uni and went on to do my PhD. Both DH and I earn 6 figure sums and he is also working class from a very poor background. It’s not about lucky breaks or knowing people in the right places FFS. so speaks privilege. That you could work three jobs probably means you are not nor do you need a carer, that you are strong and healthy. That your background did not cripple you socially nor crush your self esteem. That you are robust and resilient, characteristics that come from good learning experiences. That you are unlikely to have been raised by addicts or someone with significant disadvantages themselves. In other words you got lucky.

Indeed, I know plenty of consultants who earn over 150k while consulting exclusively for the public sector. They don't work hard, the Tories have essentially just created a way of shifting capital from the public purse into private hands. These people could and would have in the past worked from within the public sector but can now earn double working outside. That doesn't make them hard working, it just means that public sector is profiting from the Tories political choices. I.e. teachers get poorer while consultants get rich. Lovely