What do you consider a ‘high’ earner?

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In my head, a ‘high earner’ is someone who never really has to think about money. So, perhaps £200K and up. However, I’ve recently seen threads where people on circa £50K are described as ‘high earners’. As a Londoner, that seems like madness to me, but these things are obviously very dependent on where you are.

So, I’m curious. Where do you live and what would you consider a high salary?

The people I know nearby who seem notably well off - i.e. I see they go on lots of nice holidays, live in big houses - earn 60-70k+.

I live in a low COL area, though. Our household currently earns less than 40k combined and we can afford a 3 bed semi in a nice area with excellent schools etc. 60k to us would feel like winning the lottery, and yet I have a friend living in London on 60k who lives in a houseshare at 35 because living alone would be too expensive (and buying almost impossible).

Well it depends where you live I think. I’m Greater London/surrey, I took home £44k last year and OH about £80k. I wouldn’t call us high earners. We don’t have spare cash at the end of the month.

over £100k yes but wouldn’t mean you were loaded, really depends on your circumstances

Personally i would say 150k as high earner. I’m 70k right now and still have to budget. I’m in cambridge

Just curious, what kind of job in London pays £250k? I guess excellent developers in big tech or front office IB people? Or actors and actresses?

I take home between £40-£50k - self employed so varies a lot. I think it's about £70-£80k gross. I know a lot of people think I'm well off but I don't feel it. 2 kids and a house to maintain I definitely have to budget a bit.

City jobs (finance), corporate law, some tech (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google pay really well, for example).

I'd say over £70k in most places and over £100k in London.
People who are saying they earn £90k or whatever and still have to budget are missing the point. No matter what their outgoings are they're still in the top 5% of earners. To me this = a high earner!

I’m not from a high earning family but went to a RG uni met my DH and now mix in high earning circles. At the top end one of our friends is on about £750k-£800k a year. I’d say amongst friends and DH family average is £150k for the main earner and around £50-£100k for secondary earner. Most have large mortgages, private school fees etc

250 k to be a high earner in London!!!!! Jesus Christ.

That's like the combined salary of a whole row of houses here.

£60k would be high for my area with anything over £30k being "good" salary.

It’s a relatively normal wage in banking, consultancy, accounting or law in London.

No it’s not. It is a wage found pretty much wholly within those professions in ‘the city’. There are plenty of accountants and lawyers working in house or in public services who earn nothing like that.

I’d consider 50k to be a high earner up here in the north. It’s all relative though.

£250k comments are mad. I am a lawyer in the city, I earn well and am senior but not £250k! You'd either have to be at a US law firm or a partner to earn that much, either way with soul totally sold and way too much stress and sleep deprivation in your life. Average salaries (excluding partners and US firms) are generally within the £100-200k range for qualified city lawyers. They are all high earners. If they have no money left at the end of the month it is due to terrible spending habits (taxis everywhere, all the prosecco and fancy restaurants etc) and I have no sympathy. The only exception being childcare but that's a temporary cost.

A newly qualified lawyer at a Magic Circle firm
earns circa £100K before their bonus and partners are pulling in over £1M. ‘Higher earner’, in my opinion, begins somewhere in between, at about £200K. Before that, I’d certainly consider you to be doing very well for yourself, but it wouldn’t exactly be luxe life. And luxe life is what ‘higher earner’ means to me.

🙄

Decent money over £30k
impressed eyebrow raise over £35-40k
high earner £45-50k+

But I often think I’m out of step with the world as it’s not that long ago I was raising a child and paying a mortgage on £10.5k a year

West Yorkshire. We live in a town and not a city. I'm on 34k, which I would describe as quite a healthy salary for where we live. My dp earns just over 100k (I would class him as a high earner for where we live). This affords us a life of not having to worry financially.

Yes, there are plenty who earn less, but it’s still a relatively normal wage in those professions.

I disagree with this. The more money you have... the less you seem to have. Its always people on the higher salaries with higher outgoings and loads have poor money management.

50k in the North is decent like anything depends what you spend/save.

In England you start paying higher rate tax (40%) at around £50k gross salary per annum, so that is what was ordinarily meant by describing a higher earner.

However, in reality, for a single adult on £50k in London, that wouldn't stretch anywhere.

Personally I consider the truly high earners (in every sense of the word) to be on over £250k. While they may have higher level commitments, those would be down to choice, such as large well located house, expensive car, DC in private schools etc. Absolutely everyone could live well on £250k, by making choices well within their means.

no it isn't. Most people in those professions do not earn that, even in London.

My experience is that people always think that they need to earn more. It's never enough. They are always looking at the tier of people above them with envy. They always spend to fill their means. If you are a banker, you feel the need to put your kids through private school, have a second home, have skiing holidays and the like and live in a big house in a nice part of town. It's never enough. If you lived in a small house, and put your kids through state school, you'd be really wealthy. But they don't do that.

Higher earning is not £250k - that's extremely high, even in London. most lawyers are not on that. The magic circle firms a a relatively small proportion of lawyers. (I'm an ex magic circle lawyer by the way and have never earned as much since I left and went in house).

For me it's 200k plus

I live in the SE and don't know anyone earning less than 40k a year which skews perception I suppose

My sentiments exactly.😄

Fewer than 20% of UK tax payers earn £50k or more so I'd say it's very reasonable to say that these are high earning individuals.

Depends on location. In London and South East (plus places like Cambridge), a high earner would be pulling in £100k+, but likely would still have to be careful with finances if they're providing for a family just on one salary. In the NE, £50k+ is comparable.