Getting vilified as a high earner

[MagicMondays]

DH and I are both high earners. We do highly skilled and quite niche professional jobs which involved most of our 20s spent grafting, living apart, anti social hours etc when our friends were all having more fun! Both jobs still demand long hours and have a lot of responsibility. We have two DC and it's a struggle to sort childcare that works and make sure one of us is around for them. Our mortgage is huge (cos London) on a run of the mill Victorian terrace.
We obviously get no allowances - no personal allowances on income tax, no 30 hours childcare, no child benefit etc. Our tax bill is huge.
No issue with any of that. High earners should pay a disproportionate amount into the system to support others/redistribute wealth etc.

What I can't get my head around is how much people in the UK seem to dislike people like me. I see it on these boards all the time. People demanding I pay more tax, people complaining high earners are not as deserving as nurses, teachers etc, my own family making unfavourable comparisons with others.
We don't live a flash lifestyle at all - ordinary clothes, old car, not really interested in grand holidays, posh restaurants etc. You wouldn't know other than from knowing the jobs we do that we must have a good income.

I'm just a bit tired of this idea that people like me are arseholes in some way. I'm really not!

I think jealously and also people assume it comes/ came easily

I don’t understand why going up a tax band would reduce your take home pay? You only pay the higher rate on the part of your salary that’s over the threshold, not on all of it. Unless it’s pension contributions or something?

Two different environments, yours rural I’m guessing from the job description. Both not without stress, it doesn’t negate the impact on either of them and all come with their own problems. Why is this a contest? The point is, life isn’t HAPPIER with more money. And no, I’m not sure it’s possible to cut back on hours in the role my father was in and I wouldn’t out him by going into detail either.

Because you lose your personal allowance for income tax

I could understand, except your smug 'we worked hard and others didn't' is full of judgement and ignores the very real fact that there are people working desperately hard at all levels of society who can only dream of having what you have.

I've brought up 3 children without the financial support of their father, working 3 jobs to keep a roof over our heads. We will never have what you have. You don't deserve more because my work ethic is somehow 'lesser'. You simply chose a career that pays more.

To add, teachers, nurses, doctors actually do good. Are you doing good in your job or working for a large corporate that just does what they do for profit.

I suppose this is why people think those people are more deserving. I work for a large corporate and agree, I add no real value to anyone's life. Any teacher, any nurse, does.

Everyone has a personal tax allowance. YABU

Envy has always had a very powerful drive, but social media makes it more apparent and reinforces it.

I don’t think I agree with this at all.

Money doesn’t cause problems. Money gives you choices.

We are both pretty decent earners. But we choose to live a lifestyle a few rungs less “nice” than we could actually afford. It gives us security. And “fuck you” space.

If you are a low earner then you can’t choose to do that.

If you choose to upgrade your lifestyle with every pay rise then it will cause you problems. But you don’t have to do that. The money doesn’t force you. You choose to do that.

Working hard is all relative isn’t it? How hard you work is very often not directly related to you income. Are we talking mentally hard, physically hard, both?

That big mortgage will one day mean you either have a high value house you can move out of London and retire with, or an amazing property to hand down to your children. A lot of people will never have that security and I would assume not having a secure home is a pretty big problem you’re unlikely to have.

What are these bigger problems you take about? The childcare one, we earn too much to get help towards it but certainly not high earners. DH would often have to work away Mon-Fri at short notice in his trade job, meaning I had to sort childcare alone, around my also full time job. So similar issues I would guess?

OP - I do get your point but def not vilified. I am a high earning single mum - when people talk about taxing high earners more - my heart sinks. There is no point in earning more, progressing any further if most of what I earn - currently in the double whammy bracket - of 68% tax.

I would work more but taking home 32p in the pound makes it a disincentive. Not sure you can tax that much lower can you?

Then add in the pension tax and I now take home less than £2500 pcm - it is all completley screwed.

You sound a bit insecure. Try to live your life for you, not what others think. Don't feel guilty when you haven't done anything wrong.

Bear in mind though that lots of high earning is due to luck as well as hard work. I say that as a high earner. Being the cleverest one in my year at school was pure luck, right genes, right parents who did loads if reading with me etc. Then being good at and going into a high earning career was also partly luck.

Give up your well paid stressful job and earn less?

Sorry you do lose your personal tax allowance over about £120k. If you are both earning about that you are on at least a quarter of a million income a year after pension payments. So yes I would expect you to either have a luxurious lifestyle or be buying a very expensive house.

I do agree with this, however It depends on your own priorities, aspirations and even where you live etc. London is an expensive city for housing, as an example.

If you have children with learning difficulties, for example you may choose to use that money on their education or development/private school. You cannot then pull out when you decide you don’t want to continue in your stressful job. You may have family members that you support too. There are often a lot of expectations placed on a high earner within a family circle than can leave them in a vicious cycle of providing. At least that is my own experience but not the same for everyone.

That said good for you in your choice and I think it is smart, and the best thing to do in such a situation.

Cry me a river. Seriously.

All these things are personal choices. Count yourself lucky you've had the luxury of options. The things you're talking about are in no way comparable or significant.

Your father, with respect, chose money and job status over family and health. You pay your money and make your choice.

I've come from a council estate and am fortunate enough to have worked my way into a niche, well paying job. The things you're talking about are nothing compared to the issues poor people face daily.

I’m seeing your point in a lot of the responses here OP. You have my sympathies.
Paying half of your income in tax is doing your bit. Ignore people.

People tend to see a problem and come up with a simplistic solution (eg people like you need to pay more tax).

The situation is always more complicated than that and I think a lot of the divide we have in the UK is that no politician takes the time to explain the complexity of our situation in a way people can comprehend. Sometimes I think it suits the politicians to set one side off against another.

Why take the serious steps needed to solve a problem when you can just avoid accountability by demonising the other side?

No, they don’t. Between £100k and £125k it is gradually reduced. As a result, people pay around 60% tax in that bracket. Sure, they can afford it but the “top rate” for earners above £125k (previously £150k) is “only” 45% so it’s pretty illogical.

You lose £1 of your personal allowance for every £2 you earn over 100k, so to entirely lose it you must earn 125k ISH.

That you'd quibble at that when you earn so much is bonkers to me.

I also came from a council estate and poor family. I’m still not wealthy, or bitter.

I hear you OP. I earn a lot. I'm very lucky that my personal life choices have resulted in wealth. I hate the fact that I can never talk about my ambivalence guilt about wealth. That I've always voted Labour despite being wealthy. It's wonderful being wealthy - choices, freedom - but also intensely alienating if you have any conscience whatsoever

That's not illogical at all really, losing their personal allowance happens to those earning over £125k so they've already paid that higher chunk of tax. It makes a reasonable amount of sense to me.

Well I could say all the same things about me and DH, but I’ve never noticed high earners being vilified? WTF are you taking about?

You know the tax bracket increases gradually right? You pay more only on a chunk of income.