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!

Very few people are on very high earnings. The trend now is for more and more originally well paid jobs to become low paid. Leaving a small minority of rich people. So the many people who are well qualified and working very hard but aren't earning much may feel a bit resentful about those who have somehow maintained their privileged high-earning status.

You an appalling moaner. Enjoy what you have - a house in one of most exciting and dynamic cities in the world, a great job, superlative salary and a good life.

*typo above - ‘that are’

Investment banker?
MP?
Russian oligarch?

Great single anecdote. I think if you compare hours worked on average by higher rate tax payers to all other income bands you would find a very high correlation that higher salaries are linked to longer hours. Why would you work longer hours if you didn't get more money?

Ah yes, this sums it up. A secure HOME. In LONDON. These two things alone give you and your children the most incredible opportunities. I envy you op. Enjoy your lovely life, as hard as I'm sure it can feel sometimes, and your children

OP, we don't care how much you earn... all that matters is if you're a tory or not?

👁👄👁

eat the rich tories 😂

As someone with a lot of high earning friends from a working class background, I'm going to say, bollocks.
.those who work hardest typically work 2/3 poorly paid jobs, this 70/80 hour weeks to get by and make ends meet. Next up would be thos on decent income by virtue of anti social hours like a and e doctors, hotel managers, operations managers in clubs etc, earn wel but work stupid hours under a salary. Those who earn really well tend to have much more set schedules,. Bit of travel, lots of annual leave and a good benefits scheme to boot.

If I'm working on a project for a client overnight and the rest of the team are, and you aren't responding to emails and texts to let us know you are "on it" then don't expect to stay in your role long. Part time hours might work for a non exec. Joke otherwise. Part time business travel? Clueless.

Do not eat the Tories, one shouldn't eat food rotten to the core.

It’s the super rich that’s are driving inequality. The majority of the U.K. population are seeing their standard of living drop whilst a few thousand billionaires continue to hoover up more and more of the nation’s wealth.

this is true

I think OP is a premiership footballer.

So sick of explaining this.
It's not paid time off you fucking clown.
The wage is for only 4-5 weeks of the holidays, but is spread over the year so we get money during the holidays.

My husband earns top 5%, only rarely has to work overnight when on call, has a bit of travel to do and yea he maybe does a 50 hour week but so does my friend who works on Tesco AND cleans and she sure as shit isn't earning what he does.

And I've been in my role for 10 years, my husband various roles in one company for 15 years.

We are a higher income family , we didn't work technically harder it was work smarter . My DH spins around on his chair in his office and spends a couple of hours working. People rely on him for knowledge and fixing things quickly. It's a myth that working hard brings you wealth, usually there's an element of risk involved.

Lawyers who work all the hours the devil sends are fully aware of the monetary reasons.

There are other options for employment. If you like the really big money then just chow down and get on with it. There is nothing more pathetic than lawyers moaning about theirs hours. They are highly qualified people who can change it if they really cared

You are obviously not senior enough yet or you don't know how to manage your teams.

OP you have choices. You need to be more positive and stop having such a negative outlook to life.
Either appreciate what you have, or change your life.

A higher rate tax payer in my office told me that it’s very difficult because if you have more money you need more money. I think that’s what the OP’s point is ….

Oh my god, the “nurses/cleaners/factory workers work hard” argument does my head in. Yes all sorts of people work long, hard hours, and I believe everyone in full-time employment should earn a decent wage, but does that mean everyone should be on 6-figure salaries? I don’t believe so - and if you do, then go ahead and vote for the Communist Party and stop whining!

Some people are well paid because they are bright, studied a degree that not many people are able to complete, and therefore do a job that not many people are able to do.

Some people are well paid because they take risks and create businesses that employ other people.

Some people are well paid through sheer bloody luck (or because they have a particular talent, like kicking a stupid ball around a field).

The thing is, if you think you can just keeping taxing the well-paid till the pips squeak, they will fuck off or chuck in their well-paid jobs to become cleaners/nurses/factory workers (having paid off their mortgages) - that’s my plan anyway - and then where will all that tax revenue come from?

I totally get where the OP is coming from - a lot of people in the UK think they have a god-given right to other people’s money. Whether they ‘work harder or not’ is neither here nor there.

@Vinniepolis It is your choice if you want to give up your job and become a cleaner. Why would any of us care?

But your "earnings" were delegated by a rich and powerful man at the top. They chose to delegate 100k+ to their pals at the top because they "worked their way up" and leave the people at the bottom on 20k a year. So to counteract this huge inequality, the government tax higher earners more to distribute the wealth better. If the big boys at the top didn't decide to split the £1 million budget between him and his 2 friends, leaving the other 300,000 to be split between the 10-15 of his employees, the people at the top wouldn't need to pay as much. People need to remember that high wages aren't set in stone, they are chosen by people who also want to give themselves high wages.

Total rubbish, what you have said doesn't make sense. 70-80 hours a week would put them on 40k a year if they went on low level hourly salaries. They would have to be absolutely insane to take a low paid salary when they could earn more stacking shelves by the hour. All the low paid people you know are doing 12 hours a day 7 days a week are they? Per your example what night club operations managers do you know working 12 hours a day 7 days a week? Are there many night clubs open 7 days a week?

Many higher earners say they work harder it's not true. Really it's down to luck , intelligence which you are born with or not , family circumstances. risk taking and then hard work.

People need to remember that high wages aren't set in stone, they are chosen by people who also want to give themselves high wages.

those ones don't tend to be on PAYE