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 net almost 20k a month. How senior are you?

I’m not sure why you’re complaining. You earn well and have a good lifestyle. Are you really bothered what a load of anonymous strangers say about you? Or are you being goady?

The hardest working people I've met in 32 years in the NHS are junior doctors and band 5/6 nurses.
My DH is a teacher and that's bloody difficult too.
Often still working at 11pm.
I don't begrudge you a penny of what you earn OP, good for you! Two of our own DC have "followed the money" and earn much more than myself and DH.
The other is a nurse.
No one in our family thinks they are any better than anyone else.
We all chose our professions.
The issue is that fewer and fewer people are sticking with teaching and NHS careers when they can earn so much more elsewhere.

I feel a great social commentator of recent times - lemmy had it right when he said
Eat the rich.

The difficulty lower earners have is understanding the level of expenses high earners have and living to their means.

Someone earning £30k a year imagines applying “their” bills etc against say a salary of £150k and believe they would be rich. But someone earning £150k will have extremely high bills etc a lot of the time.

From my lifestyle its obvious I have a v high income, but I have not faced jealous people tbh. Ive faced poncers ( men ) but my friends and family are pleased for me - as far as I know

😆😆😆

If you’re in London, you probably have to earn at least twice what I do in Scotland to have a similar lifestyle. So, I’m guessing your household gross income is probably very high, but after the mortgage is paid and childcare paid you probably will be in a similar situation disposable income wise

I guess it's that SOME high earners are absolutely oblivious to the inequality in this country. Not only in monetary terms but also in opportunities

I grew up in a 'mill town' in the North West and now live in a beautiful village in the south east. It honestly couldn't be more different.

Well it qas getting tiresome here senior management on £300k telling us how everyone is feel the cost of living not matter what position they are in.

No Mr £300k you really aren't struggling the same as those on £20k.

@Vinniepolis

So you think you totally deserve your high pay because reasons but nurses /cleaners etc don't because communism?

🤣🤣

Most high earners are absolutely tone deaf.

That’s why they get vilified.

I do think people live to their means. So better paid job just means more expensive house etc. However me and DH are on average wages and manage to have a nice house, car, clothes and holidays. I think you and DH need to reassess your lives if you can’t manage all that on your huge salaries. If you did then you might not care what others think as you would be having a great time.

That's incredibly short sighted though, I can choose to downshift my lifestyle. Get rid of the cleaner , private tutor, stop shopping at ocado, sell a property , run a cheaper car. People with less money can't do that. High spending habits are a choice.

Dear god 🤦

@Densol57

Jeeze how patronising

You lower paid thickos just can't possibly imagine what it's like having to spend all this money!!

It's just torture I tell you!

🙄

If you earn 150k and spunk 150k you're still well off

People earning higher wages have a choice to downshift their lifestyle and have savings. Lower earners can't cut back as much.

In my case, I probably don’t “deserve” my high pay, if high pay is linked to some notion of “deservedness”, but if you think everyone is equally deserving then you should vote communism.

Perhaps those on 20k should review their career and decide to do something that pays better. We are short 3m people with IT skills in the UK, the average salary in the sector is high. Plenty of cheap and free training available flexibly for working parents - a former employer used to give it away and hire some of the people who finished the courses, I had some people on 65k within 3 years of doing them. No excuses, stop moaning, start taking personal responsibility. If you are intelligent, a 20k salary is a lifestyle choice. Maybe you don't like IT, but do you dislike it more than earning 20k?

12m people of working age in this country receive benefits. That's not sustainable. You want well paid nurses and teachers then people need to rely less on the state, take personal responsibility for their situation and move to better paid careers. There is not a town in the UK that doesn't have job vacancies in growth industries with above average salaries. Stop moaning and start doing.

You don't need to feel guilty op.

Not to be horrible because I'm on your side and said yanbu but seriously why do you care what people think? Do your thing. Try not to mention having money.

🤣🤣🤣”I’m not rich, because I spend loads of money!”🤣🤣🤣

It is the combination of paying disproportionately into public coffers while also being resented / vilified for being in the position to do so that grates. You need me, but you also hate needing people like me.

Except it’s only fair and proportionate to pay a “disproportionate” amount of tax if you earn a “disproportionate” amount of money. 🤣

Agree and on top of that state services are appallingly badly run.

I DO think higher earners should pay more tax.

Your post implies that anyone who had fun in their twenties deserves to be poor...

Also:
I had a pay rise this year that was a pay cut because it flipped me into a new threshold. I don't expect anyone to care because there are bigger problems in the world, I get that. But with 10% inflation on top it's strained our finances.

Poor you...