To ask if you have a wage/income that would shock people?

[Newmumatlast]

Inspired by the tipping hairdresser thread, and a post on there about people having no idea what some people earn with an anecdote about a London cabbie earning twice what his nurse wife did.

I just wondered if anyone does a job where people would actually be shocked to know their true earnings based on stereotype- either way. For example cleaner earning loads or lawyer earning very little.

Not so much based on my job title, I do a bit of a mixed role (project management/IT delivery), more around people’s perception of me I think. I’ve had friend’s/acquaintances send me links to jobs paying £25-£40k when I currently earn £68k.

I'm an LSA. Full time equivalent is £21,350 but pro rata'd to 30hrs and term time only is considerably less.

I think in the UK we don't talk about income enough for people to know whats fair/what they should expect and so people are generally clueless. While we don't necessarily want our friends to know exactly what we earn this sort of illustrates that

A lot of tough and valuable work too I'm sure!

I think a recent one, especially on MN is that wages in tech is automatically high and all you need to do is take a few free/paid online courses and you will be snapped up, given a high wage whilst working in offices like the Alphabet headquarters.

It has become much like law, it has a perceived automatic wealth, but unlike law at a lower/entry level your job can and will be automated away at some point so you better keep moving upward.

I’m a childminder, people often assume I’m rolling in it because of the high childcare costs in this country. In reality, I’m barely scraping by

I know a lot of people in the building trade and some are easily getting £100k and I mean person salary not turnover of a small business. Totally booked up for extensions and house renovations etc. in wealthy areas and shortage of skilled workers.

I’m a wedding photographer, I took home £20k last year.

Most people think we click a button and are loaded. Business running costs are so high and we are still playing catch-up from no income during covid. My income should double by 2024 though.

My overall household income is higher than people realise, but we have 2 full time jobs, 2 children in receipt of DLA and a hefty receipt of child support.

We don't talk about how much it all adds up to outside of our own walls.

I’m self employed, have my own business in a skilled trade. My turnover is 200-250k a year, gross profit around 100k. I’m sure my clients have no idea how much I earn. I work bloody hard though.

I was really surprised when I discovered that architects aren’t necessarily rolling in it.

I’m a big 4 accountant in the regions not London and earn nowhere near what people think I do

I have a friend who is a lawyer supporting asylum seekers. I think he earns about 35k which isn't much for a qualified solicitor.

Both myself and my DH have pretty average jobs, live in an average house, and take slightly better than average vacations, drive average cars (both of ours are in the 7-10 yo range of average make and model). According to the data I’ve seen , we earn in the top 5% of people in my average state (US flyover).

DB is a butcher and earns £100k

Do you earn more or less than people think?
I know a few accountants in London who are on around 50k. They are in house rather than working working for a large accountancy firm though.

I’m at the other end of the scale, and earn next to nothing. Recently felt embaressed when I realised newbies to the job were earning the same as me, despite having years experience. Left fairly shortly afterwards to a similar job but a lot less stress and slightly more money.

Dh and I earn about £180k but we give off the air of people who have no spare cash. If we try to buy anything like a car or a new TV we get ignored in show rooms. I've often been tempted to pull a 'pretty woman' scenario (don't need the man to help me though!) But never been brave enough.

Not me but DH - someone asked if he was interested in a school based IT technicians role for at the time about £16k

At the time he was in IT development earning more than £80k and frankly knows nothing about looking after computers 😂

This area of law is not lucrative. The commercial lawyers tend to earn more money and also what is a lot for a "qualified solicitor" depends on where and how qualified they are.

I can imagine there's a lot of outlay too?

I'm a nurse earning 50k and living somewhere very cheap, so I live well. I'm always a bit bewildered when people give off pitying vibes that I must be on the breadline.

Wow that's a good income. Are you very experienced?

A lot of that is a by product of the recent few decades of thinking that going to University was seen as an automatic route to a higher wage and being sniffy about working a trade, you still see it now with people trying to reframe it as 'a must needed experience etc' and others complaining that having a MSc in some social science degree is earning just above a full time retail worker and is not respected.

A multitude of other factors play a part in the supply and demand of trade of course, but the average trades person who is now on 100K has worked from the bottom.

I earn not far under six figures and for me it is a lot. My friends can probably tell I don't worry about money but I think they'd be shocked that I earn that much. I know on MN pretty much everyone earns six figures, but honestly I never thought I'd achieve that kind of salary, especially in my very early 40s.