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.

£150k as a solicitor. I work in a London commercial law firm as a corporate lawyer and 10 years qualified. Very average for city firm. Some city firms (especially US headquartered) pay much more though. Good pay but hours are very bad.

Yep. Civil servant and barely cover rent.

I look after dogs for people when they go on holiday, or go to work.

People think I earn peanuts, or do my job for pocket money (I have actually had that said to me), but in reality I earn more than most of my customers. I also have no overheads and no commuting costs, as it's all done in my very normal house.

It just "looks" like a low paid job, because it's not white collar work.

I earn way more than my husband and my children, who all have degrees and are in highly skilled (and highly stressful) jobs.

I earn more than teachers, nurses, bank managers, police officers.....for something that is super low stress and actually quite fun.

But yeah, people definitely assume I'm paid less than them. Quite funny really. But I can totally see why. Smile and wave......

Not me personally but I was shocked at how little hospital Doctors get paid. I googled with all the strike talks and it is truly shocking.

I think people would be shocked at the level of responsibility for the wage I earn.

In my second job, I am a duty senior of a residential unit. I run the shift, cover the work of the gaps on our rota (and there are always gaps). I have to get involved in the M&H/hoisting and personal care of service users as there isnt enough staff to do it, some days we dont have a cook so I also have to cook tea, as well as all the paperwork and medication (including controlled medication, medication that needs to be given via peg, all done solo because we dont have another trained staff on shift). I also may need to do suctioning, first aid, deal with challenging behaviour, fire drills, medication counts, report and problems or issues, book medication in or out and try and find time to write support plans and risk assessments which is the job I am meant to be doing.

All for 30p more than minimum wage.

Yes – translator, around the £100k mark, but fluctuates slightly year to year as self-employed. It’s a profession where building up a sound client base and working up to a decent salary can take a while, but I’ve been super lucky with a language combination that’s in demand. When I tell people what I do, they often launch into suggestions of part-time jobs that I could do to boost my income, as though I’ve actually just announced that I’m unemployed or on the breadline.

I don't get it either. My perspective probably was changed by being widowed in my late 30's. You can't bank on having a retirement, or the health to do things, if you do live a long life. Enjoy and experience what you can in the present.

@AnuSTart
"We both earn around £5k take home each a month (I'm on slightly higher) and the parents and teachers at school treat us like crap because we 'look scruffy ' and they think us poor. And actually we out-earn everyone there."

Not everything is about money. You don't gel with them because they don't see you both as someone they'd want to know. I don't understand why you'd be scruffy if you didn't have to be. They don't want to know someone who doesn't take a bit of pride in their appearance. You'd wonder if it spilled over into the cleanliness inside the house. Or how you'd turn up on a night out etc.

What sort of artist? Where do you sell? My husband is an artist and could do with making it pay better.

Vet £34k

@safeplanet it's a mixture of property equities and bonds and has been invested for around 40 years in total. (Some inherited).

This shouldn't really be happening. Are you proving snacks or nappies etc? My friend is a childminder and doesn't provide these unless it's by pre agreement and factored in cost wise. Do you pay for lots of activities? Also do take after school kids? I am not critiscing just wondering if you can cut back somewhere.

DH is a taxi driver (not London) and averages about £50k gross (only inncome tax to pay) which I think would shock many. Works about 45 hours a week.

He left his 'respectable' career in retail management because the stress, hours and wage just were not worth it. Spent about £500 on the taxi exams, medicals and licence and started driving after about 2 months.

He earns well, sets his own hours, has total flexibility and gets use of his brand new car 100% of the time - so essentially just a second family car for us during non working hours. No responsibility for tax, insurance repairs etc.

It's amusing because people generally have zero respect for taxi drivers and clearly think they all scrape by on minimum wage. He gets lots of sympathetic faces when he tells people what he does and 'oh well, needs must to get by' type comments 😁

@PandasAreUseless We do eat well, our home is ordinary just not all done up like many of our friends. We're just not into visible "stuff". Car is 18 years old! But we're spending on school fees and spend a lot on holidays.

You can't take it with you but you can leave it all to your DCs which is our priority.

@MuchasSmoochas

I do normal-ish hours because I choose to just do short haul routes. I drive 18 miles in my own car to the airport and park in a free staff car park.

If that's aimed at me then I'm absolutely not lying. AfC isn't standard across the UK, I'm top 7. I said I've 12 years in, I work in a CNS role so whilst I'm specialist I can't even canulate or catheterise, so I'm certainly not a good generalist nurse, I really wouldn't class myself as especially experienced, you certainly wouldn't want to go into arrest around me!

Some agency nurses are clearing 60k working a few nights a week.

I don't get it either. I went to buy a new car 3 years ago as the last one had just stopped near a row of garage forecourts. One garage wasn't open (fair enough it was a Sunday), one garage sales staff totally ignored me and went to serve the make customers so I walked out to the third garage. I was greeted by a lovely young salesman who I gave my car specifications too and explained my car situation. He found me an exact car that suited my requirements, had the mechanics agree to walk down and shift my clapped out car and I bought the car there and then.

I’m a psychologist. Spent 7 years in uni and have a doctorate. I earn £44k

My mind is blown! Is that a standard salary? You have to be soooo bloody clever to be a vet!

Parish priest with 25 years experience. Work 70 - 80 hours per week, 6 days a week. Earn £26,000 (gross!!). It's too depressing to work out the hourly rate.

Seems to me, reading this thread, that the more 'vocational' a role is, the less we get paid for it.

it's a mixture of property equities and bonds and has been invested for around 40 years in total. (Some inherited).

inheritance makes more sense, most people don't have thousands to invest at 20.

P/T Customer Service/contact centre agent. 22hrs a week WFH - some overtime £21k ytd. No stress, very odd complaint, no
travel/parking/lunch expenses or travel time factors.
Previously worked A&E reception f/t, by the time factored in all expenses even with enhancements for unsociable hours and overtime I never came out with more than around £1100 a month. Can't believe I stuck it out for so long. I'd often leave for work 6:15am and wouldn't get home till gone 7pm on dayshifts, would take a good 2/3hrs to decompress the day get to bed for 11:30pm and back up at 5:00. 😴Was constantly running on empty.

I work in tech, can give some rough example salaries (London)
Junior - 45k
Mid level engineer - 60k
Senior - 75k
Manager - 90k
Senior manager - 110k
Head (of a few teams/small department) - 130k

I think these would be considered pretty high. But you would need to do a lot more than the odd online course to get them, even junior level.

I agree that we're very close to the lower levels being automated, it's pretty scary actually.

Financial services product, ive been only on MN that my salary is low, low mid 40s and same for dh who’s a tier above me mid 50s, according to MN they are ‘low’ for the sector but actually it’s pretty common middle management salary. We’ve worked in banking too and it’s the same on the product and project side, only difference in banking is you might seem some young people fairly high up because they were on the grad scheme, people seem to think you’re rolling on it, where as you get good benefits and ‘ok’ rises but aside from that it’s quite average and incredibly difficult to progress up (in the same company)

Well yes, that's extreme and sounds like a mental illness.

Some of these salaries seem quite high if you look at the national average. Maybe that average doesn’t include people with their own business.

Im senior in my field and earn with oT between 100k to 200k variable gross .
Lots and lots goes on tax and pension though esp as single. I don’t think people realise how much tax you pay!

I look scruffy as wfh, single parent working and looking after kids combo.