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.

I’m not in the UK but am also a nurse.
30 years in and moved specialties often as well as spending several years in the maintenance department and picking up two additional degrees and a post grad qualification on the way.
I work part time (3.5 days per week) and pick up the odd short term project.
On track to make over £75k this year.
There’d be at least 100 nurses in my hospital who make the same or more (high level management or super specific skill sets that do on call).

I’m in a hybrid strategic projects/HR role and on 65k.

I’m often treated like glorified admin from the technical people I work with, and they would be shocked to know that I’m on “so much”. I earn more than some of the engineers & I’ve had one tell me that 30k is a good salary for what I do.

I know a teacher / lawyer couple. Their salaries are similar, but the teacher has better pension, sick pay, holidays

And before all the teachers tell me that teachers have the hardest job EVER, that teacher finished work at 4pm, never worked at weekends / holidays

I work in care, I don't get much - probably as you expect. But you might be shocked by how many think I should do my job for free. Always the money hungry will watching offspring. Its a privilege for me to adore my clients, an alarming number have repulsive relatives.

Also you can see from this thread that public service wages ( including my own) have been devalued compared to the private sector over the last 10-15years.

18k - combination of teaching and content writing at a huge teaching resources website. Work is fun, pay is pants. Husband makes around 40k

I'm a band 7 nurse in London and earn £50k

I don't know if it would shock people but I'm a freelance writer and I get the impression that people think I earn about 20K/year. That I do it just to get a bit more income in, to supplement my husband's salary. We live in a small house and have an unremarkable car and never do anything really exhorbitant. The truth is I earn about 5x that, it stays in the bank and my husband and I are planning our retirement.

My dh is like this!! I do think sometimes he has something wrong conditioned in him.. he will literally save old junk ( everything to him has value) .. try to fix everything himself, which is silly as it discounts the cost of his time and the fact that sometimes he breaks the thing he is trying to fix even more.. he buys everything second hand or on sale, won’t let me put the heating on… thinks people who renovate their houses are throwing money away ( madness as it adds to the house value, plus you are enjoying living in it after)
I don’t understand why he’s like this. I asked him once what are you planning on doing with your money.. he gets some weird enjoyment in looking at his bank balance.. think he’s lost the plot!

There’s a TikTok account where a guy stops people in the street and asks them when they do, how long for, salary and benefits. I’m often surprised and there was an architect who i thought would be paid much more, and then an IT guy (sorry, forgot exactly what!) and he got paid so much more than I expected for his experience

I make the equivalent of 150k overseas in marketing.

Always thought it was well paid but recently was head-hunted by a US company for equivalent of 250k at a slightly less senior level.

UK salary equivalent is probably 110k.

I actually think DH and I are quite frugal with a HH income of 225k but our mortgage is higher than it with fees be back home as are groceries.

That's a great income! How much can you charge an hour in your area? I'm in a very impoverished area and I was shocked that childminders seem to only be able to charge max £4.00 an hour

I'm flummoxed to see how many band 7 NHS nurses there are on MN. Are there no band 5 ward nurses anymore ?

I’m an editorial freelancer in book publishing. Typical hourly rates are £19-£24. One friend was deeply surprised/shocked by this and said they thought of what I do as very specialised and skilled. That’s as may be, but there are loads of us freelancers out there and it’s supply and demand.
Sadly, going by some of the things I get given to proofread that have supposedly already been through a copy-edit with an ‘expert’, standards among freelancers in my field are variable to say the least.

Not where I live in Ireland.
Theres 4 independent Butchers shops in our little town, population of 2.5k.
Yes, some people buy all their food in the supermarkets but we also have a thriving successful farmers market on a Saturday that’s busy all year round.
We also have an independent Fishmonger in the town too, although we are coastal, so that’s less surprising.

We have no big chain stores like Starbucks, Costa, Boots, Tesco, etc. because the locals won’t support them.

I'm a band 7 specialist nurse. Im still clinical though as opposed to solely managerial, I'm setting up a new post.

I wanted to develop, is that a problem?

What did the teacher teach? That can make a massive difference.

@whyhere Don't you also have a home, pay no council tax and a cleaner as part of your package? I was really surprised when I worked with a vicars wife, she was in her late 20s and they lived in a large vicarage in SW London. Her peers were all living in rooms in shared houses.

I knew a teacher. She never prepped saying if the syllabus didn't change too much, once she had prepped it once then that was it. And marked whilst at school. Never did anything work related at home.

I hate that most people assume solicitors earn high amounts. I'm a qualified solicitor who works full time in a highly pressured role and after receiving a pay rise this year, I finally earn £30k a year.

Interesting - I also work in this field, but for a higher hourly rate. If you're good I suggest you raise your prices. Look at CIEP's suggsted minimum rates for 2023! (I currently work for around about last year's min rates) - www.ciep.uk/resources/suggested-minimum-rates/. I think publishers need to get with the times.

Of course there are band 5 ward nurses. But if you look at the MN demographic (I assume) we're mostly women, 35 plus. If you asked on a site aimed at you get women then they'd mostly be band 5. Ward nursing has become so hellish I don't know many who stay for more than maybe 5 years.

How do I get into one of these high paying jobs? I'm an nhs worker on around 34k (have a degree in my profession). The starting pay seemed decent back when I qualified about 13 years ago (roughly 21k I think it was) but now it feels like everyone else earns more!

I guess that's directed at me ? It's just an observation.
I work on a crit care unit with >100 staff. We have 4 band 7s, the rest are mainly band 5s with a smattering of 6s yet nearly every self proclaimed nurse on MN is 'senior'.

I probably fall into the category of being a lawyer that earns less than you might think a lawyer would. I’m 13 years PQE and earn £40k.

I work in-house in the public sector for a particularly low paying organisation in comparison to other similar public sector bodies. I also lost 5k when I became a permanent homeworker as I lost my London weighting. Due to having kids in the last three years and some other issues, I’ve also held back on career progression. I’d probably jump up 10k if I got a promotion. Id also probably be earning twice as much in the private sector but wouldn’t get the work life balance and flexibility I get now.

I’ll be on mat leave shortly and I’ll probably start looking for a new job when I return as I’ll need to start bringing more money in once we have two kids at nursery.