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.

taking home £5k a month with an annual £4k tax bill

Says someone not declaring things correctly to the tax office!

I’m an NHS administrator in children’s mental health. We take calls from children in crisis/suicidal situations and calls from angry, upset parents who often swear at us because waiting lists are so long.
I earn £21k a year.

We have the opposite of this. Husband does a similar job and people assume the higher figure (or more) and he earns very much the lower.

Even my parents don't get it. Even though I've spelled it out to them. We live within our means and don't get into debt so they think we're swimming in £££

😂

^ That was in response to the tax office comment!

My partner and I teach/sell online courses. Average car, average house, albeit in a reasonably expensive area. Anyone who’s bothered to consider it would probably guess our income is pretty average or even lowish for where we live, maybe 30k or something, but in fact we make around 400k a year.

@theworldhas what courses are you teaching/selling?

I am very academic, went to a well known red brick university. Have high grades and a great CV. My last job I took home £12k pa part time.

My DH hated school, didn’t do very well academically. Is now earning £150k+ a year and has flexible working arrangements. He is a consultant/product designer.

I always thought it was the be all and end all to go to university and get a profession. It turns out it’s much better to focus on something that you love and throw yourself head first into it, taking all the risks and all of the opportunities.

a lot of work is paid cash & they put expenses through to end up with 0 tax to pay

Tax evasion, in other words!

There is no other way to bring a profitable business's taxable profits down to £nil except by understating income or overstating expenses. Or a combination of the two.

So interesting! What are the courses and how did you get into it?

I’m a self-employed artist. I make and sell work direct to the public and never take on client projects - just make what I want to, when I want. I work 3 days a week, fitting around my kids.

Most people who don’t know me well assume I’m a SAHM faffing about with a little hobby - the reality is I’ve reliably made between £30k and 45k a year for the last five years, while working part time.

I’m surprised the tax evasion culture is still going. I know lots of friends who have been ‘spot checked’ by HMRC and finer lots for not

So if I got paid less, I would pay less tax into the community chest. What good would that serve? I would also have less income to spend, what would that serve? I would probably have to reduce the hours of my cleaner. What good would that serve? I don't holiday overseas excessively, too busy working,but I do try to buy British across the board.

I have worked and studied hard, worked around the world to build expertise and I work in an area that is attempting to do good (not charity sector). A person earning £10 per hour has probably not put in the same effort and sacrifice. That is fine, if it works for them. Some will always be paid more. If I ever earn £10k per hour, I will track you down and take you out for an epic night!

I know it's above average, but that's because the average wage in this country is SHOCKING (thanks Tories for your 13 years of wage suppression). I'm in the South East so everything is expensive. I watch Location Location Location and feel sad when I see what the extortionate amount I paid for a very average three bed house would get me elsewhere in the country. Once my kids have left school, I will move somewhere my money stretches further.

The UK is very unequal due to the Thatcher years when inequality spiralled. Your average top 10% UK citizen is richer than their German/French/Australian etc equivalent - the top 1% far wealthier. But everybody else is worse off than their equivalents. The UK standrad of living is generally below average for a developed nation - with a sprinkling of extremely rich people.

Coupled with the above we’ve then had terrible growth post 2008 financial crisis. Blame austerity, Covid, and Russia for that.

So add it all up and where we are today is probably about 80% the Tories fault.

Paying the right tax. HMRC always win.

It’s not worth it, I’d rather pay my taxes and sleep easy at night.

A friend is a partner in a magic circle firm
& earns quite a bit less than £150k, which surprised me

The UK standrad of living is generally below average for a developed nation - with a sprinkling of extremely rich people.

I agree with this. Society have seen huge growth in asset values in the last decade, and certain sectors have seen growth in wages, but otherwise it's been stagnation for the masses (which is actually a real terms cut that gets larger every year).

I'm unemployed due to redundancy and my friends keep sending me jobs that are £19-22k

I was on £55k before I lost my job! I was a project coordinator in the tech industry.

I can't find a new job due to my location (far from London!) And WFH roles are becoming less and less common. I think I may well end up on one of those £22k jobs because I'm so lonely :(

A friend is a partner in a magic circle firm & earns quite a bit less than £150k, which surprised me

This is really weird, are you sure? They won't be an equity partner - are they part time or something?

This is definitely wrong! You will get mid-level associates earning that much at magic circle law firms. Partners are on more than £1m.

I'm an apprentice Solicitor doing a large amount of fee earning work and have several years of experience alongside other legal qualifications prior to my most recent apprenticeship. The firm I work for is paying for 5% of the cost of my training. I earn £20,000.00 annually before tax. Other apprentices I've spoken to share the same story as mine, where we have been given much more responsibility in the role than we are required to have for the apprenticeship and all of us are paid less than £1 above minimum wage.

I guess a lot of the thought behind it is "you're still learning!", but the day-to-day work that I do is on par with that of the Solicitors in my firm, there are only a few things that we legally cannot do. Files are opened in the name of a Solicitor but all of the work from start to finish is completed by me. I just feel that I'm not being fairly compensated for the amount of complex and difficult work that I do, with the amount of responsibility that comes with it.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my job I really do, I just thought that by now I'd be earning more than just above minimum wage for the sort of work I'm doing. I've never spoken to someone about my wage who hasn't been surprised that I don't earn more, and that my wage hasn't really progressed in the years I've been working in this role to reflect the increasing responsibility and complexity of the work I'm required to do.

Partners are on more than £1m.

They are a non-equity partner & on less than £150k

Really? I'm a fairly senior associate at a non magic circle law firm and get paid £150k. That can't be right. Associates of approx 4 years' PQE at magic circle firms would be earning 150k.

This! I had some building work done, and the head of the small building firm rocked up in a Tesla... then some of them were talking about their next trip which was going on safari! (they were Polish - their costs were competitive - and they did a great job.... so no complaints! but it was a bit of a shock).

I am a Librarian & DP is in IT. Same employer.

Everyone (outside of work) assumes that he’s the breadwinner when in reality I run a university library and am on 59k and he works on an IT help desk and earns 28k.

It is difficult to correct people IRL without feeling bad for DH. Who is wonderful and does more than his fair share of everything else to make up for the pay difference. He’s also had some MH issues which have affected his career projectory so I don’t bang on about it. People’s assumptions piss me off no end though!