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.

Sorry but no way is a butcher, unless he has a part time job with the mafia of chopping up unwanted bodies that he didnt tell you about or selling a few drugs along with the pound of mince.

It’s very likely if they have major contracts with large restaurant chains/catering companies

There’s a wide range of butchers though. I think we’re probably talking high-street business owner with a specialism rather than a trainee at Morrison’s. Even higher earnings for someone with their own brand or food service supply contracts, especially elite brands such as Ginger Pig or Lidgate. (Neither of my clients, in case anyone thinks I’m being indiscreet).

The Butcher round here makes an absolute fortune.

He’s the only one left. There’s only a small supermarket. He delivers. He does meals as well as the usual.

He also supplies all the local businesses - 3 restaurants, a couple of pubs and one hotel. I also have wouldn’t be surprised if he does the posh old people’s home as well.

Are you sure about that? I'm a non-equity partner at Big 4 and I earn just over £250k. I'm certain magic circle make more than Big 4 (at least at non-equity partner levels).

My brother in law is a prize prick and obsessed with money and trying to place a value on people dependent on what they earn. My DH hasn't spoken to him in twenty years.

They recently met up and BIL condescendingly asked DH if he'd managed to earn 40k a year, like him (this seems to be his barometer for doing well.)

DH mumbled noncommittally. He's an architectural photographer that gets flown around the world by clients and his day rate is over 1k GBP and he's fully booked months in advance.

We live a very modest life and give a lot of money away. BIL would be livid to know the truth....

Sorry but no way is a butcher, unless he has a part time job with the mafia of chopping up unwanted bodies that he didnt tell you about or selling a few drugs along with the pound of mince

I thought the same! Soprano vibes

I'm an advanced grade social worker in adult care, working for over 35 years and earn around £35000 pa ( not sure exact as I've gone part time now)

I'm an accountant, so I would hope I am declaring things properly!

The majority of my income is made up of dividends, which are taxed at a lower rate. Plus I pay about £6k a year in qualifying loan interest on my business loans, which is a tax deductible expense.

People assume my DH (public sector) earns more than me. I earn six figures in a niche corporate role. Would guess people assume I earn about 40k. We don't have a lavish lifestyle and save several thousand per month.

@LittleLIDL

I work around 20 hours a week in brand and communications strategy consulting to the food industry and average £200k pa.

How? how? Are you running your own business working with several companies? What do you consult on?

( very jealous😁)

That doesn't surprise me.

Calling it my own “business” is a bit much; it’s just me usually working freelance on a project basis, or as a contractor for a fixed term within a creative agency, say for a product launch. However, I’m a unicorn (or rather dinosaur) in the industry because I’m ancient by comparison with the brand managers I work with, and I have 25 years in the industry. It’s a very small world - I always say my only talent is not pissing off my colleagues. The work itself is fairly scarce, so I couldn’t scale up much beyond 20+ hours anyway. My clients are household brands and some of their positions are distinctly problematic to put it politely, which is why they need me. The brand and account teams do the sexy work, and I’m normally advising on policy.

I have the classic branding background - Oxford degree, bilingual, WPP. After that, it’s just time-served.

For those doubting my tax reporting - extract from my HMRC online account. My £5k per month is what I actually take from my company and I pay my tax separately under self assessment. My 2021/22 tax figures are higher due to the changes in the tax rates and is up to £4k, but 2020/21 was £3.5k on £60k income.

This isn't the only tax paid. My company doesn't get a tax deduction on this dividend income I take, so the company is paying around an extra £10k in corporation tax as a result of me structuring my earnings this way.

It is slightly cheaper, overall, in tax, but not massively so.

You say you are "taking home" £5k per mth, so that will be after business expenses such as loan interest, and the dividend rate isn't low enough to give the numbers you've quoted.

Either you're underpaying tax, or you've misrepresented your take-home amount.

Xpost - you've obviously included tax deductible expenses in your "take home", which is misleading.

I'm also a nurse but earn nowhere near 50k! I work in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. I do 7.5 hours less than full time and with working most weekends take home around £1900 month. Have worked there over 20 years.

The £59,929 is actual amount paid to me from my company. I receive £5,000 in to my bank - £9,380 was accounted for as a salary and £50,549 as dividends.

I pay my business loans and personal tax out of this money.

The £19,478 is what is included on my tax return as deductions from my earnings - £12,570 is the annual tax-free personal allowance and, in that year, £6,978 was loan interest paid.

This calculated the £3,542 tax charge, which I again paid out of my personal bank account.

THIS! I work in a ‘professional’ role (yawn) and DH is a self employed builder earning 300k a year, he employs 5 other guys. people assume I’m the main breadwinner when in fact I earn a 3rd of what he brings in.

drives me bananas when people assume he’s not contributing as much as me - crass but I’ve told people before. As a society we have such a strange view of tradespeople, the perceived class system in the UK is wild.

Interesting thread. Dh and I are bang average and earn ok, the least out of most of our friends.

Not really shocking but I'm happy to see the amount of people working hard and not spending it all for appearance sake, so I decided to chime in.

My Fiance is software developer and I am digital artist. We are both stingy and live way below our means, which is probably why people don't assume we are well-off (my Mum straight up asked if we have no money when I told her that I am making a rug by myself for nursery) I assume most friends/family think I'm not making much and Fiance is the sole/main breadwinner, but I have full time job in my field and do freelance work on top of it which usually lands me just few thousands less than him pa. I do think that in 5-10 years my earning prospects will be much lower due to AI taking over, but that's why I'm on a grind now saving and investing so we can live stress free and comfotrably for as long as possible.

I don't know if this is elitist thinking on my part, but sometimes it's baffling seeing people on lower wages spend money on things we consider too expensive for us, wondering if we are the crazy ones, so good to see frugal people here.

The tasks and responsibilities of DH's job could, at best, be described as 'middle management' but he's paid a very chunky six-figure salary for essentially doing the same job as he was doing around 25 years ago. He works for a mid-sized corporate where some people are promoted WAAAAY above their abilities and experience (and then make a total hash of it before being quietly de-promoted and moved elsewhere in the business as has happened with several colleagues) and others (like DH) are held back from career progression for reasons that, I think, have more than a little to do with Board directors wanting to protect their own little fiefdoms from anyone with any innovative ideas of their own.

It seems very much like one of those companies whose management say; '... we don't want 'yes men'...' when, in reality, that's EXACTLY what they want. It could also be a classic case of; '... if your face fits...'.

However, I find it very odd that they keep throwing pay rises and bonuses at him, and yet let him potter about under his own steam without any real responsibility (and without any oversight, either) and with no intention of giving him any opportunity to progress higher up the career ladder.

It's a total cakewalk for us financially obviously, but DH is getting really fed up with not getting any satisfaction from his job whatsoever. He reckons he wouldn't get paid more than around half of his current salary for what he actually does in any other business.

You are very mistaken. My best friends husband owns a butchers and they are absolutely minted. No idea what he takes as a salary himself but they live a very wealthy existence.

The butcher is probably something like the guy I once temped for who owned an abattoir business. He paid himself well. His employees, not so much

This thread confirms that we don’t really value public sector or caring roles enough.

Apart from junior levels, private definitely pays more than public sector.

I don’t know why wealthy people make such an effort to act poor and wear scruffy clothes? The other end of the spectrum to poor people wearing designer togs perhaps?

NHS role here. Senior clinician. Well-paid, though not on the same level as many here. Lots of job satisfaction though.