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.

What does your DH do MooseBeTimeForSnow?
I'm a 30 year O&G man and have met very few £300k people.

I'm on around £16k a year working as a care assistant in a care home. 37.5 hours a week. One of the most underpaid jobs there is. Without people doing my job, there would be far far far more people in hospital due to not taking their medication, having falls, pressure sores etc etc etc.

@DrMorbius Canadian Oil Sands

on £250k pa - I’m in law and partner is in finance

I have a few quite entitled friends in certain parts of finance who earn much more and seem to assume we earn as much as them because we live in London m although we don’t live a flash lifestyle at all - 3 bed house, qashqai car, no flashy bags

but DHL’s family are in Scotland and live really nice lives on salaries that total about £50k. They would be shocked at how high our salaries are

I'm self employed.

For some reason, people often seem to assume that self employed = well paid.

Hollow laughter - I know people routinely working for less than minimum wage, and after I put some significant investment into the business, I joined their ranks.

No sick pay, holiday pay, maternity pay, redundancy pay, pension contributions or anything else either.

@LaughingCat

OH pays 34% into his pension which means he is below the £50k net adjusted income threshold to pay the Child Benefit High Income Charge. We do a tax return each year, and it is all compliant, plus he has the better pension to look forward to.

But you can't pay more than £40K into a pension fund a year tax free so if your income is too high your contributions will be more than this.- then this scheme won't work for you.

I earn a part time pittance 🤦🏻‍♀️

Not me but... DH is in the building industry and sometimes works on some very posh sites. He reports that the person on site who earns the most by far is the chap who orders and fits the curtains and curtain accessories! (Well, he doesn't physically fit them; obviously he has a team to do that under his supervision.
😂) I guess it makes sense if you think about it. People are very particular about their curtains.

I know my cousin definitely got a shock (although he tried to hide it). He has his own business and I was really fed up with my work, he was looking for someone to help him out and asked me what I would be happy with. I said about £50, he went quiet and never mentioned it again, it makes me wonder what he thought I "do" and what figure he was thinking. I'm a professional in project management.

Look at AFC in Scotland , top of a band 7 is £50050 and proposed to be @£53500 from April if unions accept 2023/24 pay offer

The average journalist salary is £28,782. People always think of it as a high flying, glamorous job when the reality is it pays less than UK average. That's often a shock.

That said - I'm a journalist and I earn £82k (self-employed freelancer). So my journalist friends would also be surprised it was that high (if I shouted about it).

Accounting must pay better in the US. My son started with a big four firm in NYC last fall right out of uni and is on $70k. He did a internship with them during uni and they offered him a job when he graduated.

I'm a PA and earn nearly £50k. People are always seemed to be quite surprised when I tell them even though I’m in my 40s and I’ve been doing it forever and really qualified in what I do.

I am in a niche type of environmental consulting that is very much in demand at the moment. Salaries range from £25k upwards to on averags £60k, but 2-3years of experience salaries are north of £40k.

Due to the demand and lack of qualified professionals I get almost daily calls from recruiters despite making it clear I am not looking. These jobs average £50-85k for more senior roles than my current one e.g. Head of X, division head etc..

My overall salary including benefits is north of £120k and salary after a cost of living bump is just shy of £110k. Some recruiters scoff when they ask my salary expectations as any new role would have to give me at least a 30% bump and keep my wfh arrangement with 1 day in the office monthly.

I have had a few recruiters come back with revised salary ranges after finding noone willing to even interview as their idea of competitive salaries are too low. Friends in the industry report the same and it was not uncommon to be on £30-35k mid level, but demand has massively increased & it is not uncommon to double your salary in one move. I do get plenty of jobs forwarded to me in the £50-60k range by well meaning friends as well😂😂😂. I can only assume people think my ex is generous with child support while i go about with my silly hippy job as i've heard people describe it as.

Nurses and HCAs can earn from £290 to £600 + if they choose to go on the ‘bank’

Wow this sounds like hard work! Are you a writer?

Do you need to be a scientist for this role?

Sorry that question for the environmental consultant!

I live in Spain and am retired. The general view of people who don't know me well is that I'm a typical ex-pat living on the UK State pension with a small top up from a personal pension, as a lot of Brits do here. In actual fact I don't even draw my state pension yet, but my private pension which I started paying in to when i was 18 is really quite good and allows me to really enjoy my retirement. I probably did sacrifice a few luxuries when I was working in order to build up my pension pot, but now I'm so glad I did.

@MooseBeTimeForSnow

300k p/a is beyond ceo level and in oil - wow what does your husband do in terms industry ??

I have a net salary of around £20k a month. I tell friends and family it's far far less. Only my partner knows the truth. The family car is a dented 10 year old lexus hatchback. We buy 50% of our clothes second hand on ebay.

Our CEO earns roughly $5M CAD.

DH is part of the senior leadership team with an annual operating budget of roughly $300M

Teacher of over 25 years. Work in an area of high deprivation and with a lot of children with SEND and English as an additional language. Have a masters in inclusion, including modules on dyslexia and autism. I earn just over 40,000. Busting a gut to be honest. I’m always quite shocked when I read these threads about how much people earn. However, in the area I live I guess I’m one of the high earners.

What I will say is I love my job and it gives me endless satisfaction. My colleagues are great. So no complaints as such, but I do feel underpaid and undervalued by society reading this!

I think care workers of the elderly and disabled deserve so much more than they get. I don’t think I could do their job. Most of the working parents at my school are on minimum wage jobs in care, supermarkets or working as drivers. Society seems really unfair, these people are just as important to the smooth running of society. I lucked out with having a stable family, supportive parents and good housing. My parents were very aspirational for themselves and for me. I really do feel that these things have allowed me to be reasonably successful in life.

I really wish there wasn’t such a big gap in wages.

My DP is O&G is on that. There are plenty of them.

I earn just over 200k. Was in marketing on half that but switched roles to an internal consultancy job, globally working on transformation projects. Recently, one of my acquaintances asked if I wanted to come and work for her, offering some freelance marketing work, £35k.

Won’t shock most people, but 15yrs ago MIL was commenting on me working full time… oh yes nice for you to have some pin money she said. Not that she knew but It was £40k a year 😂

I'm on £10.08 a hour and do 15 hour shift and a sleep and earn 180 for this very low wage as I work in children's social care