Is this classed as a ‘high earner’?

[Earnerlesr]

65k.

And if it’s not, what figure starts to be classed as a high earner?

£65k is a high earner where I live. It wouldn’t be in London and areas where people commute to London, but then again, I think that’s skewed too - people routinely say ‘you can’t live on less than £100k in London!’ but seem to forget that millions of cleaners, retail staff, catering staff, tutors, teachers, stay at home parents, people who work part time, and loads of other jobs that don’t pay £100k somehow get by living there.

DH and I have a combined income of around £90k and don’t have any money worries, I consider us very comfortable although understand that wouldn’t necessarily be the case in different areas of the country.

It's all relative. I don't even earn enough to pay tax so yes I think £65K is a high earner.

Also, Mumsnet doesn’t represent a cross section of society. Most on here are middle class and educated to degree level - and of course there’s the fact that it’s anonymous and plenty will tell fibs - so of course any data will be both skewed towards that area of society and unreliable.

You may have a university - all full professors and senior professional staff (e.g. Director of HR or Finance) will be on well over £65k. MD/chief execs and senior staff of private companies such as law firms or anccountants are likely to be on high salaries, as will be successful plumbers and electricians. If you have a major employer in the county -e.g. a pharmaceutical or engineering company like Roche or Airbus will have lots to people on over £65k. Knowledge, experience, and the ability to innovate and evolve costs money, and knowledge industries will pay for the brightest.

It would depend on the second half of my post. So if 73% of people (in London) were still earning less than that, i would still think it was a high salary. Which is the reference to other earnings you mention as a better criteria. 78% earn less thatln that in the rest of the south east and then more earn less in other regions.

Sort of on the basis of the bottom 33% would be low, the next 33% would be middle and the top 33% would be high.

But others here i think are looking at the fact the spread in the top 5% of earners is far greater than the spread of the bottom 95% of earners so want to seperate them out and classify high as only high within the high earners.

Others want high earning to mean wealthy or to feel wealthy after high expenditures.

There isnt really a right or wrong.

The average income in the UK is 35 or 36,000 so yes 65,000 is high.

Maybe. It depends on age and location to a large extent. I also think it tends to be relative to your household income/those you spend most time with as to where you think 'high' is. It's just too subjective a term.

I have ranges similar to this in my head for people age 30+: £25K-£50K Average; £50K-£90K Higher I; £90K- £130K Higher II; £130-£200K High I; £200-£300K High II; £300K+ Very high; £500K+ Very high II; £1M+ Extremely high

Agree with this. My career goal is to be in the "Very Good" band you listed. I am 37 and in the average band. Although if I was feeling very Mumsnetty, I would say I started at Excellent Plus out of uni per year and now make that much per month.

We live in a wealthy European country. A recent study came out for our area, and the median salary was something like 12k/month, whilst the top 10% was over 21k/month. It’s a nice area, but not the wealthiest compared to other neighborhoods. So yes, there are places where a 130k salary is good but not really considered high or remarkable, and to be considered a ‘high earner’ in most of
the greater region (by the top 10% benchmark, anyway), you need to be earning over 250k.

I think sometimes British people don’t realise how bad their salaries are there compared to other places in the developed world. At DH’s work, it is a running joke that nobody would take a UK job on a local contract (even though they all love London) because the salaries are so bad relative to cost of living.

In London and I’d class additional rate tax and above (£125,140) as a high earner. But you need two people earning that to be a high earning household. DH and I earn £103k each, after tax (£24k each) it doesn’t leave much. We have no savings or pensions. We own businesses and invest in them instead, own commercial properties and lots of business assets. That’s our retirement fund.

I don’t think it’s a ‘high earner.’ It’s definitely a good fucking wage but I always thought a high earner was around 100k+

Mind you I work part time and probably earn 12k so there’s no need for me to be apart of this conversation😂😂

Hit the nail on the head there!

Salaried GPs earn 60-80k. Only partners earn over 100k (and not that far over either) and in a rural county there would only be a handful.

I’d say £100K+ because that seems to be the point at which you’re cut off from all benefits & support. But if you’re talking about high earners with respect to current affairs, macro economics, what’s happening in the country etc, then saying “well that’s a pittance if you live in London” is hugely short sighted & very insular.

It's over double the average salary and someone who earns that is in the top 10% of earners. Objectively, it is a high salary. Wether or not it actually FEELS like it entirely depends on your outgoings.

Strongly agree.

£100,000 is probably a lot everywhere but in London it’s not.

Also because of wage stagnation & asset increases someone who is 60 will likely be very comfortable on 65k as mortgage will be paid off or low whereas someone on 65k trying to pay rent alone won't have anything like the same disposable income.

£65k is a high earner where I live. It wouldn’t be in London and areas where people commute to London, but then again, I think that’s skewed too - people routinely say ‘you can’t live on less than £100k in London!’ but seem to forget that millions of cleaners, retail staff, catering staff, tutors, teachers, stay at home parents, people who work part time, and loads of other jobs that don’t pay £100k somehow get by living there.

Yes. For every lawyer or hedgefund manager on 150k + there'll be multiple others working in pret, station staff, hcps, bar staff etc. Even in the same buildings there'll be admin, receptionists, cleaners, maintenance staff, canteen workers etc earning nothing like 6 figures.

It's certainly a very high income indeed in my area of London (central). Nobody I've known in 40 years living here earns that kind of money.

£65k after tax puts you in the top 6% of the population. As a pp says it might not feel like a high salary but objectively and statistically it is.

This thread is a very good illustration of this phenomenon - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/average-income-uk-2022-b2231332.html

People tend to put themselves near the middle of a distribution so whatever you earn becomes ‘about average’. Top ten percent of wages is clearly a high income. Whether it enables you able to keep up with a super rich lifestyle is a different matter - but that says more about the extreme inequality in this country.

@Elopha i can’t believe 31k is the average?! How are people surviving? That is crazy.

Yes. But this is mn so await a thousand comments of I earn 500k and I don't feel a high earner at all type thing
Nailed it.

I was waiting for the "I earn several hundred thousand a year but don't feel it because property is so expensive, I've chosen to live in an expensive area, with a big mortgage, and by the time you factor in two lots of school fees, the nanny for wraparound care, the cleaner and the housekeeper we're broke by the end of the month. We only have 6 months of expenses in savings and have 1 big holiday a year. I don't feel like a high earner when I'm counting down to payday"

"Not at all. I earn more than that and I'm still having to budget carefully"

It's your lifestyle choice. People manage way below that just fine.

yes, of course it is my lifestyle, but my point is that my salary is well above average, but still not what I would consider a "high earner" who can afford luxury holidays and fancy restaurants regularly. I live well, but when you are on your own and have a mortgage in the South East, the concept of "high earner" is very different. * *

The ONS says it would mean that you earn more than 92% of the rest of the country in 2021.

So yes, a high earner.