Is this classed as a ‘high earner’?

[Earnerlesr]

65k.

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

It's not the average, it is the median, I think the average is much higher

I find these some of these comments quite staggering. My husband earns 37K and I'm working part time because of caring responsibilities and earn 12K even full time combined income would be around 60K. We live in SE Wales. I find it pretty insulting that some think that extortionate salaries means its because some are more intelligent and talented than the rest of us. Have a degree and MA qualification also even if people do not attend university doesn't make them less talented!!

There's degrees of high earner - the spread between "very comfortably well off" and "ultra rich" is very large. It's all relative and depends on individual perspective.

@Earnerlesr I am mid-40s, post grad educated, managerial role and earn only couple K above 31K. It all depends on the sector you work in.

It’s actually the opposite - average pay stats are dragged upwards by a few very very high earners. It’s why government stats use the median not the mean, as the median is less affected by extreme values.

It’s not that people on lower wages don’t believe that high earners exist, I’d say more evident on this thread is that high earners often don’t see themselves as earning a lot. They adjust expectations and spending to their income level and hang around with people of similar or higher incomes, and so see themselves as normal. And start to see luxuries as necessities.

😱😱

I thought I was a 'high earner' and I'm on less than 60k (quite a bit less!!!!!!)

People often get median and average mixed up and reports in newspapers don't help as they often use both in the same report about similar things.

Yes that far over double what anyone I know earns.

Its quite insane really.

@Yellowlegobrick totally agree with this.

Absolutely!! I have a PhD and I'm clueless about many things and lack talent in most areas :)! Education is just one aspect of a person. My DS has a talent for sport and I don't think we'll advise him to go to uni because he wants to join the armed forces and doesn't seem point to me in wracking up uni fees when he doesn't need a degree! Doesn't mean he lacks talent or isn't smart! He's incredibly smart!!

Also, met a homeless guy recently as part of my work. His IQ is off the scale high :) not all smart people have the right circumstances around them to enable them to get high status jobs. Nor does everyone want a job in the city etc...

We r all different. Noone is better than anyone else because they earn more, have a bigger house, have a professional job....

I think this is the key point though- you bought there 40 years ago. No one earning 100k now wouls be able to buy in your area.

That is why people are arguing that high earner is relative to life stage/region/etc.

My blDB earns less than 100k. He, his wife and thier child live people in central London. They have a small flat.

That's DB not bIDB!! No idea what bIDB is!! :)

The ones telling you it's not are jealous. Go OP, it's a great income !

£65k per year is more than three times the national minimum wage of around £20k. So yes it counts as high in my book.

Plus ONS reports that “The top 10% of UK households have an average equivalised disposable income of £70,900 per year”. And that’s by household not by individual, so an individual earning £65k is definitely in the top 10% of earners.

Blimey is it!

I've been telling my son we r quite rich! I earn less than 37k I think :)! Or maybe about that figure :)

I feel rich - I have a wonderful DH, two fab children, a house I love, a job that's stable and I enjoy, and I'm v happy. If that's not rich, I don't know what is. I guess richness isn't always about money...

Where r all these people getting all this money from! I though we were in a cost of living crisis!!

I took a look at that IFS household earnings scale (thanks for the link) and our monthly net income, after council tax has also been taken away, places us in the 90th percentile of the UK. So I suppose that would make our household high earning, and we're bringing in approximately twice the £65k in the OP's question.

The IFS scale leaves out the very high earners, however, because it would distort the distribution too much. So if you included the Magic Circle partners, the investment bankers, the media presenters, the consultants with lively private practices, some of whom live in our neighbourhood, we would not appear at the 90th percentile! I can see why people can be high earners but not feel they are.

And, as others have said, earnings aren't related to expenses. We don't have a big mortgage, but we do have a university-aged child, and so our expenses include rent, utilities and other expenses for a whole separate 'household'.

Nope. £100K plus is a high earner.

Nope, 65k doesn’t take you far in London. 80k or over puts you in the top 5% of UK salaries.

Exactly.

I know someone who probably earns a lot more than that but he's only renting a flat in London (sharing a two bedroomed flat with a friend) and won't be able to buy anything for years.

If he was earning £40k in another part of the country he could probably afford to buy a flat fairly easily. Who is the better off, the person that can afford their own place or the one in the flatshare?

It is really striking that so many posters think that a person earning over £65k is an average salary when less than 10% of the working population earn more than this. At the same time, a person earning £65k would still not be able to afford a mortgage or their own without a substantial deposit in many parts of the country. They certainly couldn't lead a lavish lifestyle if they were paying nursery fees.

Financial services, tech, entrepreneurs, lawyers, barristers, consultants - there are a lot of jobs that pay very well. It's just that most of us don't work in them!

I don't think we'll advise him to go to uni because he wants to join the armed forces and doesn't seem point to me in wracking up uni fees when he doesn't need a degree!

If he wants to be commissioned he will need a degree. He can join the university reserve and get paid during his student years. Unless he’s commissioned and stays for 40 years as a career officer a degree will certainly be useful when he leaves. You might want to rethink.

In the last year, my pay increased by 80% and my DH's pay increased by 50%.

Inflation means wages go up but very unequally. We are in London, a lot of younger people have left for Bristol and Manchester due to high rents. So there is less competition at our level (£35k-100k which counts as entry level to mid level salary). we are lucky in the sense that we managed to buy a small flat in zone 3 at 2.05% interest rate for the past 4 years so have artificially low housing costs but this enabled us to increase our salaries. The reason we managed to buy is because DH's mum has a house in London and we stayed there for 3 years while working and saving.

Many people in our sector have increased their salaries by the same percentage.