Resentment at 100k

[Arseholeneighbours]

Theres a lot of vitriol spilt towards people being “high earners” at 100k and over. As net contributors, and most likely having made sacrifices, stresses and difficult life decisions, there’s many judgements about life choices , expectations and living within one’s means. What is the motivation to push forward in a career and to try and be as successful as one can if there’s no personal gain? It’s all well and good saying those with the broadest shoulders should take on the most - but to what end?

Grow up.

In a way I agree, I think we should move to society where you pay more in tax but also get more back.

So I'd restore child benefit for all, have free social care and massive investments in social housing.

BUT there's a reason why no political party is offering that and it's because an awful lot of people just think they can have low taxes and great benefits by eliminating "scroungers" and telling everyone to work harder. Of course when the government does raise the minimum wage we get "but employers can't afford that."

Just yesterday I was chatting to a colleague who was complaining about "people who have never worked" and then complained about her own pension being substandard because of all the years she hadn't been able to work! Although in her case for completely justifiable reasons. Of course!!

Such a weird attitude to have. You need incentives to achieve, financial rewards from the government? Don't you have any drive and ambition of your own?

I used to be a sahp, not out of choice, we got government help for low earning families etc. When I could eventually get back to work I was worse off for a while, then I got a pay rise but lost childcare subsidies so was again worse off. Did I care? No, I was so happy to be earning my own money and being self reliant and working for everything I had.
Grow up and have some pride and stop whining about being a poor little rich girl. 100k is a huge wage.

Hard agree OP, there is no incentive at all. What is the point of in striving for that promotion when Reeves takes the extra income. Might as well not bother.

Is minimum wage enough to live off if you're childless and you just budget hard enough

No the incentive provided by the government is to drop my hours

No hypothetical scenarios exist, that's what makes them hypothetical 🙄

Same here @Arseholeneighbours - it actively incentivises me to drop to 4 days

Honestly the tax on the strivers does upset me. Family I know work very hard. But there are the crowd on MN who say "I work very hard. I only earn minimum wage."

You sound a lot like me.

I feel very lucky that my partner and I have so far been able to have a good life on a joint salary of about £60,000 thanks to house prices being more sensible when we bought and us not spending unnecessary money.

My partner's been able to retire at 64 which he's loving every moment of.

The reason couples like us (but thirty years younger) can't do the same is because of terrible decisions people have voted for over the years - the destruction of social housing, Brexit....

Some people on high incomes work hard, but so do people on lower and middle incomes. Their work is important and contributes both to wealth generation and the support of essential services. Society needs refuge collectors, care assistants, nurses, social workers, cleaners and teachers. Nursery workers are low paid. Without them.high earners with young children cant work. Businesses that generate tax dont function without their middle and lower paid workers. We are all part of an economic and societal ecosystem, reliant on each other.

My DP earns well below 100k. He works long hours and does very chalenging work. It is needed for society to function. I dont doubt that many on 100k+ work very hard, but surely those on 100k also recognise that others work hard as well? A functioning society needs a wide range of job roles that contribute in different ways? The tax income of the higher paid is important, but so is the work contribution of low and middle earners.
I dont resent people who earn 100k+ and i do understand that there can be circumstances and 'pinch points' when people on these much higher than average incomes can feel.their disposable income incomes are constrained. However, in the medium and longer term people on higher incomes (& 100k+ is well above average) have access to more money than those on lower and middle incomes.

I don’t think you understand.

Use me as an example. Earn over £100k and I now lose £22,000 in childcare subsidies. I also pay 62% tax on the next £25k of income.

This means if I earn a penny less than £150k… I’m worse off than earning £99k.

So you basically cannot increase your income above £100k with kids in childcare (using pension contributions to stay below it) - unless you are earning a lot more.

Even then, with my example you have an effective 80% tax rate all the way up to £200k. For the amount of extra work needed to achieve this, for many it’s just not worth it. I know people on these kind of incomes working part time hours exclusively because of the tax situation relating to childcare.

People won’t work for free.

It’s a double saving on dropping your hours too as you can do one less day of childcare!

How does it ever make sense to be paying £4K a month in childcare?

Exactly!

But you are still earning a pretty decent wage. I honestly don't see the problem.

When the Tories get in again they will likely promise tax cuts, extend child care to 200k, and put another 20 billion into the NHS.

You just gotta vote Tory, and maybe knock on doors for them, come next election time.

See @MidnightPatrol post above

"....and I now lose £22,000 in childcare...."

So you are FOR the benefits system, and government paying.

As the Tories would say, who pays for that ?

I’ve never been anti benefits!

I feel when discussing salaries and wages everyone gets try and plays on heart strings. "Oh I work hard. I did all this." "Oh I work hard. But I only get paid this". "Oh these jobs are essential for society"

We live in a capitalist and relatively free market economy. Wages and incomes are predominantly set by supply and demand. Low earning jobs are usually easily replaceable and low skilled. Yes we might need them. But if people were to leave they'd probably be replaced very quickly.

Skill, knowledge, intelligence and drive all play a part. At some point YOU have to take responsibility for your own job, salary and career? Remember that when you agree to start a job, you enter that wage contract voluntarily.

I pay for it, through the vast amount of tax I pay.

Im just not eligible to use the services I’m funding.

Hence the annoyance.

Of course those who are on higher income realise that those who are not and who are working, work hard. It is those who don’t work at all or work the minimum hours so benefits aren’t affected are the ones who are resented which is a perfectly normal feeling to have

The Tories created this situation with childcare at £100k - and made it vastly worse by making it more generous and keeping the cut off.

Really strange move from them - alienate all high earning younger adults.

As much as the welfare state promotes care for people and attempts to tackle inequality it’s there just as much to stop civil unrest.

In what world would you accept a promotion which causes you a 22k loss?