What's a high flying salary ?

[Noangelbuthavingfun]

For women... not men. Aibu to ask? I know it's a bit how long is a piece of string but just interested... my friends and I had wildly different views! Thanks for sharing and why if you can

Local government only the CEO and maybe the odd deputy CEO tends to be on that money. Strategic directors are about £150-180k, corporate directors £120-150 and Assistant directors about £90-115k

Not necessarily Oxford at all but almost certainly Russell group. They do still look at uni. Some work experience is essential too. The competition for the training contracts is fierce. The kids we know with MC contracts all have at least 2:1 in a so called serious subject from. RG unis (or equivalent) and lots of extra curricular such as sports, debating, youth work, sports leadership and were prefects / head students and were on various committees on and out of school and uni. Although some are Oxford / Bristol / Durham etc there are a good few from Birmingham Nottingham Leeds Sheffield level of RG but I am not aware of any of them gone to any of the newer unis / former polys

I earn 200k and my boss who is female earns around 500k.

I consider her to be fairly high flying but she has to sacrifice a huge amount of personal time to do the role. It’s not something I’d ever want to do. I’m happy to sit under the radar and not have to negatively impact my home life to anything like the same degree that she does.

I definitely went into the wrong industry. Even the very top job in my public sector environment is around £180k per year. That’s one person. Directors on about £120k and Heads of about £85-90k. Definitely feels like a good solid career but not “high flying”.

Same. But specific to my sector I guess.

Giving a crazy high figure based on a specific industry is silly. I think you need to look at percentiles.

I would say high flying is the top 5% of earners. According to Google this is 87k for full time workers

In my area and I would never reach it (too much personal scarifies needed / working 24/7) but anywhere between 150-250k with bonus on top.

in reality my ceiling is more 80-90k but I work part time and few grades off that

I work in a heavily regulated industry. The CEO of the regulator earns less than probably the top 30 or 40 employees where I work which is nowhere near one of the largest businesses in the sector.

The regulator haemorrhage staff who leave and join the private sector and end up doubling or tripling their salaries.

I’m not sure what the comparisons are like at lower grades however at more senior levels the public sector simply can’t compete on salaries.

I earned 92k before tax this year. No degree work on the railway. Wouldn't say it was high flying though but I went into a trade out of school. I'd say about 300k plus

This. It’s a really common misconception that there are tons and tons of people out there who are earning over 100k.

I would personally have guessed at about £80k as being ‘high-flying’ but the top 5% is certainly high flying.

that said I don’t think that is adjusted for women only.

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NC for this. Partner, Big 4. Average for the last few years c. £800k (bonuses vary YoY). BUT mid-50s, single, no children, no social life, dreading retirement because outside work I have ZERO life or social infrastructure. Money doesn't necessarily buy happiness. Be careful what you wish for.

MN probably isn’t the right place to ask this; I’ve seen people on here before saying that 25k is a good wage 🤦‍♀️

£150k

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That's in line with the current salaries for those position. The jobs are hard to get, though, and she'll be earning every penny.

Wow... could you explain what sacrifices you see from her ? I'd have thought 200k would also have huge sacrifice

I don't see why, some industries wouldn't be considered "high flying" no matter how good you were at it.

I also wouldn't consider 1 in 20 people to be in "high flying" positions

Instead of the rubbish in the current cabinet - their current salary is generous based on their capabilities.

I work in cybersecurity and earn £110k base with up to 30% annual bonus and would consider that a very very good salary. I’m not off to the Maldives every other week but can very comfortably cover all the bills and put a good amount away every month for retirement, savings and for DDs savings. I’m not at top of career potential and am now making decisions on whether I want to keep pushing up and taking on more of the stress or if I’m happy where I am.

mid-40s and I don't think I've peaked yet. Peaking looks different for everyone and many of my friends I wouldn't be able to ever touch what they have (friend circle is largely comprised of parents from DC's London private school so although it's a mix, there are some proper wealthy families). I've settled into a great career that gives me maximum flexibility and I never miss any of DC's school/extracurricular events. All in I'm on around £300k but I'd like to grow that to closer to £500k and then I would think I peaked. There's other career paths that could offer more but I would sacrifice that flexibility and autonomy I have now. I do appreciate I'm in a very fortunate position but I worked hard for it, including 8 years at university to get advanced degrees.

I think the best way to explain it is that I made sacrifices to reach this level whereas my boss has to continue to make sacrifices to maintain her level.

I was very proactive in developing my career and have now reached a level I’m happy with. I’m not looking to advance any further as I now have a young DC and would rather spend time with them and ultimately retire early than doing extra work. I mainly WFH and while the level of responsibility is high, I am very much dealing with a lot of stuff I’ve already done before so don’t feel anywhere near as pressured as I did working my way up.

My boss is in a very different position. Expected to sell her soul for the business in many ways. Her life is dictated by the corporate calendar. Forever travelling all over the world at the drop of a hat for meetings at short notice. When they’re not doing that they are expected to be available 24/7 which is far from ideal when the business is global and operates in many time zones.

Add to this the pressure from shareholders and you end up with a role that most people only do for a limited amount of time before they burn out unless you’re like the poster above who said they earn well but have no life or family outside of work.

The previous incumbent regretted missing their DC growing up. That’s not a sacrifice I’m willing to make. No salary is worth that.

Why is it different for women?

Around 500k - what DH earns. I earn around half of that working part time so would be earning similar full time. We both work for ourselves doing a stress free job, fully WFH.

I think £100k+ is pretty good going..., especially if you have a partner who earns about the same. And I live in the home counties so not a cheap part of the country. Our household income is about £100k and we don't feel deprived or anything.

But "high flying" is a vague term. To some people that means a huge salary. I know a few people on £200k+ but they spend less wisely (because they can), so it almost evens out in the end