AIBU to think many Mumsnet posters seem to be high earners?

[Jane143]

AIBU to think that the majority of people on MN seem to be high earners? As a guide, income over £60k? Most people I know in real life earn closer to average wage which I think is around £35k

Exactly the same as how I see it too. Everyone I know is a high earner and I feel like I can’t relate to most posts on here unless something very very generic

If we had the actual data, I suspect actually the distribution of earnings on this site would be largely in line with the national average for the UK.

What is happening is that actually, a lot of people will be lying about being high earners. Always happens on those threads with people going "I have 200k in savings, is that good?" Aye, right.

You are in the top 7% of earners in the country.

In finance you see many salaries above that (200k fix + 200k bonus)

I find this in the Style and Beauty threads.

Somebody was asking for ideas for new tops and Sahara was suggested. I'd never heard of this brand so looked it up - £160 for a tunic!
I earned a reasonable amount but could never have afforded that.

Any brands that are suggested on S and B always seem to be expensive ones.

I think you notice them more as being more influential or skilled in your career often translates to general increased confidence/ bolshiness/ arrogance.

also tbf people with big careers tend to know a lot about a lot.

"Six figures". Urgh. Aka I'm so humble I couldn't possibly be specific.

Yes I’ve noticed that too

Do they actually do anything worthwhile in their lives though to justify this obscene amount of money? Charity donations etc?

Everyone seems to know how much their friends earn too. Ive got no idea how much friends earn although i live in a mc area and most people seem to have an enormous amount of disposable income!

Average earnings on MN seem to be about £80k + despite that not correlating with rl. Ive seen a few posters on different threads , who are incredulous that anyone in London earns less than 35k! When i imagine there are way more people earning minimum wage than 100k but the enormous salaries of CEOs etc means the average skews higher. One of DH nephews is on 100k+ and his boss is on £2m + That is completely mind boggling to me!

Its very easy to feel your income is normal if you are surrounded by people earning similar and your outgoings match your income.

Hence loads of people on MN saying that they arent particularly well off... but earn double the average.

I think we notice the threads that are outside of our own experience. That doesn’t necessarily mean those posters are over represented.

All you have to do, in any area of the country, is look on rightmove to see how many houses are for sale at 1 million upwards. Someone lives in those houses and probably have family incomes well over £100,000.

doctors/surgeons/consultants
barristers and some high flying solicitors
any large corporation has many high level managers, directors all on high figures
tech companies - particularly international ones
top civil servants
successful company owners
independent financial advisors

ive got neices and nephews early 30s earning over £100k.

To begin with, they pay for a lot of the public services / benefits. On 400k you would pay 160k on taxes.
What people do with the rest, who knows, no universal answer. But it’s not that difficult to guess: 60k on private school for two kids, mortgage of 60k for a basic terrace in a nice neighbourhood in outer London, 3-4k a month on bills/food/holidays etc. Some pension savings. And that’s your 400k salary gone.

Exactly who do you think is funding the country’s massive welfare bill?

What would be the point though? It's an anonymous forum. I think it's interesting that there are so many people who are bothered about how much other people earn. I've got friends who I've known for over 30 odd years. I have no idea how much they earn. It genuinely doesn't come up in conversation. I know how much my DC earn, (£100k and £40k), and that's about it!

It's one of the worst things about the site for me too. Some of the threads are really tone deaf about cost of living crisis in the country as a whole.

I was perfectly happy with my own salary and my total household income until I joined MN! I don't know any high earners (or even people with DC in private school) IRL and I'd never heard of most of the the brands mentioned in S&B before I joined. Most people round here wear Shein or Tesco on the school run.

Same as SEN - I don't know anyone whose children have SEN but on MN it doesn't seem uncommon.

Well I currently earn the princely sum of £86 per week (Carers Allowance) so very definitely not a high earner!

Mumsnet is the only place where you’ll get someone saying they ‘only’ earn £80k but don’t consider themselves high earners. It’s also full of people who are oh so humble and say they earn ‘six figures’, but oh gosh they’re far too humble to say exactly how much!

I think it has always been a middle class site but I also think that most average earners don't post in a way that perhaps highlights their income. There are plenty of threads from people struggling with money though.

I think the question you are asking is no different to people with neurotypical children always questioning if everyone's child on MN has SEN (they don't) and also reading this site I could easily assume that the entire population of MN is married to an utter arsehole.

I don't know why people think it is BS and lies. Also high earners probably actually have a lot more freedom and flexibility in their day for a spot of MN'ing, popping to the gym etc. If you are working in a shop all day or on a factory floor probably not so much.

I was perfectly happy with my own salary and my total household income until I joined MN!

This makes no sense to me at all. Surely if you're happy, you're happy. There's always going to be someone with a bigger salary, bigger house etc than you.

Lots of people earn that much and far more (obviously not as a percentage of the population but thousands of people).

Equity partners in large law firms will be on at least this much and in some cases many millions a year. A top surgeon with a large private practice could well be on half a million.

Depends where you live.

Where I am I think probably everyone I know with kids has 1 if not 2 six-figure earners in the household (London) and issues like the 30 free hours of childcare thing are commonly talked about.

I am fully aware this would just seem insane in most of the UK…!

A terraced house round these parts starts at about £1m. A nursery place is £2.5k+ a month. Big incomes but matched by big outgoings for what is probably not a dissimilar lifestyle to someone earning half that elsewhere…

I just assumed everyone is a southerner to be honest. Especially when the average income is over 35k yet the vast, vast majority of people I know (through conversation and being a nosy cow on indeed) are on less than that, even those of us with perceived “good” jobs.

I am in a very working class Yorkshire town which obviously skews things mind.