Did anyone watch Question Time last night?

[fedup21]

Did you see the chap who was shouting that he earns over £80,000 but wasn’t in the top 5% of earners in the country?

Was he right or wrong??

It’s 81 grand for top 5% so he’s technically right but only just.

It’s 81 grand for top 5% so he’s technically right but only just

Right, thank you. He did say he earned over £80k, so maybe not!

It seemed odd that nobody in the panel was correcting him with any conviction.

Anyone who appears on this sort of show should be equipped with the basic knowledge that the median income in the U.K. is about £29k.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-50514656/question-time-tax-row-i-m-one-of-the-people-labour-will-tax-more

The Guardian appear to claim that he was incorrect but extrapolating the figures they quote to the current year suggests he's right.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/nov/22/factcheck-earning-80000-or-more-top-5-of-uk-earners-labour

I agree Misti, actually I'd rather like if those who appeared as panellists who are Members of Parliament actually earned that median income for a stretch too.

Louise
He claimed that half of people on PAYE were on £80 k
He claimed that all lawyers and doctors are on £80k
both of which are utter lies

HALF THE ADULTS IN THE COUNTRY have an income under £25k

Median household income is £29400
www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/bulletins/householddisposableincomeandinequality/financialyearending2019provisional

Individual median is MUCH less

This seems relevant. It shows the proportion of people who consider that a particular income level makes you "rich".

Most people who earn below £30k think that £70k makes you rich. Only a minority of people earning over £50k think that £70k makes you rich.

Basically about 60% of people who earn over £50k are a bit entitled and grabby

the median income in the U.K. is about £29k

That doesn’t sound right!?

Median for full time workers fedup

(Someone earning £80k is probably working f/t).

Median for full time workers

Do you mean that’s the median individual income or the median household income, like the poster upthread said?

Fedup ONS median gross full time earnings (I just checked and it's about £30k now, the £29k was from memory).

I know that if you include part timers the figure is lower, but if you are going to argue with people about their good fortune I think it is helpful to compare like with like, to avoid arguments like "they only work part time so they can claim benefits".

I'm sensitive to arguments that in some cases £80k might not feel like that "rich" because I am in that boat (good income but high living expenses, due to funding care for a disabled partner so that I can work) - but objectively someone who earns this much is well off regardless of how they choose to spend their money.

Those not working full time include pensioners and
lots and lots of women.
Unemployment is low because productivity is low because lots of people work part time
www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/uklabourmarket/february2019#summary-of-latest-labour-market-statistics

www.bbc.co.uk/news/50517136 Lots of debate on this on Twitter, yes of course £80,000 puts him in top 5%. The initial figures published were from HMRC were confusing they didn't take into account people who are not making enough money to play income tax. So if you take into account all those people who don't pay income tax, then £80,000 is well within the top 5% of earners.

30K is the median full time income (for stats full time is considered 30 or more hours per week) median means 50% of full time workers earn more than 30K and 50% earn less

actually personal median income is less as some are on benefits, pensions or work part time

80K is definitely into top 5% which ever way you look at it;

average salary for a qualified doctor is about 60K as not all doctors by a long shot are consultants

there have been regular discussions bunfights on MN as to what rich means but regardless of whether 80k is rich or comfortable or barely adequate in Kensington it still means you have more income than almost everyone you meet ( the other 95%)

The real issue is why someone earning £80,000 feels they are not well off enough to pay more tax.

We’ve had a Conservative Government all these years, yet standard of living would seem to have plummeted for these people.

The Conservatives aren’t working for our top earners, then, so who exactly is benefitting?

I'm not sure if that's because of a Conservative government or simply because of cultural reasons (obviously affected by politics but also by lots of other factors). The norm now is to own a house, to own at least one car, to have holidays abroad every year, to have expensive outgoings for clothes, phones, and everything else technology-wise, to go out to restaurants regularly,etc. I know it makes me sound really old but in my days (AHAH) we never went abroad on holidays, going out to a restaurant was a once-twice a year affair, and things that are now considered the norm were absolute luxuries. With £80k a year, you can live very comfortably and afford to pay more taxes. I think part of the issue here is that people don't trust that their taxes will be spent correctly after years and years of being told that 'foriners' are taking advantage of the tax system, that the NHS is overspending on administration, people seeing cuts in schools, cuts in social care, cuts in hospitals. For that, I do blame the Conservatives who have done a fantastic job at marketing their devastating austerity measures. And scapegoating foreigners instead of lack of funding.

He’s going to be paying £48 more a year in tax...

He’s just greedy and comes across as such

BBC question time guests seem to be sourced from political persuasions on mass

Doctors start on £26k

Thought this was a good article about it

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/bbc-question-time_uk_5dd7a551e4b00149f71a2407?ncid=other_email_o63gt2jcad4&utm_campaign=share_email

According to the Office for National Statistics, the median wage in the UK in 2019 was £24,897.

This means that in the UK, 50% of the working population earn less than this amount – called the 50th percentile – and 50% earn more than it.

To work out which percentile someone belongs to, you move up or down percentiles until you get to the one closest to the wage you’re looking at.

To get near £80,000, you have to go quite a way – up to the 96th percentile, in fact, which is £78,254.

That means the gentleman complaining his wage would be taxed higher under a Labour government is richer than 96% of the population.