The salary question?

[danlightbulb]

I dont like revealing what I earn. Im in a different type of job to many of my friends and the only one who went to university.

I earn more than them but Im not better off than them due to not owning my own house (due to divorce), being single, and paying 20% of my take home as child maintenance.

I wouldnt like to tell my parents either. They suffered for years on the brink of poverty in low paying jobs (when I was a child) and the figure I now earn, I fear would make them feel uncomfortable and it makes me feel guilty because of what they went through.

I wouldnt like to talk about it at work because salaries are not standardised in my company and as a fairly long serving employee now I will have benefited from many years of annual pay awards. New starter salaries are always lower than the outgoing person earned at my place.

Its also the wrong question to ask if youre trying to gauge wealth. Household income matters more because a couple shares many costs, something a single person doesnt benefit from. And it also matters when you bought your house and how youve managed your mortgage over the years. Someone on £50k (good on paper) buying a £200k house now will be paying relatively more on their mortgage compared to someone on £25k who bought their house twenty years ago.

 

[coolsurfer]

If two people are having a conversation and disclose their salaries you can guarantee 100% that one of them will walk away feeling aggrieved. It's human nature and therefore I will never discuss mine. I've also been burnt in the past. In one of my older jobs I was training up a new guy and found a digital copy of his payslip on one of our shared machines. He was on £5k more than me (at a <£25 salary so the difference was huge and very noticeable due to working in London). I was solely responsible for getting him up to speed and had been declined pay rises on numerous occasions. It was a terrible company and that was pretty much the straw that broke the camel's back before I left.

That said I always wonder what people earn, especially my close friends in different industries. I also walk down our street and wonder how these people afford the houses, then an Audi or a Range Rover... when my girlfriend and I are on probably fairly normal London wages, pay less than the market-rent (nice landlords) yet besides putting away a fair amount every month in a vain attempt to save a deposit.. don't really have all that much left to play with Our street has a whatsapp group (due to COVID) so it's now possible to look people up on Linkedin and judge them even more. E.g. the guy who bought the £1.5m house opposite our flat has a very ordinary job title in a media company. Can't be getting paid that much yet has two cars (one new Range Rover), two kids.. the mind boggles how their finances work Maybe they won the lottery

What is your job title and how much do you get paid?
What is your job title and how much do you get paid?
What is your job title and how much do you get paid?
What is your job title and how much do you get paid?
What is your job title and how much do you get paid?
What is your job title and how much do you get paid?
What is your job title and how much do you get paid?

Pharmacist in the Tech sector, £47,500 (I'm in the infancy of my new Tech career)

As I said, could not give a monkeys. Full transparency always with me. If one of my peers earns more than me, more power to them. But I guarantee you they don't have the work from home and other lifestyle perks I get so.....

Salary doesn't tell the whole story, you have to consider the work life balance and job perks too. Most pharmacists I know who work in community pharmacy would probably tell you they are working like dogs. So glad to have ditched that arena albeit for less pay. And I'm following my passion now by working in tech and get to use my pharmacy knowledge too so its not a waste. (I've been a forum member for >14 years, really regretted not doing computer science but not anymore).

Took a £10k pay cut and much happier as a result. I can literally drop my son off to school and pick him up every day if I wanted to. Would never have been possible with typically rigid community pharmacy hours (8AM-6.30PM) where you tend to not leave the premises except for a 20 min lunch break.

 

[Johno please?]

That doesn’t make it easier to calculate an income base solely on their house or cars, though. Money is cheap so people can easily get into cars (for example) that they wouldn’t otherwise have been able to.

I never said calculate, I said "roughly know"

 

[Basher]

I never said calculate, I said "roughly know"

How rough are we talking? Nearest 2k? 10k? 50k?

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

J

Just stop buying avocado toast and a coffee every day and you’ll have that £60k, 20% deposit saved up on no time! /sarcasm.

This probably doesn't translate NZ > UK very well but our chief economist was publicly given a shoeing for using that avocado phrase in one of his monthly comms. The bank distanced itself from his comments which is extremely rare. He was right of course but you never shame the very people the bank want to line up for their first mortgage, I guess. He left within the year.

Anyway, that's my banking story, thanks for reading, namaste.

 

[moon man]

looking at the payslip i am a little suprised at what a hit some of you guys must be taking with deductions ,in my trained monkey assignment at min wage four and a half days (bur overtime after thirty something hours) its taking home near £1600 a month but mortgage free ,full tank of cheap heating oil ,old very reliable car ,its not a life changing difference if i earnt 50k living in the smoke (god forbid )
I think i got it right using my primary residence as the money maker
When i go to my daughters near Oxford i see these range rovers and new Mercs outside these tiny little newbuild boxes and just chuckle that the folks driving a foot away from my bumper have to live like this

 

[theone8181]

Pharmacist in the Tech sector, £47,500 (I'm in the infancy of my new Tech career)

As I said, could not give a monkeys. Full transparency always with me. If one of my peers earns more than me, more power to them. But I guarantee you they don't have the work from home and other lifestyle perks I get so.....

Salary doesn't tell the whole story, you have to consider the work life balance and job perks too. Most pharmacists I know who work in community pharmacy would probably tell you they are working like dogs. So glad to have ditched that arena albeit for less pay. And I'm following my passion now by working in tech and get to use my pharmacy knowledge too so its not a waste. (I've been a forum member for >14 years, really regretted not doing computer science but not anymore).

Took a £10k pay cut and much happier as a result. I can literally drop my son off to school and pick him up every day if I wanted to. Would never have been possible with typically rigid community pharmacy hours (8AM-6.30PM) where you tend to not leave the premises except for a 20 min lunch break.

Interesting reading, as my wife is a pharmacist at a boots shop and says the same thing. She earns similar to me ~35k but works 10% less hours. I agree on the stressed front which is why she's trying to leave. This whole covid thing has annoyed her as pharmacists seem to get over looked as not classed as frontline workers.

 

[Ev0]

You lose 1k allowance for every £2 over £100k earnings.

Slight typo, you lose £1 allowance for every £2 over 100k until it runs out

 

[Dirk Diggler]

Slight typo, you lose £1 allowance for every £2 over 100k until it runs out

Whoops, yes that was a typo. You can tell I've just resigned myself to bending over and watching them take what they like.

 

[Django x2]

50k? I’m sure I recall @Django x2 saying they could barely survive on 100k.

Yep, my minimum commitments per month are £4200, meaning £50k (both pre/post) would be hugely debilitating.

 

[LiE]

Yep, my minimum commitments per month are £4200, meaning £50k (both pre/post) would be hugely debilitating.

You most likely only have those commitments because your salary allows for it. If you earned £50k you'd have lower commitments.

As people earn more their expenses increase.

When I started working at my current job in 2007 as a trainee consultant I was on £25k and thought I had made it. My wife just started her hair dressing business and was lucky to take home £600pm. 13 years latter our combined income is nearing £95k, but I'm trying not to grow into the additional income.

 

[shadow_boxer]

Don't mind sharing my wage between friends as we're all in the same field. Wife knows exactly what I earn as we have a joint account. I do sometimea feel a little uncomfortable with sharing with my Mum who still works a minimum wage job. In my area of work (healthcare), rates are all pretty standard especially for freelance/locum work. We're actively encouraged by our regulator not to share our pay between colleagues so that employers can seek out the lowest paid.

 

[HACO]

You most likely only have those commitments because your salary allows for it. If you earned £50k you'd have lower commitments.

As people earn more their expenses increase.

When I started working at my current job in 2007 as a trainee consultant I was on £25k and thought I had made it. My wife just started her hair dressing business and was lucky to take home £600pm. 13 years latter our combined income is nearing £95k, but I'm trying not to grow into the additional income.

I find avoiding lifestyle inflation to be a lot easier than getting used to spending more, and then cutting back. So every time I earn more, I increase the % that I save or invest. This way I get more money to spend but also save and invest more.

 

[wingman]

I find avoiding lifestyle inflation to be a lot easier than getting used to spending more, and then cutting back. So every time I earn more, I increase the % that I save or invest. This way I get more money to spend but also save and invest more.

Quickest way to get a pay rise is to spend less

 

[HACO]

Quickest way to get a pay rise is to spend less

People usually say I'm cheap, but they also think I'm poor and broke

 

[wingman]

People usually say I'm cheap, but they also think I'm poor and broke

Women tell me I'm ugly until they see my bank account.

Then they tell me I'm ugly and broke.

 

[Scam]

I’ve never given a flying **** what anyone earns. I never voluntarily say what I earn but will tell if someone asks. Makes no difference to me

And what about the other guy in the conversation?

 

[Martynt74]

Women tell me I'm ugly until they see my bank account.

Then they tell me I'm ugly and broke.

 

[Martynt74]

And what about the other guy in the conversation?

I think again it's usually down to the people. In my friend group i'm on less than half what some of the other people earn and yet my salary is around £43k so about 50% higher than the UK average. Likewise i'm sure there are some others in our group who earn less than me.

It doesn't really bother me, it's just a fact of life.

 

[HACO]

I think again it's usually down to the people. In my group i'm on less than half what some of the other people earn and yet my salary is around £43k so about 50% higher than the UK average. Likewise i'm sure there are some others in our group who earn less than me.

It doesn't really bother me, it's just a fact of life.

I've been in that situation, and it did bother me, because I felt like my compensation did not reflect the level of my contribution. After trying to make my case and fail to convince management that I shouldn't be paid less than those who contribute less than I do, I lost interest and left for a new, much better paying job.