To save money on groceries, Seb Kouyoujmian rummages through the yellow-labelled reduced items in his local supermarket. He won’t buy shoes unless he absolutely needs them. Takeaways are considered a luxury. This might be surprising once you learn Kouyoujmian is an architect on a salary of more than £100,000. But, speaking from the cramped, one-bedroom north London flat he owns, he says that his quality of life doesn’t match what you’d expect given his pay cheque. “I’m earning more than ever before,” the 38-year-old tells me. “But I feel poorer than I ever did.”
It may sound ridiculous to the 96 per cent of the population who typically earn significantly less than £100,000 a year. In fact, the average wage in the UK is around £36,000, according to the Office for National Statistics. For people aged between 18 and 21, it’s closer to £24,000. And it varies according to region, getting worse outside of London.
Yet the fact that the four percenters are feeling the pinch is a symptom of what Dr Mike Savage, a professor of sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science, calls “intensified” class divisions. In other words, as the wealthy among us struggle to keep up with inflation and the cost of living, their difficulties shed light on just how bad things are getting for the rest of us. Dr Savage helped carry out the largest study on social class in the UK in modern history, and says the situation is urgent.
然而,年薪在前4%的人群也感到日子緊張,這正是倫敦政治經(jīng)濟學(xué)院社會學(xué)教授邁克·薩維奇(Dr. Mike Savage)所謂的“加劇的”階級分化的體現(xiàn)。換句話說,當富裕人群也在為通貨膨脹和生活成本掙扎時,他們的困境反映出其他人的生活狀況有多糟糕。薩維奇博士曾參與英國現(xiàn)代歷史上最大規(guī)模的社會階級研究,并指出當前形勢已經(jīng)十分緊迫。
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“The people who are really struggling with cost of living and inflation pressures are those who are badly paid, living in precarious situations, and juggling debts,” he says. “The fear that people on middle and even high incomes are being eroded by inflation and the freezing of tax thresholds is a sign of the sense of insecurity that is felt by large numbers of people.”
The high earners are quite aware of how their laments may be perceived. “It sounds so f***ing privileged,” says Kouyoujmian. “I’m not looking for sympathy, but I’m also trying to be clear that I don’t feel comfortable either.”
Lea Turner, who grew up on a council estate and left school at 16 without an education, agrees. The 39-year-old doesn’t fit the typical trajectory of a six-figure earner, having overcome the challenges of being a single parent on benefits, and going on to build a multi-million-pound company – a digital network of business owners called The HoLT – during the pandemic.
莉婭·特納(Lea Turner)對此表示認同。她在一個公租房社區(qū)長大,16歲時輟學(xué),沒有受過正式教育。這位39歲的女性并不符合典型的六位數(shù)收入者的成長軌跡。她克服了作為領(lǐng)取福利的單親母親的困境,并在疫情期間創(chuàng)辦了一家名為 The HoLT 的企業(yè)主數(shù)字網(wǎng)絡(luò),將其發(fā)展為一家價值數(shù)百萬英鎊的公司。
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“I feel very lucky to be comfortable because that’s far more than the vast majority of people in the UK can say,” she says. “But it’s not so affordable that I can just rest on my laurels. I still have to maintain this level or the things I have in my life right now will no longer be affordable.”
Things like her house. After saving for years, and planning her finances, Turner bought a home in Manchester. This year, she found her mortgage increased by £300 a month. “If it goes up much more, I might have to end up selling,” she says.
The cumulative effects of inflation have played a large part, with the Office for National Statistics reporting that a £100,000 salary back in 2000 is worth the equivalent of £53,600 in September 2024 in terms of its value and purchasing power. The Institute for Fiscal Studies also reports that inflation rates for groceries, for example, increased by an average of 26.6 per cent in just over two years, and the effect on households varied according to income. Higher-income households experienced inflation rates 7.7 per cent lower than those in the bottom percentile of households according to income – and what is known as “cheapflation” means that the cheapest products experienced the highest rises. Effectively, the increasing cost of everything means that everyone is getting less bang for their buck.
通貨膨脹的累積效應(yīng)起了很大作用。英國國家統(tǒng)計局報告稱,2000年的10萬英鎊薪水,到2024年9月的實際購買力相當于約53,600英鎊。財政研究所(Institute for Fiscal Studies)也報告稱,僅僅兩年多的時間,日常食品的通貨膨脹率就平均上漲了26.6%,而這一影響在不同收入群體中有所不同。高收入家庭的通貨膨脹率比收入最低百分之一的家庭低了7.7%。所謂的“廉價通脹”(cheapflation)意味著最便宜的商品價格漲幅最大。實際上,所有物品的成本不斷上漲,意味著每個人的錢的購買力都在減少。
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Although Turner has experienced the precarity of living life on the breadline as a sole earner, she says that earning £100k “definitely doesn’t make you rich”. For example, she expected to be able to afford a new kitchen with ease, but she says that is not the case. “I have to buy and sell clothes on Vinted. I go on an affordable holiday once a year, to the same places I’ve travelled before. It’s not a crazy luxury. I don’t fly first class. We’re not partying on yachts or staying in five-star hotels or anything. I’m not buying designer clothes for me or my son. There are certain things in my life that have upgraded, but not much.”
Kouyoujmian and Turner are known as HENRYs – or “High Earner Not Rich Yet” – a term coined by Shawn Tully in a 2003 article for Fortune magazine, and used to describe people who earn a high wage but don’t have much left after taxes, schooling, housing, family, and saving for retirement. Both Kouyoujmian and Turner understand that they are better off than, for instance, a service worker on a far lower salary. But while a rise in one bill can be a nuisance to the comparatively wealthy, all bills going up at once can leave them in a similar situation to people earning far less.
庫尤米安和特納被稱為HENRYs——即“高收入但尚未富裕的人”(High Earner Not Rich Yet)。這個詞由肖恩·塔利(Shawn Tully)在2003年為《財富》雜志撰寫的文章中創(chuàng)造,用來描述那些收入很高,但在扣除稅款、教育、住房、家庭開支和退休儲蓄后,剩余的錢并不多的人。庫尤米安和特納都明白,相比于低薪的服務(wù)行業(yè)工人,他們的生活水平要好得多。但即使是相對富裕的人,單單一項賬單上漲就可能讓人感到麻煩,而所有賬單同時上漲時,他們的處境也與那些收入遠低于他們的人相似。
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Kouyoujmian has seen his mortgage and energy bills double and the price of his groceries triple. He says the cumulative cost of all of these increases squeezes resources. As a homeowner and leaseholder, he says he was recently landed with a £21,000 bill, while a cancer scare prompted him to take on private medical care, which has also gone up. Turner, meanwhile, says her outgoings easily add up to £4,000 to £5,000 a month. She pays £1,000 a month in private school fees for her son. This, combined with any emergencies or a holiday, leaves her with little left over.
For Kouyoujmian, an additional worry is his pension. He is currently paying £1,100 into his retirement every month, but because he only started earning six figures three years ago, he has calculated that he will have to pay £3,000 a month to retire at the age of 68 with a £60,000 income. “As an architect, I can’t afford my own service,” he says. “It’s a dream for me to be able to afford someone like me.”
He adds that his quality of life and general work-life balance are poorer than when he earned half his current salary. He’s even taken up a side-hustle making furniture in his spare time. “I have to work 50-70 hours a week, and I still feel like I’m treading water,” he says. “I know that sounds ridiculous, but I am paranoid about my retirement, especially if I look at friends or elderly family members or neighbours and see how they are coping or not coping.”
Investment expert Victoria Harris says that the structure of the tax system means that those earning just above six figures feel the sharpest end of it. She calls it the “60 per cent tax trap”, a name given to the removal of the personal tax allowance for those earning just above £100,000 and below £125,000. A quirk in tax rules means that they can end up paying up to 62 per cent in tax.
In addition to the tax burden, a higher wage can result in “l(fā)ifestyle creep”, meaning that as you earn more you spend more, opting for more expensive versions of the same things you would have previously bought at a cheaper cost.
Harris, who runs The Curve, a business advising women on their finances, says, “One of our members recently told me, ‘Vic, I fought so hard to break through the £100k ceiling, only to find myself spending even more outside my means than when I was on a lower income.’” She believes that the challenges can be handled with better financial planning. Harris advises “building confidence in salary negotiations”, “creating investment strategies”, and “developing a support network” of other high earners.
However, Dr Savage believes that both tax increases and rising inflation are systemic issues and reflections of the strains on the economy. “Increasingly, in the context of pressures on the welfare state, individuals need to fall back on their private wealth assets to pay for routine medical and other services,” he explains. “Class divisions are being intensified as divides grow between the wealthy and the many who juggle debts.”
If much of their experience sounds familiar, that’s the point. The four per cent aren’t living as luxuriously as we expect, and it should be cause for concern. Because if someone on a big salary can’t afford to remodel their kitchen, or eat out whenever they choose, how can everyone else?