The real rich list: are you above or below the new ‘wealth line’?
Given that we have an official ‘poverty line’ in Britain – defined as households where the income is 60 per cent or less than the UK median of £29,400 – I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone sought to define a ‘riches line’, too.
This is the level below which, according to inequality charity Trust for London, the public now finds it unacceptable for individuals to live. To plot exactly where this ‘riches line’ lies, they commissioned Loughborough and Birmingham Universities, and the London School of Economics, to put together a series of focus groups to determine what goods and services we ascribe to being wealthy in 2020 - and when that wealth becomes ‘excessive’.
The resulting study makes for fascinating reading and its timing couldn’t be better. This week, it was revealed that average weekly wages in the UK have reached their highest levels since before the financial crisis in March 2008.
It’s undoubtedly good news, but if you thought this salary boost might catapult you into the next wealth bracket... well, it might be time to think again.
The focus groups (which comprised male and female professionals, some earning below £20,000 and others above £100,000) have identified five new levels of living – from the lowest, the ‘Minimum Income Standard’, to the highest, the 'Super Rich’.
They didn’t put specific salary expectations on each, but rather identified the lifestyle perks that can be enjoyed, taking in food, technology, travel and leisure. And it reveals that our expectations of what constitutes a reasonable standard of living are higher than ever.
Minimum Income Standard
For starters, the Minimum Income Standard states that it is more than basic rations of ‘food, clothes and shelter’. This is not what I would call subsistence living. Think a low-cost monthly contract Android, a television with Freeview, one week’s self-catering holiday a year, and £20 per person a week on socialising.
I’m not sure I even stretch to that – my parents certainly didn’t. I hardly remember them spending a bean on socialising, as they were too busy paying the mortgage. We were far from what would have been considered ‘poor’ at the time, but we didn’t go on holiday every year. Oh, and my current phone is pay-as-you-go.
Shopping for this group is done at Tesco and Argos, we are told. Housing is the one area where progress has perhaps been slowest, with single professionals expecting to be in a one-bedroom rental flat, and those with children in social housing.
Surviving Comfortably
Tellingly, the gap between the bottom rung and the next one up – Surviving Comfortably – is one giant leap for humankind.
In order to be in this group, you should be able to afford a cleaner once a month. You should be able to eat out once a week in a restaurant where main courses are between £15 and £20. When you dine at home, you drink wine at £10 a bottle.
You have a Netflix or Amazon Prime subscription, go to the cinema weekly, and own a gym membership. You can afford taxis when convenient – presumably to return home to your own home (with a mortgage) or ‘higher end’ private rental.
This speaks of a standard of living which, to me, would put someone well above the second-to-bottom rung of the socio-economic ladder. Call me miserly, but none of those are luxuries for which I am prepared to pay.
My wife and I don’t have a cleaner – we do it ourselves. If we come across a menu where everything is more than £15, we tend to go and find somewhere a bit cheaper. I don’t think I’ve even spent £10 on wine.
We don’t have Netflix or belong to a gym (what’s wrong with a walk?). My car is 11 years old and I haven’t seen the inside of a taxi for well over a year.
Securely Comfortable
For the middle rung of wealth, the Securely Comfortable, expectations are even higher.
This lot boast outright home ownership, financial advisors and private health insurance. They own designer handbags, can afford pets, eat out weekly and have comprehensive home entertainment packages, with iPads and other premium gadgets chucked in.
To make life easier, there are weekly cleaners, gardeners and formal childcare arrangements (with little ones in full-time private nursery) – presumably to make time for those two holidays a year, including skiing. Food is bought at Waitrose or M&S.
Clearly, expectations have increased somewhat since I was young. That, perhaps, is not unreasonable. Society has become richer and people expect to get richer along with it.
This might explain why the focus groups didn’t express much negativity about those in the higher brackets - where they would ideally wish to be. Or, as the report put it: “People identify with the wealthy as their imagined (or aspirational) future selves, partly because they regard the status quo as inevitable, and partly because people are simultaneously aware of potential benefits to society as well as harms.”
Which brings us to the top two tiers.
Wealthy
The Wealthy sound like a strategic sort, with extra income streams from property rental, shares or offshore investments. You can spot one if they have a large house with ‘more bedrooms than they need’ or a second home – possibly with a housekeeper.
Perks include five holidays a year, antique-collecting, sailing and riding on your own horse. You enjoy membership of private clubs, have a personal pilates instructor and a pedigree pet, as well as privately educated children. Your shopping is delivered by ‘high-end’ organic retailers – although why you can’t pick it up in one of your extra cars (a two-person household will have three vehicles, and so on) is beyond me.
I never knew I had fallen so far behind. True, we have more bedrooms than we need because our children have left home. But we have a mere two cars, have never been near a private club and certainly don’t have a horse. I suppose I did take five holidays last year, but that mainly constituted tramping over the Scottish hills with a backpack – not living it up at some five-star resort.
So it is with some trepidation that I look up to the top tier.
Super Rich
To be in this tier, according to the study, you have ‘many homes’ in several countries, private jets, more than one supercar and a yacht.
You need a ‘range of staff’ (think chauffeur, chef, butler), personal assistants, doctors and lawyers on call whenever you need them, and your own publicist. Naturally. Forget it, I’m never going to get there and I’m not sure I want to.
It’s all good fun, but as to the whole point of the study – to determine a ‘riches level’ beyond which the public regard people as too wealthy? The focus groups didn’t play ball. They simply didn’t accept the premise that there is a limit above which wealth becomes immoral.
Their attitudes depended much on how it had been made and how people behaved. Reasonably enough, perhaps, they were less than enamoured with those who had inherited their money or achieved it through foul means (tax-avoidance included). But those who had built up businesses from scratch, creating jobs along the way, were to be admired.
In other words, we don’t hate the rich – we want to be them. But in the meantime, we can take comfort in the fact many of us are better off than ever and hopefully many more will be soon, before the goalposts move yet again.
How rich are you? Take our quiz to find out.
