This is how much the average member of the public thinks you ought to be earning
Answer: 58k.
Clearly, and predictably, most Britons still think people working in investment banks are massively overpaid.
The figure is derived from a survey conducted by BBC Radio 4 and ComRes, a research company. 1,000 people were asked how much a 'bond trader' should be earning. Given most people are unlikely to distinguish between bond traders, equity salesmen, and M&A bankers, we're taking this figure as a proxy for how much people think bankers should earn as a whole.
Only 11% of respondents thought bond traders ought to be earning more than 83k; 20% thought they ought to be earning less than 21k. The biggest bond-trader-pay-cheerleaders were people aged over 65 or in the social class AB, both of whom thought bond traders should be earning 74k respectively.
The survey also elicited that people think various caring and low-skilled professions should be more lucrative: nurses deserve 32k, care assistants deserve 24k; train drivers deserve 28k.
The only people deemed to merit six figures were premiership footballers, for whom the mean merited salary was put at 365k.
Overall, the survey suggests that people think higher paid professions should pay less and lower paid professions should be paid more. This is in line with a new book, popular in political circles, suggesting inequality is the root of all evil.
