Record 1,000 UK taxpayers under 30 earned more than £1m last year | Money
Their generation is often mocked for being work-shy, self-centered, and overly sensitive. But when it comes to making money, people under 30 are proving to be something completely different: successful.
HMRC records show 1,000 taxpayers under 30 earned more than £1 million last year; This is an 11% increase over the previous year.
In total, these earners took home more than £3 billion last year, earning an average of £3 million each.
Accounting firm Lubbock Fine, which obtained the figures from HMRC, suggested that the increase could be partly due to income from influencers’ marketing spend on social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
The accounting firm suggested the record increase could be driven by bigger pay deals for sports, music and media stars, as well as higher salaries in technology and financial services.
The under-30s currently make up roughly 3% of those earning more than £1 million, and are thought to include Manchester City striker Erling Haaland, 25, who is estimated to earn £525,000 a week (about £27.3 million a year), and Molly-Mae Hague, 26, a former Love Island contestant and influencer who is reported to command up to £60,000 per post.
Overall, there are currently 31,000 taxpayers earning £1 million or more a year; This is only a 1% increase over the previous year.
This shows that the number of very high earners under 30 is growing much faster than the number of high earners in older age groups.
But Russell Rich, head of sports and entertainment at Lubbock Fine, cautioned that winning that much when you’re young doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be rich for life. “Football players, boxers and athletes often tend to live beyond their means when they retire,” he told the Times. “People who work in the arts are not very good at saving and investing the money they earn.”
The number of under-30s earning over £1 million has increased by 54% since the pandemic, with HMRC recording just 650 young taxpayers in this income group.
According to Lubbock Fine, over the same period, the amount spent on influencer marketing in the UK has tripled to £917 million and is predicted to exceed £1 billion this year.
But it’s not just young people who make money; Older generations are also now realizing their earning potential as influencers. Recent research from media analysts Ampere found that those driving the highest growth in YouTube traffic were those aged 55-64; this is up 20% in the US and 14% in the UK since 2020. TikTok also experienced a 16% increase in the number of British users in this age group last year.
“We’ve been seeing this trend over the last few years, with traditionally older audiences following. [focused on] Minal Modha, head of consumer research at Ampere, told the Guardian in December: Linear and broadcast TV are going digital.
High-profile older influencers include: Caroline IdiensValerie Mackay, 53, a personal trainer from Berkshire with 2.4 million followers on Instagram, and 62-year-old Valerie Mackay, who posts about her life as an older woman @embracingfifty.
But their reach still pales in comparison to its peers Abby RobertsThe 24-year-old makeup influencer and music artist has 15 million followers on TikTok and is said to earn £14,000 per post.
