The Henrys* struggling on £100k a year (yes, really)

*That's High Earners, Not Rich Yet. Caught in a tax trap and pummelled by inflation, they're feeling the pinch.

- By Alice Cockerell

I can see that you're going to die laughing, but we genuinely don't feel like we have a quality of life to sing about," says James, one of London's so-called Henrys. Director of a digital strategy company, he is profoundly dissatisfied with his lot. “Henry” stands for High Earner, Not Rich Yet. And London is full of them: people on good salaries who are suddenly struggling. James talks me through the truth about the section of society whose members earn more than £100,000 a year but who barely make ends meet. “The problems facing us are legion,” he says. And mad as it sounds, James has a point. Just 10 years ago a Henry would have been able to live in a nice - or soon to be nice - area, eat at some delicious restaurants, go on smart holidays and might even be able to swing the fees of a kid or two at private school. Not any longer.

The “Henry” moniker might conjure up images of a blustering red trouser wearer fresh from Eton and now living Chelsea. In fact, these are London’s pushed-out middle classes: hardworking, high-taxpaying, high achievers who work long hours in gruelling jobs and aspire to a modest life - and yet are having this aspiration endlessly penalised. Under the current government, success is becoming ever harder, and it’s turning Britain into a place where you can't seem to get ahead. No wonder so many are moving abroad, or at least considering it.

The great fiscal challenge is tax. “We would be much richer if I made £99,999.99. The day I was given a raise was the day we went broke,” James explains. He's referring to the 60 per cent tax trap which faces those who clock in with salaries between £100,000 and £125,140 and find themselves shelling out a “nut-shrinking” 60 per cent tax on this portion of their earnings.