Asking someone's salary
What it really means
Asking "How much do you earn?" is considered very private and usually impolite in Britain, even between friends. Money is one of the topics people avoid. If you're curious about pay in a job, ask generally: "What does that kind of job usually pay?"
Context, tips & common mistakes
Direct salary questions — 'what do you earn?' — are firmly off-limits in Britain, even between fairly good friends; money sits tangled with class and privacy in a way that makes the number feel more intimate than health or relationships. The taboo covers rent and house prices asked *personally* ('what did you pay?') while leaving the general versions ('rents around here are mad, aren't they?') completely open — talk about the market, never the person.
Accepted workarounds exist: people volunteer bands ('mid-thirties'), discuss 'market rate' for a role, or share openly with close friends by mutual consent. If someone asks you and you would rather not say, the deflection-with-humour is ready-made: 'not enough!' ends it with no offence in either direction. Note the culture is slowly shifting — salary transparency in job adverts is increasingly campaigned for — but at a dinner table the old rule holds.
Example conversation
What you could say back
No spoken reply needed for this one.