25 hour week at £120/hour, working 48 weeks year = £144,000
Must be thick to earn that in a year
As others said, they really aren't earning that much. 25 hours a week would be 5 hours a day Monday to Friday. Most WGs in my experience don't start until 10am or 11am (WHY???) and many finish at tea time to go home to their husbands. In the "office hours" they work, they surely can't bill 5 straight hours every day. Factor in the downtime between meets (to shower and communicate with potential bookings) and punter travel times, I would imagine a WG has a weird day full of different bookings.
Take a sample day:
Available at 10am and take an hour booking
At 11am, shower and get a client in at 11.30am for an hour.
12.30pm shower and go for lunch, back working at 13.30
13.30pm take an hour booking
14:30pm shower and arrange next client at 15:00
15:00pm booking for an hour again
16:00pm maybe squeeze in one more client before rushing home to the family
That would be 5 hours yes, but that assumes that 1) they have maximum uptake of bookings and 2) all bookings are 1 hour long, which they absolutely won't be
Average WGs are not pulling in £144,000 a year. And I would say the vast majority certainly don't declare their income! Imagine explaining it to the husband.