Well in a lot of cases, yea, they are. They earn far more money, even at the bottom end of the wage structure.
It might look like they 'earn' more money, but their disposable income is probably very similar to elsewhere in the developed world after you consider the cost of living/levels of inflation.
Sure UK has Minimum Wage set, but then the cost of living is higher too, rent prices aren't set, we all (should) pay the same income tax (unless you're super rich and then you pay 50% of your wage as tax), VAT, and Council Tax regardless of our level of income.
Then there's regional differences within the UK - London is more expansive than anywhere else simple because it's London (apparently) and some places offset that by giving out a higher wage. It doesn't mean they come away with more money at the end of the day, as their rent, travel, food, etc is all higher than other places in the UK.
As people have said Publishers expecting us to often pay +25% on games is odd, especially digitally considering there's no packaging or shipping costs to HIKE the price up (which was the defense for so many years). Granted, I'm no Economic expert so there's probably a ton of things I haven't even considered or I'm aware of, but as a consumer it just comes across as they see the £ and or somewhat 'strong' and think we should charge extra.
When you see the Steam Store have prices like $40us and then £40 (which is ~$60) for the same game... you just have to walk away. I can understand why people turned to Russian traders if this is Steam's Best Practice towards Price Parity.
No idea how accurate this is, just rambling on the internet before I've had my breakfast and coffee.
