# A Special Kind of Income Poll: What Do You Think is Good Money versus Average and Sub-Par?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-special-kind-of-income-poll-what-do-you-think-is-good-money-versus-average-and-sub-par/572312>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [February 23, 2011, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-special-kind-of-income-poll-what-do-you-think-is-good-money-versus-average-and-sub-par/572312 "2011-02-23T02:37:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 15\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2011, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-special-kind-of-income-poll-what-do-you-think-is-good-money-versus-average-and-sub-par/572312/1 "2011-02-23T02:37:31Z")

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This is a different type of income poll and it requires some of your personal information but not your specific income. The idea is to identify for specific comparison group in your geographic area and say what you THINK is a good income for your group, an average one, and a bottom number that is still reasonable for a working person in your group but barely manageable all things considered. In other words, if you were at a party and people got really drunk and played Truth or Dare and were posed this question, what would you consider normal, impressive, or below normal.

You also want to discount the outliers and special situations as well. Internet millionaires can be young but forget about those. It is just people in your very general class of job but not necessarily your specific one.

I will go first:  
Male  
Divorced with two kids  
IT Professional  
Boston area  
37 years old

Average: mid 70K  
Good: Over 100K  
Sub Par: Below 60K

The reason I ask is salary surveys can distort things a great deal. I want to know what people that live in these places and work different types of jobs think. This is a purely informal poll and not going to be used for anything commercially or academically. I am just curious about your impressions.

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**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2011, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-special-kind-of-income-poll-what-do-you-think-is-good-money-versus-average-and-sub-par/572312/2 "2011-02-23T03:01:33Z")

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Male  
Single  
IT Professional  
Washington, DC Area  
30 Years old  
Average: mid 60K  
Good: Over 100K  
Sub Par: Below 40K

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**Author:** ![Red\_Skeezix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/aca169/32.png) [@Red\_Skeezix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Skeezix)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2011, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-special-kind-of-income-poll-what-do-you-think-is-good-money-versus-average-and-sub-par/572312/3 "2011-02-23T03:04:32Z")

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Male  
Soon to be Married  
Software Engineer  
28 years old.  
Upstate NY  
Average 70k  
Good 90-100k  
Subpar \< 65k

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**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2011, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-special-kind-of-income-poll-what-do-you-think-is-good-money-versus-average-and-sub-par/572312/4 "2011-02-23T03:05:47Z")

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Hmm.

Female  
Married  
Civil Engineer  
Central Mississippi  
51 years old

For staff engineers of my age, I’d say:

Average: 75-95 k  
Good: 100-120 k  
Sub Par: below 70 k

A business owner such as myself should probably pull another 20k a year, depending on the size of the company. I don’t, because I don’t have an army of minions churning out a brazillion projects a month for me.

That’s just my guess though. I used to have a good feel for it (with the help of published salary surveys) but since the crash, who knows.

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**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2011, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-special-kind-of-income-poll-what-do-you-think-is-good-money-versus-average-and-sub-par/572312/5 "2011-02-23T11:16:53Z")

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Female  
Single  
Scientist (for the state…I think that’s an important qualifier)  
Central VA  
33 years old

Average: 50K  
Good 60K-75K  
Subpart: below 45K

I FINALLY got a salary increase that lifts me out of “subpar”. So yay me.

(Fuck everyone who thinks state employees are overpaid.)

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**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2011, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-special-kind-of-income-poll-what-do-you-think-is-good-money-versus-average-and-sub-par/572312/6 "2011-02-23T12:06:53Z")

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Male  
Married, no kids  
Foreign aid worker  
Washington, DC  
44

Average: 75k  
Good: 110k and up  
Subpar: under 60k

This is hard to do for my industry because entry level pay is just crap even with a MA, but I broke it down for someone with my level of experience and responsibilities.

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**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2011, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-special-kind-of-income-poll-what-do-you-think-is-good-money-versus-average-and-sub-par/572312/7 "2011-02-23T13:56:10Z")

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Female  
Married  
Computing researcher  
Corn belt  
30 years old

Average: 70K  
Good: \>100K  
Sub Par: \<40K

Having said that, before I got my industry job I worked post-docs for 30K. The numbers above are for my job specifically… if it was for people my age in this area IN GENERAL the numbers would be lower. More like 40K average and below 30K subpar.

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**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2011, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-special-kind-of-income-poll-what-do-you-think-is-good-money-versus-average-and-sub-par/572312/8 "2011-02-23T14:20:47Z")

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Male  
Married  
Manufacturing Engineer  
SE Michigan  
Late 30s

Average: 80K  
Good: \>90K  
Sub Par: \<60K

That applies to people in my peer group at my general, non-management grade.

I do associate with people outside of the workplace, and in comparison we’re generally very well compensated. I’d say the non-direct-automotive in the area would fall into the following:

Average: 45K  
Good: \>60K  
Sub Par: \<35K

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**Author:** ![Aestivalis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Aestivalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aestivalis)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2011, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-special-kind-of-income-poll-what-do-you-think-is-good-money-versus-average-and-sub-par/572312/9 "2011-02-23T15:41:33Z")

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Male  
Married  
IT Manager  
Chicago  
36

Average: 90K  
Good: \>100K  
Sub Par: \<75K

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**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2011, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-special-kind-of-income-poll-what-do-you-think-is-good-money-versus-average-and-sub-par/572312/10 "2011-02-23T16:04:43Z")

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Male  
Married with kid  
Midwest  
Snowmobile salesman

Average: 35k  
Good: 50k  
Sub Par: \<35k

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**Author:** ![geneb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a88e4f/32.png) [@geneb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/geneb)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2011, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-special-kind-of-income-poll-what-do-you-think-is-good-money-versus-average-and-sub-par/572312/11 "2011-02-23T16:21:25Z")

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Male  
Married, no kids  
Software Developer  
Rural south-western Virginia  
25 years old

Average: $40,000  
Good: More than $50,000  
Sub Par: Less than $35,000

All of these are values are much higher than the average salary in this area, but they are specific to my job. There are no other high tech jobs in the area.

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**Author:** ![breaking-reality](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a8b319/32.png) [@breaking-reality](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/breaking-reality)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2011, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-special-kind-of-income-poll-what-do-you-think-is-good-money-versus-average-and-sub-par/572312/12 "2011-02-23T16:42:28Z")

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Female  
No kids  
Legal Support Staff  
Illinois  
24 years old

Average: 25k-30k  
Good: \> 35-40k  
Sub Par: \< 20k

Also, a 30-60 minute drive into the city would make all of these numbers go up by at least 5k.

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**Author:** ![Oredigger77](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oredigger77/32/3181_2.png) [@Oredigger77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oredigger77)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2011, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-special-kind-of-income-poll-what-do-you-think-is-good-money-versus-average-and-sub-par/572312/13 "2011-02-23T22:50:11Z")

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Male  
Single  
Petroleum Engineer  
San Juan Basin  
28 years old

Average: 100K  
Good: Over 130K  
Sub Par: Below 80K

Most people around my age have cleared the 6 figure hurdle and if they hadn’t I would definitely wonder why. As far as sub par most of the starting salaries are about 80 now so if you making less or barely more then a kid fresh out of school I’d say you were barely making it. On the other hand if you base salary is already over 130K and you’re just and engineer I’d wonder who you were sleeping with. Of course these numbers vary widely from every other profession.

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**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2011, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-special-kind-of-income-poll-what-do-you-think-is-good-money-versus-average-and-sub-par/572312/14 "2011-02-23T23:40:41Z")

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Female  
Single, no pets or kids  
Call center  
Chicago suburbs  
26 years old

Average: 25-30k  
Good: Over 40k  
Sub Par: Below 20K

This only applies to other young single childless people who may or may not have pets, since those are the people with whom I tend to be acquainted. If it’s a married couple or someone with kids, those numbers go out the window.

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**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2011, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-special-kind-of-income-poll-what-do-you-think-is-good-money-versus-average-and-sub-par/572312/15 "2011-02-23T23:59:10Z")

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Male  
Married, 2 kids, both now independent  
Computer Designer  
Silicon Valley  
59

Average: 95K  
Good: \> 125K  
Sub Par: Below 70 K