This is the most American question I have ever heard!
In what respect? It’s normally considered a major faux pas to ask that question in the US.
HeyHomie! You’re not kidding, cost of living/housing down there is ridiculously low. Heck, I even have friends in Springfield and was shocked at what they were selling their 10 year old house for…about the same as I paid for my 70 year old house where I live.
In my previous job I used to say that my last transfer would be to Willow Springs for exactly those reasons.
But I’m not at that job anymore. I work for state government, doing regulatory stuff. I make jack shit. The Feds who do the exact same job I do make about twice as much. I may go do that when I retire from the state, may not.
And as referred to above, you can look up the salary of any state employee online.
I’m a gigolo. I find well off, ugly women and provide them with emotional comfort and sexual release. I’m paid in high end desserts and luxury vacation trips.
the real answer is I’m ashamed of how badly my career failed. I need to find something else to do. There is a demand for scientists, my ass.
Yup, you can live fairly frugally in a lot of parts of the country. Especially if you own your own home and car, have no dependents and are debt free otherwise. I’m guessing 2 adults could get by on ~$1500/month or so in that situation assuming they had simple tastes.
The big issue is health care. As long as you have insurance through work or a subsidized public plan then you should be fine. But health care is like the wrecking ball that can crush years of frugality and savings in an instant. It seems like it doesn’t matter if you make 20k a year or 100k a year. Health care is what truly separates a middle class lifestyle from an insecure working class lifestyle.
Why do you ask?
I think there’s value in co-workers discussing how much they make, even if only for purposes of individual comparison between similarly suited/employed workers. That’s my very limited response to this topic.
Taxpayers want transparency in government because they’re the ones paying the salaries.
And here in the US, they have that transparency. Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, databases exist for the salaries of federal and state (and probably also local) government employees. Know someone who works for the federal government? Look 'em up.
I haven’t heard of anyone claiming they have any kind of right to know how much their non-government-employed neighbor earns.
None of your goddamn business. And it’s very rude of you to ask.
Mural Artist. $0
Discussing your income in public may not be a good idea but it is a very good idea to understand what people who do the same job (especially in the same company) are making.
Companies like to keep employees in the dark so they don’t ask for raises.
Yeah, this, a thousand times, this. I’ve been fortunate in that I managed to snag an [del]Obamacare[/del] Affordable Care Act policy for a song.
I’m a ditsy bimbo married to a Big Man. He went to college and make 40 quatloos an hour.
I am a baby sitter of young adults. My wife watches machines wrap toilet paper.
We almost made too much to qualify for the recent stimulus payment.
My largest annual salary was $36,000 as a Systems Admin for two years, about ten years before I retired. At the time I thought I was paid pretty well, but I’m sure glad I made maximum contributions to my three 401(k) plans. Not having any children probably helped too.
Now get off my lawn!
I agree with the “rude question” sentiment, HOWEVER I also agree with this post. American employees need to get past the idea that there is something wrong with talking openly about income. Employers benefit from that mindset, and income inequality based on race, gender, etc is easier to perpetuate if people don’t talk about income.
I grew up thinking that talking about money was forbidden, and I would never walk into a food court and ask strangers what their income was. But I’ll talk about it openly at work if it’s important, and hope that everyone would do the same.
I’m a vice president at a manufacturing firm, previously I was president of a consulting firm. In theory I make almost more money than I can imagine in reality I haven’t been paid in 18 months.
Ha!
I had a close friend who was offered an important technical government job – one that required financial disclosure & then also legislative confirmation. He didn’t like the financial disclosure filing, but not because of the transparency to the general public – it was specific public he was concerned about: his brother-in-law, who was always trying to borrow money; a nephew who always wanted him to ‘invest’ in his latest money-making scheme; etc. If his income was public, he would no longer be able to claim he didn’t have the money to ‘loan’ to them.
As he said “I don’t care if reporters know how much I make, 'cause they won’t be hitting me up – but my relatives …”.
I’m a database administrator. If google is to be believed, I’m overpaid.
I think he meant that the companies should publish the individual salaries of their employees, not their corporate revenue/profit.
I looked into this once and it is a voluntary job. That is true for virtually every online community moderator. I am a volunteer moderator on an Excel forum.