How much do you earn?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

We Brits rarely talk about this. Indeed, I've no idea of how much virtually all of my closest friends earn. Anyway what do you think of this question, do you ask it, do you GET asked it, and in the semi-anonymity of cyber-space what's the answer? You first!

― Dr.C, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I don't even know. When I have to fill in application forms for new jobs, I have to do lengthy research projects into how much I earn, involving emptying several folders, drawers, contracts, etc.

― the pinefox, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

This is the only thing i am taboo about. Ask me about my sex life and you will get an earful but I REFUSE TO TALK MONEY. Its weird.

― anthony, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

At the moment nothing. The most I've ever earned is about £14,000 pa.

― james e l, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I am a student so I don't. I got a grant of £900 from ERASMUS to study in Italy though.

― Ed, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i don't understand why people get all coy about this. currently i'm on £19k

― gareth, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

my last tax return was for 6 grand oz - ie 2k pound, 4 k US. for a year! Though I did knock back a job two months ago with a starting salary of 35K - it was a marketing job writing promo for crap books - I lamost had another breakdown on the bus back from the interview, 2 panic attacks in 30 minutes - poverty is fine as long as I keep my sanity.

― Geoff, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Allegedly around $30,000, plus a further $5000 + from freelance writing, soon to increase. Can't complain, I'm housed and fed.

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

This time next year I'll be a millionaire!

― james e l, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Why do people get coy about it? I think it's a relic of the British class system. The upper classes traditionally considered it vulgar to even think about money as a way of distinguishing themsleves from people in trade (ie people who might have actually worked for their living) who had to deal directly with money. As those in the upper- middle classes aspired to higher status in society, they too started to consider it vulgar to discuss money. The aspirant lower-middle classes soon got the same idea and so the idea percolated down to the population as a whole.

There's also an idea that's been current in management culture for god knows how long that letting the workers discuss their salaries foments discontent. Which obviously hasn't helped remove any taboos surrounding such discussions.

As for me, I'm on 29K a year + about 3K in bonuses.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

George Orwell has in in the Road to Wigan Pier that the british lower middle class don't discuss saleries etc. because there is nothing to distinguish them, money wise, from the skilled working classes.

I was going to quote the last sentance from the book because it puts it quite nicely, but the last sentance is pretty much all the last page and I can't be bothered.

― Ed, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Eh? Surely the reason people don't say how much they earn is cos then when their round comes up, they can say: sorry, lads, I'm cleaned out...

― the pinefox, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Only if they are a bounder and a cad.

― Ed, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Enough to pay off the student loans and the rent. What's left over keeps me fed.

I'm living proof that not all lawyers are rich. Then again, I didn't make Law Review.

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Fucking nothing. Anybody need their yard swept?

― Tracer Hand, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I make **THOUSANDS**, I make **MILLIONS** of dollars...in *Hollywood*.

― Andy Kaufman, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I am a student. (This is my answer.)

― Josh, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i am a stocker.

― kevin enas, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm on the dole, so whatever my allowance is. I have, alarmingly, no idea whatsoever how much I scrounge off the state each week.

― Robin Carmody, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

David makes 45 000 canadian. I make between 3500 and 12 000 depending on what summer job i have.I do not need to work but do to pay for student loans and such. See you are making me break taboos.

― anthony, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

£130 a fortnight. Dole scum! Dole scum!

― DG, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Blimey. When I was dole scum it was more like 75 quid a fortnight. What did you have to do to your Jobfinder (or whatever idiotic title they're known by nowadays) to get that much?

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

When *I* was dole scum it was one groat.

― mark s, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ah, but I'm on Income Support due to being ill last year, so I get a bit extra. But then I have to pay £30 a fortnight housekeeping money, and then £20 a month to ITV Digital. Poo.

― DG, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

My answer is, NOT NEARLY ENOUGH. Champagne lifestyle, beer budget, y'all. But I'm working on it.

― suzy, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I only work part-time, so it works out at about £4-5K per year.

― Ally C, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I am coy about the amount of money I make because I have been painfully frivolous with said money the pst 3+ years, with barely anything to my name. That said, it is time to face these demons of mindless consumption in the face and say, "Put those goddamn CDs down, you bastards! And brush your teeth, too - dang, you stank!"

Salary: $35K, plus a company car (all expenses paid). (Plus an average of $90-$100 in freelance revenue - TWO articles in TWO years! Boo-fuckin-yah!)

Most people seem to be reticent to admit their salary because they don't want those numbers to be held against them. Not that they should. It's a touchy subject for some, however.

― David Raposa, Sunday, 15 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I don't earn anything at the moment, cause I'm a full-time musician (earn money? hah hah hah hah hah! More like lose money hand over fist). The last dayjob I had, that I quit for health reasons (and cause, well, I wanted to be a layabout musician wastrel) I was making £25,000 a year. Yes, it was very very hard to walk out on that much cash. The corporate hooks get you in ways you never even imagine.

― masonic boom, Monday, 16 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh, and I usually told anyone who asked. I'm too shy to ask anyone else myself. Actually, no, that's not true I was *TOLD* at my last job not to discuss what I made, since they inferred that I made more than the other staff. Considering how much I did at the job, (I was basically working 2 jobs, being programmer *and* administering their cranky rusty broken down old network at the same time) I should bloody well think so! Still, for the field I was in I was bloody underpaid hideously by industry standards. I have since found out that the guy who took over my old job, on freelancing terms, now gets paid £40 an hour for it. Sigh.

― masonic boom, Monday, 16 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Contractors are hideously overpaid in most branches of IT. £60/hour is the going rate for the contractor equivalent to my job.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Monday, 16 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm on slightly under £18k at PA, where they also ask you not to discuss your salary because everyone's paid slightly differently - there's no formal scale so one can imagine how managerial discretion ends up operating.

In 2001 I believe my supplimentary income from music may exceed £5000, but I haven't any of it yet and that doesn't offset five years of expenditure.

― chris, Monday, 16 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I earn £26,000pa as a trainee solicitor. It barely covers my student loan repayments and bills, to be honest. I'd say, after tax and loans and stuff that I have about £300 a month to actually live on. The job isn't worth the hassle, either...

I don't mind people knowing what I earn. I think people are often surprised it's as low as that, to be honest. The senior partner, who is so damn rude to me all the time, earns approximately £750,000pa. And my previous boss and her hubby brought home £5m a year. Crazy.

― Paul Strange, Monday, 16 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

If they ask you not to discuss your income - do so. Its only to create a feeling of fear and loathing in the workplace which collective discussions on pay would seriously help. And management discression = road to discrimination and bullying (especially against women).

I earn 22.5K P.A. though that is about to be subjected to a backdated pay increase that no-one quite understands round here. I am also trying to negotiate a form of profit related pay since i make so much damn money for them round here (and hence to act as an incentive not to be on ILE every minute of the day).

― Pete, Monday, 16 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Pete also earns at least an extra 50 quid a month through having made himself in charge of bills in our house (as he is the only one home when the post arrives and runs off and hides them). Every so often we get spurious emails from him demanding cheques for assorted sums in the 40 quid region for such unlikely household expenses as 'Council tax' and 'leccy'.

― Emma, Monday, 16 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

£6240 per year. Plus we get income support. I stake my claim as thee lowest-waged poster in actual employment on this 'ere board. Fortunately, life in NE England is very cheap (EG sample house price in Chopwell village near where I live = £17000 for 2-bedroom terrace - compare w/london - ev0l manic laughter) Speaking ov NE England, has anyone alerted geordie racer to thee existence of this k3wl board?

xoxo

― Thee p00r h0us3, Monday, 16 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

$45k plus bonus, which was $15k last year. Why do people have problems with this question? It doesn't make a difference, the only time i have an issue answering it is when I think someone is trying to get money out of me, so I try to avoid the question.

It's not nearly enough for my lifestyle, unfortunately.

― Ally, Monday, 16 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Nice to see income doesn't affect happiness.

― chris, Monday, 16 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I get very uncomfortable when I'm asked this question. My answer is: enough so that my wife doesn't have to work and we can still buy a car and a condo in the Boston area.

― Dan Perry, Monday, 16 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think the question people don't like being asked is not how much they earn per se, but how much money they've got in the bank!

― james e l, Monday, 16 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I make about 1/2 what my wife makes, so I am thankfully that the city of Long Beach is paying her as well as they are.

― tOM p, Monday, 16 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I agree with Emma about the way income smokescreens benefit The System (in fact it seems Em and I agree on most stuff) and is to the detriment of many women, who inevitably find themselves on 80% of Boy Money. A couple of years ago I had to give a talk sponsored by Lib Dems to 500 schoolies about feminism stuff. I guess I was there because of my feminist book and to represent for The Arts. On the panel there was also Mary-Ann Stephenson from the Fawcett Society (cool woman) and idiot Tory MP Tessa May, who pooh-poohed salary gaps because in HER job, men and women were paid equally. So in front of the schoolies, I rocked the mic by saying in my best 'there, there' patronising voice, 'well, how LOVELY for you, Tessa, our problems are officially over!'

The look on Idiot's face was a picture and I was mobbed by schoolies afterward, most of whom wanted to know how to get work placements on my Edgy Consumer Magazine. I advised against, because in all truth I don't earn a lot. However as a self-employed person with a jammily cheap Zone 1 flat, I can write off significant amounts of this, inc. percentage of rent and bills, against taxes so for the moment I'm not bothered.

― suzy, Monday, 16 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think I made $12,000 last year, working part time. I hardly ever go in to work anymore, so I'll probably make like twenty bucks this year.

― Otis Wheeler, Monday, 16 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

See, this is why you can't afford to go to Pomodoro's with us. You need to start a lucrative career in stealing. Unless it's stealing from me, then I'll kill you.

― Ally, Monday, 16 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

richard, what branch of IT are you in? i am so going to treble my wage when i get my CCNP.

― gareth, Monday, 16 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I make under 45,000$ a year

― Mike Hanle y, Monday, 16 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I don't make a lot, but the fringe benefits are damn good, so it's misleading to post my salary. Let's just say I'm getting a nearly free post-graduate education and I pay a pittance for health benefits.

― Kerry Keane, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i still am on the dole. (sickness benefit specifically) that's been my main support for the most part of 20 years, is that some kind of record? (& if so what kind, a 50 cent copy of "Pal Joey" probably)

― duane, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

start salaries at the types of jobs I'm LOOKING for = 40-50k. Start salary that I have now = 0k, as I'm still fucking looking. Oy.

― Sterling Clover, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Just under £26,000 (I forget the exact salary) with a £5,000 bonus. This actually meshes very well with how much I spend though a bit of frugality and saving would most certainly not hurt. I'd gladly earn less for a more rewarding job.

Yes the culture of pay silence is really damaging - my best friend at my last job worked like a skivvy without any idea for ages that she was getting five or six grand less than same-rank same-job people. It wasn't gender discrimination so much as loyalty discrimination - MR being a small and v.incestuous industry people jump jobs a lot and get tasty increases to lure them into a position they're going to be in for 12-18 months (hello me). It was well known that the only way to get a good salary increase at this place was to leave for 6 months: my friend stuck it out for 4 years and only finally got some recognition when everyone else left.

― Tom, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

My name's Nick and I earn just under £20000 a year.

― Nick, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Longest I've stayed in one job is 1-1/2 years. I've had good and bad years financially (seem to alternate), can't say it affects my state-of-mind. Been in publishing for past five years, now wanna get out, not sure where/what yet: changing careers at 30 = cockfarmingly twunted. Ally's salary (inc. bonus) would put her in top 1% of wage earners in NZ (adjusting for different costs of living kaputs that some) and she gets to play on the internet = kewl job. Real estate you say?!

― AP, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Since everyone else has said I will too. I get a piffling 19500 each year. Which is scarce enough to keep me in the style to which I have become accustomed but the 25% discount at Top Shop is a welcome perk.

If Pete were a better pimp I could've at least tripled that. C'mon, Pete, get pimping!

― Emma, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

45k a year in New York is like 15k a year everywhere else

― Mike Hanle y, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I get paid seven pounds fifty pee per hour where I work (IE for the GOVVERMENT). I would like more please! I know someone on forty quid an hour. FORTY! Blugh! Faint! Die! I am considering being an Accountant. They's loaded! Or economics. Hmmmmm. I did a year and a half of politics? One bit involved Analysing Trends... I could talk convincingly about "The City", I bet I could. Would they still let me wear trainers to work?

― sarah, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Get a job in IT. Well paid, lots of wearing trainers to work possibilities, nicer than average working environment and you get fast free internet acces all day.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

40k a year, doing web dev for a law firm.

― Jeff, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The IT sector: fresh as the day when the bubble went burst. Now is not a good time to be embarking on a career in IT from what friends in the sector say.

― Pete, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It depends. If you're in support, web design, ancilliary stuff or management things are getting a bit sticky. But there's a big demand for programmers, DBA's, sysadmins and network engineers in areas outside the dot.com bubble. There is still a huge lack of people with hard technical skills in the industry, so if you have some you're fairly sorted.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Richard = 100% correct, hence my hedging about naming my actual salary. People would get the idea that I'm Mr. King Moneybags, when I'm actually Mr. King Drowning In Obscene Amounts Of Debt.

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

What qualifications are needed to get into IT? Our IT guy seem s liek a total dumbass.

― Mike Hanle y, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Mmm. I somewhat wish I'd paid more attention when in Houses of Learning so I'd know what Unix, C++, etc are. I have a degree in English Literature, so that's obv. useless, but also degree in Marketing & International Business (arbitrage even!) which I've near failed to gain any real life use from. I should pull finger. Then again, I didn't start the procrastination thread f'nothing.

― AP, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Adjunct to above comments - bad time to be an IT *contractor*, especially if yr skills aren't top-of-the-poppermost and boxfresh up-to-date. And even if they are, you might find yourself revisiting the hourly rate you were on in 1996. Still a reasonable demand for permanent staff but (speaking personally) there seems to be a dearth of middle-ground positions (i.e. not operators/support and not senior analyst/middle management).

I used to be on 35 quid/hr, but for the last three months I've been on zilch (or, more accurately, the last dregs of my company account). If one of the three permie jobs I'm up for comes up trumps (and I don't think I'm 'jinxing' them by discussing them here - I need a change of luck) then I'll be getting somewhere in the region of 30-35k.

― Michael Jones, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Like New York, money doesn't go so far around here either. Our 'household income' is somewhere around 85K now (30 me/55 him) and we live well but it's nothing extreme. For instance, my salary would just barely cover the rent alone, and then add on the accumulated and ongoing costs of edumacation, well, I guess I can't complain.

― Kim, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

where?

― Mike Hanle y, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yeah sorry, that would be Toronto, so those are Canadian $, which are worth something like ten cents USD right now... I'm exagerrating of course, but the exchange rate totally sucks right now. No trips to the US for me for a while.

― Kim, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Move West. We have a huge loft and only pay 1200 a month .
We live in luxury.

― anthony, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"Only" 1200 $ ? Dude, my rent is 425 (I'm not in a luxurious loft, mind you). Everyone should post how much they pay for rent (and student debt !), then it would make the income numbers mean something

Anyway, what unemployed/semi-employed people here are posting is scaring the fuck out of me - I'm about to leave my confortable, safe, not-too-high-paying-(35000$ Can.=22500$ US)-but-big-deal job of 7 years and I'm afraid of what happens next, if anything. I know Florida has low unemployment, way way lower than Montreal's was last time I looked for work, but I hate looking for a job more than anything else in the whole world, plus I have no US work experience, plus even though my degree is in social work I'd rather swallow paint than work in that field. Are decent government jobs hard to get in the US ?

― Patrick, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The loft is fucking huge. i can and have lived pretty high in the sky for 450 . You can rent a studio for 225. I have gone to school for 7 years , figure it out .

― anthony, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I pay $650 per month for my apartment, it's one bedroom.

― Ally, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

In NY? what a deal! I pay $675 and so does my brother for our two bedroom

― Mike Hanley, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Our rent is almost 1400, for a medium sized two bedroom. But believe it or not, that's actually much less than some of the other places down here (on the harbour.) Some of our neighbours are paying 2000+, and that's just crazy.

― Kim, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Now i feel dirty. Dave had the place before we met. He reclaimed it and it is technically zoned as commerical so we pay by M2. We might lose it because they are talking about demolishing the building.

― anthony, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

m2?

― Mike Hanley, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I am paying $385 for a one-room efficiency. Before this I used to pay around $220 for the big room in a three-bedroom apartment which was basically the bottom floor of a house. For my next place, one room in a three-bedroom duplex-half, I will be paying somewhere around $350 I think, but in St. Paul rather than here.

― Josh, Tuesday, 17 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Sqaure Meters

― anthony, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Discounted tracker repayment mortgage + contents insurance + buildings insurance on 3-bedroom flat (first floor [=second floor, US] of large Victorian house) in Zone3/4-border SE London = 760gbp/mth (= $1060). Cost of flat = 130k ($180k).

Previously, rent on 1st/2nd floor unfurnished 3BR flat above a shop in Z2/3 SE London = 910pcm (= $1270).

Before that, rent on 2BR furnished flat in ex-council block in Z2 SW London (within 3min walk of Tube) = 930pcm (= $1300).

And before *that*, rent on furnished 1st/2nd floor 2BR maisonette above a shop in centre of West Cumbrian town = 300pcm (= $420).

It's eBay that kills us though. (Just kidding, Pam).

― Michael Jones, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

There is this thing called the Big Mac index, quite ingenious really, that illuminates relative purchasing powers and makes this currency exchange easier to understand. Apparently it began as a near joke, but actually has proven to be amazingly telling and accurate.

Try - Big Mac Index

― Kim, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

550 pcm for a biggish room in a nice 2 Bedroom unfurnished flat in Zone 2.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

IN my first ever apartment I shared a room in Geneseo Ny and I paid $150 a month

― Mike Hanle y, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Currently paying $1590 for a 2 bedroom/2 bathroom apartment in Dorchester. View of the harbor, wall to wall carpetting, heat/hot water/air conditioning included in rent. They're raising our rent to $1670, which is what is prompting the move: I refuse to pay that much money on something I don't own.

― Dan Perry, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Curse Boston rents.

― Mike Hanle y, Wednesday, 18 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two years pass...

revive.

― Antmusic78 (Antmusic78), Monday, 17 May 2004 20:08 (twenty-two years ago)

No, not revive -- put to sleep, put to sleep!

― Those Beautiful Lines (Dee the Lurker), Monday, 17 May 2004 20:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Remember three years ago when I had a six-figure salary? That was cool.

― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 17 May 2004 20:18 (twenty-two years ago)

I should really really really find a better way to earn money.

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Monday, 17 May 2004 20:22 (twenty-two years ago)

more than i'm worth.

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 17 May 2004 20:22 (twenty-two years ago)

(In case it isn't clear, I no longer have that six-figure salary.)

― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 17 May 2004 20:25 (twenty-two years ago)

I make more than double what I was making this time last month (not that that was anything to shout about). Finally.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Monday, 17 May 2004 20:26 (twenty-two years ago)

(that's 6.50 an hour, btw)

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 17 May 2004 20:30 (twenty-two years ago)

I get an allowance of sorts which come sin the form of a paycheck for tax purposes. I get 200$ every 2 weeks - does this make me a spoilt rich kid?

I need to get an actual job because I need (more) beer/drugs and cds and stuff.

― chri$thamrin (christhamrin), Monday, 17 May 2004 20:30 (twenty-two years ago)

$400 a month is not enough to make you a spoilt rich kid.

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 17 May 2004 20:32 (twenty-two years ago)

if you get any money without working for it, after the age of 18, you're spoiled.

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 17 May 2004 20:33 (twenty-two years ago)

that's bullshit, and i hate the rich as much as anyone! (maybe not anyone)

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 17 May 2004 20:35 (twenty-two years ago)

i am just amazed at the idea of a world where my parents would have had an extra $400 a month to throw at me.

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 17 May 2004 20:36 (twenty-two years ago)

I make zero. I moved out of a $200 apt (in Boston!), and now I'm living in my girlfriend's mom's house, no health insurance or anything like that (I can't get medicaid because I can't let Massachusetts know I'm living here, for various reasons). I have a really cool job at an AIDS organization, unfortunately it's volunteer but it's at a hospital so if I break a leg on the job at least I'm covered, and I get free meals. In a few weeks I'll be moving back to Berkeley to teach a course at UC -- they'll pay me $5400 for two months of teaching. No benefits though.

I've got about 20 grand in savings, but the only time I ever touch that is to put the yearly max into my IRA.

― Kris (aqueduct), Monday, 17 May 2004 20:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Welcome back!

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Monday, 17 May 2004 20:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, and I make $45,000. But I get paid double for overtime, and currently I've been doing lots of that. Also I can work extra hours and put them towards vacation time, which is nice.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Monday, 17 May 2004 20:54 (twenty-two years ago)

I feel naked now.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Monday, 17 May 2004 20:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Okay, everyone who gets paid double for overtime can bite me.

― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 17 May 2004 20:54 (twenty-two years ago)

ilx is underemployed (except for me I'm a spoiled rich kid)

― christhamrin (christhamrin), Monday, 17 May 2004 20:54 (twenty-two years ago)

num num num

(x-post)

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Monday, 17 May 2004 20:55 (twenty-two years ago)

adam needs a boot in the ass

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 17 May 2004 20:55 (twenty-two years ago)

sorry...busy...biting...Dan

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Monday, 17 May 2004 20:55 (twenty-two years ago)

i wish I got paid overtime. but as it is, I often paid for doing no work at all, so I shouldn't complain.

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 17 May 2004 20:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Kyle, you make a fortune.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Monday, 17 May 2004 20:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Much better than not being paid at all, though.

― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Monday, 17 May 2004 20:59 (twenty-two years ago)

This is true.

(I'm in the middle earnings-wise, FYI, and that's all I'm saying about that here.)

― Those Beautiful Lines (Dee the Lurker), Monday, 17 May 2004 21:03 (twenty-two years ago)

on paper I make a fortune, but my take home pay is the same as people who make 30k less than me (I pay all the extra taxes married people have to pay, plus, I stick a bunch in a 401k which does nothing but loose value every month these days). but still, I don't do anything but read ilx these days, so what am I complaining about?

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 17 May 2004 21:11 (twenty-two years ago)

£128 a fortnight.

oh sorry, this was for money one earned....

zero.

― Robbie Lumsden (Wallace Stevens HQ), Monday, 17 May 2004 21:12 (twenty-two years ago)

I should average $350/week for the next four months, if we stay busy. For various reasons I don't pay taxes on it, so it's kind of like making $450ish or more.

Once fall semester starts again I'm going to try to be unemployed and actually concentrate on school, so I have to save as much as possible.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Monday, 17 May 2004 21:16 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm trying to imagine a world where $1600/month rents a small apartment. That's fucking insane.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Monday, 17 May 2004 21:20 (twenty-two years ago)

My 2bed closet of an apt in NYC was $2400 split two ways. Right now I pay just over $1200 for a 1bed bungalow.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Monday, 17 May 2004 21:21 (twenty-two years ago)

I pay 140$ a month for rent. All utilities included.

― christhamrin (christhamrin), Monday, 17 May 2004 21:22 (twenty-two years ago)

efficiencies around here start around $450-500

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 17 May 2004 21:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Admittedly I live in a boarding house type thing. You can also buy houses here for 20 to 25 gs. Which is 10X less than an equivalent in the Twin Cities.

― christhamrin (christhamrin), Monday, 17 May 2004 21:24 (twenty-two years ago)

The last place I paid rent (prior to becoming a pathetic slacker) was ~$450/month and that was about average for a 1bd/1bath that wasn't going to get broken into on a regular basis. Living in a cultural vacuum has its benefits.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Monday, 17 May 2004 21:25 (twenty-two years ago)

yessir. cheap drinks at the bar, too.

― christhamrin (christhamrin), Monday, 17 May 2004 21:28 (twenty-two years ago)

What kind of work do you do, Nordic?

― morris pavilion (samjeff), Monday, 17 May 2004 21:29 (twenty-two years ago)

I work for a jury consultancy.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Monday, 17 May 2004 21:31 (twenty-two years ago)

What does that mean, then?

― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Monday, 17 May 2004 21:35 (twenty-two years ago)

It's one of those jobs you never knew existed. but it does.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Monday, 17 May 2004 21:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Though commuting to an alternate dimension is an absolute bitch.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Monday, 17 May 2004 21:38 (twenty-two years ago)

@d@m is Gene Hackman.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Monday, 17 May 2004 21:40 (twenty-two years ago)

I make $30,000 pa and my rent is $475. But I like shopping. So I am usually broke.

― mandee, Monday, 17 May 2004 21:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I make a lot less money now than at my old job but it's more than I've made over the past 10 months so I'm not complaining. Plus the view is nice.

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 17 May 2004 21:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Im on $42k on paper but they take a large chunk out in superanuaton salary sacrifice thing, so its more like 37k.

Rent's a bit of a bitch in inner Melb, this place is 1120 a month, but at least Im going halves on that now, so Im not paying half me salary in rent! :(

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 17 May 2004 21:57 (twenty-two years ago)

I am paying about half my salary in rent right now, which sucks big-time. Then again, I have a much nicer apartment than most people I know in NYC, even those who pay as much or more than me, so it's worth it.

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 17 May 2004 21:59 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm trying to imagine a world where $1600/month rents a small apartment. That's fucking insane.

lots of insane people in NYC

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 00:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Remember three years ago when I had a six-figure salary? That was cool.
-- VengaDan Perry

Dan at some point I insist that you and I get hammered and talk about the good ol' days of six-figure salaries.

― martin m. (mushrush), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 00:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Ned can vouch for me if you need references.

― martin m. (mushrush), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 00:19 (twenty-two years ago)

ny real estate, pah. i pay about $900/mo (exclusive of utilities) for a 1bdrm in the east village. the guy from whom i took over the lease had been here for about a decade and was only paying $700, and since the place is rent-stabilized there couldn't be much of an increase. for comparison, my friend who lives four blocks away pays $1900 for a place that's about the same size.

― lauren (laurenp), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 00:27 (twenty-two years ago)

I make $9.86 per HOUR working as a counselor for/with mentally adults. I'm a student, but am in trouble with old student loans, so my tax returns get taken away. Plus I pay $150.00 a month to student loans so I can qualify for more. You know the book "Simple Abundance"? I'm going to write the companion "Complicated Poverty". And last month I blew $1,000.00 on my sick cat (he's all better), although I never go to the doctor myself. But my job gives me so many stories and anecdotes - and friends - that I cannot complain too much. I'm also going to write "Vodka Tonics for the Soul" and "The Seven Habits of Highly Incapable People". You are all invited to join in these literary adventures.

― aimurchie, Tuesday, 18 May 2004 01:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Apparently "9.86 per HOUR" has stunned everyone into silence.

― aimurchie, Tuesday, 18 May 2004 01:35 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm trying to imagine a world where $1600/month rents a small apartment. That's fucking insane.

hello tokyo and hong kong! what most middle class westerners deem a studio suffices as a livingspace for a middle class family of four in megametropolitan asia.

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 02:08 (twenty-two years ago)

ten years pass...

bump

― local eire man (darraghmac), Monday, 12 January 2015 23:13 (eleven years ago)

idk what my take home is yet (pension contribution takes a good bite) but as of today I make €42300 odd pa.

rent is about to go up to 600 each for a two bed townhouse on a quiet st in an undesirable but hopefully gentrifiable area of dublin

ok fess up bitches

― local eire man (darraghmac), Monday, 12 January 2015 23:15 (eleven years ago)

Wages, tips and other compensation
33264.22

― languagelessness (mattresslessness), Monday, 12 January 2015 23:32 (eleven years ago)

i am about to make just-making-it levels of pay for the next four or five months after a year of scrounging please-somebody-help-me levels and it's already got me imagining BUYING THINGS

― j., Monday, 12 January 2015 23:34 (eleven years ago)

Household or just mine?

― brosario nawson (m bison), Monday, 12 January 2015 23:34 (eleven years ago)

as threadbumper I'm happy with either way or both if you feel it significant

― local eire man (darraghmac), Monday, 12 January 2015 23:37 (eleven years ago)

our household income just broke 70k, this summer gone it was prob under 50k tho and the difference hasn't actually arrived yet (and there'll be some lag anyway while student loans and visa get what's coming to them)

― local eire man (darraghmac), Monday, 12 January 2015 23:40 (eleven years ago)

Just thought I'd ask.
I got about $50k this year before taxes. With my wife's income, around $110k.

― brosario nawson (m bison), Monday, 12 January 2015 23:41 (eleven years ago)

I don't earn a penny these days. I am a kept man.

― Aimless, Tuesday, 13 January 2015 00:09 (eleven years ago)

livin the dream

― Tanukious D' (wins), Tuesday, 13 January 2015 00:11 (eleven years ago)

thats some advantage, I demand it be taken into account in future poetry contests

― local eire man (darraghmac), Tuesday, 13 January 2015 00:17 (eleven years ago)

I'm paid something around the going rate. We pay a quarter of that in rent for a 2 bedroom apartment and have hefty student loans to pay. Wife has a job right now as well, but that might need to change when babby arrives (would probably take a net loss on child care).

― $80 is absurd and very ridiculous! (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, 13 January 2015 01:13 (eleven years ago)

I get the full bennies at the moment and it is the worst fucking period of my life. I get increasingly paranoid that the banks are working out new ways to squeeze me harder now they realise I am not earning fuck all any more. Also paranoid that Universal Credit is going to push my family into further poverty. But fuck the haters; I paid into this system for 18 years and even if I hadn't done so - go fuck yourselves anyway, potential judgemental fucking arseholes!

― xelab, Tuesday, 13 January 2015 01:16 (eleven years ago)

xp grats sufjan hadn't heard news

― local eire man (darraghmac), Tuesday, 13 January 2015 01:17 (eleven years ago)

ty! I don't think I shared that bit o' news yet.

― $80 is absurd and very ridiculous! (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, 13 January 2015 01:34 (eleven years ago)

£72.40/week

― Merdeyeux, Tuesday, 13 January 2015 02:43 (eleven years ago)

We earn a combined income that would have seemed like a lot of money to me ten years ago and now feels like enough but not a lot. We have enough to own an apartment in an uninteresting but safe neighborhood, send our daughter to the daycare we like instead of the cheapest, pay for my wife's part time school, have a couple date nights a month, do some family stuff on weekends, etc. When we need something we can buy it and when we need to fix things we can fix them. A save a little but not much. We don't do a lot of travel. Most of our meals are home cooked and we shop at Costco, but we buy organic meat and milk and eggs and other nice food. It's surprising how much it costs to live a pretty mundane middle class family life in nyc.

― walid foster dulles (man alive), Tuesday, 13 January 2015 02:50 (eleven years ago)

14,000$ CAD

i'm somehow living pretty ok off this? must be wild to make, like, n times this much money

― flopson, Tuesday, 13 January 2015 02:52 (eleven years ago)

quiddities, agonies xp

― mookieproof, Tuesday, 13 January 2015 02:56 (eleven years ago)

Canada Goose parkas for the whole family meant three instead of four star resort this year hey it's cold what was I supposed to do

― walid foster dulles (man alive), Tuesday, 13 January 2015 03:03 (eleven years ago)

i earn the respect of others

― pilate is my cogod (Crabbits), Tuesday, 13 January 2015 03:05 (eleven years ago)

not really

― pilate is my cogod (Crabbits), Tuesday, 13 January 2015 03:05 (eleven years ago)

a little more than my age x $1000 for the year

― Mistah FAAB (sarahell), Tuesday, 13 January 2015 04:19 (eleven years ago)

I demand it be taken into account in future poetry contests

The advantage you cite is fully offset by galloping mental decrepitude, brought on by six decades of wear and tear and victory gin.

― Aimless, Tuesday, 13 January 2015 06:22 (eleven years ago)

At the current exchange rate, exactly the same as Darragh. Notional bonuses bump it up but I'd estimate that's around £15k - £20k less than market rate for the role as a basic salary. I get recruitment consultants nervously saying 'I've got a role I'd be interested in putting you forward for but the starting salary is only £60k'. I need to have a serious conversation with my boss.

― Wristy Hurlington (ShariVari), Tuesday, 13 January 2015 06:23 (eleven years ago)

rent is about to go up to 600 each for a two bed townhouse on a quiet st in an undesirable but hopefully gentrifiable area of dublin

― local eire man (darraghmac), Monday, 12 January 2015 23:15 (1 week ago)

why do you want the area surrounding a house you don't own to become gentrified thereby increasing its value and rental yields

― Hayat Boumkattienne (nakhchivan), Tuesday, 20 January 2015 00:03 (eleven years ago)

because the rent is well below market rate and v likely to stay as is for the forseeable (covering mortgage costs of friends)

― local eire man (darraghmac), Tuesday, 20 January 2015 00:05 (eleven years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.