I'm starting this thread because of the computer science thread started several days ago. Somebody in that thread, cannot remember who, stated that it took them 6 years of working before they started earning a decent or good wage. So I am asking you all what you would consider a good wage. Not great or outstanding but simply good.
Clarify. Do you mean the minimum I would qualify as "good"? Or the wage I expect/want to have based on my occupation/experience?
What you would consider or qualify as good. What's the least amount you could work for, regardless of experience, skills, etc., and still live decently without struggling.
In Houston as a single person I could be happy with 35.00 an hour, married with a family I could be happy and not worry about much with 45.00 an hour along with my wife having a decent job as well..
I think you need more breakdown in your numbers. I think for a very average joe blow american, 15 to 18 an hour is good.
I don't know. I've never made more than like $9-10 an hour (what i'm making currently as a waiter) at a random summer job. Where I live now, I feel like I could live comfortably month-to-month on about $25 an hour (as a single person), but that is assuming perfect health, no accidents, etc. When you're making that type of money where I live, you should easily be able to pay your bills and have enough left over to entertain yourself. I'm a student right now, but these are my bills: $475/mo (includes all utilities), $93/mo for cable and internet, ~225 for car insurence (my car is paid off). As a student, I'm still able to be on my parents health plan. I don't really know how much it would cost me to get health insurence through a job, but I'll estimate $100/mo (someone tell me if I'm way off). That would be ~900 a month. If I made $25 an hour, that would be about $4,000 a month pre-tax assuming a 40 hour work week. I don't really know how much I'd clear when you take out taxes and paying into some sort of retirement fund, but I'd guess it might be somewhere between 2500-3200 a month that you'd take home. That would leave me with at least 1500 in expendible income each month. One thing I've learned is that kids make everything more expensive. Right now I definitely don't want any kids and I'm single, so I think I'd do just fine on that type of scratch. I'd probably do alright making $20 an hour as well. It would just be harder to start saving money.
I am currently making 30,000 a year on a salary but if you were to convert it to hourly, working a 40hr week, it comes to about $15/hr. I think thats good enough but it does limit entertainment a bit. With a wife, her job, and annual raises I dont have to worry about much else.
assuming you're single, if you can't live off of $35,000/year in Houston, which is about $17/hour, something's wrong with you. you won't be living in luxury, but it's more than enough to get by.
If I took the time to figure it on an hourly basis, I made about $500/hr. If I could manage to get that rate for eight hours a day/50 wks of the year, I'm pretty sure I could make it okay.
$20 an hour at 40 hours a week is about $41K. For a young single guy/gal, that's pretty good. If you have a family, or are trying to support a couple, twice that would be more like it. Of course, that's assuming someone is living in Houston. Go to the Northeast or the West Coast and you would be in trouble. Thank goodness, our income is a heck of a lot more than either figure.
Yeah. I would really like to see what people think across he region. Where I live, $10 and above an hour is considered good by most. I'm sure that's like working for minimum wage elsewhere.
On 30 Days, Morgan Spurlock and his wife (or girlfriend, whatever) did fine making about minimum wage (I think she was getting slightly above minimum wage working at a coffee place). At least they were doing fine until they neared the end of the month, realized that the show was not turning out the way they wanted it to, and started spending money like nobody's business (eg. Morgan went to the emergency room for a mild sprain because he didn't want to wait at the free clinic, they took someone else's kids to the movies and bought a bunch of stuff at the concession stand, etc.) So, you can get by on the minimum wage, and if you really work at it, on less than minimum wage.
Well it's a tv show so they have to juice it up. And it seems like they were trying to highlight the medical insurance angle, which in a 30 day span might not mean anything, but over the long haul if you're making minimum wage and don't have any health insurance, you're one bad break from being royally screwed.
That beats me - most I ever got per hour was $100. Not sustained or anything, but that was the rate I threw out and was paid (too bad they claimed it, though, and screwed up our tax refund - boooo!).
Someone told me once your yearly wage should never be less then your age. I've been going by that ever since, my current gig is roughly 5 above my age, but with OT and bonuses, it more then doubles.
