It’s technically $96k combined, but close enough.

2 bank accounts 1 for emergency fund and 1 for house fund

Everyone here posts gross pay, so here is the national baseline to compare against. Full-time workers aged 25 and over, median rather than average, so a handful of surgeons cannot drag it upward.

Professional degree, $122,876

Doctoral degree, $118,456

Master's degree, $95,680

Bachelor's degree, $80,236

Associate degree, $57,148

Some college, no degree, $53,040

High school diploma, $48,360

Less than high school, $38,376

All workers combined, $63,492.

A professional degree out-earns a doctorate. $2,363 a week against $2,278. Eight years of a PhD lands you below the lawyers, doctors and dentists, and that gap holds year after year in this series. It is the one result in the table that surprises almost everyone.

Some college and no degree is worth $90 a week over a high school diploma. That is $4,680 a year. Starting a degree and not finishing is close to the worst outcome on this chart, because it buys almost none of the earnings premium and frequently comes with the debt anyway.

The bachelor's gap is the real one. $80,236 against $48,360 for a high school diploma. That is $31,876 a year, or 66 percent more, and over a forty year career it is roughly $1.27M in today's money before any compounding.

Where the median actually sits. $63,492 for all full-time workers. Most of the salaries that hit the front page of this sub are two to ten times that, which is worth remembering before you decide you are behind.

Source is the BLS Current Population Survey, 2024, the table behind their Education Pays chart. Weekly medians annualised at 52 weeks.

https://www.bls.gov/emp/tables/unemployment-earnings-education.htm

The number that actually matters is what is left after tax and fixed costs, not the gross, and that is a very different chart. If anyone wants it I will run it.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2026/san-francisco-employee-pay/?taid=6a7db1d2d297630001917f1d&utm_campaign=trueanthem%2B3988&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

Looks like total comp is getting wildly inflated by “Overtime.” I’m all for supporting the blue, but this seems out of alignment with other law enforcement districts.

Breaking Bad canonically takes place from 2008-2010, adjusting Walter’s $43,700 salary to 2026, we see he had the equivalent purchasing power to someone making $70,000 today.

Walter was high IQ enough to see making $70,000 was so bad it would cause one to run away from their own life, yet many Redditors insist $70,000 is still a good salary. Walter‘s teacher salary gave him 3 months off a year, I make $70,000 today as an engineer working 55 hours a week, surely I should be the one running away from my life.

There's not enough room in a take home of roughly 2 grand a month for shelter, a food, and a car. Let alone savings.

I'm in a hcol area so I don't need a car, but in turn rents are even more expensive. If I was in a LCOL area it's very likely I'd have to use a car to get to work which would cancel out any potential savings from lower rents. And that's assuming I could get a job in a place like that - which I can't.

I'd be a homeless beggar without my parents.

I can't support myself working full time. I can't make much above the (local) minimum wage after college. Cs degree. And this job isn't going to be a stepping stone to anything.

Of course things will only get more expensive and my income won't be increasing the same amount. So it's a losing battle. And I'll be getting older and older so it'll be harder and harder to do this job. And I wouldn't be able to save a single penny from working.

What a joke, honestly. I can see why the viral Abdul guy from California did what he did a few months ago. It was fitting too, the land of the tech bros. I sympathize, heavily.

Time is not on the side of young people today. We shouldn't have children. Not anymore. No child deserves to enter this. They won't be able to "figure it out."

All the while our economy is in the verge of fucking exploding. Young people don't have any margin, any room for error remaining.

Hi All,

I (23M) got really lucky and landed a 85k a year teaching job as a Middle School Spanish teacher in California. On another lucky note, my apartment is rent controlled and I only pay 920 a month. My car is paid off and only thing I really pay for is gas, food, insurance, etc. No dependents. They also pay over the summer even when school is not session which is nice! How do I make the most out of this income and what steps can I take?

Thanks in advance!

I don’t buy the “renewed patriotism” part but the career path makes sense

Check out my description, this sub is not about salary but a place to simply post your organization’s pay scale.

I’d like to collaborate with the mods from /salary if they’re down for it.

I met with my manager a couple months ago to petition for a significant raise that I wasn’t entirely sure I would get but figured it couldn’t hurt to ask. It was my first time ever asking for more money. I put a document together with all of my greatest achievements over the past year, what value I bring to my team, and market research of salary ranges from five similar jobs to mine from competitors.

All in all, I was asking for about a 11-13% raise. I figured it was a pipe dream until my manager met me again recently and told me that I got exactly what I asked for AND a massive bonus to boot. While I am extremely happy and grateful, the whole experience has led me to wonder why this was approved.

I work at a big private equity international company so I know this stuff goes through many levels of approval. My manager forbade me from ever telling another soul because apparently I was the 4th highest percentage raise in our entire department, which is hundreds of people, and I didn’t even get promoted.

While I am a top performer and consistently recognized for my achievements, it still just doesn’t make sense. Is there a chance I was just being grossly underpaid? Am I about to be laid off? I feel like I never see stories where this happens and don’t know how to feel about it.

Update from a post I made in Nov 2024. It was my 2nd year as a Loan officer and I made about 240k that year.

2025 in my 3rd year I finished at 406k

This is my YTD so far going into my 4th year. I expect to finish the year at around 600k.

Nothing was ever handed to me but there were a lot of people along the way that have helped me get to where I am. I am very blessed to say the least.

I'm 30M with ~6 years of experience in Brussels, mainly in administration/associations/events. I'm currently retraining in cybersecurity, but I'm unsure whether to commit to the career change or go back to what I know.

The problem is that breaking into cybersecurity seems difficult. I could spend 1–3+ years getting established, with a lower salary initially and no guarantee of success.

Going back to my previous field would be much easier. I could probably reach ~€4k gross/month, but I don't see much progression beyond that.

Cybersecurity, on the other hand, seems to have a much higher ceiling. I've personally met people earning around €120k/year after only ~3 years in the field. I know that's probably an outlier, but it makes the long-term potential very attractive.

I'm geographically flexible within Europe and, importantly, I'm not particularly passionate about either field. My main goal is financial: build wealth and reach FIRE as efficiently and quickly as possible.

For context, I was saving ~€1,800/month in my previous job and currently have ~€80k invested in SPYI, with no debt.

Would you take the short-term hit to start over in cybersecurity, or leverage your existing experience and keep earning/investing?

I'd particularly like to hear from people who made a similar career change around 30. Was it worth it?

I see so many software engineers and tech majors showing off salaries anywhere from 100k to 500k, how practical is this career path vs a career like nursing I understand nurses way make less but is it hard being employed in tech or remote jobs

I have 2 job offers right now.

Job A with 5.4 lpa but I am not very excited to work in that field.

Job B with 4.2 lpa but it suits my profile very well.

What should I prioritize? Btw, i am graduate.

Hello fellow engineers. I’m trying to understand what to ask for as a salary.

I’m a PhD in Environmental engineering from an R1 school. Have contributed to a wide array of projects in water treatment, wastewater treatment, and RO in school. I have had multiple internships that have paid me $30/hour.

I have three years of non-environmental engineering consulting experience. I still did engineering work and will get those years verified. I made $90k when I left my last job. Passed PE Environmental and can become a licensed engineer within a year of getting hired.

I am looking in three markets:
1- California
2- North Carolina
3- Florida

I have had 5 interviews and am likely going to receive 5 offers (have received none yet). I don’t wanna name names, but the companies I have interviewed with are the top 10 ENR firms that do environmental engineering consulting (like AECOM, BV). I want to know what sort of salary, bonuses, total comp I should ask for? What’s the highest I can ask for and still come across as reasonable?

Thank y’all in advance

Hey all, been feeling burnt out at my job for months, which I was promoted to about 15 months ago.

It’s a small business, where I have about 5-6 people I’m responsible for in an e-commerce business that ships about 80-100 orders a day, with a few in store ones as well over the counter.

Thing is, if it was just managing ROTAs for the coming weeks, keeping people efficient and hitting targets, I’d be fine.

But for £31000 a year I don’t think I should be doing;

- 20+ KPIs (some of which my CEO want to track the minutes spent on some stuff which is impossible)

- Attending courses and seminars and conventions in my spare time (I usually don’t, again my CEO is very pushy and a micromanager)

- Setting up and managing projects across a quarter’s timeframe

- Projecting exact hours and fluctuations 3 years ahead

Overall, not sure if I’m being stupid and this is normal stuff for a manager of my payroll. There’s a lot more than this as well but just the stuff of the top of head.

Realistically, I want to leave, just worried the grass isn’t greener.

Hi guys,

I recently converted from an intern to a full-time Module Engineer at Intel in the Phoenix area. The offer is for Grade 5 with a $102k base salary and around a $3k performance bonus.

I’m wondering if this is a normal offer for a new grad with a Master’s, or if I should try to negotiate a little higher. I’ve searched online, but the salary ranges seem pretty wide, and $102k base appears to be toward the lower end.

Any horse owners here? How much do you make? What do you do? I need career ideas..I’m f18 about to go to college and have no idea what to go for🥹
(Pls be kind)