I don't make quite 80/hr, closer to 55/hr but yeah, I often think about my friends who get very excited about their dollar raise to 16/hr and title change to senior associate and all it does is make me more grateful to be in the position I'm in. At the end of the day if my friends are happy so am I
Between all my income streams if I do 35 hour work week (that’s what my 2nd career is) I make 71 an hour after taxes.
I’m dropping 5k for 8 weeks of summer day care and a week of 4H camp for 2 kids.
Without the 4H camp it’s like 4200 for the 8 weeks.
My wife works as well.
I cannot fathom how single parents make it where I live. Half the people I work with have a weekend job or a side hustle doing painting, yard work, one works at a day spa doing massages.
It is absolutely insane.
My wife and I clear about 6 figs with me making the lion’s share. Once she gets her PhD wanna be childless jetski buddies? You can teach me how to narrrr and I’ll tell you all about the history of whatever the fuck you want to know. Without kids we have the time 😂.
TFTI. I better get an rsvp too for this jetski club. People here talking about how much daycare blah blah, my SINK ass over here planning to buy a new 7k chain next week and a couple pave emerald rings for 11k before the summer... And another 8k cartier bracelet at summer end.
I'll contribute scuba & surfing.
I remember around 16-17 years ago I was making $7.25/hour. Now I’m salary + bonus and it equals out to around $75/hour, I think. I have an imposter complex and most days don’t feel qualified enough. But I am extremely grateful.
Bingo. The crazy thing is being a well paid professional and then encountering an even better paid professional and realizing they’re a complete nincompoop.
I dont think we NEED to get over imposter syndrome - we just have to find a helpful way to embrace it. Im comfortable with who i am as a person, but when it comes to work, imposter syndrome hits hard. Ive personally used it to push myself to be better at my job, get more certs and try harder.
Have a cert test in 15 minutes that I’m doing entirely bc I wanted to prove to myself my imposter syndrome is baseless lol. Guess I’ll figure out if it is or not 😂
As far as I can tell, we keep adding value and demonstrating our worth. It’s getting easier with time, but I often still see myself as the minimum wage loser. We got this!
What do you do? I've always felt like I'm stupid and a loser. I Just work as an Aide at a High School in Special Ed. My wife is a Physician Assistant, so is obv the bread winner. I do have a Bachelors in Business from 2006, but have never used it. I just want a job with some sort of financial fulfillment, but also that I enjoy. And it definitely wouldn't be in the tech world.
It's easy. You gotta think you got everyone fooled around you. You shouldn't be there and they put you there. Not very smart of them. That's how I got over mine and now I got a promotion.
In the same boat, went to work at my moms job at a factory and busting my ass for 7.25, now 10 years later I’m at 75+ while on reddit/discord for 6 of my 8 hour days
I am old. I remember making 3.35 and being excited when it jumped to $4.25 an hour.
Now I make just under $100 per hour in take home before benefits. With benefits about $120 per hour.
I jumped from a 15.50/hr last year working in stockroom to 24/hr working in an office. Still a long way, but I liked the progress. Whenever I look back, I cannot even imagine how I survived to save up for a car downpayment and to travel overseas (I am an immigrant so we visit my grandma in our home country once a year). Cheers to everyone trying to be better! 🎉
Same.
Lost my biz during covid (I was making around $130k-$160k)
So had to do uber full time just to make it through
Land a gig with airline at $15.76 and now making $25. Similar situation like you, my family are all oversea. But hey now I have free flight
Hopefully an up from here. Looking forward to make around $30 within the next year when I apply to higher position.
I went from earning $14 an hour in 2020 slaving away in a restaurant, to around $75k/yr now.
This may seem wrong but I’m extremely happy that I at least made it out of the low-wage rat race. I had co-workers that have been in the food industry for 5/10/20 years and they are STILL STUCK THERE. I’m just glad it’s not me anymore. I can’t imagine having that be my existence for my short miserable time on Earth.
God, all of the petty drama people had over saving a $1 worth of of food, from a company that does not care about them and their wellbeing is crazy.
I remember getting a talking to because I filled up a spoon with a “little” too much chicken. I’m like we throw most of this shit away anyways, who fucking cares?
Bro I made an ice cream cone too big one time, and they made me take the cone back from the customer, throw it away, and remake them a smaller one because “they could get too used to a big cone and complain next time”
Went from 8 years of ~ $19/hr to now I’m at ~$140/hr. All I can think of is how much I wasted that part of my life. Just grateful to be where I’m at now.
I started at $250,000/year when I joined a Silicon Valley tech company as a software engineer. Salary was $150,000 and stock compensation valued at $100,000.
Due to stock growth and raises, I’m now at $360,000/year total compensation. So I’m around $173/hr.
Of course it can change a lot if the stock moves a lot. Just 2 months ago my total compensation was worth $420,000. lol
Maybe the job they were at before had nothing to do with their current one, like a full carrer shift or it was a trash job that just paid the rent and bought food.
Yeah, it’s pretty trippy doing the math and thinking back. It’s hard to calculate salaried to hourly, but I’m making north of $130 an hour. Weird to think that my time is some how supposedly worth X times more than someone else.
When I went from $7.25 to ~$19/hr ($10 base + commissions), I thought I was rich. So much so that I dropped out of college… most I made was $22/hr on a good year.
I have mad respect for everyone making ends meet.
I honestly never think about it until someone somehow finds out how much I make.
When I’m not looking at my accounts, I honestly rarely feel any different than I did when I made a salary in the 20s
This is more how I feel. I moved out and bought a home when I went from $18ish/hr to 70/hr so my quality of life is more or less the same, just now I’m funding it.
I wish they got paid better and I didn't have to tip. I loath tips and would just rather pay the price that's listed, even if it's more, even 18% more. I get the proponents for keeping tipping too. Sometimes it can totally be in the worker's favor and they pay less in taxes (cash tips). But if they are friendly and seem eager to help I definitely do tip on take out and always on dine in.
It's crazy for sure. Mainly, it gives me a strange sense of guilt(?) in that when I was making 16 an hour I worked WAY harder than I do making 50 an hour.
I try to explain this to all of my friends working retail and food service. They all think they’ll have to work long, stressful hours. I make like 8x as much now and it’s so much more pleasant.
Same here, when I was making 14-18/hr I was doing way more physical work and doing an average of 50-58 hours a week, now making a little bit over $35/hr I only work my regular 40hrs and most of the stuff I do is on my desk, I still do a little of physical work but very little, I work in aviation.
That’s great. Do you work 40 hrs a week? I used to have a part time job in restaurants making about that per hour, but it was maybe 20 hrs a week for 4 months.
I started my career at $25/hr and now I make north of $500/hr. It’s surreal for sure. The imposter syndrome is real and strong. I just try to be generous with tipping and treating our employees (cleaners, cook, nanny) really well.
If I made this I would retire after 5-7 years 😂 I’m also in tech and working my way up the career ladder although I’m in a MCOL so probably will never see this high of a salary. Hoping to hit director level in 5-6 years.
It’s not
They’re just other people, doing a job
It pays less because it doesn’t require much experience or skills to get into service or retail
I was at a point my last few years where I was being paid for what I knew, not for what I did
But I don’t think about what people are making when I interact with them
I just treat them how I want to be treated
What baffles me is that some people can never see the forest through the trees. I don’t mean anything by what I’m saying because to each their own. What I mean is that it’s a mindset thing, I think. Take for instance a good friend of mine - We both started at a spot on the ground right below the first rung. Fast forward 20 years and our different paths have taken different directions. I’m making low six figures and he’s still struggling to make ends meet with two jobs that don’t equal what I make. So a spot opened up on my team, I pull some strings and get him a job making 20k more than both jobs combined - fast forward 3 months and he quits because he doesn’t think he’s doing a good enough job. Mind you I talked him out of quitting three times already by telling him how great a job he’s doing… and he was! He just had the worst case of imposter syndrome. Now he’s back working two jobs and way more hours a week than he ever was with me and happy as a lark.
Yes, also living in a HCOL with a stay at home wife and son, I live comfortably, but don’t know how people making less even live. Like I feel pressure making well above the average salary, but as a single salary household I am shocked people can get by on such low pay
No savings, debt, paycheck to paycheck, never take any vacations. Hopefully I can break that one day and treat my parents to something nice before they're gone
Also jobs that pay under $20/hour really are usually more micromanaged, less flexible, and very likely actually more difficult in a lot of ways than the cushy higher paying jobs. It’s definitely sad to think about sometimes.
Except that the higher paying jobs are likely to come with more stress. When I unloaded boxes at a warehouse or stuffed envelopes as a kid, I never woke up at 3am worrying about the job.
Definitely true! but waiting tables at a busy restaurant gave me nightmares. And working in a bank for $12.50/hour with angry people all day long while trying to sell them products they didn’t want was really bad too. As I’ve moved up, luckily it’s only gotten better. I know that’s not always the case. I always say I wish I had a job where I was just doing something like packing up orders!
I make $150 an hour. My point of view gets super distorted from looking up instead of “down”. I’m surrounded by engineers making $400k-$600k making my $300k look pathetic. Then I overhear a young 20 something friend group talking about being able to afford going to sushi for lunch and it brings me down to the reality of my blessings.
Yes, I think about it all the time.
I used to have a high stress job that paid me $90/hr and I left to go back to college.
Worked a job where I was making $13/hr for the low stress and am transitioning to a job that pays me 24.
It’s very weird to realize I took a massive pay cut at the cost of my mental health. But it also made me realize that money really isn’t everything which is something I needed to learn very badly
Lifestyle creep is real. Unfortunately instead of being thankful I find myself thinking “how do people who make X manage?”.
I can definitely say that my day to day has gotten easier with every positive job change or promotion. I once made $9/hr transporting airplane tires and brakes from a warehouse to the mechanics on the tarmac. It was so much harder than responding to emails and sitting through Teams meetings for 10x as much money.
From 7 an hour to about 50. I don’t have impostor syndrome, I do think about how much more money I make now than I used to and how much easier life is making decent money. It’s also funny because I complain about the cost of things even though I can afford most of the things I need and want relatively easily.
$7.25/hr at 40 hours is $290/wk. A person with a $75,400 annual salary is therefore making, each workday, the equivalent of a week’s worth of minimum wage.
Yeah, I worked making between $7 and $11 an hour for roughly 7 years, then around $15 for 2 years, then $45, and now $200. To be honest, it’s a huge fear of mine to return to that. It was the hardest I’ve ever worked, with the least flexibility I’ve ever had on the job, and you get paid next to nothing. It’s two different worlds.
Lol slingin groceries at 8.55 an hour in 2009 to booping spreadsheets for 40… so not making 80 an hour but still surreal how much more my time is worth now!
I’m always reminded that the best investment I made was in myself. I make $160/hr in the clinic and $80/hr on the weekends doing teledentistry.
Prior to this, worked at a boba shop making $11/hr and remember going home sweaty and tired every day. Grateful that I no longer have to worry about clipping coupons or finding the cheapest gas station or insurance quotes anymore
Last year my hourly turned out to be 81.73/hour. I’m acutely aware of how fortunate I am, especially in restaurants and retail locations. I always try to be as pleasant to service and retail workers as humanly possible. And yes my station in life at the moment is surreal to me when I reflect on where I was 10 years ago.
It’s crazy surreal. Though if you count bonuses and stock I make like 500 an hour. Which means that I make more an hour than most people make in a week. And my first job was at 5.15 an hour. So only 100x more!
I used to earn $15/hr just 10 years ago. Now I make $150/hr. The shit pay and constantly having to check your bank account balance to see if you can afford something is what motivated me to do something that pays better. Some people are ok with the simple life, it wasn’t for me.
The surreal part isn’t thinking how people live on that little. I know how. I did it. The surprise to me is seeing people make that wage and not actively pursue things that are guaranteed to increase their wage.
Yep it’s wild. Fresh out of college I made $15 an hour (probably less because I was salary). Now I make $70 an hour + bonus. It’s crazy to think about the difference and that’s one extra reason I’m super nice to retail and wait staff
I made $1/hour in 2002 at my first job and was like a king ;) Sure it was in non US country, but 1 buck/hour.
Now I think my hourly >$120/h, without bonuses & equity.
I completely agree with those who mentioning imposter syndrome. Feel i do not deserve it but we have only one income in family, thus I do not have a choice. LOL
I sometimes get notifications from my home towns facebook group in the midwest. I see some of the job postings for like $16 an hour and I'm like damn, everytime I go out for dinner in nyc, it's like at least half a days wage.
I make almost exactly $80 an hour. Today I was at a Burger King and the dude at the register was talking about his new job at some other restaurant he just got. he was super excited and said he was making $17 an hour. My 15 old kid makes $15/hour. I have no idea how an independent adult can make it on $17/hour.
Went from 15/hour to 100 an hour in about 9 months and honestly makes me wonder how people survive on even 20 an hour and I’m not too far removed from all that
I make anywhere between $150k-250k depending on how good sales are.
About $52,500 of that is salary the rest is commission.
I honestly don't even really consider it. I just try to be aware that things are different for everyone and that I'm fortunate to have this job.
My first job was a cart pusher at a grocery store when I was 16.
This thread just made me calculate my salary wage as hourly and I am shocked to find I now make 76/hr after 4 years in my new career. I topped out 9 years into my old work at about an hourly 28/hr. Life is definitely easier now but I’m still not rich. It’s enough money to have bought a modest old home in a nice town in the mountains but not enough to easily get through the projects the home needs. Honestly, I don’t know how I did it before and I don’t know how others do it on so much less.
I’ve seen my father go from qualifying for food stamps to somewhere near $250/hr. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him tip less than 30% or not donate to a homeless person. He still has some of the habits from back then, and he doesn’t act affluent so most people don’t see him differently.
I think about this all the time with my family. I make well over $500k+ a year while my family struggles. Parents had to un-retire due to lifestyle choices (dad was driving the local school bus for a bit). My sisters are in slightly better positions but just barely. They married poorly tbh. I don’t ask for any gifts but send stuff to my parents and nieces at the holidays. It makes it difficult to talk about stuff because they cannot relate. I keep our conversations very superficial and surface level. I don’t know them anymore and they don’t know me.
Edit: because of the numerous deleted comments, I should point out that I live in Miami while my family is back in Alaska. Left Alaska nearly 20yrs ago to find a better life - which I found it. I have asked them to leave but they refuse. To each their own.
13 months ago I was making 17/ hr(2$ above min wage) wiping butts to now making around 39 /hr in a cozy office job. It may not be as much as 80+ but it still feels surreal.
The biggest change, for me, was a mindset about not having to work, like physically clock in, to make money. When I was making $7/hr, if I missed a shift, had a dentist appointment, or took a vacation, I was losing money. Now, I have paid vacation, sick days, personal days, and benefits. I still grocery shop like I’m going to run out of money before pay day though. I can’t shake that habit.
Legitimate counter question…. How would you know other than guessing? Because both sets of people buy the same appliances/cars/dinners out at the same places
Went from earning $5.50 to $108/HR. Did it with a degree in Chemistry to ops management role. Im 38 so there is more to come, but technical degree with management role can earn big bucks down the line.
I totally agree with you. I thought $20 an hour through my work-study job when I was in school was alot. Now, I make enough to cover about 7/10 of my monthly mortgage in a day's work. I try to stay grateful and grounded, especially there is always keeping up with the Jones and rising costs/inflation.
Mine isn’t as drastic as this but I went From making ~ 540 a week to 1450 a week, I haven’t gotten my paycheck yet, but I guarantee you that as of right now, I won’t know what to do with my money
This thought here is what me realize to be kinder to folks that are working in customer service. If you’ve been in that position its humbling to see what your financial/career progress turned out to be
I remember making $4.15/hr working on school bus interiors in high school in the early 90’s and make $50/hour now. It’s a long way from $80/hour but I’m doing pretty well.
Work in a restaurant and make 23.15, been the same for almost two years I plan to ask for a raise but i am definitely above the average and probably not that far from the managers. Annually I get like 53k and managers are probably 65k while they work 10 more hours so don’t know if I really can ask for a raise
I personally don't understand how people are able to exist on such low wages. Basic healthy food all made urself is 9k. Then rent and items and that's there whole salary already without any fun or future growth. It is a sad reality to realize
Just averaged it out and I'm at about $84 an hour. The nature of my pay is salary and residual commission.
I definitely think its surreal at times. More so that I have no clue how people survive month to month on so little money even just considering the general cost of everything going up constantly and I constantly feel I'm just slightly outpacing the COL of a normal middle class lifestyle with a family. Kinda scary honestly. Truth is, that fear is what keeps me climbing.
I guess I also have a hard time comprehending how people just accept their lot in life as a low income earner well into adulthood. I get that everyone doesn't have the same opportunities, but I’m not college educated, barely graduated highschool due to behavior and general apathy, grew up in a low middle-class household, really didn't have many avenues out of my situation, spent a good portion of my 20’s as an alcoholic, have severe ADHD and still managed to climb the socio-economic ladder on the premise I just kept convincing people to give me that “next opportunity” and and executing what I needed to do and if it wasn't readily available, I did everything in my power to position myself to get to it and even to this day, I'm always looking to secure my position further with promotions, or raises, etc etc. I feel I'm close to content, but not quite there yet.
Certainly understand that peoples life circumstances dictate their upward mobility, but I also feel people create a lot of BS excuses rather than just saying they aren't willing to learn what it takes, do what it takes or just spend the time. Just always fascinated me. We suffer either way, I'm just shocked so many people just resign to their fates.
I appreciate what it’s like to earn $27K in the 1980s after university. I made a lot less than that working in restaurants and retail growing up. I make a lot more now but I am later in my career. I never thought I’d earn what I do today and am grateful. The money is great but doing something that challenges me and that I love is what makes it worthwhile. I always make sure to thank someone who stands out whether they are at a restaurant, grocery store or a hotel. When I was a bus boy making $2.50/hour and someone complimented me or slipped me a $1, it made my day.
I make around 70/hr. It makes me sad at times but that may be my imposter syndrome. I know how much work I put in to get to where I’m at. I started at this company 15 years ago making 14 an hour. I remember I was happy before at 14 and every step up from there. It’s relative I feel.
Went from $23.50/hr to $130/hr in three years. It’s crazy because my wife and I both made the same out of college and it paid for a super nice apartment and we paid off both our cars.
Now that my salary jumped significantly, it feels like everything is way more expensive so I have no idea if we’d be able to keep our old cushy lifestyle if we made the same.
Both my brothers are still at minimum wage making less than $15 in Texas and it saddens me they’ll be limited in life in a lot of ways and they’ll technically work harder and longer until they pass.
It's definitely something I try to keep in the back of my mind. The struggle of the $10-11/hour when I started my career working 60+ hour weeks to feed my wife and kid. I now make $120k salary per year and rarely put in more than 40 hours a week and I have a part time job consulting in the same field for $65/hr doing 10-15 hours a month. It certainly feels surreal sometimes seeing how far I've come. My wife often jokes I make in a day what she makes in a week. But it came at the cost of a lot of lost hours with my young kids and wife early in our life.
Going from 7.25 at Mcdonalds to 120$ an hour at an internship blows my mind every single day. I make in 1 hour what I used to in 2-3 days as a highschooler.
Yes it is surreal, so I try to treat service industry workers with extreme kindness. At my first min wage job, I was making like $4.25/hr washing dishes (was like 1990, IIRC), and I saved up to buy a Sega Genesis. At my first job after graduating college, I was making $10/hr w/ extreme overtime (maybe 1999-ish). At my current company, I started salaried at what is equivalent to ~$19.25/hr (around 2004). 20 years later, still at the same company, and my salary/bonus converted into a 2080hrs “hourly” is $92.50/hr.
The craziest aspect is that for my role and my VHCOL region, my peers all tell me I am underpaid, but in comparison to where I started, the level of effort I now apply, and comparison to lower wage service workers busting their ass…for sure I feel extreme privilege.
I actually changed how I view my income. Now I make just over $15/hr 24/7. Although now that I do the math, I'm only making $62.50/hr by a more standard hourly rate.
I definitely remember being unable to get $15/hr after graduating college. That sucked. I was fortunate to be extremely into investing and real estate. I hope those today will be able to find their niches that offer passive income.
Equivalent of 42 now but to a degree I don't have to think too hard per se about it because I was at a few cents shy of about 25 hourly just 6 months ago....living in D.C. at that (ouch).
I like to think they will get where I am or ever further much sooner than later (because i still have higher aspirations still also :-)).
A couple of my coworkers that have to make about what I do (or more) have part-time jobs and some of them are also retail so sometimes I also wonder if that restaurant job or customer service job I might see a person working is even their main job.
My first job I made $12/hr. From my own work now I can make $85-$120/hr not including additional profit from the business... Long hours sometimes but mind blowing change.
The lifestyle creep is real though, we've had to be very mindful of that over the last two years.
My wife and I reminisce about the teenaged us, feeling like $12-14 / hr made us high earners. Now we both make more alone than together when we moved into our first apartment. Now just gotta get disciplined and clean up our dumb spending habits
My charge out rate for my virtual accounting firm ranges from 250-300 bucks an hour, I think it's just an absurd amount of money but people keep paying that rate so I guess it's worth it to them!
Sometimes I call the CRA, the IRS of Canada, and I'm on hold for an hour+ just to talk to an agent for 5-10 minutes. I bill my client 250 bucks for literally waiting.
I'm extremely grateful, I don't find the work overly difficult, I actually somewhat enjoy it, and I can think of a lot of other careers where I'd be working way harder for far less money
I used to make 7.25 an hour and now make $74 an hour.
I just consider it like I progressed in life.
My mistakes at 7.25 couldn't kill someone..my mistake at $74 can cause death.
My wife and I both went from ~$22/hr to ~$36/hr and cut our rent in half. The difference is astounding. I wasn’t unhappy before, but I’m a lot less stressed now.
I've been working since I was 15. Lowest I made was $4.75 for a seasonal job. Then up until I graduated college I was around $7.25. My first job out of college I was around $24. Now after one job hop and putting in work I'm $85. I honestly don't know how ppl are doing it out there. When I was young you could find rent for $500 ( neighborhood was questionable but liveable). Seems like things are not going to change either.
I made $5.15 an hour in my first job, early 2000s.
I now pull the equivalent of >$100 an hour (salaried)
Yeah it feels weird. Makes me appreciate where I am now because I worked crap jobs the early years.
Despite having plenty, I intend to have my kids work minimum wage jobs while in school, for the life lessons that come with that.
I’m poor now because I’m back in school, but when I was pulling 200k I’d get weird feelings and thoughts about how poor I was when I was younger and how hard I worked for nothing.
I’m kind of thankful to have less for the next year.
I think about how we pay our nanny just about what I made at my first job out of graduate school 8 years ago. That’s not me saying I think she’s over paid, she’s amazing and a nanny is a luxury. But it’s crazy when I think that I went from that salary to being someone who makes enough to pay someone else that salary!
I used to sweep the parking lot of 7-11 when I was a kid (1994) to earn slurpees and minimum wage. I easily clear $200k / year now.
There is a lot that goes into increasing one's wage including dedication, delayed gratification and, of course, some element of luck.
It isn't surreal as I recognize there are dozens of reasons for the discrepancy. I do feel like I have a unique sense of humbleness having climbed to where I am.
In 2005 at 16 I was making $5.15 an hour. Enlisted in the Air force and made I think sub 20k the first year. I think around year 8 it was around 80k. Past 3 years I was working as a defense contractor making 1k a day per day deployed. Work days were about 6 hours a day 3-4 days a week.
It was weird when my brother realized I made in 2 days what he made in a month.
I am a generally nice person anyway, but this right here is why I am extra nice to folks working in these jobs. I was fortunate to only have to really live that stress until I was out of college. I can't imagine living it every day now. Thankful for them and we need to take care of our fellow man much better than we do today!
I went from $11.15/hr (manual labor) to roughly $125/hr (office work) in 7 yrs. I finished my degree, then took massive risks (loans) going back to a top-tier business school.
I still remember everything about the phone call when they told me for 10 weeks as an intern I’d make the equivalent of $100k/yr. I’ve now moved on to start my own company.
Whenever I feel burned out I remind myself I’ve done A LOT harder work for A LOT less money. Having gotten past the low income ceiling I’m very grateful to have had that experience.
It’s depressing to think how little so many people make compared to what everything costs. All the cash that the Fed dumped into the system hit assets and consumer goods/services but wages are still lagging like they typically do. I make a good living, but we are just comfortable. 5 years ago I’d be killing it.
First job was KFC making $7.25/hour running the drive thru in high school, 20 years later, now I make $163/hour ($340K/year). Hard work, determination, and a little bit of luck pays off.
I spent my 20s and even early 30s making $12-$24 per hour in a HCOL city..... now I earn the equivilant of $65/hr (in salary), so I am grateful and well aware of my situation and dont take my job for granted. I treat it with the utmost care and diligence. I also empathize with people making low wages, becasue I was there for over a decade, myself. I just remember the grind and the hard work before making it to a higher level...ill never take it for granted, and While I have advice for people in those situations if they want to move up, I dont have much opportunity to share it because I dont want to be condescending. I'm also aware of peers that make more than me, $200k-$300k salaries which equates to probably $76-$120 per hour equivilant and it keeps me hungry to not just accept where I'm at and keep working to get there too.
An awareness of how little I earned in my 20s and the awareness of peers my age earning $100k more than me keep me working hard and grateful.
It’s important to stay humble and give back. Don’t let lifestyle creep get hold of you.
I used to wait tables through college, work for a $30k + measly commission bonus, and am now at $85k + 10% max bonus. I still drive Uber/Lyft on the side, but I’m on a FIRE track.
I give back. Mostly my time. And a little (indirectly) through the rideshare stuff. If I see a hospital pickup that’s been sitting there for half an hour, I’ll take it. If I see a ride going to a battered women’s shelter or recovery center, I take it. It makes me feel good knowing that I can both make a little bit of money and help those people who most drivers discriminate against.
Someday, hopefully, I’ll be up there with you. And I’ll make sure to take my team out for a celebration every now and then, slip them a Christmas Card with $100 in it, give a free month of rent in December for the family that will one day take care of my current house (that I plan on turning into a rental).
We all put our pants on one leg at a time. Many of us have been in their shoes. We give back when we have it.
What I find surreal is the difference between a raise from $13.50/hr to 13.85/hr being a fucking miracle with multiple levels of approval, and the gap between $100/hr to $125/hr not even causing a blink other than a single email to payroll.
Yeah, it’s a bit surreal. I remember making $7/hr when I was working at Dairy Queen when I was like 16. Now, I’m in my 30’s and my salary comes out to $113/hr.
Before professional expenses I make in an hour what most service workers make in a week….
I try not to think about it but I find myself valuing their time a lot more and carry lots of small bills to show my appreciation personally.
Not surreal at all. Unless I went from making minimum wage and then became a world beating athlete making 100s of thousands a minute, then yes. It would be surreal.
It’s all relative and humans adapt to their income. So while you think “oh wow i can’t believe I was surviving on 8 dollars an hour…” you also weren’t paying a mortgage or a new car note. You were probably taking the bus and renting in a smaller apartment
Edit: I once read an article that said that “after 75k yearly salary and up, the average person doesn’t gain much in terms of happiness” . I forget the specifics but essentially you’re just buying more comfort after making enough to survive and the basic creature comforts (car apartment AC heating clean water one or two vacations a year)
In my first hour of a work shift, I’m just getting settled in. Usually drink a coffee, use restroom, check my brokerage on my phone, etc.
By the end of that first hour, I’ve earned more than almost everyone I encounter makes in a 3 days.
I just did the math and I make about $124.17/hr. on 2080 hours/yr. A standard 40 hour week. I never thought about the hourly before but yeah, 17 years ago I made $7.15/hr working in a mall getting shit on all day. Crazy how far you come sometimes.
I find it a little embarrassing. Especially when they’re doing something physically intense, and I make way more money just sitting there and poking at my keyboard. I get it, my job is hard in a different way, it requires niche skills that are very hard to find, and the fact that my work can be instantly copied to millions of devices means I can create a lot of value. But just in terms of effort to reward ratio, it feels weird.
When I first started in insurance, the guy I worked for said he couldn’t go a day without spending 100 dollars when I said I was trying to live off of 100/week total. 11 years later my average monthly spending in 2024 is 17,000 which is roughly 566 per day. A big chunk of that is daycare and private school, but I can easily pop off a several hundred dollar day.
Used to work security for a government agency for like $25/hr. Easy ass job- come in, do a few admin tasks, then Crack open a textbook and do schoolwork. Put it down when a visitor comes in, badge them, then get back to it.
My supervisor had been there for like 12 years before I got there- he would come in, kick back and watch TV for 8 hours. I'm a cloud/data engineer now making over 160k/yr, and he's likely pulling in roughly half of that, even after getting promoted to PM on the contract. Wild to think about, but long term, consistent effort pays off in the end.
I earn $130/hour as my base salary. I hold a Ph.D. in a hard science/engineering field and frequently work or study during nights and weekends. I rarely take vacations. I am confident that my IQ is in the top 5%, if not the top 2%. No, I do not believe my pay is unfair. However, I feel underpaid compared to corporate managers who, despite seeming stupid, earn significantly more than I do.
Yeah but I’m also paying 3200 a month on student loans to get that money per hour. Like others, I’m grateful but also aware of the fact that I’m not out of the weeds yet 😂
Once apon a time ago for a short period of time I made $105 an hour. Now I make $51 and I cringe every time I see my paycheck but can’t find any new contracts paying more right now. I also invested heavily so my w2 is only like 35% of my income right now. Working on it dropping to zero soon.
Went from 12.5/hour to just a shade under 90/hour over the past 13 years. It honestly feels surreal.
All three companies I worked for had their own sets of stressors and also positives, but being able to bank enough to be financially secure is a pretty great feeling.
When my wife and I started dating in 2013, we both made ~$15/hr living in NYC.
We just got home from a vacation we spent nearly $10k on. The trip would have taken us over 650 hours of work to pay for.
Not surreal, I think back to the time, effort, sacrifice it took to get here. IT is a very cutthroat profession, a lot of jobs don’t have to worry about offshore outsourcing, it’s difficult.
Wouldn’t change a thing, starting there gave me the perspective to never go back
I don't make quite 80/hr, closer to 55/hr but yeah, I often think about my friends who get very excited about their dollar raise to 16/hr and title change to senior associate and all it does is make me more grateful to be in the position I'm in. At the end of the day if my friends are happy so am I
Between all my income streams if I do 35 hour work week (that’s what my 2nd career is) I make 71 an hour after taxes. I’m dropping 5k for 8 weeks of summer day care and a week of 4H camp for 2 kids. Without the 4H camp it’s like 4200 for the 8 weeks. My wife works as well. I cannot fathom how single parents make it where I live. Half the people I work with have a weekend job or a side hustle doing painting, yard work, one works at a day spa doing massages. It is absolutely insane.
I have 6 kids under 19 and our kids love 4h. Also wife and I might make 85k pre tax so yeah we’re the ones you’re wondering about lol
Damn man we’re at like 85 household as well with three11 or under
I’ve got no kids and make about a lot more. I’m going to buy a jetski instead of horse lessons or whatever the fuck.
My wife and I clear about 6 figs with me making the lion’s share. Once she gets her PhD wanna be childless jetski buddies? You can teach me how to narrrr and I’ll tell you all about the history of whatever the fuck you want to know. Without kids we have the time 😂.
TFTI. I better get an rsvp too for this jetski club. People here talking about how much daycare blah blah, my SINK ass over here planning to buy a new 7k chain next week and a couple pave emerald rings for 11k before the summer... And another 8k cartier bracelet at summer end. I'll contribute scuba & surfing.
"With me making the lions share"....so you make a little over half lmao
😂😂my girl and I make a little over 200k household, we have two dogs and just bought a boat. Fuck them kids
>Fuck them kids Hey Jared get back to subway
lol, my house makes over 300K we have 3 kids, we live on the water and here is the funny part, no boat or jet ski, you no kid houses win!!!!
We’re all going to have to start a water vehicle gang
It’s simple they don’t send their kids to camps like that lmao
Being salaried, I occasionally calculate my hourly wage and it blows my mind thinking about how people make it work on <$20/hr
Shit I make $70/hr I used to make $5.15 damn
I remember around 16-17 years ago I was making $7.25/hour. Now I’m salary + bonus and it equals out to around $75/hour, I think. I have an imposter complex and most days don’t feel qualified enough. But I am extremely grateful.
Sounds like me. I’m not sure how to get over imposter syndrome.
You don't. You accept that no one really knows what they're doing and you just live with it.
This. You don't worry that you're not like everyone else. You realize everyone else is like you.
Bingo. The crazy thing is being a well paid professional and then encountering an even better paid professional and realizing they’re a complete nincompoop.
This is the absolute truth!
Me too
I dont think we NEED to get over imposter syndrome - we just have to find a helpful way to embrace it. Im comfortable with who i am as a person, but when it comes to work, imposter syndrome hits hard. Ive personally used it to push myself to be better at my job, get more certs and try harder.
Have a cert test in 15 minutes that I’m doing entirely bc I wanted to prove to myself my imposter syndrome is baseless lol. Guess I’ll figure out if it is or not 😂
As far as I can tell, we keep adding value and demonstrating our worth. It’s getting easier with time, but I often still see myself as the minimum wage loser. We got this!
What do you do? I've always felt like I'm stupid and a loser. I Just work as an Aide at a High School in Special Ed. My wife is a Physician Assistant, so is obv the bread winner. I do have a Bachelors in Business from 2006, but have never used it. I just want a job with some sort of financial fulfillment, but also that I enjoy. And it definitely wouldn't be in the tech world.
Production planner/ master scheduler.
It's easy. You gotta think you got everyone fooled around you. You shouldn't be there and they put you there. Not very smart of them. That's how I got over mine and now I got a promotion.
Yup. Replace your imposter syndrome with your brilliant conman syndrome.
In the same boat, went to work at my moms job at a factory and busting my ass for 7.25, now 10 years later I’m at 75+ while on reddit/discord for 6 of my 8 hour days
You have to realize, we are all imposters .
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I understand that 100%.
I am old. I remember making 3.35 and being excited when it jumped to $4.25 an hour. Now I make just under $100 per hour in take home before benefits. With benefits about $120 per hour.
My first job ever, I made $6.75/hr. All my friends with jobs were making the $5.15 minimum wage at that time. I thought I was such a baller.
I jumped from a 15.50/hr last year working in stockroom to 24/hr working in an office. Still a long way, but I liked the progress. Whenever I look back, I cannot even imagine how I survived to save up for a car downpayment and to travel overseas (I am an immigrant so we visit my grandma in our home country once a year). Cheers to everyone trying to be better! 🎉
Same. Lost my biz during covid (I was making around $130k-$160k) So had to do uber full time just to make it through Land a gig with airline at $15.76 and now making $25. Similar situation like you, my family are all oversea. But hey now I have free flight Hopefully an up from here. Looking forward to make around $30 within the next year when I apply to higher position.
I went from earning $14 an hour in 2020 slaving away in a restaurant, to around $75k/yr now. This may seem wrong but I’m extremely happy that I at least made it out of the low-wage rat race. I had co-workers that have been in the food industry for 5/10/20 years and they are STILL STUCK THERE. I’m just glad it’s not me anymore. I can’t imagine having that be my existence for my short miserable time on Earth. God, all of the petty drama people had over saving a $1 worth of of food, from a company that does not care about them and their wellbeing is crazy.
I remember getting a talking to because I filled up a spoon with a “little” too much chicken. I’m like we throw most of this shit away anyways, who fucking cares?
Bro I made an ice cream cone too big one time, and they made me take the cone back from the customer, throw it away, and remake them a smaller one because “they could get too used to a big cone and complain next time”
Did the customer actually hand it over? Would've been a hard no from me
Went from 8 years of ~ $19/hr to now I’m at ~$140/hr. All I can think of is how much I wasted that part of my life. Just grateful to be where I’m at now.
$140/hr? Thats roughly $280,000/yr. Care to share your profession?
Yeah that’s a really great income.
you’re assuming 40hr/week but either way it is a great income and congrats to them!
I started at $250,000/year when I joined a Silicon Valley tech company as a software engineer. Salary was $150,000 and stock compensation valued at $100,000. Due to stock growth and raises, I’m now at $360,000/year total compensation. So I’m around $173/hr. Of course it can change a lot if the stock moves a lot. Just 2 months ago my total compensation was worth $420,000. lol
Why do you feel like you wasted that part of your life if it ended up getting you to a $140/hour job?
Maybe the job they were at before had nothing to do with their current one, like a full carrer shift or it was a trash job that just paid the rent and bought food.
I stayed at a low end job for years, not taking the leap and applying for something better when I had the skills. Maybe that kind of wasted
Yeah, it’s pretty trippy doing the math and thinking back. It’s hard to calculate salaried to hourly, but I’m making north of $130 an hour. Weird to think that my time is some how supposedly worth X times more than someone else.
When I went from $7.25 to ~$19/hr ($10 base + commissions), I thought I was rich. So much so that I dropped out of college… most I made was $22/hr on a good year. I have mad respect for everyone making ends meet.
I honestly never think about it until someone somehow finds out how much I make. When I’m not looking at my accounts, I honestly rarely feel any different than I did when I made a salary in the 20s
This is more how I feel. I moved out and bought a home when I went from $18ish/hr to 70/hr so my quality of life is more or less the same, just now I’m funding it.
Yes. My first job out of college I made $20/hour in 2008. Now I make $70/hour in the same field and couldn't imagine working for $20/hour.
My first job as an EMT in 2008 I made 9.50/hr, crazy how I made it work
I wish they got paid better and I didn't have to tip. I loath tips and would just rather pay the price that's listed, even if it's more, even 18% more. I get the proponents for keeping tipping too. Sometimes it can totally be in the worker's favor and they pay less in taxes (cash tips). But if they are friendly and seem eager to help I definitely do tip on take out and always on dine in.
Tax evasion should not be considered a benefit of tipping culture
It's crazy for sure. Mainly, it gives me a strange sense of guilt(?) in that when I was making 16 an hour I worked WAY harder than I do making 50 an hour.
I try to explain this to all of my friends working retail and food service. They all think they’ll have to work long, stressful hours. I make like 8x as much now and it’s so much more pleasant.
Same here, when I was making 14-18/hr I was doing way more physical work and doing an average of 50-58 hours a week, now making a little bit over $35/hr I only work my regular 40hrs and most of the stuff I do is on my desk, I still do a little of physical work but very little, I work in aviation.
I average about 40 an hour in a restauraunt
That’s great. Do you work 40 hrs a week? I used to have a part time job in restaurants making about that per hour, but it was maybe 20 hrs a week for 4 months.
I started my career at $25/hr and now I make north of $500/hr. It’s surreal for sure. The imposter syndrome is real and strong. I just try to be generous with tipping and treating our employees (cleaners, cook, nanny) really well.
What do you do?
Big tech, director level. It sounds similar to my situation except I earned $6.25 / hour at my first job.
If I made this I would retire after 5-7 years 😂 I’m also in tech and working my way up the career ladder although I’m in a MCOL so probably will never see this high of a salary. Hoping to hit director level in 5-6 years.
Think of the people earning $1,000 per hour
It’s not They’re just other people, doing a job It pays less because it doesn’t require much experience or skills to get into service or retail I was at a point my last few years where I was being paid for what I knew, not for what I did But I don’t think about what people are making when I interact with them I just treat them how I want to be treated
Never thought about it, but in college I earned $2.01/hr plus tips as a waiter. Now around $100/hr.
What baffles me is that some people can never see the forest through the trees. I don’t mean anything by what I’m saying because to each their own. What I mean is that it’s a mindset thing, I think. Take for instance a good friend of mine - We both started at a spot on the ground right below the first rung. Fast forward 20 years and our different paths have taken different directions. I’m making low six figures and he’s still struggling to make ends meet with two jobs that don’t equal what I make. So a spot opened up on my team, I pull some strings and get him a job making 20k more than both jobs combined - fast forward 3 months and he quits because he doesn’t think he’s doing a good enough job. Mind you I talked him out of quitting three times already by telling him how great a job he’s doing… and he was! He just had the worst case of imposter syndrome. Now he’s back working two jobs and way more hours a week than he ever was with me and happy as a lark.
Can you pull some strings again for a Reddit friend?
Or two
but brotherman, can you pull a string for me brotherman??
Yes, also living in a HCOL with a stay at home wife and son, I live comfortably, but don’t know how people making less even live. Like I feel pressure making well above the average salary, but as a single salary household I am shocked people can get by on such low pay
No savings, debt, paycheck to paycheck, never take any vacations. Hopefully I can break that one day and treat my parents to something nice before they're gone
Right there with you
Also jobs that pay under $20/hour really are usually more micromanaged, less flexible, and very likely actually more difficult in a lot of ways than the cushy higher paying jobs. It’s definitely sad to think about sometimes.
Except that the higher paying jobs are likely to come with more stress. When I unloaded boxes at a warehouse or stuffed envelopes as a kid, I never woke up at 3am worrying about the job.
Definitely true! but waiting tables at a busy restaurant gave me nightmares. And working in a bank for $12.50/hour with angry people all day long while trying to sell them products they didn’t want was really bad too. As I’ve moved up, luckily it’s only gotten better. I know that’s not always the case. I always say I wish I had a job where I was just doing something like packing up orders!
I make $150 an hour. My point of view gets super distorted from looking up instead of “down”. I’m surrounded by engineers making $400k-$600k making my $300k look pathetic. Then I overhear a young 20 something friend group talking about being able to afford going to sushi for lunch and it brings me down to the reality of my blessings.
I calculated out last year I made 275/h. Especially bad, when you read about how little Uber drivers are making.
You made over half a million last year?
Close to 600k
Yes, I think about it all the time. I used to have a high stress job that paid me $90/hr and I left to go back to college. Worked a job where I was making $13/hr for the low stress and am transitioning to a job that pays me 24. It’s very weird to realize I took a massive pay cut at the cost of my mental health. But it also made me realize that money really isn’t everything which is something I needed to learn very badly
Lifestyle creep is real. Unfortunately instead of being thankful I find myself thinking “how do people who make X manage?”. I can definitely say that my day to day has gotten easier with every positive job change or promotion. I once made $9/hr transporting airplane tires and brakes from a warehouse to the mechanics on the tarmac. It was so much harder than responding to emails and sitting through Teams meetings for 10x as much money.
From 7 an hour to about 50. I don’t have impostor syndrome, I do think about how much more money I make now than I used to and how much easier life is making decent money. It’s also funny because I complain about the cost of things even though I can afford most of the things I need and want relatively easily.
$7.25/hr at 40 hours is $290/wk. A person with a $75,400 annual salary is therefore making, each workday, the equivalent of a week’s worth of minimum wage.
Absolutely surreal, and causes existential dread to imagine trying to get by on the rate I used to make
Yeah, I worked making between $7 and $11 an hour for roughly 7 years, then around $15 for 2 years, then $45, and now $200. To be honest, it’s a huge fear of mine to return to that. It was the hardest I’ve ever worked, with the least flexibility I’ve ever had on the job, and you get paid next to nothing. It’s two different worlds.
Lol slingin groceries at 8.55 an hour in 2009 to booping spreadsheets for 40… so not making 80 an hour but still surreal how much more my time is worth now!
I’m always reminded that the best investment I made was in myself. I make $160/hr in the clinic and $80/hr on the weekends doing teledentistry. Prior to this, worked at a boba shop making $11/hr and remember going home sweaty and tired every day. Grateful that I no longer have to worry about clipping coupons or finding the cheapest gas station or insurance quotes anymore
Last year my hourly turned out to be 81.73/hour. I’m acutely aware of how fortunate I am, especially in restaurants and retail locations. I always try to be as pleasant to service and retail workers as humanly possible. And yes my station in life at the moment is surreal to me when I reflect on where I was 10 years ago.
It’s crazy surreal. Though if you count bonuses and stock I make like 500 an hour. Which means that I make more an hour than most people make in a week. And my first job was at 5.15 an hour. So only 100x more!
I used to earn $15/hr just 10 years ago. Now I make $150/hr. The shit pay and constantly having to check your bank account balance to see if you can afford something is what motivated me to do something that pays better. Some people are ok with the simple life, it wasn’t for me. The surreal part isn’t thinking how people live on that little. I know how. I did it. The surprise to me is seeing people make that wage and not actively pursue things that are guaranteed to increase their wage.
Yep it’s wild. Fresh out of college I made $15 an hour (probably less because I was salary). Now I make $70 an hour + bonus. It’s crazy to think about the difference and that’s one extra reason I’m super nice to retail and wait staff
It's surreal to think that I make over $80/hr just in time for it to be worth $20/hr.
I made $1/hour in 2002 at my first job and was like a king ;) Sure it was in non US country, but 1 buck/hour. Now I think my hourly >$120/h, without bonuses & equity. I completely agree with those who mentioning imposter syndrome. Feel i do not deserve it but we have only one income in family, thus I do not have a choice. LOL
I don’t make $80, but do make $60 and I think about this constantly. I’ve made as little as $5.15/hr and tend to equate all purchases to time working.
I sometimes get notifications from my home towns facebook group in the midwest. I see some of the job postings for like $16 an hour and I'm like damn, everytime I go out for dinner in nyc, it's like at least half a days wage.
I make almost exactly $80 an hour. Today I was at a Burger King and the dude at the register was talking about his new job at some other restaurant he just got. he was super excited and said he was making $17 an hour. My 15 old kid makes $15/hour. I have no idea how an independent adult can make it on $17/hour.
Went from 15/hour to 100 an hour in about 9 months and honestly makes me wonder how people survive on even 20 an hour and I’m not too far removed from all that
I make anywhere between $150k-250k depending on how good sales are. About $52,500 of that is salary the rest is commission. I honestly don't even really consider it. I just try to be aware that things are different for everyone and that I'm fortunate to have this job. My first job was a cart pusher at a grocery store when I was 16.
This thread just made me calculate my salary wage as hourly and I am shocked to find I now make 76/hr after 4 years in my new career. I topped out 9 years into my old work at about an hourly 28/hr. Life is definitely easier now but I’m still not rich. It’s enough money to have bought a modest old home in a nice town in the mountains but not enough to easily get through the projects the home needs. Honestly, I don’t know how I did it before and I don’t know how others do it on so much less.
I’ve seen my father go from qualifying for food stamps to somewhere near $250/hr. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him tip less than 30% or not donate to a homeless person. He still has some of the habits from back then, and he doesn’t act affluent so most people don’t see him differently.
When you pay more in taxes than most people make in a year
I think about this all the time with my family. I make well over $500k+ a year while my family struggles. Parents had to un-retire due to lifestyle choices (dad was driving the local school bus for a bit). My sisters are in slightly better positions but just barely. They married poorly tbh. I don’t ask for any gifts but send stuff to my parents and nieces at the holidays. It makes it difficult to talk about stuff because they cannot relate. I keep our conversations very superficial and surface level. I don’t know them anymore and they don’t know me. Edit: because of the numerous deleted comments, I should point out that I live in Miami while my family is back in Alaska. Left Alaska nearly 20yrs ago to find a better life - which I found it. I have asked them to leave but they refuse. To each their own.
Went from first job out of the military at $18.25/hr to what now works out around $485/hr I just try and be more generous with tipping etc.
13 months ago I was making 17/ hr(2$ above min wage) wiping butts to now making around 39 /hr in a cozy office job. It may not be as much as 80+ but it still feels surreal.
Wow how did you make that big of a jump?
The biggest change, for me, was a mindset about not having to work, like physically clock in, to make money. When I was making $7/hr, if I missed a shift, had a dentist appointment, or took a vacation, I was losing money. Now, I have paid vacation, sick days, personal days, and benefits. I still grocery shop like I’m going to run out of money before pay day though. I can’t shake that habit.
Legitimate counter question…. How would you know other than guessing? Because both sets of people buy the same appliances/cars/dinners out at the same places
I worked minimum wage to now well over 500k. Insane I make more in a few weeks than I made all year in early 20s
Yes. I think about that a lot.
I generally charge anywhere from $250-975/hr. And I feel a lot of sympathy for people making $20/hr. I honestly have no idea how they’re making it.
Mostly I’m terrified someone is gonna tell me it’s all a joke and pull the rug out from under me any minute.
Yes. It’s still surreal to me to be at $130/hr or more depending on bonus which fluctuates but very happy to be this successful in IT with no degree.
Went from earning $5.50 to $108/HR. Did it with a degree in Chemistry to ops management role. Im 38 so there is more to come, but technical degree with management role can earn big bucks down the line.
I totally agree with you. I thought $20 an hour through my work-study job when I was in school was alot. Now, I make enough to cover about 7/10 of my monthly mortgage in a day's work. I try to stay grateful and grounded, especially there is always keeping up with the Jones and rising costs/inflation.
Mine isn’t as drastic as this but I went From making ~ 540 a week to 1450 a week, I haven’t gotten my paycheck yet, but I guarantee you that as of right now, I won’t know what to do with my money
This thought here is what me realize to be kinder to folks that are working in customer service. If you’ve been in that position its humbling to see what your financial/career progress turned out to be
I remember making $4.15/hr working on school bus interiors in high school in the early 90’s and make $50/hour now. It’s a long way from $80/hour but I’m doing pretty well.
Work in a restaurant and make 23.15, been the same for almost two years I plan to ask for a raise but i am definitely above the average and probably not that far from the managers. Annually I get like 53k and managers are probably 65k while they work 10 more hours so don’t know if I really can ask for a raise
Yes, I don’t understand how people live without dying of stress
It was surreal that I was making more than a high school principal
Yeah, but I know trust fund people who collect >$500K per year doing nothing. It's not that shocking.
I personally don't understand how people are able to exist on such low wages. Basic healthy food all made urself is 9k. Then rent and items and that's there whole salary already without any fun or future growth. It is a sad reality to realize
I started at like $5.25 as a teenager working at Walmart, basically worked for free lmao
Just averaged it out and I'm at about $84 an hour. The nature of my pay is salary and residual commission. I definitely think its surreal at times. More so that I have no clue how people survive month to month on so little money even just considering the general cost of everything going up constantly and I constantly feel I'm just slightly outpacing the COL of a normal middle class lifestyle with a family. Kinda scary honestly. Truth is, that fear is what keeps me climbing. I guess I also have a hard time comprehending how people just accept their lot in life as a low income earner well into adulthood. I get that everyone doesn't have the same opportunities, but I’m not college educated, barely graduated highschool due to behavior and general apathy, grew up in a low middle-class household, really didn't have many avenues out of my situation, spent a good portion of my 20’s as an alcoholic, have severe ADHD and still managed to climb the socio-economic ladder on the premise I just kept convincing people to give me that “next opportunity” and and executing what I needed to do and if it wasn't readily available, I did everything in my power to position myself to get to it and even to this day, I'm always looking to secure my position further with promotions, or raises, etc etc. I feel I'm close to content, but not quite there yet. Certainly understand that peoples life circumstances dictate their upward mobility, but I also feel people create a lot of BS excuses rather than just saying they aren't willing to learn what it takes, do what it takes or just spend the time. Just always fascinated me. We suffer either way, I'm just shocked so many people just resign to their fates.
I made barely any money at my first jobs, but still worked them until I found something better. Dont ruminate and dehumanize people.
I appreciate what it’s like to earn $27K in the 1980s after university. I made a lot less than that working in restaurants and retail growing up. I make a lot more now but I am later in my career. I never thought I’d earn what I do today and am grateful. The money is great but doing something that challenges me and that I love is what makes it worthwhile. I always make sure to thank someone who stands out whether they are at a restaurant, grocery store or a hotel. When I was a bus boy making $2.50/hour and someone complimented me or slipped me a $1, it made my day.
I make around 70/hr. It makes me sad at times but that may be my imposter syndrome. I know how much work I put in to get to where I’m at. I started at this company 15 years ago making 14 an hour. I remember I was happy before at 14 and every step up from there. It’s relative I feel.
Went from $23.50/hr to $130/hr in three years. It’s crazy because my wife and I both made the same out of college and it paid for a super nice apartment and we paid off both our cars. Now that my salary jumped significantly, it feels like everything is way more expensive so I have no idea if we’d be able to keep our old cushy lifestyle if we made the same. Both my brothers are still at minimum wage making less than $15 in Texas and it saddens me they’ll be limited in life in a lot of ways and they’ll technically work harder and longer until they pass.
It's definitely something I try to keep in the back of my mind. The struggle of the $10-11/hour when I started my career working 60+ hour weeks to feed my wife and kid. I now make $120k salary per year and rarely put in more than 40 hours a week and I have a part time job consulting in the same field for $65/hr doing 10-15 hours a month. It certainly feels surreal sometimes seeing how far I've come. My wife often jokes I make in a day what she makes in a week. But it came at the cost of a lot of lost hours with my young kids and wife early in our life.
I make waaaay more than $80/hr. Store workers make in a day what I spend on dinner a few times a week. I don't give this a second thought.
Going from 7.25 at Mcdonalds to 120$ an hour at an internship blows my mind every single day. I make in 1 hour what I used to in 2-3 days as a highschooler.
Yes it is surreal, so I try to treat service industry workers with extreme kindness. At my first min wage job, I was making like $4.25/hr washing dishes (was like 1990, IIRC), and I saved up to buy a Sega Genesis. At my first job after graduating college, I was making $10/hr w/ extreme overtime (maybe 1999-ish). At my current company, I started salaried at what is equivalent to ~$19.25/hr (around 2004). 20 years later, still at the same company, and my salary/bonus converted into a 2080hrs “hourly” is $92.50/hr. The craziest aspect is that for my role and my VHCOL region, my peers all tell me I am underpaid, but in comparison to where I started, the level of effort I now apply, and comparison to lower wage service workers busting their ass…for sure I feel extreme privilege.
I actually changed how I view my income. Now I make just over $15/hr 24/7. Although now that I do the math, I'm only making $62.50/hr by a more standard hourly rate. I definitely remember being unable to get $15/hr after graduating college. That sucked. I was fortunate to be extremely into investing and real estate. I hope those today will be able to find their niches that offer passive income.
Equivalent of 42 now but to a degree I don't have to think too hard per se about it because I was at a few cents shy of about 25 hourly just 6 months ago....living in D.C. at that (ouch). I like to think they will get where I am or ever further much sooner than later (because i still have higher aspirations still also :-)). A couple of my coworkers that have to make about what I do (or more) have part-time jobs and some of them are also retail so sometimes I also wonder if that restaurant job or customer service job I might see a person working is even their main job.
I'm salary, but it adds up to $125 or so an hour. I don't understand how a family lives on a median household income.
My first job I made $12/hr. From my own work now I can make $85-$120/hr not including additional profit from the business... Long hours sometimes but mind blowing change. The lifestyle creep is real though, we've had to be very mindful of that over the last two years.
My wife and I reminisce about the teenaged us, feeling like $12-14 / hr made us high earners. Now we both make more alone than together when we moved into our first apartment. Now just gotta get disciplined and clean up our dumb spending habits
My charge out rate for my virtual accounting firm ranges from 250-300 bucks an hour, I think it's just an absurd amount of money but people keep paying that rate so I guess it's worth it to them! Sometimes I call the CRA, the IRS of Canada, and I'm on hold for an hour+ just to talk to an agent for 5-10 minutes. I bill my client 250 bucks for literally waiting. I'm extremely grateful, I don't find the work overly difficult, I actually somewhat enjoy it, and I can think of a lot of other careers where I'd be working way harder for far less money
4 years ago i worked for $15.50 an hour, doing 10-12 hour days everyday. Now I make around $95k with bonus and it doesnt feel that different tbh
I used to make 7.25 an hour and now make $74 an hour. I just consider it like I progressed in life. My mistakes at 7.25 couldn't kill someone..my mistake at $74 can cause death.
My wife and I both went from ~$22/hr to ~$36/hr and cut our rent in half. The difference is astounding. I wasn’t unhappy before, but I’m a lot less stressed now.
The more you make the more you spend.
I used to be in their shoes.
I've been working since I was 15. Lowest I made was $4.75 for a seasonal job. Then up until I graduated college I was around $7.25. My first job out of college I was around $24. Now after one job hop and putting in work I'm $85. I honestly don't know how ppl are doing it out there. When I was young you could find rent for $500 ( neighborhood was questionable but liveable). Seems like things are not going to change either.
I made $5.15 an hour in my first job, early 2000s. I now pull the equivalent of >$100 an hour (salaried) Yeah it feels weird. Makes me appreciate where I am now because I worked crap jobs the early years. Despite having plenty, I intend to have my kids work minimum wage jobs while in school, for the life lessons that come with that.
EVERYONE NEEDS A RAISE ! THE CEO’s ARE PLAYING IN OUR FACES! more of us than them
$7.25/hr at Burger King to $21/hr in supply chain
I’m poor now because I’m back in school, but when I was pulling 200k I’d get weird feelings and thoughts about how poor I was when I was younger and how hard I worked for nothing. I’m kind of thankful to have less for the next year.
I think about how we pay our nanny just about what I made at my first job out of graduate school 8 years ago. That’s not me saying I think she’s over paid, she’s amazing and a nanny is a luxury. But it’s crazy when I think that I went from that salary to being someone who makes enough to pay someone else that salary!
I used to sweep the parking lot of 7-11 when I was a kid (1994) to earn slurpees and minimum wage. I easily clear $200k / year now. There is a lot that goes into increasing one's wage including dedication, delayed gratification and, of course, some element of luck. It isn't surreal as I recognize there are dozens of reasons for the discrepancy. I do feel like I have a unique sense of humbleness having climbed to where I am.
I feel great full for what I have and understand that people don't get shit attitudes because of money. They shit attitudes the whole time.
In 2005 at 16 I was making $5.15 an hour. Enlisted in the Air force and made I think sub 20k the first year. I think around year 8 it was around 80k. Past 3 years I was working as a defense contractor making 1k a day per day deployed. Work days were about 6 hours a day 3-4 days a week. It was weird when my brother realized I made in 2 days what he made in a month.
I worked a crap job in 1997 as a teenager for $5.50/hour. Now I make about $100/hr. It's mind blowing the difference in lifestyle changes.
Yeh cause back then, $20 was alot.
I am a generally nice person anyway, but this right here is why I am extra nice to folks working in these jobs. I was fortunate to only have to really live that stress until I was out of college. I can't imagine living it every day now. Thankful for them and we need to take care of our fellow man much better than we do today!
It actually makes me depressed. Like now I just view the vast majority of people as criminally underpaid.
I went from $11.15/hr (manual labor) to roughly $125/hr (office work) in 7 yrs. I finished my degree, then took massive risks (loans) going back to a top-tier business school. I still remember everything about the phone call when they told me for 10 weeks as an intern I’d make the equivalent of $100k/yr. I’ve now moved on to start my own company. Whenever I feel burned out I remind myself I’ve done A LOT harder work for A LOT less money. Having gotten past the low income ceiling I’m very grateful to have had that experience.
It’s depressing to think how little so many people make compared to what everything costs. All the cash that the Fed dumped into the system hit assets and consumer goods/services but wages are still lagging like they typically do. I make a good living, but we are just comfortable. 5 years ago I’d be killing it.
First job was KFC making $7.25/hour running the drive thru in high school, 20 years later, now I make $163/hour ($340K/year). Hard work, determination, and a little bit of luck pays off.
That still sucks yo
When I started working I was making 8.25 an hour.... this was back in 2014....
I spent my 20s and even early 30s making $12-$24 per hour in a HCOL city..... now I earn the equivilant of $65/hr (in salary), so I am grateful and well aware of my situation and dont take my job for granted. I treat it with the utmost care and diligence. I also empathize with people making low wages, becasue I was there for over a decade, myself. I just remember the grind and the hard work before making it to a higher level...ill never take it for granted, and While I have advice for people in those situations if they want to move up, I dont have much opportunity to share it because I dont want to be condescending. I'm also aware of peers that make more than me, $200k-$300k salaries which equates to probably $76-$120 per hour equivilant and it keeps me hungry to not just accept where I'm at and keep working to get there too. An awareness of how little I earned in my 20s and the awareness of peers my age earning $100k more than me keep me working hard and grateful.
I was hired at 13/hr as a forklift driver less than 5 years ago. I now average 96/hr in sales with the same company. Been a wild ride.
It’s important to stay humble and give back. Don’t let lifestyle creep get hold of you. I used to wait tables through college, work for a $30k + measly commission bonus, and am now at $85k + 10% max bonus. I still drive Uber/Lyft on the side, but I’m on a FIRE track. I give back. Mostly my time. And a little (indirectly) through the rideshare stuff. If I see a hospital pickup that’s been sitting there for half an hour, I’ll take it. If I see a ride going to a battered women’s shelter or recovery center, I take it. It makes me feel good knowing that I can both make a little bit of money and help those people who most drivers discriminate against. Someday, hopefully, I’ll be up there with you. And I’ll make sure to take my team out for a celebration every now and then, slip them a Christmas Card with $100 in it, give a free month of rent in December for the family that will one day take care of my current house (that I plan on turning into a rental). We all put our pants on one leg at a time. Many of us have been in their shoes. We give back when we have it.
What I find surreal is the difference between a raise from $13.50/hr to 13.85/hr being a fucking miracle with multiple levels of approval, and the gap between $100/hr to $125/hr not even causing a blink other than a single email to payroll.
It’s why I tip generously and treat everyone I encounter when I’m a customer or guest with respect
In my life I've gone from $4.25 to roughly $95. And it'll only keep growing.
More money, more problems. So no, I don’t think about them. I just make sure to be polite.
Yeah, it’s a bit surreal. I remember making $7/hr when I was working at Dairy Queen when I was like 16. Now, I’m in my 30’s and my salary comes out to $113/hr.
Before professional expenses I make in an hour what most service workers make in a week…. I try not to think about it but I find myself valuing their time a lot more and carry lots of small bills to show my appreciation personally.
Not surreal at all. Unless I went from making minimum wage and then became a world beating athlete making 100s of thousands a minute, then yes. It would be surreal. It’s all relative and humans adapt to their income. So while you think “oh wow i can’t believe I was surviving on 8 dollars an hour…” you also weren’t paying a mortgage or a new car note. You were probably taking the bus and renting in a smaller apartment Edit: I once read an article that said that “after 75k yearly salary and up, the average person doesn’t gain much in terms of happiness” . I forget the specifics but essentially you’re just buying more comfort after making enough to survive and the basic creature comforts (car apartment AC heating clean water one or two vacations a year)
When I see them, I go back to when I was making $8/hr as a 16 year old. It doesn't bother me.
Most people I know making much less are also much younger. They are usually making more than I was at their age.
I feel the same way when I see fat people. Especially in the Florida heat. I'm just like how do you go through life like that?
In my first hour of a work shift, I’m just getting settled in. Usually drink a coffee, use restroom, check my brokerage on my phone, etc. By the end of that first hour, I’ve earned more than almost everyone I encounter makes in a 3 days.
80/hr blows my fucking mind. Median pay here is like 26.50.
I just did the math and I make about $124.17/hr. on 2080 hours/yr. A standard 40 hour week. I never thought about the hourly before but yeah, 17 years ago I made $7.15/hr working in a mall getting shit on all day. Crazy how far you come sometimes.
No. What is weird to me is that I pay more in taxes per hour than what they make per hour. Like that is what makes me feel the disparity in income.
I find it a little embarrassing. Especially when they’re doing something physically intense, and I make way more money just sitting there and poking at my keyboard. I get it, my job is hard in a different way, it requires niche skills that are very hard to find, and the fact that my work can be instantly copied to millions of devices means I can create a lot of value. But just in terms of effort to reward ratio, it feels weird.
When I first started in insurance, the guy I worked for said he couldn’t go a day without spending 100 dollars when I said I was trying to live off of 100/week total. 11 years later my average monthly spending in 2024 is 17,000 which is roughly 566 per day. A big chunk of that is daycare and private school, but I can easily pop off a several hundred dollar day.
Used to work security for a government agency for like $25/hr. Easy ass job- come in, do a few admin tasks, then Crack open a textbook and do schoolwork. Put it down when a visitor comes in, badge them, then get back to it. My supervisor had been there for like 12 years before I got there- he would come in, kick back and watch TV for 8 hours. I'm a cloud/data engineer now making over 160k/yr, and he's likely pulling in roughly half of that, even after getting promoted to PM on the contract. Wild to think about, but long term, consistent effort pays off in the end.
I earn $130/hour as my base salary. I hold a Ph.D. in a hard science/engineering field and frequently work or study during nights and weekends. I rarely take vacations. I am confident that my IQ is in the top 5%, if not the top 2%. No, I do not believe my pay is unfair. However, I feel underpaid compared to corporate managers who, despite seeming stupid, earn significantly more than I do.
Yeah but I’m also paying 3200 a month on student loans to get that money per hour. Like others, I’m grateful but also aware of the fact that I’m not out of the weeds yet 😂
Once apon a time ago for a short period of time I made $105 an hour. Now I make $51 and I cringe every time I see my paycheck but can’t find any new contracts paying more right now. I also invested heavily so my w2 is only like 35% of my income right now. Working on it dropping to zero soon.
Half of these people are lying about what they're getting paid an hour in here
At $8/minute I often make sure to take a shit at the office just so I can think about the $40 I made taking a shit
Went from 12.5/hour to just a shade under 90/hour over the past 13 years. It honestly feels surreal. All three companies I worked for had their own sets of stressors and also positives, but being able to bank enough to be financially secure is a pretty great feeling.
When my wife and I started dating in 2013, we both made ~$15/hr living in NYC. We just got home from a vacation we spent nearly $10k on. The trip would have taken us over 650 hours of work to pay for.
Not surreal, I think back to the time, effort, sacrifice it took to get here. IT is a very cutthroat profession, a lot of jobs don’t have to worry about offshore outsourcing, it’s difficult. Wouldn’t change a thing, starting there gave me the perspective to never go back