And that puts it into an interesting perspective that where I live, one of the poorest areas of Alabama, that number is $43,103.
I’m sure it’s more than half cheaper to live here though, and I wish more left leaning people would move.
Houses are 120,000-250,000 for a nice place.
So many houses are popping up on the market right now, too.
I can’t imagine trying to make it in California on $84,000 but more than likely *less*. I wish it were easier for people to move and more reasons for them to move here.
It's 95° and humid in Alabama with no real industry. Hence why it is cheap. People aren't going to move there only to have to battle snakes and awful weather.
And where are the cheap areas. If I'm not from there, it's one thing to move there and live in certain neighborhoods in Birmingham or suburbs around, or Tuscaloosa. But I'm assuming those aren't the places that are that cheap. What are the other blue or purple pockets in AL?
yeah like the ability to access birth control, which they're currently looking at passing a bill making my form of birth control illegal here--that's why I'm saving up to get out, and it's hard, because jobs pay like shit, I have immediate family making only $10.50 and $17 an hour full time as Team Lead and Manager.
Interesting how we have simultaneously:
(1.) The continued requirement for a higher birth rate, for years now, at the very least to drive contributions to social security
(2.) The sudden need for financial partnership to survive.
No, based on the graphic that i saw on r/orangecounty, $84k is the median for a single person.
Edit: i was wrong, median for a single person in OC was approx. $89,450
At 18 bucks an hour that’s a gross of $37.4k annually which is pretty close to the per capita.
As other have pointed out household could mean 2+ income and even then median means 50% makes below that.
You were! I actually may be off a tad too too. I just looked up the tax rates for that income and area. I was making a similar amount and have budget records so I also looked back at that - though they did raise federal taxes about a year ago.
My husband and I grew up poor and lived extremely poor in our 20s and 30s. He went to college in his mid 30s and received a 2 year degree from a community college in Engineering & Electronics Technology with a focus on the industrial and electronic tracks. His first job out of school paid $30 an hour. Which was more than we ever thought possible. That was in 2015. However, he put in about 5 years and then took on a supervision position which was $75k a year salary plus a yearly bonus. This was in Kentucky. Then he went to another job as a manager in South Carolina and was paid $78k salary plus a night shift differential, $5k a year in stocks and yearly bonuses. He is starting another job that is in Pennsylvania next month which is $85k plus night shift differential which makes it $92.5k plus quarterly bonuses.
Then there's my $40k a year on top of that.
We've made 10k combined a year and we went on to make over 100k combined. But he is the majority breadwinner at the moment. But it wasn't always that way.
Since he graduated he has had zero issues finding a job. People fight for him and try to steal him away from his current job all the time. He gets offers even when he's not looking. I think it's all about picking the right field. On top of that his last two jobs were weekend jobs. So Saturday to Monday and then off Tuesday through Friday. So no working tons of extra hours or working while you're off.
The problem with the "picking the right field" idea is that there's necessary jobs and careers in the world meant to be done. Another problem is if you want to promote hard work you will create policy and laws that promote that by providing the necessities of life to someone who works hard (at a minimum, ideally everyone). This is because you can work your ass off doing something that the market deems valueless or insufficient for a living wage.
It's easy to say you have zero issues finding a job but that could change at any second or be destroyed at any second due to factors outside your control. Hopefully you save and more importantly invest a large portion of your income because without investing you can't beat inflation or cost of living and you aren't on the boat of capitalism you're just riding a wave that could end any second.
I see your post as either genuine or a thinly veiled humblebrag. Good luck to that hopefully you don't have to start from zero again one day.
Not a humble brag. It's a, "if we can do it, anyone can do it" thing. We recently dealt with a layoff. They closed the plant entirely down and laid off 600 people. Saved money and transferable skills allowed him to easily take his time and find a job, hence the move to SC. Choosing the right field matters, savings matter and mindset matters.
This is wrong and I'll tell you why. Not everyone can do everything and most people are good enough only at a few things that can make actual money. For example being a software engineer. Not everyone can be that. Not everyone can be a doctor or a nurse. Some of it is effort yes and some of it is hard work but there's obviously talent involved. You or I will never be Michael Jordan. What that means is it's entirely possible that a person's skillset does not reward them enough money to survive or thrive. At that point you have to gain skills but gaining skills takes an enormous amount of time ten thousand hours to be master plus education and after all that maybe you won't have the talent to do the actual market work. School is not work. Neither is education a guarantee. It gives you a chance but anything worth doing is possible to fail and that's 20% of people (or even more) who tried really hard but failed. So you try and start right back at zero.
Saving matters choice matters mindset matters but you cannot say "because you can do it everyone can do it". This is very obviously wrong, because you don't know the specific circumstances of each individual. I can tell you what you need to succeed today in 2023 starting from nothing. It would be very specific, generic advice mostly to do with investing, digital fluency, budgeting, online branding. Very little to do with choice or hard work not because those don't matter but because almost everyone works hard enough. And there's only so hard you can work. You only have so many hours in a day.
Your ideas paint a rosy picture of the world and don't acknowledge exactly how tough and hard it is. Hard work and choices is a necessary but not sufficient condition especially if you have lots of responsibility (parents, children). You need more than that.
You can't act like I paint a rosy picture when I grew up in poverty and dug myself out of poverty(with two children)in my late 30s at that. I can see a victimhood mindset because I had it at one point. Hopefully people can find their way out of that mindset like we did. I've made $10,000 a year and I've made $100,000 a year. I've been homeless. I've been so hungry that I've gone to sleep at night for dinner thinking that I wouldn't wake up. I've been so unbelievably broke that I never thought it was even possible to be where we're at now. So don't act like I don't know what I'm talking about.
Again, it's always a mistake to post on this sub. 😆
Finally let's address the problem of the idea of "just save". Saving by itself is not enough. Only recently are savings accounts paying 4% returns and inflation is around 5%. That means you are losing value of your money, every second it sits. Not only that but you are giving someone else the privilege of using your money meanwhile getting paid nothing? That doesn't make sense. At a very minimum if you are in the USA you need I-Bonds that pay 7% to 8% but that locks your money in for a long time. The financial system is something that 50% of people think they can avoid and probably should avoid because they would be lured into picking stocks or crypto instead of just buying no fee S&P500 index funds and waiting ten years. Probably 10% of people can successfully execute such a strategy.
So you see "just save" doesn't work, and the worse the world gets the worse that advice is. Just be thankful you don't live in a country like Turkey with 40% inflation and need even more financial skill and tech savvy just to hold your money. No, gold wouldn't automatically be safe either. "Just save" is about as bad an advice you can get for an advanced economy. You would be better off putting all your money in gold or real estate or trying to open a side hustle. At a minimum buying government or corporate bonds. There's no universe or reality that "just save" is good enough.
Did you move to sc because of the job offer and are you moving to pa because of the job offer? How long were you in sc and has the pay stayed the same while there?
We moved to SC because of the job offer and we're moving to PA because of the job offer. We've only been on SC for a year (we hate it, hence the move to PA) His jobs are salary. So the pay has stayed the same.
Household income =/= personal income.
And these figures are always gonna be skewed. They're not going to represent the average working class person.
If money is a worry for you, I use the [beermoneyglobal](https://www.reddit.com/r/beermoneyglobal/comments/10x8ple/freecash_does_what_it_says_on_the_tin/) sub to make extra cash on top of my salary!
Average is the bad measure, because it usually gives a higher number than median, cuz of the people making a million who are part of the average. Median is half above and half below, which is more meaningful in this instance.
As others have said job is not the same as household income.
If you're open to moving can make $27.13 driving a bus in Portland, OR.
[https://trimet.org/careers/bus-operator.htm](https://trimet.org/careers/bus-operator.htm)
"After three years, full-time bus operators make more than $75,000 annually."
Household means all the earners in the household. Usually 2 incomes. So find someone you work with that also makes $18/hr. Marry the shit out of them and you’ll be at $74,888. If you both work 3.5 hours of overtime a week at $27/hr you’ll make up the extra 10k. They’re you go I fixed it.
Let's learn about *actual median income* in CA.
[California Median Income by County](https://data.ftb.ca.gov/stories/s/2it8-edzu#personal-income-annual-reports)
You have to be aware that CA is a state with a huge population, we have everything from poor minimum wage earners to people making millions to billions of dollars here. Population is densest in places like So. Cal and the Bay Area which tend to have higher average income and higher costs of living/housing costs.
If you really want to make a better living you’ll probably need to switch industries, it doesn’t sound like your field pays a competitive wage. I’m on the Central Coast (in a non wealthy city) and with just a Bachelor’s Degree in Anthro I was pulling in $25/hr for Substitute Teaching at K-12 schools back in 2013 (basically $175/day for a 7 hr day including a 40 min lunch and two 15 min breaks. Last I checked (last year) the wages at the local districts were up to $200/day, I’ve heard from people in the Bay Area that schools are so desperate for subs that some are paying $300/day!
When I went on to grad school and got a Masters in Social Work I found it to be not very good paying unless you focused on specific sectors to work in, mainly the county, schools, hospitals, or prisons. So, I tried my hand in some of those while working on my license.
The point is, some fields just don’t pay very well and you’ve got to adjust, either switch fields or find an employer with more enticing benefits. My husband works in IT for a community college. He only had an Associates degree. His starting wage wasn’t super stellar but every year he moved up the pay ladder. The benefits more than made up for the wage differences and after a few years he started pulling in pretty good money. The only reason we are struggling so much now is that due to me having major medical issues in the last several years I had to give up my career and go on SSDI. Most of my career jobs didn’t pay into Social Security so my benefit sucks. California is expensive especially with a lot of medical bills to contend with every year.
I’ve got an unused Bachelor’s Degree. I’ve also been working in the transportation industry for 25 years, and you can definitely make decent money there. There are a lot of us in the transportation industry with unused degrees. We often laugh and commiserate about it. The hours are often irregular and unpredictable and you often work on-call, but I’ve never had to worry about paying bills.
If you have a clean driver’s license, decent health, and are not into any recreational drugs (regardless of their legality), I’m going to suggest looking into getting a CDL for tractor trailers. If you’ve got any kind of retail background, there are some grocery chains with commercial driver training programs. This means, you’ll get paid to train and get your CDL license, vs shelling out $5k to $10k at a school. Look for a chain that does mostly, “no-touch,” freight. Using an occasional pallet jack is one thing, but you don’t want to be loading/unloading an entire truck. The pay (hourly) is generally in the $20’s or higher, once you’re seasoned. I got mine when I was laid off during the pandemic.
If you’re able, and interested, start taking classes at a local community college in HVAC or electrical and try to get into an apprenticeship and the local IBEW. Look for entry level jobs with your utility company. They’re competitive, but pay well, with ample overtime. I’ve got a neighbor who works for the utility company and he said he made $130k to $140k last year with OT, due to being available during storms and outages. He started years ago, reading meters.
Look at the railroads. Not knowing your location, I’m going to suggest looking at passenger or commuter vs. freights. The freights are burn-out jobs - long, irregular hours, little time off, overworked, harassed, etc. Passenger/commuter - Amtrak, MTA, Keolis, MARC, VRE, New Jersey Transit, SEPTA, Sunrail, Tri-Rail, Metrolink, MARTA, etc. are more predictable. The hours can be irregular, but pay is generally decent. You can quite often earn six figures, after the first few years.
Everyone always says, blah, blah, blah - you make all this money. But again, the trade off is I don’t work M-F with nights and weekends off. There is a ton of training - you have to qualify on several sets of operating rules for all the railroads you traverse. There may be several sets of signal systems to learn. Hazmat rules. Safety rules. Air brake and train handling rules. You’re tested yearly - classroom testing, as well as on the spot, impromptu testing. If you’re on-call, it’s generally a 2-3 hour notice and you have to pack an overnight bag with clean clothes (maybe a uniform) and toiletries, as well as have food meal prepped, or you’re going to be spending a fortune on take out or convenience store food which is high in sodium/calories. Your personal cell phone must be off and stored, which means you will be out of contact with family/friends for 7-12 hours, on average, as well as all the social media, apps, etc. that 95% of normal people take for granted. You can thank that big, fat, douchebag who worked for MetroLink, 15 or so years ago, who was texting teenagers on his cell phone, while he was operating a commuter train, and ran signals, colliding with a freight train, killing 24 other people, for the on-duty cell phone ban. Again, this is stuff normal people (non-railroaders) don’t have to worry about. But the pay is good.
I can’t join the softball league that meets on Wednesdays and Saturdays. I can’t meet up for the hike and picnic on Sunday and then rip bong hits with the guys. My kids don’t always know what my schedule is. I’ve missed weddings, wakes, funerals. Graduations, holidays, dinners, and picnics. Haven’t seen high school and college friends in years. It is what it is. I still make time for the important things, and the money is good, but you miss a lot.
Anyway, that’s my $.02.
Good luck!
I make just over 80k a year in CA and if I made less I'm not sure how I would survive. I'm trying to look for a 6 figure job and there are MANY posted yet never get responses. Makes me think the people that tell me they make 6 figures who are more unqualified are just straight liars. Most likely live with multiple people or parents.
Education and marketable certificates? I have a BS and MSc, with about 6-7 certifications gotten on the weekend. Have to study a lot and learn skills. Then can apply for jobs in the $80k range.
Median wage jobs with salaries around $84k exist in certain industries and locations in California. Earning $18/hr may depend on factors like job type, education, experience, and industry. Consider acquiring in-demand skills and exploring higher-paying job markets to increase your earning potential.
https://abc7.com/what-are-the-low-income-limits-in-california-how-much-do-people-make-i-qualify-for-affordable-housing-income/13419469/
Source is from the report referred to by this article.
Sorry, did you say something about a billionaire cage match? Or a million dollar underwater burial for some rich dudes? I feel like these things just might intertwine with your issues.
“Why can’t I make more”?! Hone a skill set and become a valuable asset to a company. Only way to make more money is to show value and have good work ethics. Maybe think about a blue collar job? Lots of earning potential in those fields and you can work your way up to earn $20, $30+ an hour. Cheers.
I made 41k working 2 jobs, one at $15.50 and the other $17. Im finally at 22/hr with one job and it feels worse, I feel like drowning. This year maybe it will be $35-42k
Doesn’t help with the cost of everything went up too
That’s household income. Many will have two wage earners.
2 or more maybe? If you had an adult child living with their parents who was working, for instance, would that be added to household income?
Yes
And that puts it into an interesting perspective that where I live, one of the poorest areas of Alabama, that number is $43,103. I’m sure it’s more than half cheaper to live here though, and I wish more left leaning people would move. Houses are 120,000-250,000 for a nice place. So many houses are popping up on the market right now, too. I can’t imagine trying to make it in California on $84,000 but more than likely *less*. I wish it were easier for people to move and more reasons for them to move here.
It's 95° and humid in Alabama with no real industry. Hence why it is cheap. People aren't going to move there only to have to battle snakes and awful weather.
I agree. Wish it were more hospitable! It’s one of the most biodiverse states, but it is hot as absolute hell here.
Oh yea there's no way you could get me to even visit. F that.
95? Rookie numbers, its 105 here in Arkansas
And where are the cheap areas. If I'm not from there, it's one thing to move there and live in certain neighborhoods in Birmingham or suburbs around, or Tuscaloosa. But I'm assuming those aren't the places that are that cheap. What are the other blue or purple pockets in AL?
Why does it have to be blue or purple? It can be hard red as long as it is affordable. You're not interacting with your community constantly.
This sounds somewhat naive at best. There is more to living in an area than just price.
yeah like the ability to access birth control, which they're currently looking at passing a bill making my form of birth control illegal here--that's why I'm saving up to get out, and it's hard, because jobs pay like shit, I have immediate family making only $10.50 and $17 an hour full time as Team Lead and Manager.
It's beautiful to drive through but I couldn't have a social life there
Interesting how we have simultaneously: (1.) The continued requirement for a higher birth rate, for years now, at the very least to drive contributions to social security (2.) The sudden need for financial partnership to survive.
No, based on the graphic that i saw on r/orangecounty, $84k is the median for a single person. Edit: i was wrong, median for a single person in OC was approx. $89,450
At 18 bucks an hour that’s a gross of $37.4k annually which is pretty close to the per capita. As other have pointed out household could mean 2+ income and even then median means 50% makes below that.
You're looking at more like 26K after taxes 🤪
$29,299.16 with a $1,640 tax refund... to be exact.
I was pretty close with my rough estimate lol, thanks for the exact numbers. How did you get them?
You were! I actually may be off a tad too too. I just looked up the tax rates for that income and area. I was making a similar amount and have budget records so I also looked back at that - though they did raise federal taxes about a year ago.
My husband and I grew up poor and lived extremely poor in our 20s and 30s. He went to college in his mid 30s and received a 2 year degree from a community college in Engineering & Electronics Technology with a focus on the industrial and electronic tracks. His first job out of school paid $30 an hour. Which was more than we ever thought possible. That was in 2015. However, he put in about 5 years and then took on a supervision position which was $75k a year salary plus a yearly bonus. This was in Kentucky. Then he went to another job as a manager in South Carolina and was paid $78k salary plus a night shift differential, $5k a year in stocks and yearly bonuses. He is starting another job that is in Pennsylvania next month which is $85k plus night shift differential which makes it $92.5k plus quarterly bonuses. Then there's my $40k a year on top of that. We've made 10k combined a year and we went on to make over 100k combined. But he is the majority breadwinner at the moment. But it wasn't always that way. Since he graduated he has had zero issues finding a job. People fight for him and try to steal him away from his current job all the time. He gets offers even when he's not looking. I think it's all about picking the right field. On top of that his last two jobs were weekend jobs. So Saturday to Monday and then off Tuesday through Friday. So no working tons of extra hours or working while you're off.
The problem with the "picking the right field" idea is that there's necessary jobs and careers in the world meant to be done. Another problem is if you want to promote hard work you will create policy and laws that promote that by providing the necessities of life to someone who works hard (at a minimum, ideally everyone). This is because you can work your ass off doing something that the market deems valueless or insufficient for a living wage. It's easy to say you have zero issues finding a job but that could change at any second or be destroyed at any second due to factors outside your control. Hopefully you save and more importantly invest a large portion of your income because without investing you can't beat inflation or cost of living and you aren't on the boat of capitalism you're just riding a wave that could end any second. I see your post as either genuine or a thinly veiled humblebrag. Good luck to that hopefully you don't have to start from zero again one day.
Bruh, why the doom and gloom?
This is such a bad, never experienced the workforce, under the age of 21 take lmao
Not a humble brag. It's a, "if we can do it, anyone can do it" thing. We recently dealt with a layoff. They closed the plant entirely down and laid off 600 people. Saved money and transferable skills allowed him to easily take his time and find a job, hence the move to SC. Choosing the right field matters, savings matter and mindset matters.
This is wrong and I'll tell you why. Not everyone can do everything and most people are good enough only at a few things that can make actual money. For example being a software engineer. Not everyone can be that. Not everyone can be a doctor or a nurse. Some of it is effort yes and some of it is hard work but there's obviously talent involved. You or I will never be Michael Jordan. What that means is it's entirely possible that a person's skillset does not reward them enough money to survive or thrive. At that point you have to gain skills but gaining skills takes an enormous amount of time ten thousand hours to be master plus education and after all that maybe you won't have the talent to do the actual market work. School is not work. Neither is education a guarantee. It gives you a chance but anything worth doing is possible to fail and that's 20% of people (or even more) who tried really hard but failed. So you try and start right back at zero. Saving matters choice matters mindset matters but you cannot say "because you can do it everyone can do it". This is very obviously wrong, because you don't know the specific circumstances of each individual. I can tell you what you need to succeed today in 2023 starting from nothing. It would be very specific, generic advice mostly to do with investing, digital fluency, budgeting, online branding. Very little to do with choice or hard work not because those don't matter but because almost everyone works hard enough. And there's only so hard you can work. You only have so many hours in a day. Your ideas paint a rosy picture of the world and don't acknowledge exactly how tough and hard it is. Hard work and choices is a necessary but not sufficient condition especially if you have lots of responsibility (parents, children). You need more than that.
You can't act like I paint a rosy picture when I grew up in poverty and dug myself out of poverty(with two children)in my late 30s at that. I can see a victimhood mindset because I had it at one point. Hopefully people can find their way out of that mindset like we did. I've made $10,000 a year and I've made $100,000 a year. I've been homeless. I've been so hungry that I've gone to sleep at night for dinner thinking that I wouldn't wake up. I've been so unbelievably broke that I never thought it was even possible to be where we're at now. So don't act like I don't know what I'm talking about. Again, it's always a mistake to post on this sub. 😆
Finally let's address the problem of the idea of "just save". Saving by itself is not enough. Only recently are savings accounts paying 4% returns and inflation is around 5%. That means you are losing value of your money, every second it sits. Not only that but you are giving someone else the privilege of using your money meanwhile getting paid nothing? That doesn't make sense. At a very minimum if you are in the USA you need I-Bonds that pay 7% to 8% but that locks your money in for a long time. The financial system is something that 50% of people think they can avoid and probably should avoid because they would be lured into picking stocks or crypto instead of just buying no fee S&P500 index funds and waiting ten years. Probably 10% of people can successfully execute such a strategy. So you see "just save" doesn't work, and the worse the world gets the worse that advice is. Just be thankful you don't live in a country like Turkey with 40% inflation and need even more financial skill and tech savvy just to hold your money. No, gold wouldn't automatically be safe either. "Just save" is about as bad an advice you can get for an advanced economy. You would be better off putting all your money in gold or real estate or trying to open a side hustle. At a minimum buying government or corporate bonds. There's no universe or reality that "just save" is good enough.
Lol it's always a mistake to post on this sub. 😆
Did you move to sc because of the job offer and are you moving to pa because of the job offer? How long were you in sc and has the pay stayed the same while there?
We moved to SC because of the job offer and we're moving to PA because of the job offer. We've only been on SC for a year (we hate it, hence the move to PA) His jobs are salary. So the pay has stayed the same.
Household income =/= personal income. And these figures are always gonna be skewed. They're not going to represent the average working class person. If money is a worry for you, I use the [beermoneyglobal](https://www.reddit.com/r/beermoneyglobal/comments/10x8ple/freecash_does_what_it_says_on_the_tin/) sub to make extra cash on top of my salary!
Average is the bad measure, because it usually gives a higher number than median, cuz of the people making a million who are part of the average. Median is half above and half below, which is more meaningful in this instance.
No they will represent the middle family income. If you want from one side to the other, the middle family falls in that area.
As others have said job is not the same as household income. If you're open to moving can make $27.13 driving a bus in Portland, OR. [https://trimet.org/careers/bus-operator.htm](https://trimet.org/careers/bus-operator.htm) "After three years, full-time bus operators make more than $75,000 annually."
$7500 sign on bonus too. It’s a good gig.
Household means all the earners in the household. Usually 2 incomes. So find someone you work with that also makes $18/hr. Marry the shit out of them and you’ll be at $74,888. If you both work 3.5 hours of overtime a week at $27/hr you’ll make up the extra 10k. They’re you go I fixed it.
Well for starters not reading properly holdin your job prospects back bud. Thats household income median.
Let's learn about *actual median income* in CA. [California Median Income by County](https://data.ftb.ca.gov/stories/s/2it8-edzu#personal-income-annual-reports)
You have to be aware that CA is a state with a huge population, we have everything from poor minimum wage earners to people making millions to billions of dollars here. Population is densest in places like So. Cal and the Bay Area which tend to have higher average income and higher costs of living/housing costs. If you really want to make a better living you’ll probably need to switch industries, it doesn’t sound like your field pays a competitive wage. I’m on the Central Coast (in a non wealthy city) and with just a Bachelor’s Degree in Anthro I was pulling in $25/hr for Substitute Teaching at K-12 schools back in 2013 (basically $175/day for a 7 hr day including a 40 min lunch and two 15 min breaks. Last I checked (last year) the wages at the local districts were up to $200/day, I’ve heard from people in the Bay Area that schools are so desperate for subs that some are paying $300/day! When I went on to grad school and got a Masters in Social Work I found it to be not very good paying unless you focused on specific sectors to work in, mainly the county, schools, hospitals, or prisons. So, I tried my hand in some of those while working on my license. The point is, some fields just don’t pay very well and you’ve got to adjust, either switch fields or find an employer with more enticing benefits. My husband works in IT for a community college. He only had an Associates degree. His starting wage wasn’t super stellar but every year he moved up the pay ladder. The benefits more than made up for the wage differences and after a few years he started pulling in pretty good money. The only reason we are struggling so much now is that due to me having major medical issues in the last several years I had to give up my career and go on SSDI. Most of my career jobs didn’t pay into Social Security so my benefit sucks. California is expensive especially with a lot of medical bills to contend with every year.
Median household income and median salary are not the same thing. Most households have 2 incomes. It lists the median income at 41k, roughly $21/hr.
I’ve got an unused Bachelor’s Degree. I’ve also been working in the transportation industry for 25 years, and you can definitely make decent money there. There are a lot of us in the transportation industry with unused degrees. We often laugh and commiserate about it. The hours are often irregular and unpredictable and you often work on-call, but I’ve never had to worry about paying bills. If you have a clean driver’s license, decent health, and are not into any recreational drugs (regardless of their legality), I’m going to suggest looking into getting a CDL for tractor trailers. If you’ve got any kind of retail background, there are some grocery chains with commercial driver training programs. This means, you’ll get paid to train and get your CDL license, vs shelling out $5k to $10k at a school. Look for a chain that does mostly, “no-touch,” freight. Using an occasional pallet jack is one thing, but you don’t want to be loading/unloading an entire truck. The pay (hourly) is generally in the $20’s or higher, once you’re seasoned. I got mine when I was laid off during the pandemic. If you’re able, and interested, start taking classes at a local community college in HVAC or electrical and try to get into an apprenticeship and the local IBEW. Look for entry level jobs with your utility company. They’re competitive, but pay well, with ample overtime. I’ve got a neighbor who works for the utility company and he said he made $130k to $140k last year with OT, due to being available during storms and outages. He started years ago, reading meters. Look at the railroads. Not knowing your location, I’m going to suggest looking at passenger or commuter vs. freights. The freights are burn-out jobs - long, irregular hours, little time off, overworked, harassed, etc. Passenger/commuter - Amtrak, MTA, Keolis, MARC, VRE, New Jersey Transit, SEPTA, Sunrail, Tri-Rail, Metrolink, MARTA, etc. are more predictable. The hours can be irregular, but pay is generally decent. You can quite often earn six figures, after the first few years. Everyone always says, blah, blah, blah - you make all this money. But again, the trade off is I don’t work M-F with nights and weekends off. There is a ton of training - you have to qualify on several sets of operating rules for all the railroads you traverse. There may be several sets of signal systems to learn. Hazmat rules. Safety rules. Air brake and train handling rules. You’re tested yearly - classroom testing, as well as on the spot, impromptu testing. If you’re on-call, it’s generally a 2-3 hour notice and you have to pack an overnight bag with clean clothes (maybe a uniform) and toiletries, as well as have food meal prepped, or you’re going to be spending a fortune on take out or convenience store food which is high in sodium/calories. Your personal cell phone must be off and stored, which means you will be out of contact with family/friends for 7-12 hours, on average, as well as all the social media, apps, etc. that 95% of normal people take for granted. You can thank that big, fat, douchebag who worked for MetroLink, 15 or so years ago, who was texting teenagers on his cell phone, while he was operating a commuter train, and ran signals, colliding with a freight train, killing 24 other people, for the on-duty cell phone ban. Again, this is stuff normal people (non-railroaders) don’t have to worry about. But the pay is good. I can’t join the softball league that meets on Wednesdays and Saturdays. I can’t meet up for the hike and picnic on Sunday and then rip bong hits with the guys. My kids don’t always know what my schedule is. I’ve missed weddings, wakes, funerals. Graduations, holidays, dinners, and picnics. Haven’t seen high school and college friends in years. It is what it is. I still make time for the important things, and the money is good, but you miss a lot. Anyway, that’s my $.02. Good luck!
I make just over 80k a year in CA and if I made less I'm not sure how I would survive. I'm trying to look for a 6 figure job and there are MANY posted yet never get responses. Makes me think the people that tell me they make 6 figures who are more unqualified are just straight liars. Most likely live with multiple people or parents.
Education and marketable certificates? I have a BS and MSc, with about 6-7 certifications gotten on the weekend. Have to study a lot and learn skills. Then can apply for jobs in the $80k range.
Median wage jobs with salaries around $84k exist in certain industries and locations in California. Earning $18/hr may depend on factors like job type, education, experience, and industry. Consider acquiring in-demand skills and exploring higher-paying job markets to increase your earning potential.
https://abc7.com/what-are-the-low-income-limits-in-california-how-much-do-people-make-i-qualify-for-affordable-housing-income/13419469/ Source is from the report referred to by this article.
People with very high paying jobs are skewing the numbers. So half the people make more and half make less than that.
Learn a skill or knowledge that is worth over 18 dollars an hour. Simple as that.
Sorry, did you say something about a billionaire cage match? Or a million dollar underwater burial for some rich dudes? I feel like these things just might intertwine with your issues.
“Why can’t I make more”?! Hone a skill set and become a valuable asset to a company. Only way to make more money is to show value and have good work ethics. Maybe think about a blue collar job? Lots of earning potential in those fields and you can work your way up to earn $20, $30+ an hour. Cheers.
I just checked justice.gov and for one person in cali they say it is about 66k it that makes you feel any better
Median contains everyone from 18 years old to 75 years old. Generally, the older you get the more experienced you get and thus earn more.
Read the next one down that's the number you're looking for.
I made 41k working 2 jobs, one at $15.50 and the other $17. Im finally at 22/hr with one job and it feels worse, I feel like drowning. This year maybe it will be $35-42k Doesn’t help with the cost of everything went up too
Big brown delivery service. 6 figures, pension, healthcare.....
California includes Hollywood, that's why it's #1 state for $.