Is $20/hr = $40,000 a year?

[vi edit]

Just a little math here for the people saying that 40k is chump change

Assume both members of the household bring in 40k, so 80k combined.

After taxes you are looking at 56k a year, or 4600 a month.

In my area, $1000 a month can get you a mortgage(including ins & property taxes) on a pretty nice 3 or 4 bedroom house w/ 2 bath and 2 stall garage.

Put away $600 for investments. That leaves you with $3000.

Figure $1000 for utilities and food.

Down to $2000.

If you were into cars, you could have some pretty nice cars for $1000 a month.

Still leaves you with $1000 a month to blow on whatever.

Not bad I'd say.

But then, I'm not accustomed to the life of luxury and an extra $1000 a month, plus two really nice cars, and a nice house seems like a lot to me.

 

[SCSIfreek]

Here in Northern California, the average home cost $539.000 :Q and cost of living is higher than LA <--- no way in Hell I'm going to be able to purchase a home 🙁

I completely agreed with many folks here, 40K/year doing data entry is twice the average pay rate for "data entry". you're either doing EXTRA service after work or selling drug while entering data.

--Scsi

 

[Stifko]

My Mom just retired last month. She was working for the New York Public Library for 43 years as a clerk. Her salary was around $24K. Mom has always lived frugally and she managed to save a nice little nest egg for herself. The point being that $40K is a very decent income.

 

[FuZoR]

wished i had a $20/hr job...

$40,000 is alot for a single person 😛

 

[shopbruin]

Originally posted by: SyahM

Originally posted by: freesia39
wtf 15 bucks an hour to do pratically nothing? i make 7.98 an hour (i'm still a student and get paid less cuz i work for the university) and i'm a supervisor at where i work. that is SERIOUSLY over inflated and reminds me of the 12 bucks an hour i used to get calling people up and asking them if they would like to participate in a focus group... of course this was back in 1999... i'm being shafted. and no i can't find a better paying job unless you're willing to pay for my car to get my behind to the better paying job. what's sad is that if i'm hired on as the assistant manager at where i work, i get paid 17.25 an hour. SHENANIGANS!

as a student working at university you're making $17.25/hr, WTF????? that's a lot of tuition fees going to you ... your so lucky and making every other student jealous 🙂

heh i wished it was as a student. the job is for when i graduate. plus i work for housing, which is an "auxiliary" of the university, so technically tuition fees don't go to me but housing fees do.

 

[777php]

Those of us who are in the technology field should consider ourselves lucky. Compared to other professions, we are generously compensated. As an intern working for a very large networking firm in San Jose, I was salaried at $40,000 a year. Contrast that to my GF who graudated from UC Berkeley with a Molecular and Cellular Biology degree, and at the time worked for a major Bio-tech firm making $19/hr. That is the story not only with Bio-tech jobs but practically all non tech/(some) business/medical fields.

 

[Akebona]

Originally posted by: Rogue
Let me add in that while energy and housing my be expensive in California, food is cheaper than here in Kansas. Unlike you, we pay taxes on all goods purchased, clothing and food. Last I checked, you folks in Cali didn't pay taxes on your food purchases. BTW, I lived in northern Cali for serveral years.

what? are you sure i dont pay taxes on food purchases? last time i went to safeway i paid taxes, and at mc donalds, and at restaurants..... i dont get it, is that a joke or is there a different category for "food purchases"

Edit: Oh yeah, 20 bux an hour for data entry is BS. You'd be lucky to get 10 around here esp in this economy.

 

[vi edit]

Originally posted by: Akebona

Originally posted by: Rogue
Let me add in that while energy and housing my be expensive in California, food is cheaper than here in Kansas. Unlike you, we pay taxes on all goods purchased, clothing and food. Last I checked, you folks in Cali didn't pay taxes on your food purchases. BTW, I lived in northern Cali for serveral years.

what? are you sure i dont pay taxes on food purchases? last time i went to safeway i paid taxes, and at mc donalds, and at restaurants..... i dont get it, is that a joke or is there a different category for "food purchases"

Edit: Oh yeah, 20 bux an hour for data entry is BS. You'd be lucky to get 10 around here esp in this economy.

Even so - say you spent $1000 on groceries a month (which is A LOT). At 7% that's an extra $70 a month, $840 a year. That's still a far cry from making up for a house costing $500,000 more.

 

[dabuddha]

Originally posted by: Bop

Originally posted by: tm37
if you work 40 hours a week ... 52 weeks a year 4 weeks a month
52/4 = 13 months in a year:Q

NOw that really weirds me out

but not all months are 4 weeks
in fact, only february is really 4 weeks 🙂
and thats only on non leap-year years

 

[Aves]

Originally posted by: Vic
20*40*50 = $40,000/yr.

If you get 2 weeks paid vacation then you should count them also so 52

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: vi_edit
Where I'm from $40k a year is pretty damn respectable too. Some people just have distorted views on what's a decent wage.

I think it depends on where you live. Around here, making $7 at Arby's is a good job. I'm hoping to make $40,000 in 2 to 3 years. Then hoping for around $60,000 within 5 years since I foresee a job change at that point.

 

[tantos]

Where is that 16 yr old BS'er anyways? Oh wait..he's too busy making his $20 an hr selling E to his other classmates..

 

[Ready]

I think the lesson to be learned here is that we should all move to S.Carolina

 

[Ready]

yeah the tech industry pays alot more. My starting salary was $46k a year for an entry level job and that is consider low. A couple of years before the economy is as bad as it is, I know some college graduates who took starting jobs at $69K/ year not even in SJ.

 

[Walleye]

Originally posted by: tantos
Where is that 16 yr old BS'er anyways? Oh wait..he's too busy making his $20 an hr selling E to his other classmates..

no, i was at school, thank you very much. and i'll be off to work soon.

about the incriminazting photographs 😉

about the drugs 😉

about the extra services... if onlky my boss were a good looking female... *sigh* no extra services performed by me.

maybe i shouldnt describe my job as just data entry, because it includes more than that. that's just the bulk of it.

i also do welding, carpentry, manual labor tasks, and several other things. but that is a minority of my time.

the guy i work for actually saves money by not having to hire a different contracter for all the things i can do.

 

[dquan97]

Originally posted by: Walleye

Originally posted by: tantos
Where is that 16 yr old BS'er anyways? Oh wait..he's too busy making his $20 an hr selling E to his other classmates..

no, i was at school, thank you very much. and i'll be off to work soon.

about the incriminazting photographs 😉

about the drugs 😉

about the extra services... if onlky my boss were a good looking female... *sigh* no extra services performed by me.

Does it matter if your boss is a female? 😉

 

[CrazyDe1]

Before you say he's BSing I have a friend that makes spreadsheets for real estate agents at his work in his free time. He gets paid 15 dollars an hour for mostly data entry and occassional IT work. He makes most of his money doing computer work for rich real estate ladies that are clueless on the side. He pulled in 1500 for 12 hours of work networking a lady's house. He gets paid 100 bucks to make 1 spreadsheet for these ladies....

Sure, the 100 bucks for 30 minutes of work isn't consistent...but he gets 1 or 2 a week...

 

[Walleye]

Originally posted by: dquan97

Originally posted by: Walleye

Originally posted by: tantos
Where is that 16 yr old BS'er anyways? Oh wait..he's too busy making his $20 an hr selling E to his other classmates..

no, i was at school, thank you very much. and i'll be off to work soon.

about the incriminazting photographs 😉

about the drugs 😉

about the extra services... if onlky my boss were a good looking female... *sigh* no extra services performed by me.

Does it matter if your boss is a female? 😉

well, i certainly wont do those type of services for a male boss... wheres the "Ick! Nasty! Ugh! NOOOOO!!!!" emoticon?

 

[Jombo]

if the base pay is 40k, you'll be making about $19.23 an hour, since the year has 52 weeks and not 50. whatever weeks paid vac is also part of the 40k, the hourly wages for the time off is still the same. same goes for holiday pay, you get the same amount for those days too.. you just work less for that week, that's all

one thing people often forget about when talking about salary is the benefits factor, like the type of insurance they carry and how much the company pays for your insurance adds to your base pay. along w/ your 401k or pension or other plans that they may offer.

cost of living is another factor, if you lived in super expensive bay area, making 40k won't be that much, (making 60k won't be all that much 🙁 )where as if you live in other cheaper parts of the country, you'll be doing pretty good. but seeing as the boy in question is a 16 year old that occasionally does "other things besides data processing" for his boss 😉 and prob lives at home w/out having to worry about groceries and such, the real world will prob paint a much different pic when you get there.

i'd say enjoy it while it lasts, or until you get sick of doing "other things for your boss." Save up to buy a hot escort for your prom date even 😉 I kidd I kidd....

 

[Walleye]

in correction, im 17, near 18. i began this type of work at 16. i realize it wont last forever, but the hours are whatever i want, and it will hold for as long as it takes to get a better job through schooling. (going for hard sci major soon.)

 

[Dznuts007]

Originally posted by: FelixDeKat
Dont forget to take 15% off for taxes :|

Not only that, but remember to take out around 8% sales tax because almost everything you buy you get taxed on...

 

[Dznuts007]

Originally posted by: FuZioN
wished i had a $20/hr job...

$40,000 is alot for a single person 😛

$20 an hour is pretty good for only doing data entry. After graduating with bachelor's in biological sciences from UC Irvine, I only made $5.75 an hour...