Pay

[OkayPlayer]

What's considered doing well in this biz financially?
Whether you're a beat writer for a metro or a sports editor at a community paper. How much money would be considered doing well at, say, 25, 30, 35, 40.

Fairly open-ended question. I've been busting my ass in this profession for a while now and am two years from turning 30 and am finally making enough money to put some away in my bank (other than 401K). But I truly have no idea if I've just been making nothing before or if I'm actually doing well. Compared to my friends who studied business, I'm making what they made years ago. Though I'm happy with where I'm at.

Does that make sense?

 

[Smokey33]

Someone posted on here once that you should be making more than your age. That seems to be a good benchmark.

 

[HejiraHenry]

Someone posted on here once that you should be making more than your age. That seems to be a good benchmark.

Wow, I can't wait until I turn 99 ... six figures, baby!

 

[ogre]

Someone posted on here once that you should be making more than your age. That seems to be a good benchmark.

F that. So I have to wait till Im 50 to make a decent living? It may be the way it is, but that sucks.

 

[daemon]

Someone posted on here once that you should be making more than your age. That seems to be a good benchmark.

I don't buy it. You're telling me you shouldn't be upset if you are 29 years old and still have yet to crack the 30k barrier?

If I had to give a general rule of thumb, it'd probably be

Age + $10,000 = Dollar figure at which you should be reasonably happy considering the business you are in.


25 = $35,000
30 = $40,000
35 = $45,000
40 = $50,000

Anything lower than those numbers and you're probably behind the curve. Anything higher and you're doing better than most.

Again, just a rough estimate.

 

[John]

I'm not quite making my age, but I'm doing a lot better than I was a few years ago.

 

[SEWnSO]

Someone posted on here once that you should be making more than your age. That seems to be a good benchmark.

I don't buy it. You're telling me you shouldn't be upset if you are 29 years old and still have yet to crack the 30k barrier?

If I had to give a general rule of thumb, it'd probably be

Age + $10,000 = Dollar figure at which you should be reasonably happy considering the business you are in.


25 = $35,000
30 = $40,000
35 = $45,000
40 = $50,000

Anything lower than those numbers and you're probably behind the curve. Anything higher and you're doing better than most.

Again, just a rough estimate.

I think that is interesting. How'd you come up w/ that estimate?
Next q, how many SportsJournalists.com floks could say they are making that pay?
Podunk Press doesn't seem to quite pay age+10K. ???

 

[SCEditor]

I think it's a lot harder to make that money -- $10K over your age. If you're 22 and fresh out of college, there's very little chance you're going to make $32K. I've moved around a lot in the Southeast for jobs and raises, but only until I sold my soul, left dailies and took up with a niche paper, could I say I'm making $10K more than my age.

 

[SEWnSO]

floks
Oops. But I kinda like it. Flok!
Nice cuss word.

 

[OkayPlayer]

I guess it depends on where you live, too.
I mean, I made next to nothing at my first stop and was OK. Move to a big city, made about 5K more and struggled.

 

[Gold]

One guide I have heard is a comparison to what teachers in the local public school district make with similar experience. That would usually, though not always, give an idea what a reasonable minimum cost of living is. It might not be appropriate for papers with circulations under 25K, but I would think it would be a good guideline for any papers which are middle sized. If it's too far below that, some thought is required.

 

[daemon]

But the question was more of a prestige question rather than a practical question. Unless I read it wrong, he was asking what dollar figure would be considered "Making good money."

If you're 22 and making $32,000, I'd say you're making decent money. But I know 22 year olds making a decent amount more than that. And I know 22 year olds making a lot less than that.

 

[Editude]

There's less range for teachers, but that's a good baseline at the mid-level. Maybe its comparison explains why so many journalists are married to public school teachers.

 

[Satchel Pooch]

I'd say if you can bench your weight, that's pretty good.

 

[shotglass]

That age+$10K thing sounds purty good to me.

 

[Flash]

That age+$10K thing sounds purty good to me.

I fell into that range when I was 30. Worked at a unionized shop and was making $22 an hour. Figured I was making decent money. Then I realized it was really good money for this business when I stepped up in calibre and prestige and moved to a bigger city but took a $10,000 a year paycut for a non-unionized shop.
And after I got laid off two months ago, people would ask me how much I was making there and were shocked that I didn't make more. The most popular question was 'but don't you have to be skilled and talented to do what you do, why do they pay so little?'
That's the question I could never answer about this business.

 

[Smokey33]

I was making my age until recently. I moved up and I'm now making $5k more than my age (in a place with a super-low cost of living), and I'm happy with that for now.

10K more than your age seems to be a bit high for people in their 20s, unless you're the cream of the crop or you're living somewhere with a high cost of living.

 

[Cadet]

One guide I have heard is a comparison to what teachers in the local public school district make with similar experience. That would usually, though not always, give an idea what a reasonable minimum cost of living is. It might not be appropriate for papers with circulations under 25K, but I would think it would be a good guideline for any papers which are middle sized. If it's too far below that, some thought is required.

That's an excellent comparison. Whenever I've gotten to the salary part of talks with future employers, I come prepared with numbers on local teachers salaries. It's a solid benchmark and easy to do, since most State Boards of Education are required to publish a salary schedule. A few states now have minimum salary requirements for first-year teachers, which would be a good benchmark for entry-level journalists.

Though due to these requirements, teacher salaries are quickly becoming significantly more than journalist salaries, I'm afraid. Where I'm currently at, I'd get an $8K raise if I became a high school teacher :-\

 

[buckweaver]

All right, so we've well established that pay -- especially entry-level pay -- is going to be fairly low in this profession. However, because this is a skilled profession, and because employers can't just hire any Joe Schmoe from off the street to do our jobs at an acceptable level ...

Other than joining a union shop, what sort of ways could we go about raising the entry-level pay scale so that we're not all eating Top Ramen and living out of cardboard boxes when we start out in this business? Or at least setting some kind of pay standard -- dependent upon responsibilities, location/market and paper size -- that's perhaps comparable to what teachers make?

I'm not talking about a full-on labor revolt ... yet. But it seems to me that plenty of other workers in plenty of other fields have taken more control of their industries when it comes to pay.

Why can't we?

 

[Tom Petty]

That age+$10K thing sounds purty good to me.

I fell into that range when I was 30. Worked at a unionized shop and was making $22 an hour. Figured I was making decent money. Then I realized it was really good money for this business when I stepped up in calibre and prestige and moved to a bigger city but took a $10,000 a year paycut for a non-unionized shop.
And after I got laid off two months ago, people would ask me how much I was making there and were shocked that I didn't make more. The most popular question was 'but don't you have to be skilled and talented to do what you do, why do they pay so little?'
That's the question I could never answer about this business.

flash, stop with the bull****. everybody on this board knows you aren't a day over 29.