What do you make?

[User 1019]

I'm definitely not underpaid. Civilian pilots at my experience level are paid about 60K. However, they're generally not responsible for 150 Soldiers and $40 million in property. That's where I get paid closer to what I would in the civilian world. My people management; not flying helicopters. I pretty much stole money on this last deployment (business was slow). My salary is a little inflated, based on the Army's pay scale. I was in the Guard for a very long time prior to moving to the active duty side, so I get paid for 16 years, while most of my peers get paid for six.

 

[dirtybird]

Not e-*******-nough

 

[Guy_Incognito]

Well, I quit a $44k a year media job to join the Peace Corps. That was at the end of 2007, and I've yet to find a "real" job.

Currently, I make about $200 a week (plus housing and food) in an AmeriCorps gig doing disaster relief. I work about 60 hours a week and I LOVE it. It was supposed to be until June but I've extended because it's the most fulfilling work I've ever done.

The next step is more real; in January or so I am lined up to join the foreign service and will be back to about $40k-$45k, plus housing and COLA and hardship post differentials.

Excellent. The bar is set as to who can voluntarily take the biggest pay cut.

Who Dat!

I'm not participating, because neither career was journalism, but I took a significantly larger paycut. I olny have regrets twice a month.

 

[Songbird]

I make $0. I'm unemployed.

Last year in Trenton I made just under 50K.

In 1989 I started at $5/hour as the guy who did all the little **** that no one else wanted to do.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

I have about 30 grand in my savings account.
Just waiting to use that for fun and travel.
I'm doing OK, but it didn't happen overnight. And there was luck involved.
Don't ever let some asshole tell you luck is not a factor.

 

[Captain Obvious]

I have about 30 grand in my savings account.
Just waiting to use that for fun and travel.
I'm doing OK, but it didn't happen overnight. And there was luck involved.
Don't ever let some asshole tell you luck is not a factor.

It was all bootstraps!

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

Very much opposed to that kind of thinking.
Ten years ago there were many days I had nothing to eat.
It took a break or two, not feeling sorry for myself and knowing I was due.
Anyone who is underemployed, hang the **** in there. And never give up, ever.

 

[playthrough]

Made $16k at my first shop many moons ago. But I shot a decent game of pool back then; after we put the paper to bed there was a pool hall two blocks over where I could get some action. More often than not I'd take home $30 or so, which was a healthy supplement on that salary.

 

[mustangj17]

Had three jobs in journalism where I moved up from $19,900 to $27,500. That was four years ago. Now I'm in advertising, and lets just say, I encourage the rest of you to go into something else. (Even a seemingly low paying profession like advertising).

 

[I Should Coco]

Had three jobs in journalism where I moved up from $19,900 to $27,500. That was four years ago. Now I'm in advertising, and lets just say, I encourage the rest of you to go into something else. (Even a seemingly low paying profession like advertising).

I'll add this, mustang, from a colleague of mine who recently left the newsroom for a P.R. gig:

It's not just how much (or how little) we're making now, it's the potential for pay raises or advancement.

With the doom and gloom atmosphere at most newspapers, there's little hope for either.

 

[Ty Webb]

I co-host a daily sports radio show and am in year two of a three year contract that has a base salary of $130,000 plus talent fees, so I'll end up about $180,000. At 37, I know I am immensely blessed but my first radio job paid me a free barbecue meal and two games of bowling for an entire football season. My first full-time radio job (2002) paid $26,000 and I thought I was rich.
I only post this because it amazes me what 21 year olds with zero experience think they should be making. I sound like an old fart but the entitlement generation is nauseating.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

I co-host a daily sports radio show and am in year two of a three year contract that has a base salary of $130,000 plus talent fees, so I'll end up about $180,000. At 37, I know I am immensely blessed but my first radio job paid me a free barbecue meal and two games of bowling for an entire football season. My first full-time radio job (2002) paid $26,000 and I thought I was rich.
I only post this because it amazes me what 21 year olds with zero experience think they should be making. I sound like an old fart but the entitlement generation is nauseating.

I'd say this has little to do with entitlement, and more to do with 21-year-olds who saw their parents put in years of loyal service only to be shoved out the door by their company. The kids see that, and they don't want to spend the time paying their dues. And frankly, I don't blame them.

 

[JimmyHoward33]

I co-host a daily sports radio show and am in year two of a three year contract that has a base salary of $130,000 plus talent fees, so I'll end up about $180,000. At 37, I know I am immensely blessed but my first radio job paid me a free barbecue meal and two games of bowling for an entire football season. My first full-time radio job (2002) paid $26,000 and I thought I was rich.
I only post this because it amazes me what 21 year olds with zero experience think they should be making. I sound like an old fart but the entitlement generation is nauseating.

I'm just playing devil's advocate here, but your first full time gig must have been, what, 15 years ago? Gigs starting at 26k now don't make the kids feel as rich as they might have at the same salary more than a decade earlier.

 

[dirtybird]

I co-host a daily sports radio show and am in year two of a three year contract that has a base salary of $130,000 plus talent fees, so I'll end up about $180,000. At 37, I know I am immensely blessed but my first radio job paid me a free barbecue meal and two games of bowling for an entire football season. My first full-time radio job (2002) paid $26,000 and I thought I was rich.
I only post this because it amazes me what 21 year olds with zero experience think they should be making. I sound like an old fart but the entitlement generation is nauseating.

I'm just playing devil's advocate here, but your first full time gig must have been, what, 15 years ago? Gigs starting at 26k now don't make the kids feel as rich as they might have at the same salary more than a decade earlier.

Based on CPI, your 26K is the equivalent of $33,606.48 now. I would like to make that much starting, or after 2.5 years in the biz. 26K starting out would have been more than I made.

It might actually be nauseating if the institution of raises had not ground to a halt, making things like starting salary (and how you can bump it moving shops) pretty darn important.

 

[J-School Blue]

Yeah, there's a vast difference between "recent grads whining about the reality of starting salaries" and "recent grads looking around a newsroom of people who are five or ten years their senior and seeing it not getting appreciably better." The latter is what's scary right now.

 

[Ty Webb]

I co-host a daily sports radio show and am in year two of a three year contract that has a base salary of $130,000 plus talent fees, so I'll end up about $180,000. At 37, I know I am immensely blessed but my first radio job paid me a free barbecue meal and two games of bowling for an entire football season. My first full-time radio job (2002) paid $26,000 and I thought I was rich.
I only post this because it amazes me what 21 year olds with zero experience think they should be making. I sound like an old fart but the entitlement generation is nauseating.

I'm just playing devil's advocate here, but your first full time gig must have been, what, 15 years ago? Gigs starting at 26k now don't make the kids feel as rich as they might have at the same salary more than a decade earlier.

Based on CPI, your 26K is the equivalent of $33,606.48 now. I would like to make that much starting, or after 2.5 years in the biz. 26K starting out would have been more than I made.

It might actually be nauseating if the institution of raises had not ground to a halt, making things like starting salary (and how you can bump it moving shops) pretty darn important.

I feel what you guys are saying. I guess my point was that I had worked part-time since 1997 to get to that $26K job which didn't come until two years post-college. Those part-time gigs were in a tiny market before I got to a bigger market. I just see a bunch of kids who think they should be able to avoid any sort of learning process and can't understand why they might occasionally have to step outside of their job description to help out.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I co-host a daily sports radio show and am in year two of a three year contract that has a base salary of $130,000 plus talent fees, so I'll end up about $180,000. At 37, I know I am immensely blessed but my first radio job paid me a free barbecue meal and two games of bowling for an entire football season. My first full-time radio job (2002) paid $26,000 and I thought I was rich.
I only post this because it amazes me what 21 year olds with zero experience think they should be making. I sound like an old fart but the entitlement generation is nauseating.

I'm just playing devil's advocate here, but your first full time gig must have been, what, 15 years ago? Gigs starting at 26k now don't make the kids feel as rich as they might have at the same salary more than a decade earlier.

Based on CPI, your 26K is the equivalent of $33,606.48 now. I would like to make that much starting, or after 2.5 years in the biz. 26K starting out would have been more than I made.

It might actually be nauseating if the institution of raises had not ground to a halt, making things like starting salary (and how you can bump it moving shops) pretty darn important.

I feel what you guys are saying. I guess my point was that I had worked part-time since 1997 to get to that $26K job which didn't come until two years post-college. Those part-time gigs were in a tiny market before I got to a bigger market. I just see a bunch of kids who think they should be able to avoid any sort of learning process and can't understand why they might occasionally have to step outside of their job description to help out.

Honest question, and tell me if it's fair: Why would anyone rationally want to pay their dues when the down-the-road salary rewards are not guaranteed, and actually unlikely, and when there are four-fold, five-fold, six-fold, seven-fold higher salaries readily available to smart people in other fields?

 

[BTExpress]

I'd say this has little to do with entitlement, and more to do with 21-year-olds who saw their parents put in years of loyal service only to be shoved out the door by their company. The kids see that, and they don't want to spend the time paying their dues. And frankly, I don't blame them.

How is that different than any other period in history? Did 21-year-olds in 1982 not see their parents lose their jobs, too?

And I'd argue that a 21-year-old kid today had LESS of a chance of seeing that than any other generation, since the time his parents were working (1992-2013) were among the most prosperous in our nation's history.

Why would anyone rationally want to pay their dues when the down-the-road salary rewards are not guaranteed, and actually unlikely, and when there are four-fold, five-fold, six-fold, seven-fold higher salaries readily available to smart people in other fields?

Nobody "wants" to, of course. Because it's not fun.

But you still should be expected to in some capacity. The pre-med student will pay his dues (literally and figuratively) before he opens a private practice and makes $400K.

You're not "guaranteed" living until tomorrow, either. But that doesn't mean you cancel all insurance policies, cash out your 401(k) and so on. There is an implied understanding that "I do this today so tomorrow will be better" (even if there are exceptions to that).

 

[Dick Whitman]

I'd say this has little to do with entitlement, and more to do with 21-year-olds who saw their parents put in years of loyal service only to be shoved out the door by their company. The kids see that, and they don't want to spend the time paying their dues. And frankly, I don't blame them.

How is that different than any other period in history? Did 21-year-olds in 1982 not see their parents lose their jobs, too?

And I'd argue that a 21-year-old kid today had LESS of a chance of seeing that than any other generation, since the time his parents were working (1992-2013) were among the most prosperous in our nation's history.

Why would anyone rationally want to pay their dues when the down-the-road salary rewards are not guaranteed, and actually unlikely, and when there are four-fold, five-fold, six-fold, seven-fold higher salaries readily available to smart people in other fields?

Nobody "wants" to, of course. Because it's not fun.

But you still should be expected to in some capacity. The pre-med student will pay his dues (literally and figuratively) before he opens a private practice and makes $400K.

This is true. You pay your dues in some capacity in all professions, frequently through the grind of graduate school. But at least the path to the brass ring in medicine is clearer and more guaranteed.

 

[JackS]

I make $0. I'm unemployed.

Wait. What happened to the art selling gig? I had been encouraged by your successful transition.