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No. I am an elementary / special education teacher.
My salary is not even a near-decent compensation for the effort I have make every day to keep the most disturbed kids in line. Or the physical abuse I have to put up with, constantly.
I’ve been punched, kicked, bitten, spat on, had chairs thrown at me and stabbed with pencils and scissors so many times.
But since we teachers have “a really long summer vacation, how the fuck do you dare to complain about your shitty pay?”
Yet I try to fight the good fight and force myself to the school every day, since somebody’ has to try to fix those kids before they’re truly beyond saving.
Sorry to hear that. People in education has very bad pays in most of the world, and that’s a sad situation.
One interesting exception: Luxembourg. Teachers in Luxembourg are paid more than people in IT
No. I am paid well, but there are people in my department who do FUCK ALL and get paid 40% more than me. I get shit done. I have made my position known to my boss. Ball’s in her court.
And it will remain in her court.
Just got an email yesterday from a guy who wants to talk with me about a job paying 50% more than what I currently make. No joke.
I work in a very small, very niche field. Jobs are hard to come by, but they pay.
Just take it. Your current place either won’t match that or could have been but didn’t think you were worth it.
Eh, it’s not that simple. It rarely is. There’s always trade-offs. And the job hasn’t been offered to me yet. But I will talk to the man.
Fully agree with this. I’m currently interviewing and have reached the “reward phase” where 3-4 companies are offering me salary & benefits packages. I’ll likely be taking the lowest package with the farthest drive because that work interests me the most and offers interesting travel opportunities. Just a little heartburn on the salary though, but still more than what I’m making now by 15%. But yeah there’s a lot to weigh out.
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You should definitely pursue that. That’s how making 40% or 50% more can happen overnight - by simply changing jobs. Of course you’ve got to factor in the extraneous things like commute and child care, but that’s the general rule of thumb. Change jobs every 3 years, make more. It’s statistically proven.
It all depends on the trade-offs. But I’m talking to the guy on Monday.
Would never say no to more. Could probably make more at same level. But am mostly happy / feel fortunate for where I’m at.
I always feel like the tipping point is where you are starting to mostly consider other aspects (work-life balance, work load, colleagues, type of work) over pay.
For me that’s happening now, before I would mostly take the salary into account.
This is where I’ve been for a couple of years now. Could I make more money and have more responsibility? Absolutely. But I make plenty, I work with good people, and I “work” from home twice a week. My week is 10 hours of real work, 10 hours of meetings about that work, and 20 hours of fucking around waiting for other people to finish their work. I do most of my fucking around at home where I can do whatever I want. Do I really want to give up this slack ass job to chase a 10->15% raise? I’m not sure I do.
I am extremely overpaid. I am also quitting soon and will most likely find an underpaid job, so I’m really trying to make the most of my extra money right now!
Why do you quit when you’re overpaid?
How come you’re overpaid in the first place?
Edit:
nou’re-> you’reI have a job in an American tech company. I’m paid Silicon Valley entry level wages which easily puts me in the top 10% earners in my country.
I’ve been at this job for 5 years. I’m not learning or doing anything new, I lost my favourite teammates in layoffs, I don’t respect my company and I’m tired of having 8pm meetings with the US west coast.
I’ve bought my apartment now, so my living costs are about to go way down, and I’m being offered a giant severance package if I leave now, no severance if I quit at any other time. Now’s the time!
It’s possible to be overpaid and unhappy where you are. When you’re spending 40hours/week doing something, it doesn’t matter what you’re paid if you hate it. Happiness is more important than money, as long the lower level of money is still enough for you.
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No, I’m not - but it’s complicated. I settled for a job with a lower salary than I’m used to because I wanted a mental break.
But, the employer pulled a bait-and-switch. After I signed the hiring agreement, they saddled me with a more advanced role that easily makes twice my agreed salary. I fought for a fair adjustment, but it turned into a perpetual “moving goalposts” situation.
So, after a year of doing a $175k-$200k job for $100k (mostly for the sake of my resume), I essentially said fuck you, pay me - or I’m out. They didn’t budge, so I resigned. Here’s hoping my next employer is at least slightly less greasy.
Hah. No. Not even close. I’m struggling with finding job, and measly minimum pay would be a live saver for me. I guess I’m not worth it.
Don’t confuse capitalisms determination of whether you will work a given job with your worth as a person! You’re worth it
Yeah, my “worth as a person” will feed me. Sure. I’m honestly burnt out.
I am. I make about 120K to work from home, and do maybe 10 hours of actual work a week. Rest of it I’m just dicking around on the internet or playing video games.
However, in my city, when I socialize, people seem to think I am living in poverty, wasting my life, etc. Apparently I’m suppose to be working 60 hour weeks to make 200K+, and live in a million+ dollar house and all that crap. IDGI, but that is the attitude in my city.
My dream was to be a professor, but I realize that making 60K and working 100hr weeks was not a recipe for being miserable forever.
That sounds like the dream. What field are you in?
Yes. My needs have been fulfilled.
I’m in one of those spots where I make pretty good money but I know I could make more if I left to work for a bigger company- however, I really like my company and it’s really low stress and very low BS that I have to deal with. I like my coworkers and I have a great relationship with the clients. I’ve been there for nearly 15 years and it has excellent work life balance. So when I consider all of that, an extra 20k doesn’t really sound that great if I hate my life every day.
This is where I’m at. I’m in my early 40s, and have a family. My job is pretty low stress and I have a great work/life balance. Everybody is happy. If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.
where do you find your partner?
I’m nearly 40 and every lady I try to date thinks a low stress lifestyle with a work/life balance is a horrible thing. They are all obsessed with ‘ambition’. And when i talk about wanting to actually be a father to my children and having a life outside of my job, they basically tell me to f myself and that I am not a ‘real man’.
Found mine before I really had a career. Ambition can also be saving for retirement and post work life. I am also a DIY person, I rack that up to having hobbies and wanting to learn stuff outside of work.
I read a lot of biographies about people who’ve made boat loads of money, and one of the big sacrifices of that is family. You just don’t have enough time for making money all the time and managing a family.Those are toxic people. I met my wife in college. We have kids so if we didn’t both help out, the other would be stuck doing all of it and it’d suck. I handle house repair stuff, big projects, the cars, and split kid duty. She handles stuff I don’t like- like laundry and cleaning up. We both cook but mostly me.
I may not be singularly career driven, but we do really well- I think we’re better off than most people in our age and friend group. I’m 39, she’s 37.
A buddy of mine really struggled to meet someone- he was interested in getting married and having kids and most people out there dating weren’t looking for anything serious, or had lots of baggage.
There’s hope though, just keep putting yourself out there!
Same- with kids and a wife and a house that is non stop projects I value the time I get to spend away from work a lot. I have a 401k, I’m going for stability over squeezing every last dollar out of every opportunity.
I also think of it this way- I’m a big DIY guy, and the money I save on labor is basically another salary. The fact that I have fun doing it too is a bonus. My work affords me time to do that rather than being on call at all hours.
Same here.
Where do you guys find women who are cool with that lifestyle? I’m so jealous. Every woman I meet thinks DIY is for ‘poor people’.
Are you me?
It’s possible. Do you have a passion for smoked meats?
Who doesn’t? :)
Same here man.
And yet soooo many people I meet seem to think this lifestyle is ‘for losers’. Apparently you are supposed to be a miserable corporate drone so you can make an extra few bucks to spend on useless crap that you don’t need.
I’m not happy with my pay, and never will be as long as there are others making more off my labour than I do.
Possibly not the most Zen approach to life, but it motivates me to give my time to make things better.
as long as there are others making more off my labour than I do
This could be also be reached by working for a non-profit ;)
I do volunteer for one!
But this is a very good point. Will refer back to your comment when this midlife crisis reaches its peak. Thank you, kind friend!
Satisfied enough, I guess. I make a little over half a million a year. Thing is, I burn about $30k/mo right now trying to keep my small businesses afloat (debts from mid-covid, payroll, medical benefits for employees). A little less than $10k/mo goes to my own bills, savings, retirement, health, etc. Rest usually goes back to the community or local charitable causes.
I take zero money out of my businesses and haven’t for 3 years or so now.
What would be great is if I could get back to where the businesses are self-sustaining, but the last few COVID years changed so much that I’m beginning to doubt it’s possible and at the moment I don’t have the heart to just shut them down or leave the employees without a job.
But, I can’t work 80 hours+ a week forever. I have a family too. I think it will help once the debts are paid off, but just trend/trajectory-wise it will still take some additional foot traffic and sales growth that I’m just not sure will happen anymore.
Living well on 60k. No student debt helps a lot.
On my side, I am happy with my current salary.
When I started working, I was always looking for the next raise, because I felt like I was never making enough.
Now I feel like I have enough money to live a good life and save enough to feel safe, so pretty happy at the moment.
I just started going Independent in my field and the earning potential is way higher this way so yes I am happy with my wages. However the job security is way lower and networking is super important. It makes me kind of nervous but last year I made 5x what I did the previous year, so I’m hopeful that I can keep that trend up. Unfortunately this year has turned out to be a lot slower and more tedious than last year, so I had to revise my expectations. Being independent has given me so much more freedom though I don’t think I would ever want to go back to working under someone else.
