The lowest salary most workers will accept is now almost $80,000

[RedGuard]

My wife makes about 9600 euros a year as a medical resident in Romania. And people complain about 80,000 being the bear minimum.

 

[godrilla]

Pay goes up but soon inflation catches up and that pay raise puts you back to square one. There is no end.

How many people would actually break through this cycle willingly by picking up overtime, learning new skills, applying for new jobs ( where jobs might not be greener on the other side), pick up a manager's position or position of administration where you are salaried instead of working for a wage etc etc? Most people especially the demographic in the survey rather have a comfortable 9 to 5pm job, with union position that is not salaried, with maximum job security. I was in a union position was 7 years and broke through this cycle by taking up a supervising salaried position with no job security to end that cycle personally.
Some people here are relying on their spouse to make ends meet, my wife just got here hours cut by 10 hours per a 2 week paycheck in NY but she is working for a wage and not salaried either.
People say that money doesn't grow on trees but if it did how many have the will power to grab a ladder and get to Elon Musks status ( doesn't wait for the apple to go to him )

 

[hwertz]

I guess my question is if they were asking people *in* New York, or nationally?

I've heard how pricey things are in New York City (high apartment costs; if you have a car you're highly likely to be paying for space in a parking garage, if not you'll be paying subway or if you're rolling in it cab fees all month. And so on.) Yeah if I lived there I probably would want an $80,000 minimum.

Where I live in the midwest? The city has some of the highest rents in the area, and apartments are $600 (for a very cheap one) thrrough like $1500-2000 for a high end one. But I live in a trailer park with lot fee of $325. You could rent a 10-20 mile drive out of town and be paying $300-$900 for those apartments. No kidding. Ample free parking (there's parking meters and ramps down town but free everywhere else), lots of people walk or bike, and the city recently made the bus system free of cost too. If you were making $80,000/year here you could really live the high life.

 

[hwertz]

Fuel... I paid $5.059 a gallon yesterday for regular....

Not to brag, but (subsidies, Iowa being a corn-growing state and ethanol is made from corn) the E85 at the station near where I live is $2.60 a gallon, If I run full E85 I get about a ~15% drop in MPG but save just under 40% on fuel cost per gallon. If I run roughly 50/50 blend, I get a 15% *increase* in MPG (I.e. 30% increase over running all E85) and just under 20% fuel cost per gallon savings. (I also get noticeably stronger low end torque and horsepower.) The car's turbocharged, so I suppose it enjoys running on 100+ octane fuel.

 

[bobc4012]

While the survey may have been only those in NY, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island are all high wage states. Just looking at the average salary across all 50 states, it is over $50,000 in 46 of the states. Only Arkansas, Mississippi, South Dak. and West Va are below and South Dak and West Va. are $49K+. See: https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/average-salary-by-state/ .

So this is just 1 worker, so with a now-typical two-income family, your looking at $100K (to $150K+). So I can see why a single person may ask for $80K as most of their expenditures aren't going to be that much lower than a two income family.

The people who are suffering are those who are on SS, maybe have a pension (many with no COLA) and have some savings set aside.

 

[hwertz]

And really, other than cost of living, a good reason to demand higher salary these days is to have some savings for retirement.

In decades past, many companies that had pension plans do not any more (the percentage that do has declined since the 1970s); generally they eliminated the pension plan for new employees without any raise in pay, sometimes with no replacement, sometimes with a 401K (where basically the employee is expected to put in the money rather than the company.) Even companies that do have a pension, there've been enough over the years that (usually illegally) raided their pension plans, and enough others that (usually also illegally) try to force people out as they approach retirement to avoid paying the pension they owe them, that I'm not sure I'd rely on that if you do have it. In addition, I recall getting a letter from the social security administration probably close to 20 years ago (when I was getting something like $8 an hour, and almost 40% of my income was being pulled off to go into social security...) admitting that MAYBE I would be able to get 50% benefits by the time I retired. There's also plans now to raise the retirement age to 70.

 

[VcoreLeone]

And really, other than cost of living, a good reason to demand higher salary these days is to have some savings for retirement.

In decades past, many companies that had pension plans do not any more (the percentage that do has declined since the 1970s); generally they eliminated the pension plan for new employees without any raise in pay, sometimes with no replacement, sometimes with a 401K (where basically the employee is expected to put in the money rather than the company.) Even companies that do have a pension, there've been enough over the years that (usually illegally) raided their pension plans, and enough others that (usually also illegally) try to force people out as they approach retirement to avoid paying the pension they owe them, that I'm not sure I'd rely on that if you do have it. In addition, I recall getting a letter from the social security administration probably close to 20 years ago (when I was getting something like $8 an hour, and almost 40% of my income was being pulled off to go into social security...) admitting that MAYBE I would be able to get 50% benefits by the time I retired. There's also plans now to raise the retirement age to 70.

I hate the US private model. I pay 9% health insurance,which is quite a lot, but last year I had craniotomy, tumor removal, proton therapy, now finished complimentary preventive PCV regimen - all paid by state in friggin Poland. The medication I need to take twice a day is almost fully refunded. Check up RMIs will be refunded till the end of my life. If I had private insurance, I'd be screwed, it wouldn't even cover half of proton therapy costs (a room for 7-8 weeks in another city where they have the proton machine cost me zilch too, as the oncology institute has a contract with a local hostel to accomodate their patients), let alone the rest. All was easily arranged, no paperwork, they just transfer you from one place to another for continuation. Of course I still pay about 10 dollars worth of private insurance contribution a month, have been for 11 years, and got 3200 usd worth of compensation, which was just extra money as my medical procedures were refunded already.
Same goes for pensions, my mother worked as a secretary in a school, now she gets state pension that was initially as high as salary, now she gets reevaluation every year, so at least a large portion of inflation is covered.Of course that required paying monthly contributiuons, but what doesn't. and she is still covered by medical insurace same way as I am.
I am stunned when right wing in US calls that "socialim", to me that's just taking care of your people without letting 3rd party insurance scam you. By their definition, public roads are socialism, I should be allowed to choose to bring my own private road on a trip with me.