How much do you earn?

[deadsuperhero]

I'm a professional patty flipper (a McDonald's Worker), and I make about 7 bucks an hour. On average, I work about 20 to 30 hours a week, and I get paid every two weeks.
So, if we take 25 hours, double it, then multiply by 7, I get...
About 350 every two weeks. But, it's a crap job. And also, they take about 40 bucks out of my paycheck for income tax, and stupid stuff like that.

[Timosity]

Same as Darth, My mum is a teacher and my younger sister is a Special Ed teacher (teaching kids with disabilities) So I've always respected teachers (except on a few occasions when I was a rebellious teenager)

My mum worked hard over the years, also got her masters degree and loves it, She's a Principal these days at a Primary School and the pay is significantly higher as a principal. She's still enthusiastic and motivated and works way outside the hours (probably 2 or 3 nights a week home after 11pm [meetings and other principals events {probably including free food and alcohol}], she's hardly ever home when I try to call) I don't know how she does it.

So if you're passionate about teaching, and take on other roles instead of just teaching your classes and heading home, eventually you'll gain experience and work your way up the ladder, maybe even end up working for the department of education (or whatever your countries equivalent is). So as with most jobs, there is chance for higher earnings if you achieve

It depends what you want to get out of it, If you like getting paid for more holidays than most jobs, enjoy helping others, and have enough money to pay all expenses, who cares what you get paid.

I earn less than a teacher, Work as a Meter Reader, reading electricity meters (used to read water meters but my company just lost the contract with the water company, luckily they have other contracts and moved me onto another contract instead of just letting me go), walking 15-20km per day. I enjoy walking round, and keeps me fit. I've been doing it for over 3.5 years, If I stopped this job, I'd probably put on weight really fast.

[suncrafter]

About $60 a day as a webmaster.

[m0ds]

The highest paid job I was on was £12k as a web developer kinda person but that only lasted 2 months. I've never seen more than £1k in my bank at any one time :p At the moment I'm generally living on about £60-80 a week working as a barman. When I get film jobs then pay is greater, but only short-term. The job I've done recently has paid me about the same as my £12k job would've done, but of course it only lasts a couple of months. I really don't earn that much but I'm okay with that. I live for the now and do what makes me happy...I find it way too hard to save, so im just counting on getting rich someday :p I've generally been trying since I was about 4 to find ways to make money myself. But they've never really gotten off the ground.....yet!1

Teacher jobs seem quite well paid and there's been adverts here recently saying you start on nothing less than 20k or something. Supply teaching is also well paid. I once wanted to be a teacher but sadly there's just no discipline in kids esp in mixed sex secondary schools these days in the UK and I know under many circumstances I'd just want to hit some of them. So probably not wise to become one :p Though, when I was at school, there were some incredibly cool teachers. But they were generally the ones teaching non-academic subjects

[radiowaves]

I'm a professional patty flipper (a McDonald's Worker), and I make about 7 bucks an hour. On average, I work about 20 to 30 hours a week, and I get paid every two weeks.
So, if we take 25 hours, double it, then multiply by 7, I get...
About 350 every two weeks. But, it's a crap job. And also, they take about 40 bucks out of my paycheck for income tax, and stupid stuff like that.

Income tax you say?

Do you actually know there is absolutely no law about it, that basically it doesn't exist and is a fraud? If you stop paying it, nothing happens, go and see. And its even more pathetic if they pay it automatically from your paycheck..

[SSH]

Income tax you say?

Do you actually know there is absolutely no law about it, that basically it doesn't exist and is a fraud? If you stop paying it, nothing happens, go and see. And its even more pathetic if they pay it automatically from your paycheck..

The Estonian system may well be slightly different... The employer will be prosecuted if they don't do PAYE (automatic tax) here, and for those who work as contractors and are paid gross, I know plenty and Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs certainly DO chase them up for their income tax.

btw 35k plus bonuses

minus tax, national insurance, pension, share scheme, mortgage, kids, food etc leaves me with about -£200 per month...

[radiowaves]

Income tax you say?

Do you actually know there is absolutely no law about it, that basically it doesn't exist and is a fraud? If you stop paying it, nothing happens, go and see. And its even more pathetic if they pay it automatically from your paycheck..

The Estonian system may well be slightly different... The employer will be prosecuted if they don't do PAYE (automatic tax) here, and for those who work as contractors and are paid gross, I know plenty and Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs certainly DO chase them up for their income tax.

btw 35k plus bonuses

minus tax, national insurance, pension, share scheme, mortgage, kids, food etc leaves me with about -£200 per month...

I am not talking about Estonian system! OIn that particular post I was talkind percicely about income tax in USA, which is a fraud.

[Darth Mandarb]

I was talkind percicely about income tax in USA, which is a fraud.

Tell that to Al Capone...

[Pumaman]

In that particular post I was talkind percicely about income tax in USA, which is a fraud.

I quite agree. I'd much rather employ my own security guard, fireman and doctor than contribute to a shared system through taxes.

[InCreator]

I quite agree. I'd much rather employ my own security guard, fireman and doctor than contribute to a shared system through taxes.

Yeah, at least they would get their job done properly.
But that wouldn't be reasonable because in current system, one doctor, policeman or fireman serves hundreds of people. Also, you probably cannot afford them anyway. Of course, in current system, they fail more often. But your private crew would spend most of their time slacking off, unless you light a fire, catch a disease and get attacked at daily basis 
Or... do you?  :o

Income tax isn't a fraud, it's a nice reminder for us workers that there are people who don't want to work and prefer to take trips, drive jeeps, throw dirt at each other and argue about nonsense instead of working. If there's perfect society, it's for politicians. Also, they need money to maintain security, such as police or military to keep you from rebelling against them. That's why I hate democracy. My perfect society would be if people could HANG any leaders or representatives they don't like, without court, simply by majority vote. A great motivator, isn't it? But that's not likely to happen, so enough offtopic...

[shbaz]

In that particular post I was talkind percicely about income tax in USA, which is a fraud.

I quite agree. I'd much rather employ my own security guard, fireman and doctor than contribute to a shared system through taxes.

We do employ our own doctors, half our taxes go to "defense," which is a fraud and massive waste.  Not just because of superfluous wars but because of overspending, no-bid contracts to cronies, etc.  We can just help each other out and have socialized medicine, instead the president vetoes a bill that would give lower class children medical insurance because, "Some of the parents can afford to pay for a medical insurance plan."

You should watch "Sicko," Micheal Moore's latest.

[MillsJROSS]

I was talkind percicely about income tax in USA, which is a fraud.

This is only half-true. To become eligible for not paying taxes, in the US, you have to separate yourself from social security, credit cards, and you can't check mark that you're a U.S. citizen. There's a bunch of legal jargon to go with it, but it's not really worth it. Many of the freedoms offered by the constitution are signed away unknowingly. The fact that tax is taken out of my paycheck has never really stuck me as a bad thing. I enjoy driving on clean roads, I enjoyed a state run education. There's far too many things that go into taxes that I do agree with. Not to mention, I'm a State employee, so I'm kind of paid through peoples taxes.

Trust me, I'm not that kind of person who whines about his poor lot and yearns for riches. With this thread I just wanted to address an issue; why a certain profession (highly academic and with a key function in society) is considered so little worth. I don't know what good the argument "it has always been like this" does, or what your boss's comment was meant to achieve.

I don't know that I'd agree that teaching is considered less worth because of its salary. I think most of the problem stems from working in a state run, or government run job, where there's far too much people they have to worry about getting an education, that they're more willing to take people who really aren't qualified to teach. It's not a competitive market, so they give out a base pay for everyone. I'm sure there are many private schools that work much more like a corporation. Where its goal it to get the best it can, and pay them a better wage (Not necessarily). Of course, the state benefits are generally fairly nice.
The problems that can arise, sometimes, is that a teachers salary may not be affected by cost of living in the local area, whereas, in some locations a teachers salary can comfortably be lived with.

I get paid $25 an hour of work, 40 hours a week. But I don't have benefits, and I only get paid for hours I work, even if there is a holiday. I can work on holidays, weekends, or whenever I feel like it though. So a holiday doesn't have too much affect on me. I'm a computer programmer, mostly working on web development, and web applications for the state. I do plan on supplementing my income by doing some web development for the local area or whomever asks. The area I live in now, allows for me to live comfortably with my income. But I have roommates, which help with rent, and I don't have a family I have to support.

The most important thing, though, is I completely love what I am doing, and I enjoy the people I'm working with. I feel like I'm valued as a person rather than a cog in the machine. And I prefer this job to the five years prior as a bagger/cashier.

-MillsJROSS

[Domino]

The person who lives above me is a private school teacher, and i make more money than he does.

I make about $34,000 a year USD.

At least the guy who lives above me gets a nice 3 month vacation during the summer time.

My dad was a teacher for about 30 plus years at a public school and was making well over $50,000 USD a year.

I am a salaried employee and i get benefits including health insurance and little extra's here and there.

I am not making great money, but it is enough for a single person like myself to live decently.

[shbaz]

One of my teachers had a Masters degree and made $23k a year.. and it definitely wasn't because he was a bad teacher, he made more than any of the other teachers.

Just saying, because teacher pay strongly varies by state in the US.

[Gregjazz]

Although there is technically no law in the tax code which states you must pay federal income tax, it's a wise idea to pay it anyways. Many people have spent time in prison for not paying this tax. Unless you know what you're doing (like that lawyer who won the court case regarding not paying his federal income taxes), I would highly recommend against ignoring the tax.

[Sparky]

Re: heated debate- I don't have particularly strong feelings about tax one way or another. Living in the USA, I do find myself regretting that my taxes contribute to funding our armed forces. But I have no compunctions about paying for wellfare, public schools, civil services, etc.

In general I'm not very interested accruing vast sums of wealth. As long as I'm healthy and able to do the things that matter to me, money is a non-issue.

I work as an assistant to disabled people. I make 15 UDS per hour (10.6 EURO), and work around 10 hours per day. I'm not working this semester, as I am back is school (yay). My parents are kindly covering my expenses so I can focus on schoolwork, though I do some freelance art on the side.

As a side note, the cost of living frugally here is about 450 USD (318 EURO) for rent, another 50 USD (35 EURO)  for utilities, and 150 USD (106 EURO) for food.

[RickJ]

I'm not dumb, I knew exactly what I was getting myself into, and could have chosen a much different route if I wanted to simply become loaded. I had the grades to enter lawschool or become a dentist, and I believe I have the brains necessary for economics.
Trust me, I'm not that kind of person who whines about his poor lot and yearns for riches. With this thread I just wanted to address an issue; why a certain profession (highly academic and with a key function in society) is considered so little worth. I don't know what good the argument "it has always been like this" does, or what your boss's comment was meant to achieve.

As some of the others explained, my boss's comment was meant to illustrate that teacher salaries are obviously not too low because there has never been a lack of people willing to do the work for the amount of money offered (except in rare cases such as the one CJ mentioned).   Perhaps a better question is to ask why you are willing to work for so little.  Why would you expect someone would want to (or be compelled to) pay more than the asking price? 

People would still be doctors even if they're wages were cut in half. People would still practice law and economy even if lawyers and economists were paid the same as teachers.

Yes but I would wager not as many people would still want to become doctors or lawyers as did before the wages were decreased. 

I did a quick google to compare starting engineering salries with starting salaries.  I found a recent Wall Street Journal article discussing engineering salaries and I found the published starting salaries for the Chicago Public School System.   The Wall Street Jourrnal article is about a year or so older than the CPS salary schedule survey but I don't think things could have changed drastically in  that short of time frame.

http://www.collegejournal.com/salarydata/engineering/engineering.html

Another survey, this one from 2005 by Engineering Workforce Commission (EWC) of the American Engineering Association of Engineering Societies Inc. in Washington, D.C., reports that engineers with bachelor's degrees and less than a year of experience earn a median annual salary of $49,957. Electrical and civil engineers with bachelor's degrees and less than a year of experience earn a median annual salary, respectively, of $50,000 and $39,500. Mechanical engineers with bachelor's degrees and less than a year of experience earn $42,131 in median annual salary, EWC reports.

http://www.cps-humanresources.org/Careers/salary.htm

Starting Salary (Bachelor's Degree)     
School Year -- 40 Weeks/193 days    
$43,233    

Starting Salary (Master's Degree)
School Year -- 40 Weeks/193 days
$46,228

According to this quick and dirty reasearch there doesn't seem to be that much of a difference.   If it's the difference in the amount of time worked is taken into account (typically beginning engineers in the US work 50 weeks rather than 40)  then the starting teacher salary of $43000 is equivalent to about (50/40 * $43000) or $54000.   And phleasee don't start talking about grading papers etc, etc. after hours.   I can count the number of 8 hr days I've worked (in my 20- years as an engineer) on my finger and toes.     Admittedly this is an oversimplified analysis based on a couple random google results but I don't believe it's that far off the mark.   I don't have anything against teachers but I don't think their lot is as bad off as they often claim.

[Andail]

As some of the others explained, my boss's comment was meant to illustrate that teacher salaries are obviously not too low because there has never been a lack of people willing to do the work for the amount of money offered

That's a rather cynical and arrogant statement. You can not measure how much people are worth simply by how prone they are to go on strike. There can be various reasons for why you'd want to give people the money they deserve.
At least in Sweden, the declining quality of the (at least on elementory level) schools has been a hot topic for well over a decade. Kids don't learn to read or write, nor do maths, properly.
Raising standards in schools should be a priority to everyone, and one way is to stop cutting their budgets. People are less inclined to do a good job if they feel they're overlooked or too badly paid.

I don't think teachers are worst off, far from it, women (or the few men in that sector) caring for the elderly, sick or young have been consistently under-paid forever (and consequently, you'll often hear about how bad state the health care's in, etc). It's all connected, and it has to do with which kind of society you want to live in.

[Becky]

I don't think teachers are worst off, far from it, women (or the few men in that sector) caring for the elderly, sick or young have been consistently under-paid forever (and consequently, you'll often hear about how bad state the health care's in, etc). It's all connected, and it has to do with which kind of society you want to live in.

I'll agree with that.  My mum has worked for several years as a social worker/carer in respite homes and schools for children with severe physical and mental disabilities, from the ages of three to adulthood, and it is one of the most underpaid and underappreciated jobs.

[Stupot]

I'm unemployed.. woohoo.
I just got back from Japan a week ago and upon arrival in England I checked my bank account and had £10.20... plus about £100 worth of spare yen, which I swiftly changed up and spent at the weekend as it was my old man's Stag night (him and mum are finally tying the noose... err, I mean knot!).

So currently I'm earning absolutely ziltch. Jobhunting is on hold as I've decided to look into joing an access to higher education course so that I can increase my chance of going to uni next year... which I shouldve done 6 years ago when all my frineds were doing it.. what a dick... oh well.