how much money do you make? by Alison Green on January 29, 2014 That’s a pretty crass headline, isn’t it? Which is exactly the point. People don’t like to be asked what they make, and so it’s hard to find real-world information about what jobs pay, tailored to a particular industry and geographic level. Online salary websites are often inaccurate, probably because they generally don’t account for the fact that job titles can represent wildly different scopes of responsibility. You can ask around in your field, but that doesn’t always pay off, and it’s especially hard if you’re just starting out. So, as suggested by a commenter last weekend, let’s take some of the mystery out of salary. If you’re willing to play, leave a comment with the following information: your job (the more descriptive the better, since job titles don’t always explain level of responsibility or scope of work) your geographic area your approximate years of experience your salary anything else pertinent to put that number in context Update: Please put your job title as your user name, which will make it appear in bold, which will be easier for people to scan. (Assuming you want to be anonymous, don’t put your email address in the email field if you don’t want it linked to your Gravatar, if you have one.) And if you’re willing to note whether you’re a man or woman, that might be interesting too! And no snarking on anyone’s salary, because that is rude. You may also like:how to find out what salary you should be makinghow much money do you make?how much money do you make? { 2,035 comments }
amp2140* January 29, 2014 at 11:03 am Title: Instrument Inventory Analyst. Basically I work in asset management for a third party that sits at a pharma and takes care of their instruments. Geographic Area: NJ Years of Experience: Been here 18 months, was hired in Nov. Salary: $45,000
Feed Fido* January 29, 2014 at 7:57 pm Question for all: how much (percentage) do you pay for healthcare? I found I make much less due to insurance. As in I pay 17% of my income for family coverage.
danr* January 31, 2014 at 10:10 am Keep track of all your medical expenses and next to what you pay for each item, track what your insurance paid and the actual cost before any insurance discounts. Then think of paying for all of that upfront.
Hunny* February 3, 2014 at 5:35 pm Internet manners 101: Don’t comment on the top post in an effort to get more views and redirect the conversation. Just post your question by itself. My answer: I pay 15% of my health insurance, which equals 1% of my salary.
System Librarian - Academic* April 29, 2014 at 10:11 am Title: System Librarian – responsible for electronic resources and staffing and accreditation Geographic area: Mountain Plains Years of Experience: 35 years total; 5 in this job Salary: $80,000
Nicole* January 29, 2014 at 11:05 am Development associate (fundraising) Northeast Ohio. 6 months internship experience, other part time jobs through school $35,000 non-exempt Fantastic health insurance, however super low retirement contribution
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:07 am $130,000 Lawyer at a small, public-interest side regulatory firm in Washington, D.C. 5 years experience.
ANON1* January 29, 2014 at 11:08 am Title: Senior Research Analyst Description: Data Analyst for Consulting firm. Primarily use statistical software to analyze data. Some client interaction responsibilities. Experience: 3 years, with Bachelors degree. Salary $70K. Overtime at straight-time. Often required to work 50-60 hours/week. Location: Metro DC Area
anon for this one* January 29, 2014 at 12:27 pm Can I ask what type of data you are working with and what field your undergrad was in? I have a master’s degree in epidemiology so I have graduate level biostatistics training and I’m curious to see how transferable my training is to other (potentially more lucrative) fields.
Mike C.* January 29, 2014 at 1:53 pm I’d love to hear the answer for this as well, but it’s always been my experience that when non-math people know you’re a “math person”, you’re basically a wizard. You have to be able to tell them how your skills will help them, but once that connection is made you’re golden.
anon for this one* January 29, 2014 at 2:45 pm This made me laugh out loud because I am far from a math wizard (seriously, calculus and physics were my mortal enemies), but stats is a little bit different, plus I’m familiar with SAS and SPSS, with vague understanding of R. My strengths lean more towards study design, but data is data.
Clinical Research Associate* January 29, 2014 at 4:08 pm I’m starting an epidemiology MS in the fall and this is my impression, too. My goal is to really double down on the stats coursework, because in my medical research position I’ve noted that even many of the MDs I work with have no idea about stats. These are very intelligent, highly educated people in other areas, and not only are the dependent on the statistician to come up with the results, they’re dependent on a combination of the statistician and me to explain them and ask for the right thing. According to the BLS statistician jobs are growing much faster than epidemiologist jobs (revised from last year, when they were growing about the same– this change is due to strapped state and local government budgets) and pay more. My research and the small number of statistician contacts I have suggest that this is an appropriate backup plan for people who can’t find or don’t want epidemiologist jobs.
Clinical Research Associate* January 29, 2014 at 4:09 pm I should add that epidemiologist jobs aren’t thought to be sluggish, just about the same as job growth overall. State and local governments are still interested in them but may not be able to hire them. Statistician jobs are projected to grow much faster than all jobs. Last year both jobs were projected to grow much faster than all jobs.
anon for this one* January 30, 2014 at 9:28 am True story, I’m amazed at the number of brilliant scientists and physicians who look at you like you sprouted an extra head when you explain a statistical concept to them. My friend with an MSc epidemiology is a research assistant/analyst and she’s taking over some stats work…they are currently paying a consulting biostatistician $98/hr to do a pretty basic analysis. She’s not getting paid similarly, unfortunately…that’s why they hired someone with an epi background!
anon* January 30, 2014 at 9:36 am This is actually my job — doing the statistics for MD researchers at a large hospital. (I have an MPH.) Very intelligent people, very good at medicine, absolutely awful at study design and completely lacking in basic knowledge of statistics. I swear, over 50% of my time* is spent trying to explain to the doctors I work with that no, twelve people is not an adequate sample size, and no, running an experiment thirty times and getting a significant p value one time does not mean that that one experiment is valid and the other 29 are not. *not an actual statistic
anon for this one* January 30, 2014 at 1:44 pm Try explaining proper survey design and methodology to an MD with no research background….ugh.
Melissa* February 10, 2014 at 2:26 am I just wanted to say that I love this thread because this is what I want to do – I have a BA in psychology and will have a PhD in public health in a semester, and I discovered biostats in grad school. I do freelance consulting and teach stats workshops, but it’s great to see comments from working statisticians.
Drug Safety1* May 27, 2014 at 12:45 am Hello all, I work in drug safety/PhV. I am also from a non-math background. Could learning about biostatistics also help my career line? I am still a beginner at my current job, so thinking of diversifying my future options. As I work full-time, I dont have time to attend a course in college. If I do learn biostatistics, SAS/SPSS by myself, would it be appreciated by employers?
ANON1* January 29, 2014 at 5:39 pm I have undergrad degrees in Economics and Statistics. I work with SAS mostly. http://www.bateswhite.com/experience.php?CaseID=45 is a close competitor who probably pays slightly more than what my company does.
alsoanon* January 30, 2014 at 5:42 pm My husband has a PhD in applied mathematics, but his focus was biostatistics. He also works in market research as a data analyst. He also makes quite a bit more than this (almost twice as much), but with more education and experience. He used to work in consumer packaged goods and now works for the pharmaceutical industry, putting his biostats interest to use. It’s a good field.
Darcie* January 29, 2014 at 3:44 pm I’m curious what your undergraduate education is in. I was applying for similar jobs with my BSc Math.
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:08 am Job: Quality Systems Specialist – Metrics/Business OPs/Process Improvement/Regulatory Work Area: Pacific NW Experience: 2.5 years here, 3 years in related industry Salary:~$70,000 + 401K matching + Salaried Overtime + Health + Yearly/Emergent bonuses.
Anonnynonny* January 29, 2014 at 3:34 pm If you’re willing to share – can you expand on education/ certification? Thanks!
Anon* January 30, 2014 at 9:45 am I have a BS in Math/Biology, but big thing was simply experience. I started out doing quality/regulatory/calibration work in the lab sciences world, and then transferred that experience to aerospace. A lot of what helped was just gaining experience in environments where you had to work under ISO/cGMP/etc conditions. Getting used to all the record keeping, the paperwork, following SOPs and so on. Then, it’s all about understanding why those systems are in place and how to apply them in a safe, meaningful and efficient manner.
Anonnynonny* January 30, 2014 at 3:16 pm Thanks, I was curious as this looks a lot like my job/title/experience and geographic area. Plus I wondered if maybe my cousin reads AAM too.
Anonnynonny* January 31, 2014 at 3:48 pm Nope, not there, just in Quality. It’s my cousin who works to AS 9100 (Rev C). My background is ISO 9001:2008, and my current org works to yet another standard based on ISO 9001 but tailored for the type of work we do. I’m researching to see what professional certification would be best suited for my org’s (and my own) needs. Thanks again!
Quality Engineering Analyst* February 4, 2014 at 10:43 pm Are you connected with ASQ (American Society for Quality)? They have some of the most well-respected certifications in our area of expertise. (I work with ISO 9001, as well.)
A Reader* January 29, 2014 at 11:10 am $34,000 Marketing/Digital Marketing Manager, New England Very little experience outside of school (small company)
A Reader* January 29, 2014 at 11:37 am I’m a woman. Doubt this affects my salary. (I think there are absolutely places where it does.)
anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:11 am Senior Finance Analyst for a Fortune 500 company Chicago $100K/year I had 7 years of business experience (not directly in finance), left to attend a top-tier MBA program full-time, and was recruited for this job while in school. I just graduated/started the job last summer. All MBA hires in my “class” were given the same salary, regardless of prior experience.
anon* January 29, 2014 at 12:47 pm No, it’s not entry-level. Without an MBA, you’d reach this level in maybe 3 years. But the pay wouldn’t be the same – more like $50-60K.
Director of Finance* January 29, 2014 at 5:10 pm We start financial analysts with ~3 years experience at $85k. MBAs from a top school with similar experience will start around $100k. This is LA/Orange County, California.
anon007* January 30, 2014 at 1:43 pm Curiosity demands that I ask, which schools have what you consider a top tier M.B.A. program. I would like to plan ahead and attend one of them.
Elaine* January 31, 2014 at 6:12 pm I know for sure that University of Chicago and Northwestern are two of the best in the country. Ivy Leagues, sometimes, also. Penn might be one.
Laufey* February 7, 2014 at 1:48 pm This list does a pretty good job of nailing the top contenders. In general, make certain to look at the placement rates/accompanying intern programs. http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-business-schools/mba-rankings
MBAWife* July 31, 2014 at 9:15 am I agree with that list. However, just Google MBA Rankings. There are about 15 that rotate through the top 1-10 spots, depending on which ranking you’re looking at. Generally though, If they’re in the top 25 they’re ‘top tier.’ 25-50 are ‘second tier’ but you’ll still get an awesome job – they may just not have as many companies that recruit there directly (as in you may have to go out and find your job yourself) but the reputation will still be good. 50+, just be at the top of your class. 100+, don’t waste your money.
MBAGrad* June 5, 2015 at 12:29 am About a year late on this one, but graduated from a “second tier” MBA program. Knowing what I know now, look very closely at the companies which recruit at a specific school and what concentrations they recruit. My school has almost worthless finance recruiting (2-3 companies if I recall) and I’ll be lucky to make 50-60k when I get an offer (its been a month since graduation). In general, go to the best school you can get financial aid to go to. I paid very little out of pocket to get my MBA so even though I won’t be making 100k like a lot of my classmates, I have very little debt.
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:11 am Job: Administrative Assistant I Area: Chicago Experience: 1 year here, several years admin experience other places Salary: $40K
Jamie* January 29, 2014 at 11:37 am I totally agree – I’m loving this! Trying to work up the courage to play!
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:12 am Corporate Librarian Large Canadian City (Downtown) $53,000 1 year of experience Basically I run a small corporate library/reference service.
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 6:50 pm Also a Corporate Librarian, but at a non-prof in a midsize US city. $37,500. I am designing a management system for their electronic files (active and not). They also want me to establish a corporate archive and a records management program. <1 year of experience. Good benefits.
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:12 am Creative Director (in-house) Though I would say that this position includes all communications in addition to graphic design duties. Mid Atlantic 20+ $60,000 Did not include health insurance or retirement benefits. Included 1 week paid vacation and paid holidays
KB* February 1, 2014 at 11:59 am My previous job as well. Topped out at $67,000. Excellent benes. Was “involuntarily retired” after 20 years and my pension tanked.
Anonymiss* January 29, 2014 at 11:13 am Courtroom clerk in Central California, very little experience. I worked as a paralegal for another government agency in a different county during my internship and then some (all for free), and I have an AA degree in Paralegal Studies. I make a little over 35k without benefits, I get all court holidays off and paid, and I get to work with an awesome judge. The downside is that I work outside my home county, so my commute is about an hour each way.
Anonymiss* January 29, 2014 at 11:15 am Forgot to mention there… 5% raise expected after 6 months of service (bumping from T1 to T2), then 5% annually, per court policy, until I hit T6 and cap out.
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:13 am Title: Principal Software Engineer — mostly web application design and construction, working in very senior-level non-management role — no direct reports, but a lot of mentoring and leadership responsibilities. Geographic Area: Outside Boston, MA Years of Experience: 10 Salary: $105,000 With the principal title, I get an annual profit-sharing bonus of up to 10% of salary.
Anonymous - question* January 29, 2014 at 5:32 pm I’m very interested in this field–do you mind expanding a bit more about how you got into it? Thank you!
Prospective Development Employee* January 29, 2014 at 9:13 pm What exactly is a fundraising researcher? I googled it but not much came up that seemed to fit.
In Devo* January 29, 2014 at 10:39 pm Google “prospect research”. There’s a few different aspects to it. But it has to do with identifying potential donors to a non profit and learning as much as you can before you ask them for a gift to increase the chance they will give at a high level. It blends data mining and detective work. Mostly larger fundraising orgs with big individual donor programs will have these kinds of permanent positions. There are a lot of consultants who provide these kinds of services as well.
Non* January 29, 2014 at 11:14 am Title: Business & Community Liaison Duties: Outreach to community organizations, media, elected officials, represent my place of employment on boards, marketing. Area: Pacific NW Experience: 3 years Salary: $40,000 not including benefits.
anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:14 am Administrative Assistant in a University 25 years experience 8 years at this position Arizona 35K
I'll Play!* January 29, 2014 at 11:15 am Title: Project Specialist, which in my case is a catch-all term for “random assortment of administrative responsibilities that require a certain amount of independent thought and decision making”. Geographic area: midwest, urban Years of experience: as an admin: 10+ Salary: $38K
I'll Play!* January 29, 2014 at 11:18 am P.S. Company size: small (~100 professional staff, 30 admin staff)
I'll Play!* January 29, 2014 at 12:38 pm P.P.S. Benefits – middling. 15 days PTO (no separation for sick/vacation), 5 paid holidays, 401(k) contribution and a match that I don’t take advantage of but probably should, health benefits that are good but not as good as my husband’s.
I'll Play!* January 29, 2014 at 5:57 pm Me again, again. I actually went and looked up the 401(k) information and (re)discovered that it’s not a match – it’s a straight 10%-of-my-salary contribution, 3% immediately vested and the balance vesting over 5 years. Or something like that and which, reading on here, I’m realizing is way more impressive than I was giving it credit for in my head.
Also a Project Specialist* January 29, 2014 at 2:08 pm Similar job description, additionally, I supervise two programs with 7 direct reports. State Government, west of the Rockies 7 years at this org, 10 years previous related experience Just shy of $50k, but with a great gov benefits package, which rounds it out nicely.
Annon* February 24, 2015 at 9:28 pm If Project Specialist is also another title for Project Coordinator… then yes I agree with your description of that, and tons of stress from the Project Manager bossing you around dumping all their PM duties on you! They take the easy coast and you’re dumped with the hard work for little pay. Years of experience: 3 months as a User Experience Designer, 5 months experience as Project Coordinator. Pay: $12 per hour, adds up to around $22k a year.
Anne 3* January 29, 2014 at 11:15 am Job: Process manager in finance. I’m responsible for the internal processes surrounding certain types of payments. Area: Europe Experience: 2 years Salary: ~$ 55,000 Context: It’s Europe so I pay lots of taxes on what I earn, but between my country and my work I have good healthcare. I have great benefits like lots of vacation time, flexible hours, great retirement contribution, and I get to take some of my overtime back as extra time off.
Kate* January 29, 2014 at 9:34 pm Are you an American working in Europe? Can I ask what kind of degree you have, and without too many specifics, what kind of organization you work for? I’m about to go back to school for an MBA and I have two dreams: work in accounting (or similar field) and live in Europe. If you’re not American … disregard the above. :) thanks!
Anne 3* January 30, 2014 at 1:57 am Not American, sorry! I work for a bank and I know we do employ some Americans in Europe though, but more so in the UK than in Belgium (where I work).
Anne* January 30, 2014 at 4:49 am Hi Kate – I’m another Anne in finance working in Europe (UK), and I am American! :) If you want to go into accounting, getting qualifications with relevant bodies is a huge point in your favor. The problem is… a lot of them are country-specific, because a lot of accounting practice is country-specific. CIMA is pretty transferable worldwide, if you’re interested in management accounting. There are also some accounting courses you can take which will exempt your from the first few exams for a variety of accounting bodies. So, you might look at starting those, then specializing once you manage to get where you want to be. Last point – look up the visa requirements for places you want to go, NOW, because even having a job offer doesn’t always mean the employer can get you a visa. Good luck!
Europe* February 3, 2014 at 4:52 pm Consider the US government in your job search. For example, the military has bases in multiple European countries and they have jobs where you need an accounting background (job series 0511 and 0510).
Clinical Research Associate* January 29, 2014 at 11:15 am Title: Clinical Research Associate. In my industry, this title usually refers to a “monitor” who works for a drug company or contract research organization, who travels around ensuring that multi-site drug trials are being carried out properly. My job is actually between research assistant and research coordinator (the standard job in my field that most people with my responsibilities do) at a hospital carrying out medical research. My job is probably comparable to a clinical research coordinator at other places. I work for a non-profit pediatric hospital in a department that is just growing its research program, i.e. we don’t have a ton of drug studies or funded projects going on at a time. Therefore I mostly manage investigator-initiated projects that are being carried out using department resources, and am paid out of the same fund that pays long-term support staff. Geographic area: Chicago. Years of Experience: I have 1.5 years of part-time experience as an undergraduate research assistant. I have 4 years of experience in my current role, with one promotion from clinical research assistant to clinical research associate about a year in. Salary: $36,592/year, salaried, with benefits. Other information: Most people with good annual reviews get a 3% “merit increase” per year, which is what I’ve always gotten. 5% is for “outstanding” reviews and is very hard to get. We get a small “results sharing” bonus at the end of the year if we meet patient satisfaction goals and financial goals. This ranges from $300-750 before taxes.
Scary Salary* January 29, 2014 at 11:24 am In my Clinical Research Coordinator days I had so many monitors that I loved! You are awesome for what you do – not an easy job at all and so much travel!
Clinical Research Associate* January 29, 2014 at 3:35 pm I love them too! But unfortunately I am essentially a hospital-based coordinator with a confusing job title. The weirdest part is, our job titles were standardized across my hospital a couple of years before I came– with input from other clinical research folks! So I really don’t understand why this title was chosen.
Sr. Clinical Research Specialist* January 29, 2014 at 7:09 pm Wow. That is a lot lower than I expected. Not trying to make you feel bad. I just expected that salaries in Chicago would be comparable to Minneapolis, where I am.
Clinical Research Associate* January 29, 2014 at 9:39 pm Definitely not offended; I know it is low. This is for two reasons: we are a non-profit where many departments, not just mine, get away with keeping titles low; and I started this job part-time as a student, did not negotiate, and started at the minimum of my then-range. All raises have been based on that. The coordinator I work with did negotiate, including one better than average raise, and makes about 10K more than me. Our hospital recently had to adjust all our salary levels because so many people were leaving to advance. The consensus among people I’ve talked to in this job is that it still wasn’t enough.
Just a Reader* January 29, 2014 at 11:16 am Corporate publicist for a Fortune 500 company Major New England metro 15 years experience Salary is $100K with a formal 15% bonus structure and other opportunities to earn cash bonuses, RSUs, etc. Corporate salary is much, much higher than PR agency salaries even when levels are comparable.
Anonymous for this* January 29, 2014 at 11:16 am Job: Biostatistician Area: Minneapolis/St. Paul Experience: 11 years, with a PhD Salary: $129,000, no bonus
Scary Salary* January 29, 2014 at 11:26 am I pushed my ex to be an actuary when he had no idea what to do with his math degree. He loves it.
Melissa* February 10, 2014 at 2:33 am LOL, I sometimes lament that I should’ve gotten my PhD in biostats instead of sociomedical sciences. I would’ve preferred the work, IMO. *sigh*
Love This Topic!* January 29, 2014 at 11:18 am Communications Associate (non-profit). Includes writing, social media, development, event management, media, etc. Mid-Atlantic mid-size city 2 years experience $36,000
Program Coordinator* January 29, 2014 at 12:58 pm Just about exactly the same roles as above — the bulk of my work is event planning and coordination, but also includes writing email newsletters, social media, etc. Northeast/New England mid-sized city. This is my first year on the job. Female $35,000
Program Coordinator* January 30, 2014 at 1:31 pm Fair to middlin’ as they say. I’m on my husband’s health insurance, which is MUCH better than what they offer (esp being a religious nonprofit they are free to not cover birth control, etc.). I am also not currently taking advantage of the retirement plan. There is a fairly generous leave package, with two weeks of PTO separate from sick days and personal days, as well as a bunch of paid holidays (MLK, President’s Day, Christmas Eve). On intangible benefits, I also have a great boss and a ton of great coworkers, and my boss is quite generous about comp time for the long hours the events require, as well as respectful of work/life balance.
Anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 11:19 am Chief Operating Officer (second in command, manage day to day operations) Nonprofit $105,000 (started in job at $85,000, have had sizable yearly raises) Washington, DC 15 years of experience
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:49 am You know this makes me appreciate how diverse AAM’s readers are. Everything from college students to a COO.
Gail L* January 29, 2014 at 2:22 pm Awesome. This is what I’d like to do eventually. Mind if I ask what was the position/title that you held before becoming COO?
Ask a Manager* Post authorJanuary 29, 2014 at 6:20 pm This is basically the job I used to have – same field, location, responsibilities, and experience level, although my title was chief of staff (which is one of a few different titles for similar roles). Basically, I started out in an entry-level nonprofit job in my early 20s and worked my way to increasingly responsible positions, until I was at department head level, and then moved into the COO/chief of staff role.
en pointe* January 29, 2014 at 10:38 pm May I ask if you were hired into the COO/chief of staff role or promoted internally?
Ask a Manager* Post authorJanuary 29, 2014 at 10:46 pm Promoted internally. I think it’s very, very hard to hire externally for that role, because as a #2, you need to be really aligned with the executive director and know her brain and how she thinks as well as you do your own. You can get that with someone you bring in from the outside, but it’s much harder and more of a risk.
Elaine* January 31, 2014 at 6:27 pm See Yahoo! for recent COO example. Though, they both came from Google so chances were higher that they’d be aligned well.
Jen* January 29, 2014 at 11:19 am Title: public relations manager Description: More of a project manager than a people manager. Do media relations, public relations and social media Company: Private college Area: Midwest Experience: Roughly 10 years non-profit PR experience Salary: $60,000 Benefits: Health, good retirement, also get free tuition for immediate family and myself.
I'll Play!* January 29, 2014 at 11:36 am That tuition thing is huge if you have a use for it. I’m stalking jobs at my school because they’re awesome, yadda yadda, but also so that I can do my MBA for free in a couple years. :D
JessA* January 29, 2014 at 12:09 pm Tuition Remission is a huge benefit if you can get a job within a university. I know that universities can vary in terms of how much they will cover. I’ve seen cases where they will cover half, to 90% to full-ride. It just depends on the university. After taking out massive loans to complete undergrad (which I just paid off 3 years early – WooHoo!!!) I realize that I don’t want to ever be in that much debt again. Now that I have them paid off, I’m thinking about grad school and considering taking a job in a university so that I can use tuition remission.
CollegeAdmin* January 29, 2014 at 12:50 pm The college I work for will cover the equivalent cost of one of their courses – just under 6K a year. The 1-2 year master’s programs I’m looking at are about 3K per course, and you need to take about 10 courses – so about 30K. The programs are designed to be 1-2 years long, not 5, so I’d have to take out loans to make up the (significant) difference. Make sure you find out what they’re offering before you sign on.
TL* January 29, 2014 at 3:02 pm The college I work for pays for just over 5000 a year – so about 5-ish courses around here. But if you take on of their courses, it’s free as long as your grade is above whatever their cutoff is.
anon* January 31, 2014 at 12:35 am Be careful with the tuition remission for graduate degrees. Under some circumstances the value is considered taxable income.
Jen* January 29, 2014 at 1:24 pm It really is a huge benefit. I don’t understand when people don’t take advantage of it for themselves. I’m able to get my masters for free and I’m willing to stay here a decade or so (if I am lucky enough to) so that my children can get undergrad degrees without taking out any loans. I am STILL paying off my undergrad and have about 7 more years go. When I think of the fact that my kids can avoid all of that, it’s a huge draw for me to stay here for the long haul.
Elaine* January 31, 2014 at 6:30 pm The health sciences/medical school where I work does NOT have tuition remission for employees…only a slight discount for limited classes. I wish!
Gemimi19* October 14, 2014 at 9:24 pm Police officer Long Island NY Salary: 175,000 9 Years experience
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:20 am Supply Chain Manager Chicago 7 years experience 82K/year, very good benefits
SC Manager* January 30, 2014 at 7:51 pm I am also a Supply Chain Manager for a large, global company. $78k, and two years experience. Previously a SC analyst with the same company (1 year). Atlanta area.
Anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 11:20 am Since everybody else is making mad stacks yo let me balance this out! As a lowly customer service person at a ski resort I get $10.50/hr though I do get free skiing and free rentals and huge discounts on food and hotel rooms and stuff. 5 yrs experience and I went to college!
Anonymouse* January 29, 2014 at 11:32 am Lol – I started out in Customer Service, and now I’m a Customer Relations Manager. The money is much better, but those ski perks sounds pretty tempting. If you’re good at cs maybe look into the back end of it – really there is a customer relations angle to all operations.
Anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 12:21 pm I haven’t posted but so far would have one of the highest salaries listed, but honestly? Your job is the type a lot of us dream about day-to-day.
Anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 1:24 pm My job is really fun, being able to pay for food would be nice though!
Low Wage Earner* January 29, 2014 at 1:43 pm Not the OP, but I earn around what they make too. You ever have to let health problems deteriorate and be in pain because you don’t have insurance and can’t afford to go to a hospital? Or eat meat only once or twice a week because it’s expensive? Or make 1.5 hour commutes on public transportation for what would be a 15 minute car drive? Get blisters on your feet because you can’t afford a decent pair of shoes and you have to stand all day? Stress out because you have nothing left to save after paying your rent and bills and wonder how you’re going to get ahead? That’s not even getting into the child or family care aspects of it. I’m not trying to be insulting, just pointing out that no matter how fun a job is, being paid $10.50 an hour (and trying to survive on it- most minimum wage earners are adults, and of those adults they also are disproportionately women and minorities), quickly sucks out the “dream job” aspect of it.
Anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 1:56 pm I will add – I do have experience with medical problems that can’t be solved at any cost. But I take your point.
Low Wage Earner* January 29, 2014 at 1:59 pm Also, I don’t mean to speak on the OP’s behalf. I just feel very strongly about this issue.
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 2:01 pm Yeah, this. It is much easier to dream about how lovely it would be to have a fun, “cool” job when your rent is paid, you have food on the table, and you own a vehicle. And you have things like paid vacation and don’t have to stress about what kind of daycare will take your kid on random shifts. I think most people would rather be daydreaming of a fun job than brainstorming ways to come up with the extra money for the utility bill.
Not So NewReader* January 29, 2014 at 5:41 pm It used to be that minimum wage was supposed to cover your basics. Now it is not even close. Sadly, I don’t think 15-17 an hour can keep a roof over most people’s heads. But your right at that rate of pay it is tough to sleep at night and tough to get up in the morning.
Gjest* January 30, 2014 at 4:16 am I 100% agree with this. I work in a field that I really enjoy, most people in this field are passionate about their work, and is an often quoted “dream job” (I know, I know, doesn’t exist). My last job was with a non-profit. Everyone there was there because they loved the work. However, management took full advantage of that. There was very much the mentality that they could pay us total crap because we should be there solely for the love of the job. However, at some point, I realized that I loved my job, but also liked paying my bills, and did not want to have to be a homeless retired person. I totally understand that non-profit means that you’ll generally make less, but there needs to be some realization from management that you do have to actually make a living wage. I think sometimes people get screwed when they actually do get a job doing something they love.
Anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 2:20 pm My first job out of college was going to the beach to take samples of the water. In LA. I made $15/hr and yes I *did* get to drive on the beach. Best.Job.Ever.
Bartender* January 29, 2014 at 2:30 pm Lowly wage-slave, checking in :) Bartender at a mid-priced national chain in the Chicago area. Salary: $4.95/hr + tips (~$30,000/yr) Benefits: I can opt-in to healthcare (with a too-expensive premium), dental/vision, life insurance, and 401(k) with one year partial match
Another Low Page Earner* January 30, 2014 at 1:09 am Same…I have this jaw problem that I’ve yet to get taken care of because I haven’t had dental insurance in 10 years :( I’ve become to be at a loss of what to do these days :(
Anonymous* January 30, 2014 at 9:29 am If you’re experiencing TMJ, then try taking up running. A dentist suggested surgery for me 10 years back; and somehow in the month between going in, I discovered that lightly relaxing my jaw and running 20-30 minutes made my jaw problems go away! My dentist said the light rhythmic bouncing must have allowed my jaw to just naturally work it’s way free! I know it sounds weird but give it a try, hey you never know and what’s the harm!
Usually not Anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 11:20 am Job: Content Marketing Manager at Fortune 100 company Area: Mid-size city in Midwest Experience: 10 years, plus MFA (gained while working full time) Salary: $80,000 per year with reasonable health and vacation, plus 401K match Much like Just a Reader, this corporate salary is much, much higher than similar communications positions at smaller companies or agencies.
Z* January 29, 2014 at 11:32 am Out of curiosity, does your MFA relate to your job? Was it maybe in creative writing, and that translates to marketing materials?
Usually not Anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 11:45 am Yes, it was in writing (the degree says writing, but I specialized in Fiction). I do a lot of writing and editing in my job — I’m more on the editorial and strategy side than the analytics, sales leads or marketing side.
English Instructor (university-level, non-tenure track)* January 29, 2014 at 1:14 pm I’m an MFA, too!
Another MFA* January 30, 2014 at 9:11 am I’ve got an MFA, too! I posted further down (I work in product strategy and user experience design) and yes, my MFA is related to that work.
Puffle* January 29, 2014 at 6:58 pm Right? We get paid beans. :( (PAs, that is. I’m in the same boat.)
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 12:54 pm That is a healthy librarian salary! I’ve worked as a librarian in three medium sized cities in two different states and that is higher than most manager’s pay! Library Manager Mountain West States 7 years library experience, 5 years supervisory 55k
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 3:08 pm Teacher Librarian Public High school Northern Calif. $74,000 5 years as librarian, 13 years as English teacher Summers and school holidays off.
Another Librarian* January 29, 2014 at 11:52 pm Corporate Digital Librarian MLIS, 3 years experience in digital libraries, 4 years experience as a database manager and web developer 104,000
Another Librarian* January 30, 2014 at 10:27 am Forgot to add: California, large city That’s the going rate for managerial level information science jobs in this area, including DAM, KM, etc.
Another Anon* January 29, 2014 at 4:16 pm Public Library Branch Manager Mid-sized city in California 6 yrs librarian, 1 as manager 75,000
Academic Librarian* January 29, 2014 at 4:27 pm New York Ivy League university 5 years librarian experience $55K
Anon, too* January 29, 2014 at 9:56 pm When I worked for a newspaper in central Pennsylvania, I complained to a librarian that I didn’t enjoy my mid-30s salary because with more than 15 years of experience in the field plus 10 years of related experience, I was still earning less than a starting teacher. The librarian just laughed. She headed a county library system and earned less than I did (although she had better health insurance and more PTO).
Academic Web/Systems Librarian* January 30, 2014 at 1:55 pm Small private liberal arts school in the midwest MLIS, 4 years experience $39,000 and change 12 vacation days, sick leave unofficial – just don’t come in when you don’t feel well, and don’t have attendance problems 401k with match up to 6% of salary Health and dental
Academic Web/Systems Librarian* January 31, 2014 at 1:05 pm Ooh, I forgot – we do get tuition remission for ourselves/family too, not just at our institution but across a network of similar schools in the midwest.
Children's Librarian* February 1, 2014 at 2:59 pm Children’s Librarian (Librarian II) Large city in Texas ~3 years 41k
archivist* February 4, 2014 at 9:19 am government agency southeast $35,000, healthcare, state holidays, decent vacation/sick leave 2 masters degrees (i feel i’m underpaid, but hey that’s what you get working for the government…)
ExceptionToTheRule* January 29, 2014 at 11:21 am Title: Senior Newscast Director Duties: direct daily newscasts as assigned, assist in producing newscasts and special programming, supervise & schedule 5 directors & 5 production assistants, work with the Assistant News Director to make station actually function, serve as Production Manager in everything but title. Education: Masters degree Market: mid-size midwestern market Experience: 17 years Level of awesomeness: Winner of three Regional Emmys. Salary: $44,500
ExceptionToTheRule* January 29, 2014 at 11:40 am I should mention, the only reason I have a masters is because I’m generally not inclined to work nights & weekends for the rest of my life and will someday wish to leave this fabulously ulcer-inducing field.
Former Newscast Director* January 29, 2014 at 12:24 pm I hear you on those nights and weekends work schedule and the ulcer-inducing environment. I had 15 years in when I said “I gotta get outta here. Now.” I should mention I started this career when I was in my 20’s, and thrived in that environment. As I got older, my tolerance for drama thinned out considerably. Went to grad school, in politics now. Traded drama for drama, actually, but it’s all good.
Former Newscast Director* January 29, 2014 at 4:13 pm Yes, there is life after TV. And yes, I still miss it sometimes. But everything’s been good since then. I’m feelin’ ya on the “Production Manager in everything but title” thing. Definitely been there. But your salary is aligned pretty well with what mine was, and we’re in the same part of the country.
AVP* January 29, 2014 at 6:03 pm Question – wouldn’t Newscast Director be a higher title than Production Manager?
ExceptionToTheRule* January 30, 2014 at 12:11 pm Depends on the shop. When we had a production manager, that’s who our directors reported to. They eliminated the job title (and the person occupying the job) and the directors now report to the News Director. Unfortunately, the work the production manager was doing didn’t get eliminated…
ExceptionToTheRule* January 29, 2014 at 12:43 pm I have them on my desk to awe visitors and intimidate new people.
hope to be former radio producer* January 30, 2014 at 5:52 pm Same here, tired of media, the low salaries, crappy hours and slave driver bosses. I produced a successful weekly national radio show and my salary was about the same.
AnonGovvie* January 29, 2014 at 11:21 am I am a mid-level manager of a team of 16 analysts in the federal government. Geographic Area: Washington DC Years of experience: 11 Salary: $113,000 (GS 14 step 2) I also think education might be important, since it affects what pay rate we start at – I have a BA and two masters degrees.
AnotherFed* January 29, 2014 at 3:31 pm Intelligence Analyst – Federal Government 3 letter agency 10 years with agency, 5 years private sector GS-14 Step 2 ($105,000) Largish city in NY (not NYC) MBA in Finance
Sancho* January 29, 2014 at 11:54 pm Do you mind if I ask you, either here or privately, how you got your job?
Current Job Seeker* January 30, 2014 at 11:04 am I’m interested in this as well. The government seems impenetrable
AnonGovvie* January 30, 2014 at 12:04 pm I had a scholarship in college called the David Boren National Security Education Program scholarship – they’ll pay for you to study abroad to study a non-western language and you agree to work in National Security, which also means you get hiring preference. That combined with the post-9/11 hiring binge in national security and it was actually pretty straightforward – I sent my resume and got called for an interview. Security clearance took another 8 months. A lot of it is timing. Right now there’s not much hiring and contracts are disappearing as well. Post-9/11 was just a mad hiring binge.
Ann Nonomous* January 29, 2014 at 11:21 am Title: Grantwriter Geographic area: Chicago Years of experience: In this role, 2.5; with my organization, 6.5 Salary: $63k ($60k base + $3k bonus for additional responsibilities I took on after a colleague’s departure) Incidentally, this was my third role with my organization (a nonprofit) after working my way up through two administrative jobs. When I transitioned to this position, my salary increased approximately 40% over what I’d been making before–and likely wouldn’t’ve gone up that much if I hadn’t done my research/been confident in my abilities because they asked me to name a number first. (I asked for $60k and got $58k, and I’ve gotten a couple annual raises since then.) Always negotiate!
Grantwriter* January 29, 2014 at 12:16 pm Well, it’s too late to change my name, but hopefully this helps. Also, I am a woman (as my silly nom de plume suggests), which is largely why I included all that stuff about negotiation in the hiring process: too many women don’t advocate for themselves, to their detriment.
TempReceptionist* January 30, 2014 at 9:21 am How did you get into grantwriting because that is something I am definitely interested in!!!
Anonymous Too* January 29, 2014 at 11:21 am Job: manage all customer and market opportunity primary research for an online solution provider (customer satisfaction, new product testing, positioning and go-to-market strategy, branding/naming, media communications, ancillary services; focus group, online survey, and IDI findings interpreted for business impact). Northeastern US 25 years experience $125K MBA
Scary Salary* January 29, 2014 at 11:22 am Title: Associate Account Manager (but acting as Account Manager for my clients) for a fairly new start-up healthcare company focused on care management and transitions interventions for high-risk patients post-hospitalization discharge Geographic Area: Boston Years of Experience: Been here since Oct 2012, but have 5 years experience in the healthcare industry from clinical trials to what I do now. Salary: $42,000
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:22 am Administrative Assistant, privately owned hospitality/tourism company with ~1800 employees. North Carolina 5+ years in this job, 9 years working total with two BA degrees $13.31/hour, roughly equal to $27k/year
librarianlady* April 29, 2014 at 8:30 am Hmmm…sounds like that might be Biltmore. I worked there for 7 1/2 years, although not as an admin assistant. Not known for spectacular pay but the benefits used to be good.
Anita* January 29, 2014 at 11:22 am Business development manager, nonprofit professional association, midwest, $75,000 Authority to negotiate contracts on behalf of company Responsible for western hemisphere hired because of my extensive international background and fluency in Spanish Previous job, data quality manager, marketing manager, large manufacturing Fortune 100, mid south, $100,000 with 20% bonus (I miss that job – stupid layoffs that still didn’t improve the stock price) Education: BA English, top 15 school MBA, top 20 school Experience 15 years at Fortune 100 companies in corporate finance, marketing, and operations two years working abroad as a Peace Corps volunteer in the business program
College Career Counselor* January 29, 2014 at 11:52 am Yay, Peace Corps! Evidence that international experience there is valuable in the business world!
A. Muss* January 29, 2014 at 11:22 am Job: Proposal Writer, mostly editing and coordinating copy from different departments, lots of manipulation of MS Word Area: D.C. Experience: 5 in this field; 10 years as a writer/editor in other areas (journalism, tech writing) Salary: $80, 000 plus benefits, 401k, health insurance, vacation, flex-time and ability to telecommute sometimes. Love my manager and the company where I work.
louise* January 29, 2014 at 11:40 am This is a role I think I’d thrive in! (I think, anyway. Really it’s something I’d love to explore more.)
A. Muss* January 29, 2014 at 1:16 pm Hello, colleague!! And yes, Louise, if you have a background as a journalist or writer, you should definitely check it out!
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:22 am Title: Administrative Assistant to the marketing department. I work at the corporate office of a retailer. Geographic Area: Virginia Experience: Entry Level,–very little professional experience, 2 years in part-time retail (cashiering mostly) graduated college in May 2012, extensive experience with college newspaper Salary: $12.50/hr ($26,000/yr), company-paid health insurance, (vision and dental options) after 60 days, 2 weeks PTO
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:23 am Art Director (in-house) One person shop so I do EVERYTHING – sample folders, sales material, customer giveaways, website, Facebook, 2 trade shows a year – the hamsters get tired occasionally :) New York City 20+ $50,000 (it’s on the low end for what I do) half of health insurance costs paid by company, 3 weeks vacation (finally!), they suspended 401K matching last year, pre-tax transportation and health options.
HR lady* January 29, 2014 at 12:55 pm Does 20+ refer to your number of years of experience? And does the job require a large number of years of experience? If so, I’m curious why the salary is so low in New York City.
HR lady* January 29, 2014 at 5:04 pm Anon, I didn’t mean to imply anything negative about you. Being in HR, I’ve always heard that NYC salaries are the highest in the nation (higher than DC, LA, Chicago, SF). But, after reading through most of these comments, I’m thinking that’s not so true. (NYC seems more on par with DC, SF, LA, Chicago). But when I commented on your post, I hadn’t read through the rest of the comments yet.
Not So NewReader* January 29, 2014 at 5:48 pm In some ways people who work in NYC get a raw deal- many hidden costs.
AnonM* January 29, 2014 at 11:23 am Title: Sr. Production Support Analyst. Basically, I do business requirements analysis for a product maintenance department at a web-based software development company. Area: Mid-Michigan Experience: 8 years, just completed my MBA this past year Salary: $68,000 per year, salaried. Includes a projected 4% bonus based on company and personal performance goals.
not usually anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:24 am Geographic location for all of these: Midwest state in a small town with very low cost of living. Current: -Store Manager of *small* (only one other employee currently at my location) retail boutique (and not a high priced one either–just a specialized product that is promoted to your average Target or higher end Walmart shopper). In charge of inventory and ordering, marketing, sales outside of store, keeping the books. -$10/hr (started at 8.50 7 months ago – wage will continue to increase as the store rebounds). No benefits. -Have a Bachelor’s degree in an unrelated field. 2012: -Legal Assistant, $13.50/hr (about $28k/yr), decent health and retirement benefits 2006-2011: -Front Desk Staff at a dental office, started at $8.50, continual raises until $14.50/hr (~30k/yr) 5 years later with great benefits (and a crazy work environment that made the continual pay increases feel like an anchor…)
Just curious* January 29, 2014 at 11:42 pm $8.5o with no benefits sounds very low for a store manager (and even $10 is quite low). Is this typical for the area you are living in? Or did you take the job for the potential salary growth that could occur?
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:24 am – Software analyst. Spend my days analyzing data and writing small amounts of code to solve problems related to national security issues. -Boston area -10 years experience -$105k w/amazing benefits (never work more than 40 hours a week, fully paid medical, dental, vision, 5 weeks vacation, flexible schedule, etc)
Another Reader* January 29, 2014 at 11:25 am Job: Embedded Software Engineer – senior individual contributor, leader within team, mentoring younger employees, directing technical content of many projects along with working on my own projects. At F500 company. Area: Midwest mid sized city Experience: 21 years (+Bachelors & Masters in Engineering) Salary: ~$100k, +bonus target 20%, +401k match(3% automatic, then 1% match for first 3% you put in), +Healthcare plan (not as good as spouse’s so the kids are on that one), -pension was frozen 6 years ago.
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:36 am Crying downthread at my salary which appears to be the lowest so far.
Ask a Manager* Post authorJanuary 29, 2014 at 11:31 am Make sure you’re adjusting for location though! DC and NYC salaries, for example, are going to be higher (in many cases).
Elizabeth West* January 29, 2014 at 11:35 am Yes, and what sounds huge to a Midwesterner won’t go very far in NYC.
Dang* January 29, 2014 at 11:46 am Having lived both in the midwest and east coast, this is VERY true.
Operations and Administration Manager* January 29, 2014 at 2:30 pm Yeah, I feel weird saying my $46k is low, because it would be awesome in the midwest. But it’s NYC. I think if I translated into where I’m from it would be $30k? Enough to be fine, but not a lot of wiggle room.
Associate Marketing Manager* January 29, 2014 at 8:58 pm By timing pay days and rent checks very, very carefully!
HR lady* January 29, 2014 at 12:57 pm I agree. Plus IT salaries tend to be high, and this person has 20+ years of experience and a masters degree. The salary looks totally appropriate to me.
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 4:02 pm Super high. Like ridiculously high if you know what you’re doing. I feel like a complete fraud but it really feels like no one knows or wants to learn how to code some days.
Not So NewReader* January 29, 2014 at 5:51 pm It’s not just that- it the lack of opportunities etc. Where I am 40k a year is doing well. And that is a combined household income. Yeah. sigh….
meesh* February 3, 2014 at 11:16 am Entry Level NYC salaries are not much higher than others I’ve seen. Maybe 1-2k more, but cost of living is so much higher. Broke Entry-Level NYC worker here. :(
Katie the Fed* January 29, 2014 at 11:34 am And don’t forget some industries top out early. Like I’m doing pretty well in the federal government, but salaries max out in the mid-100s (which isn’t exactly pocket change, but it’s not like I can count on going up 8% annually for the rest of my career, ya know?)
Mike C.* January 29, 2014 at 11:40 am If you look at household salary distributions, $50k puts one in the top 50%, $70k is 65% and $100k is 80%. The readership here (at least those posting) is skewed.
Victoria Nonprofit* January 29, 2014 at 12:21 pm Yeah, I’m a little bummed that all the salaries are so high (because I worry that it will make people who don’t earn similar salaries feel less comfortable here). I wonder if the readership is skewed to higher salaries, or whether folks with lower salaries are less willing to share them (even anonymously).
Natalie* January 29, 2014 at 12:31 pm I think it’s more likely that the readership is skewed – the folks in the lower half of the US (particularly under $30K) are far less likely to be in white collar jobs, which I think is the bulk of AAM’s readership, based on previous posts.
tcookson* January 29, 2014 at 2:26 pm I’m a little bummed reading the salaries, but not too much because I know that: – public university salaries are traditionally low – public university salaries for admin. assistants are really low – I chose the salary when I chose the job – The benefits (90% off tuition for myself, 50% off for spouse and children; lots of time off/paid holidays; closed with no expectation of any productivity on snow days; etc.) are worth it to me I’d still like to have all that and a fat salary, though. :-)
Not So NewReader* January 29, 2014 at 5:52 pm I wondered if people making less are less apt to speak up.
Lo how mighty are fallen* January 29, 2014 at 11:38 pm Well, I was never actually mighty in the sense that I earned a Newspaper Guild salary, but I have decades of newspaper experience and was laid off from rural newspaper when I was over 60. I’m a female with a bachelor’s degree in English from a private university. For various reasons, I can’t move out of my area, which is on the rural fringes near a mid-sized city in the mid-Atlantic area. Now I am doing some freelance work. Some work pays well, but the $30 an hour work did a market study and dropped fees by about a third. A lot of the other freelance work comes in around $12 to $15 per hour gross. (These rates also reflects my aversion to aggressive marketing.) Currently doing a temp, part-time job at $14 an hour, but I get to be in a workplace and talk to people, and I still can freelance on the side. While I’m capable of doing the editing and writing for some kinds of technical writing, I lack experience with the types of project management software used in that field. Pay rates I’ve seen in my region are better for technical writing, but many of the positions near here are in software, rather than being projects writing equipment manuals, pharmaceuticals, or other topics. I have been trying to figure out if I can get inexpensive training in project management software.
Dan* January 29, 2014 at 12:49 pm The key though is *household* salaries, which would be the combined income of husband/wife. Trying to compare individual salaries to that number is meaningless.
Mike C.* January 29, 2014 at 1:23 pm It’s a fair point. The BLS has those numbers as well, but I didn’t feel like digging those up.
Jen in RO* January 29, 2014 at 11:53 am I feel bad that I can’t play, since my salary is not relevant at all to the US population… but I’d be really curious to see what a tech writer makes in the States? (And a question: these numbers are before tax, right? So the actual money people get to spend is like 60% of the number?)
CollegeAdmin* January 29, 2014 at 12:01 pm I listed my salary as before tax – I’m pretty sure I get about 80% of it to spend and the other 20% is swallowed by taxes. From what (little) I know of tax law, there’s federal taxes and state taxes (state ones vary), and you get taxed differently based on how much you earn. Tax-knowledgeable people, by all means, correct me if I’m wrong or have left out pertinent information!
Ask a Manager* Post authorJanuary 29, 2014 at 12:04 pm Before tax, yes, and I’d assume for most people the actual amount you can spend is roughly 75% (once you factor in state and federal taxes).
Jamie* January 29, 2014 at 1:54 pm Yep, 25% is the rule of thumb for most people in the US. Even if you’re not seeing the full 75% each week, once you do your taxes after you do your write offs it comes out to close that that for most middle income (which is a huge range – it’s like 50-250K or something like that last I checked) people. Low income people tend to get 100% tax refunds so they don’t pay any taxes and the exceptionally wealthy can pay more – depending on how they shelter.
Mints* January 29, 2014 at 2:13 pm Pet peeve, sorry, but “don’t pay any taxes” is actually “don’t pay any federal income taxes” because everyone pays sales tax and other things (which end up being regressive proportionately)
Victoria Nonprofit* January 29, 2014 at 2:16 pm Just a wee nitpick: Low-income folks sometimes don’t pay *income* taxes.
Jamie* January 29, 2014 at 2:19 pm You and Mints are both correct – I was referring to income taxes only.
Human Resources Coordinator* January 31, 2014 at 4:47 pm Just pointing out that even the lowest income people pay social security and medicare taxes, and don’t get these back. Together they are about 12% of pay.
Anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 8:33 pm Low income people also receive extra money in the US in the form of Earned Income Credit. That may offset all their sales tax for the year too, so they may end up actually not paying any taxes at all.
Coelura* January 29, 2014 at 12:21 pm The tax amount depends on your geography. Typically taxes end up being less than 20% total unless you are on the US East or West coasts in high state income areas. For example, I made just under $200k last year and paid less than 20% in total taxes. But my healthcare is a significant additional chunk of income. Probably around 10%.
Jamie* January 29, 2014 at 1:58 pm Yes – and some Americans lose sight of this when when they hear about this or that thing that’s “free” in Europe – they may want things to be free or government provided, but are they willing to pay the taxes to pay for it? Whether that answer is yes or no is individual, but if they don’t take the higher taxes and lower disposable income into account it’s comparing basketballs and pumpkin muffins – they need to factor in all the data.
Mike C.* January 29, 2014 at 2:45 pm If you go to Costco, they’re roughly the same size. I’m not sure what the issue is here. :p
Jamie* January 29, 2014 at 2:46 pm That took me a minute …my hat is off to you! And they totally are.
Jen RO* January 30, 2014 at 1:17 am Here (Romania, I don’t know about the rest of Europe) everyone talks about salary after tax, so we don’t really get to think about the taxes (I think they’re about 45%). I was really surprised when I learned about the US sales tax, and the fact that you need to do the math to figure out what something on a shelf really costs.
Jen in RO* January 30, 2014 at 4:51 am Adding to what Gjest said below: our taxes include health insurance, unemployment, income tax (and a bunch of other things that I don’t really understand).
Neeta(RO)* January 30, 2014 at 7:42 am At least you didn’t buy something and then wonder what the hell they meant when asking more money due to tax. *hides in embarrassment*
Gjest* January 30, 2014 at 4:28 am On the flip side of this, a lot of Americans look at low taxes compared to Europe and think “yee haw!” but they don’t think of all the out-of-pocket costs that Americans pay (health insurance, education, etc.) that are included in (most?) European taxes. I live in a notoriously expensive northern European country now and effectively pay less than what I paid in the US, because I am not also paying for health insurance. Unfortunately I still have my US student loans…if I had done my education here, I would be paying even less effective tax (if you think of education loan as part of the “tax”)
Elaine* January 31, 2014 at 7:03 pm Yup. I lived in Germany for five years. People also forget their state income tax, ridiculous higher education expenses, crazy daycare expenses, incredibly high health insurance expenses, etc. So yeah, Europeans pay a lot of taxes but still keep about the same (if not more) of their incomes. Plus, wine and beer are way cheaper!
TL* January 29, 2014 at 3:10 pm Ug, and I got sticker shock moving from Texas (no state income tax; decently low sales/property taxes and hardly any gotcha! taxes) to Massachusetts (ridiculously high – for USA – state income tax and gotcha! taxes everywhere.) So it can vary a lot between the states as well.
Jamie* January 29, 2014 at 3:20 pm It’s amazing how much sales tax alone varies. I work in Chicago and live in a suburb – anything I need to buy I buy at home because Chicago pops another 10% on sales taxes. And if I have to stop for gas before heading home, because I forgot to fill up, I put in just enough to make it home so my husband doesn’t have a stroke that I overpaid so much for a tank of gas. (tbf I have no idea what the price difference is, or if it’s tax or just the price, but he gets so upset about it I’m assuming it’s considerable and a weird point of principle for him.)
Accountant, US Gov't.* January 29, 2014 at 4:22 pm My state charges sales tax on groceries, so that really adds to my cost of living–not to mention the stuff I buy tends to be a bit more expensive here anyway. Get tired of hearing how low the cost of living is supposed to be where I’m living now, I used to live in a lower cost area of California and think our money went further there. I’ve heard Texas property taxes are very high, but again, guess it depends on what you’re comparing it with.
TL* January 29, 2014 at 11:30 pm I have no idea if they’re high or not – I wouldn’t be surprised (but property taxes don’t affect me.) Texas does make most of its money from oil and land, as far as I know.
Elaine* January 31, 2014 at 7:07 pm Yes, and they also take more federal money than other states…so we’re subsidizing Texas’ low rates! I’ve got a lot of friends there, so we kid back and forth. :)
Admin Assistant* January 29, 2014 at 3:11 pm @Jen in RO: Not just in Europe, but the taxes in Canada are quite high, too. I make $60K, but after income taxes & my company pension plan are deducted, my after-tax income is $39,000. Quite a difference!
Neeta(RO)* January 29, 2014 at 2:49 pm Don’t I know it? It’s so frustrating, especially because our salary would probably give us away instantly.
Tech Writer in the US* January 29, 2014 at 3:38 pm I’m the Instructional Designer who posted earlier. My first technical writing job straight out of university was for the government, and I earned $33K + health. I then moved to a small town and earned $25K + health at a small market research firm as a technical writer/editor. To be fair, they never had a position like that before and created it for me. It would probably more accurate to say that I was a proposal writer/editor, but that wasn’t my title. However, most tech writing jobs here are contract work, and you can make a lot more money accepting them. I just better liked the idea of a steady and stable job with health insurance.
Jen RO* January 30, 2014 at 1:24 am Thanks! This is interesting to learn. I also prefer stability, so I’m glad contract work is not yet popular here.
The RO-Cat* January 29, 2014 at 4:16 pm Jen, out of curiosity I dug up some power-of-purchase data around the globe. Average monthly wage in Romania, taking prices-taxes-all that into account, would be the equivalent of a $954 monthly wage in the US (versus $3600+ in the US proper, as listed on the statista.com site) My tax return form (freelancing trainer) for the last year is a dime above €10,000 (about $13,700), or about $1,150 per month. Since the power of purchase ratio is roughly 1:3.5 Romania:US (954 vs 3600), I can eat, drink and drive as much as a US employee making somewhat more than $4,000/month (or around 48k per year), taxes notwithstanding. I train corporate people (sales, customer service, management) in sales, customer care, negotiations, communication, various types of management and so on. No benefits, vacation as desired, work from home 95% of the time (the rest is with my clients in the training proper). We can play too (if only for the fun of it), but it takes quite some math.
Jen RO* January 30, 2014 at 1:23 am This is really cool! And then we’d need to adjust for cost of living – I had a coworker from BV and she kept telling me that X salary would be bad for Bucharest, but good for BV… I guess the rent is lower? Because everything else seemed to cost the same.
KireinaHito* January 30, 2014 at 9:28 am I have colleagues who are Technical Writers in Brussels, both as contractors and as permanent employees. Contractors make about 300€ per day, and employees make about 36.000€ net per year plus benefits (which are usually company car, gasoline, complementary health insurance). I’m curious if that’s competitive with Romania?
Neeta(RO)* January 30, 2014 at 9:54 am 36 000 € net/year = 3000€ net/month That’s a huge salary. I think only high-level managers, or people in sensitive military positions earn that sum. But the living in Belgium is much more expensive than living in Romania.
KireinaHito* January 30, 2014 at 10:17 am Yes. Sure it is. It’s impossible to rent a decent 2-bedroom apartment in Brussels for less than 600€ per month :( Plus it’s a bit boring after a while. Yet, I admit it’s not all disadvantages.
Dan* January 29, 2014 at 12:54 pm Don’t feel bad. I’d be willing to leave my $90k job in DC for less money in the midwest. I looked at a job in Ohio and figured that a $10k pay cut would still be a net increase in terms of buying power. I might have a nice paycheck, but I rent a one bedroom apartment 20 miles outside of the city center for almost $1400/mo. That’s for an average apartment — it would not be appropriate to describe my place as “luxury”. Oh, I also borrowed a crap-ton for college — $90k.
kdizzle* January 29, 2014 at 1:12 pm Truth. We rented a 1 bedroom apartment in a DC suburb for $2200 / month. $2200 for 750 square feet? Madness. The cost of living here truly is ridiculous.
Seattle Writer Girl* January 29, 2014 at 2:28 pm Yes, cost of living should definitely be taken into account. I think the average rent in Seattle for a 1-bedroom apartment is now something like $1200/month ($15,000/year). Yikes!
tcookson* January 29, 2014 at 2:33 pm My brother is a Marine stationed in San Clemente, CA and he and his wife were paying $950/mo for a one-bedroom apartment. For that much money here, you can live in a three-bedroom, 2.5-bath house, 2-car garage with a large yard in a nice neighborhood. So the cost of living is definitely lower. My husband’s parents sold their normal, middle-class house in southern California and were able to buy a huge dream house here with the same money.
LK* January 29, 2014 at 2:47 pm That is very true. I bought a tiny two -bedroom condo (850 square feet) at 350k in Arlington (right outside of DC) and my monthly due is around 2k. So cost of living is high here.
Ohio Person* January 31, 2014 at 11:23 am Yep, cost of living variation can be insane. We own a house in Ohio – 1500 sq ft, 3 bed, 2 bath, garage, no basement, fully updated, typical suburbia, good school district – that we purchased for about $140K. Mortgage payment (3.25% fixed) is under $1100/month including property taxes and insurance. Don’t think I could get a small studio in NYC for that.
not myself today* January 29, 2014 at 11:26 am title: senior production editor at large trade publisher area: NYC experience: 14 years at this company–6 in a slightly more junior role, 3 in an equivalent level in another division, 5 in this position salary: $75,000, with very good benefits, occasional small bonuses, and most of the time annual increases in the 2-4 percent range
production editor* January 29, 2014 at 12:08 pm Same poster as above: education: BA and MA (though the MA was in preparation for an entirely different career, so not really relevant) female
Production Editor #2* January 29, 2014 at 1:48 pm This is interesting to know for my general career trajectory. I’m a production editor at a large trade publisher in NYC, as well, with about 5 years’ experience overall (from assistant to current position). Salary: $49,500; very good benefits; annual increases in the same 2-4 percent range
Lore* January 29, 2014 at 8:16 pm To be fair, I should add that I have several times been rewarded with money in lieu of a dangled-but-not-materialized promotion, so I know my salary is high for my job title.
Katie the Fed* January 29, 2014 at 11:26 am You know, it’s not a crass question everywhere. In China it’s totally normal for people to ask you that (and a whole bunch of other things that I think are WAY personal). Here in the federal government we generally know everyone’s grade so we know ranges of salaries.
A Jane* January 29, 2014 at 11:45 am Yeah, same for WA State employees. All the information is available if you simply search by name.
keep changing my name today* January 29, 2014 at 1:33 pm Yeah, also in countries that have had far left governments and where people are still left leaning. The education/salary correlation is really weak, and people don’t really see income as a marker of worth or intelligence. And people are so used to everyone being close to poverty, it’s not a shameful thing. There’s more emphasis on useful jobs, rather than high-paying jobs
literateliz* January 29, 2014 at 2:01 pm Augh, this happened to me in Japan–the principal of my school (I was a teacher) sat down next to me at a work party, said “You sure get paid well, don’t you?” and then proceeded to point out that my salary was twice as much as another young teacher’s (who thankfully was out of earshot, but several other teachers were listening with great interest). I nearly died. It didn’t help that I initially mixed up the word for “salary” with the one for “dinosaur.”
Anon today* January 29, 2014 at 3:00 pm This reminds me, I recently found a web site that lists last year’s pay for every teacher in my state (it said that you can select private schools too, but I don’t know any private school teachers to verity). My sister was not very happy that I could so easily find out what she makes. It seems a little strange, but at the same time I pay their salaries as a tax payer so I should at least know some basic info i guess. I would think maybe title and salary though, maybe not the name tie in.
Marketing Specialist* January 29, 2014 at 4:50 pm A bigger salary is awesome; a bigger dinosaur than your colleague’s would be EVEN BETTER.
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 5:46 pm Gotta love the JET Program! I had similar experiences at my school. Tough to argue with though as I got that nice JET salary with cheap housing costs. Combine that with a strong yen, and I was able to send a lot of money back to the US and kill my student loans once and for all.
Anna* January 29, 2014 at 7:02 pm “My dinosaur is not as big as yours”. The possibility of that sentence even being uttered in a conversation about money made me smile.
anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:26 am Director (mid-level manager, somewhere between senior account executive and account supervisor) at an independent public affairs/public relations agency in mid-atlantic city 6 years of experience $93,500 up to 10% annual bonus 100% healthcare premium coverage
AJ* January 29, 2014 at 11:26 am Title: Fiscal Analyst (Accounting) Duties: Work with financial reporting, accounts receivable and payable (other duties as assigned:)). Area: Pacific NW Experience: 10 years Salary: $53,000 not including benefits. Other: I work in higher education. I did in the private sector (which actually had more responsibility for about $3K less pay) and now I do for a state school. I get state benefits. I also have a Masters degree which did help me get my current job, however it wasn’t required for the position.
anon58* January 29, 2014 at 11:26 am Head of Children’s Services for a Public Library (100+ employees) Midwest 7 years experience in public libraries (new at this job though) $45k ish + good health insurance, about 6 weeks PTO/year. Great culture at work. (I do have a graduate degree.)
Rachel* January 29, 2014 at 2:43 pm Our favorite Head Children’s Librarian at our local library (in the Midwest) just left to work in a larger system! We miss her greatly but I hope she is making close to what you posted, because I know she wasn’t in our small library.
anon58* January 29, 2014 at 3:52 pm I hope so too! And I bet she would love to hear from you. Sometimes we get paid in compliments and hugs. :)
Puffle* January 29, 2014 at 7:12 pm Six weeks PTO! Wow! That’s insanely good. I thought the best I could do for library-esque work was 4 weeks at a university… Nice. :D
Decimus* January 29, 2014 at 11:26 am Title: Archivist Geographic Area: Atlanta Metropolitan Area Experience: 6 Years Salary: 42,000 (no benefits)
Project Archivist* January 29, 2014 at 6:14 pm are you comfortable saying what kind of company/institution you archive for? university, etc?
Hous* January 29, 2014 at 11:27 am Title: Billing assistant for a specific department in a large hospital Area: Boston Experience: 1 year temping, 2 years FTE, no previous experience in this field Salary: $17.10/hr, health care, retirement & public transportation benefits
anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:27 am Job: Paralegal at a very very small law firm Area: Near the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina Experience: coming up on five years Salary: $36,000 plus health insurance entirely paid for by the firm, and variable end-of-year bonus and retirement contribution (I started here at $28K when I had no experience, only my BA degree and a paralegal certificate)
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:27 am I work in records and information management, at the analyst/specialist/consultant level. That is, it’s above an admin role (filing is not part of my job), but below a manager. Basically, I write the policies that tell people how to organize their business records, who can access them, and how long to keep them. I’m in Toronto (Ontario), and have worked in the government and NFP sector for 13 years. Salary is currently around $61,000, although I was making $70,000 when I left my last job in 2012.
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:30 am Oh, and that salary includes 3 weeks vacation (4 at my previous job), 6 vacation days (10 at previous job), pension contributions, and health & dental benefits.
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:39 am Good grief. I need more coffee, or better proofreading skills! That should be 3 weeks vacation, 6 *sick* days.
Anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 11:27 am Title: Instructional Designer Industry: Healthcare Duties/Skills: Mostly technical writing, training electronic medical records software, elearning development (Captivate, Articulate, Dreamweaver with HTML/CSS knowledge) Experience: ~5 years, previous technical writing background in an IT setting for a government department Area: Tennessee Salary: $57K Benefits: 401K/403B employer matching up to 6% + deferred comp, health (dental+vision) with flex spending, PTO accrual
AnonM* January 29, 2014 at 11:33 am Interesting. My hubby does the same job (in the Mid-Michigan area), although he’s been there for 15 years. His salary is now about $76,000 (with ridiculously excellent benefits – our family pays $0 for a no-deductible healthcare plan, 401k matching, etc.)
Anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 3:26 pm That’s good to know! The range for this position goes up to $80k, so seems like we’re both right on par for our experience level.
Instructional Designer* January 29, 2014 at 3:32 pm Hey, another ID. My info is far down the thread. Don’t you love Articulate and Captivate, though one of my employees mentioned that the new Articulate Storyline combines the best of both applications, so you may want to take a look at that.
KellyK* January 29, 2014 at 3:37 pm I’m a huge fan of Articulate Storyline. Sadly, my company isn’t doing much in the way of online courses anymore, so I haven’t had much opportunity to use it.
Anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 3:45 pm I would love to work with Storyline. From what I understand, it offers similar functionality to Captivate without having to “do the math,” as I call it – fidgeting with advanced actions and IF/ELSE statements. But it’s an expense I can’t currently justify after they spent so much on Captivate 6 last year. :(
Learning & Development Facilitator* January 29, 2014 at 8:53 pm This looks like the best place for me to throw in – I’m the one who delivers the content Instructional Designer writes. :) Title: Learning and Development Facilitator Industry: Non-profit Duties/Skills: Delivery of face to face and webinar training nationally to front-line staff, occasional accidental help-desk for policies and procedures, various record keeping and admin, copy-editor/proofreader for the Instructional Design team in my “free time” Experience: six months in this job, was an IT trainer prior to this for four years, and was previously a legal administrator for seven years Area: Sydney, Australia Salary: $78,000AUS after tax and superannuation (~$68,000US according to XE.com) Benefits: 10% superannuation (required national minimum is 9%), salary packaging, novated car lease, 20 days annual leave, 10 days personal leave, great boss/team, improving the planet Not exactly relevant to the US-centric audience, but interesting nonetheless.
Project Manager* January 31, 2014 at 4:22 pm Fairly relevant here – Project Manager for team of technical writers for major IT company 15+ years experience, team of 10 writers under me Large Midwest City Salary – approx $100k (plus annual bonus, which has shrunk over the past 2 years, used to be about $3k) BS in Technical Communication; MLIS (unused – couldn’t hack the huge pay cut) Petrified of layoffs right now…could be a completely different story by March…
LOLwhut* January 29, 2014 at 11:27 am Title: Marketing Associate Industry: Technology Location: Central NJ Years Experience: 8 Salary: $50,000 Salary could be more, but my career has followed a long and winding path that included two layoffs and a few nightmare situations. Also don’t really care for the stress and hours that come with the title of Marketing Manager.
excited anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 11:27 am Thanks for this topic and thanks to everyone who has already shared! Title: Chief of Staff in a nonprofit. (Think very high level executive assistant + strategic adviser. I don’t even know how to explain my job when I am willing to get into specific details about content, much less when I’m trying to remain anonymous!) Location: DC Years of Experience: 4ish Salary: ~$65k
Mimi* January 29, 2014 at 2:15 pm I’m actually looking for a COS. You wouldn’t be willing to relocate to PA, would you?
excited anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 3:02 pm What are your thoughts on telework? :) In all seriousness, look at the really high-performing and experienced admin staff within your organization. We make GREAT chiefs of staff.
really* January 29, 2014 at 3:07 pm I know you want to maintain your anonymity, but is there anything else you care to add to your position description? I am wondering if you started out as an EA and have grown the position into its current role, and also, if you have an advanced degree. No worries if you can’t answer, just thought I’d ask! I’d imagined this type of role before, interested to see the real-life version of it!
excited anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 3:34 pm Yes, I started in an admin role and was progressively promoted. I do not have an advanced degree (just a BA), but when this same position is advertised they prefer an MBA. In the same way as the EA’s job is to keep the team lead (in my case a VP) running logistically, the COS’s role is to keep them running strategically. That means managing (up) all the more routine staff stuff like compliance and budget, and also helping to put all the structure on the VP’s vision and ideas. I do a lot of strategic planning, tracking progress, and internal communications, and also help with hiring, training, evaluating and supporting the rest of of the staff. I believe AAM was a COS as well–bet she would have a lot to share about this role too!
Ask a Manager* Post authorJanuary 29, 2014 at 6:22 pm Yes, although my position was different than the one described here. I managed the day-to-day running of the organization, so it was a heavily management-focused role, whereas it sounds like this one might be more along the lines of “the right hand of the CEO”?
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:27 am Job: Human Resources and Finance Manager (not-for-profit org) Location: New York City Experience: 9 related to finance, 17 years in workforce (My academic background is arts related; I have an MA but never studied finance/accounting in school.) Salary:~$62,000 exempt; health/dental paid by org; paid vacation/sick leave; casual work environment; no matching for retirement plan. I work about 40 hours a week, occasionally 45-50 if it’s a really busy time of year (e.g. audit/fiscal year end).
Project Management Operations* January 29, 2014 at 11:27 am Title: Project Management Operations Support / Manager Description: Area: New York City Experience: 6 Salary: $70,000 + bonus opportunity
Project Management Operations* January 29, 2014 at 11:28 am doh. I intended to write PMO support, including reporting, business processes, and resource management.
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:28 am Senior Reimbursement Analyst (Hospital) Medicare/Medicaid programs & all governmental payers Experience: 5 years at job, 12 years overall BS in Accounting Salary: $90K California
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:28 am Title: Account Representative for a very small (under 10 employees) company that sells technological equipment to schools/colleges/universities. Area: Rural East Ontario Experience: New to this job (5 months) but experience in the academic world Salary: Minimum wage of $10.25 per hour for approximately $21,000 per year. I also get commission, which is hit or miss–last month it was $45, the month before that $350. Benefits are available but I am on my husband’s. No PTO. 1 week paid vacation after 1 year. (I am also the OP #3 from last week with a horrid boss situation, though.)
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 12:31 pm Also, I am a 25-year-old woman married to a soldier, and I hold a Master’s degree. I do a little freelance writing on the side, but nothing I could support myself with.
anon o* January 29, 2014 at 1:53 pm Isn’t no PTO illegal in Ontario: http://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/es/tools/esworkbook/vacation.php (recognizing that you’ve said you have a horrible boss). I think they can say you can’t take the time but you still accumulate vacation pay. I am not a lawyer though.
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 2:53 pm My boss is potentially going to be under investigation from the Ministry of Labour, so there are plenty more issues besides lack of PTO.
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:28 am Senior Analyst, government consulting JD plus 10 years experience in business and law $120,000 plus bonus (typically very low 5 figures)
Great Topic* January 29, 2014 at 11:28 am Title: Marketing manager Description: Responsible for all marketing activities for the firm and am the only marketing person on staff (although rely on outside agency help) Company: Mid size professional services firm Area: Suburb of large city in the Northeast (not NY) Experience: 18 years Salary: $128k + $10k bonus Benefits: Decent health and 401k match, 4 weeks vacation
Marketing Manager DC* February 19, 2014 at 11:11 am You’re my new idol. I’m don’t even make half your salary and it seems we have the same job!
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:28 am Audience Development Manager. Includes managing a subscription, preparing mail files, all marketing functions. Position now includes administrative tasks since company downsized (10 employees). 3.5 years experience, 2.5 at this company Central Texas $51,000. Health insurance, Simple IRA, no bonus
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:29 am Development Assistant/Project Coordinator SW Ohio $32,000 + a very small year end bonus (last year it was ~$500) 3 years experience (2.5 paid, .5 internship) 2 weeks paid vacation, plus extra paid sick and 3 paid personal per year When I started this job a year ago, I was basically an administrative assistant. However, after our department added a new position to manager our membership programs, those duties only took up about 20% of my time. I was able to build the position that I wanted, so now I spend most of my time doing prospect research/analysis and grant writing! I love it!
CollegeAdmin* January 29, 2014 at 11:29 am Official title: Administrative Assistant to the [Teapot’s] Office Actual job: I function more as the executive assistant to one member of the office, plus some tasks involving confidential paperwork for another. Geographic area: Boston, MA – small (wealthy) town west of the city Years of experience: 1.5 years – I graduated in 2012, temped elsewhere for 6 months, and then was hired by the college this past spring. Salary: $33,500 (non-exempt, divides out to $18.xx an hour) Benefits: 403(b) – college puts in 6% plus a small match, nice health plan, 3 personal days and 3 weeks vacation per year
CollegeAdmin* January 29, 2014 at 11:34 am Ugh, should have formatted this or put an enter line between them. Sorry for the text wall, folks!
CollegeAdmin* January 29, 2014 at 12:19 pm Adding: – Female – Age 22 (graduated early) – B.A. in an unrelated field
Just a Reader* January 29, 2014 at 11:44 pm I’m wondering if you work at my alma mater. Is it formerly single-sex education and is there an historic tower on campus?
Another reader* January 30, 2014 at 2:24 pm Hah I was thinking the same thing! (Only my alma mater west of Boston is still single-sex)
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:29 am ■Lease Records Manager (administrative title work for oil & gas company managing team of 7 people) ■Texas ■10 years experience ■$110,000 (typical benefits plus 25% bonus structure as well as 401K contribution & company stock grants)
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:30 am Imports specialist, which basically means that I make sure that things get through Customs compliantly. ~40K year, hourly, no PTO or holidays (contractor) Southern Arizona, 1 year experience Alison, what are the odds of getting this data into an easily used form? Like an interactive map or something? I’m not quite sure how it would be done, but it would be interesting.
Leslie Yep* January 29, 2014 at 11:49 am I would be down to create a google drive spreadsheet of some kind if someone else knows how to GIS-it into something awesome!
pgh_adventurer* January 29, 2014 at 1:04 pm I got some (limited) GIS skills and am always looking out for new projects. Would love to try my hand at this!
Research Assistant* January 29, 2014 at 2:00 pm Once you have the data, Tableau can make some really neat interactive maps and graphs with stuff like this. There’s a free version, though what you create with it will be public. I was able to teach it to myself in a few hours using online tutorials. If other people want to make a dataset I would be willing to play around and see what I can create.
Geographic Information Systems Programmer* January 29, 2014 at 3:31 pm I just might be able to do this. Also very easy to do with ArcGIS Online. (Or if I am really ambitious, crank out some d3 with crossfilter.)
Ask a Manager* Post authorJanuary 29, 2014 at 6:18 pm I need a volunteer! Particularly for the data-entry part, which will be tedious. If anyone is interested, email me. I’m willing to pay for the data-entry portion.
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:30 am Role: Behind the scenes Customer Service (I do process compliance, analysis, and quality process development for call centers) Geographic Area: Ontario Years of Experience: I’m going with 4 in this type of role, but I had other experience previously Salary: $64K
CG* January 29, 2014 at 12:04 pm How did you get into this? Do you enjoy it? I worked in a call center and thought this kind of stuff seemed super interesting but I wasn’t sure about how to get there.
Purr purr purr* January 29, 2014 at 11:30 am – Exploration geologist – supervising drilling campaigns for the mining industry, geological mapping, etc. – Working all over North America – 6.5 years experience, Masters degree – Salary is $27/hr for first 40 hours per week, time and a half thereafter. I usually work 70+ hours a week (10 hr per day minimum for 7 days a week), sometimes 84 hours. Usually averages out at about $65,000 for 6 months work. I take the other 6 months off work by choice (usually). Obviously yearly pay increases if I decide to work beyond the 6 months. Benefits are flexible living location, health insurance, pension plan, vacation pay (they just give me the money), social events through the office
I'll Play!* January 29, 2014 at 11:50 am I’m curious about how you structure your time…how long are you on a given project, how much time do you take off between, is it a seasonal type thing, etc…just because I’m nosy.
Purr purr purr* January 29, 2014 at 1:09 pm The project length varies. For example, in 2012 I worked solidly between the start of February and the start of May (literally 7 days a week for that entire time) and after that I changed project to a rotation where I worked for 30 days and then took 2 weeks off; I stayed there until early October. I should note that the rotations are set by the employer but I’m a contractor so if a rotation didn’t suit me, I just wouldn’t do the job. After that I was on holiday or just relaxing at home until February 2013 and pretty much repeated the entire thing. But yes, my work is quite seasonal. I tend to take most of my time off in winter as a result.
Anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 11:30 am Title: We don’t have titles, but the closest would probably be Administrative Assistant. It’s a small company, so I wear a lot of hats. Area: Pacific NW Experience: Basically entry-level. I have been here for 2 years. Salary: $35,000 ($17 per hour, full time, no overtime) Other info: My state does not have an income tax, although it does have a steep sales tax. Cost of living is not outrageous in my city, but it is climbing much faster than the national average.
Belle* January 29, 2014 at 11:30 am Sr Business Systems Analyst Los Angeles, CA My experience is not industry specific, but I’ve been working for 11 years. I also have a bachelors degree from a big 10 college, an MBA, and a Masters in Information Systems. Salary – 91K. I know I’m underpaid because I had access to salary information at my previous job (worked in HR) and most made 120k+
Thomas* January 29, 2014 at 11:30 am Production manager for feature film visual effects. $34/hr, but there is a lot of OT. Annualized salary: $120k. No benefits, but I can afford health insurance.
Thomas* February 3, 2014 at 2:15 am It is! Quite so. The industry has lots of problems (competing tax incentives from different states/countries resulting in the work shifting around location a lot, total lack of stability, insane hours). But the work itself is fun and super challenging. My company has a wonderfully smart and dedicated bunch of people and a good culture.
Anonynony* January 29, 2014 at 11:30 am Love this post: Job: Program Manager (really, I run the program/campaign, but they refused to give me the title of “Director” since I’m only 28) Geographic Area: D.C. Years Experience: ~10 (depends how you think about it, but I worked throughout college as a research assistant and internships + 5 years research assistant during grad school + about 4 years –some overlap with grad school — in the “real world”) Salary: $85K Context: They offered me something much lower on the guise they looked up my previous salary (which was public record), which was before I earned my Ph.D. I thought the title would be “director” so I asked for 100K and we came down to this number.
Anna* January 29, 2014 at 7:05 pm They refused to give you a title because of your AGE? That’s so weird.
Annie* January 29, 2014 at 11:31 am Title: Matching Gifts Specialist Industry: Higher Education Development Location: Boston Years Experience: 1 Salary: $38,000
Anon for this* January 29, 2014 at 11:31 am Senior Consultant/Project Manager for a consulting firm that specializes in biotech. I sub-specialize in cell line and process development, as well as sterilization and non-routine, highly regulated field operations. 13 years experience, undergrad biology/chemistry, MS chemical engineering Mostly New England area + periodic 3 months – 1 year travel assignments worldwide as needed $110,000 base, +$1500/year profit sharing, + 11,500/year 401k contributions, + about $1000/month or more overtime bonus (all billable client hours >40/week are billed as overtime). Typically works out to about $130-140k. Health, dental & vision paid in full by employer, 1 week of sick days, 4 weeks paid vacation, professional development and conferences covered by employer.
Anon for this* January 29, 2014 at 11:48 am Oh, and $45/month in a HSA from employer, no contribution from me is required. Also, for all travel outside of New England, my hotel/apartment, rental car, bills, and food are paid for by the client. Plus one trip home a month.
Anon for this* January 29, 2014 at 2:08 pm Totally depends on project. This year, I won’t be traveling until 4th quarter, when I pick up a project on the West Coast. Next year they’re thinking of sending me to Hyderabad for a few months, unless the current project develops into something bigger, in which case I would be doing both the local gig and the West Coast project at the same time, and working remotely with occasional visits. It just depends on what projects we get and where we are needed. Some people stay in one place for 5 years, others like my boss are all over the place.
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:32 am Title: Administrative assistant – in energy engineering – In addition toadmin fuctions, I also do some basic design work and assist on larger projects as needed. Geographic area: Colorado Experience: 10 years administrative, approx 1 year industry specific Salary: $37,000 + 2 weeks pto, 8 paid holidays, options for health insurance, 401k
Anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 11:32 am Engineering Intern (civil/structural) at a small privately held company. My roles and responsibilities range from engineering designs and reports, contract administration, field investigations, and other duties as assigned. Area: Ottawa, Canada Experience: 4 years, with bachelor’s degree Salary: $52,000 Perks: company matched retirement plan, medical benefits, occasional telecommuting, 5 weeks PTO, performance based bonus, and unlimited coffee :)
Production Manager* January 29, 2014 at 1:40 pm Out of curiosity…are you considered an intern in the sense that it’s not a permanent position? How does that work?
Judy* January 29, 2014 at 2:08 pm It’s probably a licensing title. In my state, if you take the FE (Fundamentals of Engineering) exam and pass, you’re considered a licensed Engineering Intern. Once you take the PE (Principles and Practices of Engineering) you’re a licensed Professional Engineer. I’m pretty sure it’s similar in Canada. Many of us have taken the FE, because you can take it any time after your last year of school starts. Since it is very heavy in theory, there’s no time like just after you’ve taken the classes to get that over with. My university said if you have even a thought of doing work that requires a PE, take the test now. The second test, you have to apply to take, and you need recommendations about your work quality, etc. A former co-worker is now in a job that requires a PE eventually. He didn’t take the FE back in college 10+ years ago. He’s had to pull out his old textbooks and study like crazy.
Anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 9:09 pm The good news in Canada is that there’s no “FE” exam for graduates of Canadian engineering schools. The bad news is that those engineering schools generally take very little transfer credit (including AP/IB) in order to maintain their accreditation.
Anonymous* January 30, 2014 at 1:57 pm It is a full time position. In Ontario ‘Professional Engineers of Ontario’ (PEO) governs the use of the word “engineer” – so they have established some basic titles that may be used (so long as you pay your fees, of course): Engineer Student – Still in school (has not yet completed their bachelor’s degree) Engineering Intern Training (EIT) – Have completed bachelor’s degree and is working towards becoming a Professional Engineer Professional Engineer (P.Eng.) – has completed all requirements from PEO, and is now licensed as and engineer (can now stamp/seal drawings and documents). I hope this answers your question (although I may have ‘over-answered’… a bad habit of my nerdiness).
Assistant Engineer - Traffic* January 30, 2014 at 5:39 pm Title: Assistant Engineer – Traffic Industry: Local Government Experience: 2 years as a student engineer, 3.5 years full time including 1 year in current position. Area: Large city in Southern California Salary: $63,340. Position ranges from $60k-70k depending on years of service + 15% for PE license Benefits: traditional pension (gone for new employees), 6% retirement salary match (much lower for new employees), 11 paid holidays, 22 days PTO, +$6k/yr credits to use on medical, dental, vision (essentially covering everything for a single person like myself). Lucky to have this job, rarely work over 40 hours a week, low employee turnover, great bosses, and you really make a difference in shaping your City. Hoping to pass the PE this year. Advice to anyone who wants to work for local government is to apply as an intern or student worker ASAP. It is near impossible to seperate yourself as a new grad otherwise when there are 200+ applicants for entry level engineering positions.
Anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 11:32 am Document Programmer for public opinion surveys Major city in Texas $30k + overtime + benefits Entry-level/Recent grad
Anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 11:32 am Title: Research Director Area: Midwest city with low COL Experience: 2 years in role, 6 years in field; PhD Salary: $72k, generous healthcare and decent 401k contributions
Thomas* January 29, 2014 at 11:32 am Forgot to mention: I float between Vancouver BC and Los Angeles. I have 4 1/2 years’ experience (which includes time spent as roto/paint artist and compositor, and now production manager).
Aanon* January 29, 2014 at 11:32 am Title: Production Supervisor in a technology field. I am also an associate in the company. Geographical Area: Medium sized city in the Southern United States Years of Experience: 18 in similar field, 3 in this field (Associates Degree) Salary: 64,500 salaried, non-exempt. Pertinent: Company pays $15,000 per year towards health insurance, four weeks Paid Time Off, tuition reimbursement is available, bonus is dependent on profit (last one was two weeks’ pay).
Office Admin - Legal* January 29, 2014 at 11:32 am Title: Legal Office Assistant Industry: Law Location: Toronto, ON Years Experience: Less than 1 (8 months) Salary: $36,000
NCCP* January 29, 2014 at 11:33 am Real Estate Paralegal large law firm, NC 3 yrs 44K, bad health insurance, max $750 pretax bonus based on billing hrs
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:33 am Thanks so much for doing this! I’ve had a hard time figuring out what I should be asking for, especially since I have a job that most people don’t even realize exists. your job: I work in consulting as an environmental scientist and biologist. I perform field surveys, reporting, I do regulatory compliance, coordination with local, state, and federal agencies. your geographic area: Large metro area in the mountain west your approximate years of experience: 7 your salary: I am currently part-time hourly (it’s HEAVEN!), and I make $29.50 per hour. If I worked full time that would be approximately $61,000 per year anything else pertinent to put that number in context: I have a M. S. in my field, and I’m pretty sure I’m considered a high performer. My last two jobs, I’ve negotiated my salary and have gotten the amount I asked for.
AVP* January 29, 2014 at 1:42 pm FWIW, my cousin has a very similar job in the Northeast and she makes about the same.
Geologist* January 31, 2014 at 7:22 am I am a geologist doing something very similar in the midwest. I work for a large, international firm. I just started–literally last month–without a lick of experience in my related field. I have a master’s degree in Geology, but all of my work experience was retail. I make $44,000, which is $1,000/yr less than the top end of the pay scale for an entry level position at my company. Another company I was seriously considering was local and much smaller, and couldn’t offer more than $34,000. I receive 10 days vacation, 6 sick, 7 holidays plus one floater. The best benefit (to me) is 401k match up to 15% annual salary. Since I just started, I have no idea what kind of bonuses, etc are out there. At the risk of repeating everyone, this is a fabulous idea. As someone who just went through countless of interviews, I really could have used this post. The current company I work for asked me to list a salary expectation in the application and my interviewers all but laughed me out of the room. When I explained how I got the number (I knew ONE person in the field in the area, and so I used the number she told me. Apparently it was quite high.) and how difficult it was to find this information, they were a bit more understanding. I even straight-up told them they should post the range in the job description if they want reasonable answers (I think this helped me get the job since I work with a bunch of smart-asses–which to me isn’t a bad thing haha). It turns out the five candidates they were seriously considering had salary expectations much higher and much lower than mine. It goes to show that they help no one (especially entry-level peeps) by excluding salary information in the job description. So thanks Alison and everyone out there! I hope this information helps more people in the future!
Geologist* January 31, 2014 at 7:33 am Oh and since I just read someone might be compiling this information… I am a 25 year old female, and I work outside of Chicago.
Anon scientist* February 8, 2014 at 8:15 am Hey environmental biz buddy! Figured I’d stick mine here. Geologist, environmental consulting Northeast US, small city 70,000 not including straight overtime (which I try to avoid), awesome benefits/company MS + 10 years’ experience I used to be a project manager but changed jobs to focus on the technical side. About 20% fieldwork. Female.
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:34 am Title: Title Processor Description: I examine records (deeds, mortgages, easements, etc) to determine who holds title to real estate, as well as determine insurability of title Area: Northern Michigan (very rural) Experience: approximately 3 years in the industry, less than 1 year in this position Salary: $28,000 + overtime and bonuses Benefits: company paid health, vision and dental, yearly merit & COL increases, yearly bonus opportunities, 401K match, flexible hours, ability to work from home, low cost of living area, very short commute, 3 weeks PTO, 10 paid holidays
Organic Search Strategist* January 29, 2014 at 11:34 am Job: Senior level, at an agency with 9 accounts. No direct reports, but in charge of some big accounts. My job is also called search engine optimization (SEO) – the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine’s “natural” or un-paid (“organic”) search results. Area: Boston Experience: 5 years, with a BA Salary: $80,000 with a $1200 bonus
House Manager @ an Orchestra* January 29, 2014 at 11:34 am Job: I house manage concerts, but also work on development events and work in the education department (this is what I want to do full time). I manage the ushers, talk to the halls we play in about ushers, etc. All in all, pretty low on the totem pole. Area: the south Years: This is my 3rd year in the orchestra field Salary: $29,000 Some flex time given for when we work concerts, but it’s only if we have concerts on both Saturday and Sunday, therefore having no weekend. In the summers though, my position is only required to be in the office 1/4 of the time. So some people also in this situation are able to work at orchestra festivals around the country. In my previous job (was there 2 years), I worked as the #2 in an orchestra ed. department in the southwest and made $33,000.
Senior Software Engineer* January 29, 2014 at 11:35 am Geographic Area: I work remotely for a Silicon Valley company. I’m pretty sure they’d pay me more if I worked on-site, but not enough to make up for moving away from my very low COL city. Years Experience: 5ish (depending on how you count my Ph.D., which was not in computer science but did involve some programming) Salary: $100k plus bonus ($33k this year) Context: I started out at $70k for a startup a few years ago, got a big bump when the startup got bought out by a large tech company.
Senior Software Engineer* January 29, 2014 at 11:36 am and benefits, sorry: 401k with match up to 2%, decent but not amazing health coverage, stock participation plan.
Regional Director (nonprofit, female)* January 29, 2014 at 11:35 am Context for my role: I work for a nonprofit startup and implement our work in several states. I develop our strategic plans (in relationship to the overall plan set by our leadership team) and carry out the activities described in those plans. I am the only person working in my states, so I don’t manage anyone. Context for my organization: Expectations are high, hours are long, and travel is extensive. In accordance, my organization pays generously (in my experience). Geographic area: Second-tier Midwest city (i.e. not Chicago) Years of experience: 10 years post-grad school (MPP). 3-4 years total experience in internships/etc. before grad school. Salary: $79,000 Other benefits: 4 weeks vacation, match 5% of retirement contributions, significant contributions to health care premiums (we pay $20/month for a basic plan or $50/month for a very comprehensive plan).
Nonprofit program coordinator* January 29, 2014 at 11:35 am Experience: 6 years Geographic area: Dallas/Fort Worth Salary: $45,000
Rachel* January 29, 2014 at 2:48 pm This was my previous job in Minneapolis and I made exactly $45,000. I had been 5-8 years of experience when that was my salary.
Program Director* January 29, 2014 at 11:35 am Job: Program Director at a non-profit focused on education in a small city in the Midwest. I’m developing and managing a brand new education program aimed at increasing the number of low-income college bound kids in our city. Years experience: 4 year undergrad which included many internships, 2 years in the Peace Corps, 2 years in the non-profit sector. Salary and benefits: $45,000 plus health insurance and 2% towards my 403(b)
Rachel* January 29, 2014 at 2:49 pm Cool job! Salary sounds similar to what I posted above for a non-profit coordinator/director job.
techy* January 29, 2014 at 11:36 am title: field technician area: chicago experience: 5 years salary: $51,000, excellent benefits, 40 hrs/wk, no bonus
Anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 11:36 am -My (former) job: VP of Operations (Banking industry. Head of deposit and loan operations, compliance officer, information security officer, BSA officer, bank security officer, IT person) -Geographic area: Fairfield county, CT -Approximate years of experience: 17, all with same company (6 yrs teller/teller manager, 5 yrs as operations officer, 7 years as VP of operations) -Salary: ending salary 66k Salary very under market for the industry, bank assets less than $30 million, tiny bank in a low- to middle-income city.
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:37 am Buyer/Purchasing Coordinator small company, Colorado – I’m female. 7 years experience total. $43,000 + ~20% profit sharing Company pays 80% health insurance as well as other benefits.
Anon also* January 30, 2014 at 11:54 am That’s actually super relevant! I don’t have a degree (partway through one, but I’ve been going to school part-time on and off for several years while I save up to transfer to a private college) and I’m really interested in seeing how people navigate their careers without one. When people find out I don’t have a degree they tend to patronize, but I was lucky enough to find a company recently that valued my skills over my education level. :)
Anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 11:37 am ■ Manager of engineering consulting group within a larger company. 25 staff report to me, about $7M/year revenue. ■ Canada ■ 15 years of experience ■ $170,000 + very small bonuses
Anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 11:37 am Title: Director in Academic Affairs Division, private university Area: NY State Experience: 25 years at a number of colleges, here a little over a year Salary: 76K, 10% salary match from institution for retirement contribution Education: Liberal Arts BA + MA (MA completed during first university job)
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:38 am Job: Biostatistician, Masters degree Region: Philadelphia area ~10 years of experience $72,000 in salary, but I also teach as an adjunct instructor and consult here and there. Adjuncting brings in $3.5 – 5.5K per class taught, consulting $100/hr, so my average salary overall runs about $78K but when I was teaching like a banshee (I was single, had the free time), it was up around $85K.
Clinical Placement Coordinator* January 29, 2014 at 11:38 am Clinical Placement Coordinator for Nurse Practitioner students enrolled in our private college’s two year MSN (Master of Science, Nursing) program in a medium-sized city in the Northeastern US. Our program has approx 90 MSN students currently active in the program. Gross annual salary is $46,500. I have fewer than 2 years of experience in this position (was hired with no experience in this particular role, though several years of closely-related work outside higher education).
Grants Mgr* January 29, 2014 at 11:38 am Grants Mgr: Responsible for writing grants for corporate, foundation, private, and government entities. Also responsible for grants management: oversight of expenditures for grant funded projects; grant reporting; review of contracts; making sure program team understands responsibilities and expectations of the grant award. California (Los Angeles) 10 years of experience 80,000 I am on the high end of the scale most grant writers make between 35k-55k depending on the agency budget. Agencies with higher budgets sometimes pay more. Grant writers who have a good track record have some leverage to get a higher salary. New grant writers generally start on the low end because they don’t have a track record. The difficult part is once you get to the high end it is hard to move around because other agencies offer low salaries.
Grants Manager too* January 29, 2014 at 7:25 pm I’m also a Grants Manager, though I work at an academic research center at a large university. I do some proposal development, although it’s largely done by the researchers as the work is fairly technical. I primarily manage the logistics, budgets, and compliance. I also manage the overall budget and finances of the center (in coordination with the university’s central offices). New York City 1 year experience at this job, 4 years admin/finance/development at a very small non-profit, plus an MPA. Salary: 70,000 Benefits are good: highly subsidized insurance, 10% retirement match, tuition, generous sick and vacation time.
Anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 11:38 am Content Release Manager Manage a small support team and post website content online. Team also works on miscellaneous administrative tasks $53,000 New York City
Anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 11:38 am So, any risk managers in the banking industry out there? Looking to get salary info.
Anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 11:38 am Job Title – Student Development Coordinator (helping students develop career/professional skills via co-operative education). Salary – $53,000 CDN Location – Atlantic Canada Experience – 6 years working in education + Masters Degree in Education
C. Cavour* January 29, 2014 at 11:38 am Title: Communications and Policy Associate at a nonprofit Geographic Area: Chicago Education: BA Experience: 9 months interning Salary: 40,000 Benefits: 3 weeks vacation, healthcare, 4013B
Anonymouse* January 29, 2014 at 11:38 am Title: Customer Relations Manager aka Crazy People Whisperer Industry: Parks and Recreation (local govt) Location: DC suburbs (MD) Years Exp: 15 yrs of customer service related work Salary: $67K. Because I’m dumb and didn’t negotiate. But the benefits are excellent, we have 401k and pension, earn lots of leave, family-friendly, pet-friendly, able to work from home when I need to and I get to work with awesome people for a great cause.
Anon for this* January 29, 2014 at 11:38 am Title: Reference librarian in public library Geographic Area: Midwest, near large metro area Salary: $43,000, with 5+ years experience
Software Development Manager* January 29, 2014 at 11:38 am Manage a group of 40 to 50 people developing web applications. Industry: Tech Location: Southern California Experience: more than 20 Salary: $145,000, bonus up to $10K/yr, 401K, good health benefits, etc.
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:39 am Receptionist NYC No experience before this, will be 1 year in a few weeks. 3 years of retail before this. Bachelor’s Degree $37,500, non-exempt, about 3 weeks of PTO
Anonymous* February 14, 2014 at 2:16 pm My first job was Admin Assistant NYC- same salary, 1 less week of PTO. Its about normal depending on industry
Secret* January 29, 2014 at 11:39 am your job (the more descriptive the better, since job titles don’t always explain level of responsibility or scope of work) your geographic area your approximate years of experience your salary anything else pertinent to put that number in context Title: Senior VP of Brand Management (Think Creative Director and Website Director with input on Product Development, General Strategy and Marketing. I hire designers and oversee the design department of a start-up) Area: North Florida Years Of Experience: 8 years, been at this company for 6 months Salary: $75,000/yr – I expect to be making more by the summer. The salary range for what I do is typically around $80,000-$120,000/year but I’ve grown into the position and was originally hired to be just a designer. I received a $10,000 raise in the first few months. Benefits: Health Care paid for 100%, extremely difficult to take a vacation but I have three weeks PTO. Hours: Round the clock on call, about 9 hours a day generally. Sometimes work a few hours on the weekend.
Secret* January 29, 2014 at 2:11 pm I started freelancing full-time out of college as a Web and Graphic Designer. I grew that business until I had staff of five. I learned hiring, project management, staff management and delegation from that on top of the design bits. I acquired the knowledge to know how to market online through the client work I did (email marketing, social media, SEO). I had already taught myself web coding , web design, print and packaging design. I have a BFA but most of what I do is self-taught. While running the design company, I created side companies selling items that I enjoyed where I was able to create the brand from scratch and implement it across product development, sourcing, packaging, labeling, social media, finding clients, fulfilling orders, marketing etc… Doing this allowed me to learn the ends and outs of creating a brand and implementing it eveyrwhere. My Design and Advertising knowledge gave me the stepping stone for being able to do this as a one person company. From there I worked as a web designer at a medium sized agency. This was just a sidetrack for me but it was really interesting to see how an agency worked from the inside. Then I took on an in-house web designer position at a start-up. as I was really interested in working for a Brand instead of an agency environment. They had the logo and some packaging designs but not much else. They were really bad at delegating work to me so I just started making up my own projects. I designed the website, redid packaging and basically took on all the things we needed that hadn’t been created yet. For example I setup the brand Facebook page created an email marketing template and told them what I thought we were missing and what we needed to focus on. The owners were really impressed and promoted me and told me to pick my own job title. I got a nice bump and now I oversee a department of two designers and I’m hiring a third. I am involved in sourcing product, giving input on product we bring on board, I have a lot of input on what our website and collateral should look like. But ultimately I’m executing on the CEO’s vision.
AJay* January 29, 2014 at 2:53 pm Wow! Thank for sharing. You’ve done a lot of things that I’d definitely like to do in the future. I guess I need to be more proactive.
Digital Account Coordinator* February 6, 2014 at 5:52 pm This was super inspiring to read. Way to go.
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:39 am Job: Office Manager – (small company, so HR, Payroll, Accounting, billing, employee relations, unofficial Assistant Facility Security Officer) Area: Northern Virginia Experience: Approximate 10 years in a similar role, 7 months here. Salary:~ 80K per year, plus stock options and bonus
Freelance Ghostwriter* January 29, 2014 at 11:39 am I write op-eds, letters, speeches, blog posts, etc., for a variety of signers and non-profits, on behalf of corporate clients / PR & lobbying firms. I work from home, usually 25 hours per week, and I have to pay my own taxes because I’m freelance (but I also get to deduct expenses and costs for equipment, office furniture, etc.). I make my own schedule and rarely work on Fridays or Monday mornings and pretty much never on evenings or weekends. $5,500 per month (this is my fee for services for the month; I have a yearly contract), so $66,000 per year Kansas City, MO 4 years at this gig; 7 years overall with this kind of work (I also worked as a technical writer/editor for about 4 years)
Freelance Ghostwriter* January 29, 2014 at 11:43 am Should have mentioned—I have an MA in Professional/Technical Writing & Rhetoric
Love This Topic!* January 29, 2014 at 12:09 pm Do you mind me asking how you met or connected with these clients? Was it through previous jobs or freelance boards? What you’re doing is similar to my “where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years” plan. I currently work as a writer and do some freelancing for a client on odesk, but need to really expand my clientele before I am to ever think about making the jump from my full-time job.
Freelance Ghostwriter* January 29, 2014 at 12:17 pm Sorry in advance, because this isn’t going to be that helpful—but I knew someone who did this job for a few different lobbying firms, and they referred me, and that’s how I got started. They were specifically looking for writers who had advanced education in rhetoric and professional writing, if that helps.
Internal Communications Manager* January 30, 2014 at 10:29 am What a great gig! Did you find the transition into freelancing tough? Do you mind the admin tasks (paying taxes, billing, etc)?
Anonymous Agreer* January 29, 2014 at 11:40 am Title: Purchasing Manager (at this point managing the process as there are no longer any other purchasing associates.) Responsible for purchasing inventory for specialty wholesale supply company. 25+ years of experience, 20+ with “this company” working up through the ranks over the years as well as being around for 3 buyouts, making it basically 4 different companies that I’ve worked for. Metro Atlanta area (SnowJam2014 no work today!) Current Salary $50,000, salaried, exempt, 401(k) with zero matching, 2 weeks vacation, 8 holidays, no PTO (but generally flexible for appointments, etc). “Generally” about a 45 hour work week. This same position 3 years ago before the last buyout paid me $63,000, 401(k) with 2x match @ 1%, 1x match 2-3%, 1/2 match 4-5%, 5 weeks of vacation, 6 holiday, 10 days of PTO. “Generally” a 45 hour work week, but 60-70 hours 3 or 4 weeks a year wasn’t unusual.
Joe Schmoe* January 29, 2014 at 11:59 am That sucks!! (that the same position paid $13K more just 3 years ago!)
Anonymous Agreer* January 29, 2014 at 12:20 pm I would agree; it’s one of those buyout/restructuring things that included a big layoff and a “Your salary decreased, but we’re not laying you off. Be happy.”
consultamous* January 29, 2014 at 11:41 am Consultant For-profit education company Greater Boston area Experience: 7 years, 3 with company, Masters Degree Salary: $75,000 + bonus ~10%
Compliance Officer* January 29, 2014 at 11:41 am Job: Work in a large international nonprofit at the director level primarily for government grants; negotiate grants with Donors; advise and train staff on compliance requirements Geo area: DC Years of exp.: 20 Salary: $110k Female
Anon Today* January 29, 2014 at 11:41 am Title: Product Strategy & User Experience in the tech/software industry (I wear a lot of different hats under that umbrella including research (planning, designing, conducting, and analyzing all types of studies), new feature and product development strategy, and info architecture and content strategy Area: The Coastal South Experience: About 10 years plus a master’s degree, also pursuing certifications within the field that will result in a salary increase Salary: $95,000 (exempt, 401K match, stock options, partially paid health insurance, generous PTO and sick leave) Other info: I am on the low end of the pay scale by industry and local standards because I came in under a convoluted job title that doesn’t accurately represent my job, but that the company could push through quickly to get me hired since it was a job that existed in their payroll system already and had a different pay scale than I should have been getting (silly practice if you ask me)
Anon Today* January 29, 2014 at 11:43 am Note: I got my master’s degree while working full-time, so I never took any time off work for school.
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:41 am Title: Director of Visitor Services Description: Supervise 30-35 staff and am responsible for overall visitor experience at my museum Experience: Directly related M.A. with 4 years experience at another museum Location: Urban Midwest Salary: $72,000 (plus relocation when I was hired) Benefits: Great health insurance, 6% 403(b) match, company-paid professional development (REALLY rare for people in my position in museums)
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:55 am Previously: Manager of Special Events, Washington DC — managed all public, private, and internal events for a nationally-known museum. $50K (had to threaten to leave to get that high). Averaged 65 hours/week but jumped to 85 or 90 hours/week in the busy months (April, May, September, October), no overtime, no bonuses, incredibly stressful clients, drama-filled workplace. No wonder I was looking for a way out!
ArtsNerd* January 29, 2014 at 6:50 pm Ugh, lots of work environments like that in DC – glad you found something better!
Public Programming Coordinator at Museum* January 29, 2014 at 3:01 pm I’ll put this under your header so people can find museum people all together. Title: Public Programming Coordinator Description: All programs, internal and external, for large (for its area) museum, supervise visitor experience in main gallery space, manage most social media, other duties as assigned (vacuuming up glitter, brewing coffee, calming down volunteers…) Experience: MA + 12 years experience in other museums & archives (PT & FT, similar but not identical jobs) Location: rural New England Salary: $38,000 Benefits: Great health insurance, built in step & cost of living raises, will vest in a pension eventually, and tons and tons of time off…that I never have time to take. (After 18 moths, I have 6 weeks on the books and it’s climbing fast.) (I’m going to stop reading everyone else’s salaries, this is getting depressing. It’s a good thing I love my work.)
Erica B* January 29, 2014 at 4:33 pm hey. you make more than me and I have been at my job 10 years . I too live in rural new england.. (western mass)
Anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 9:00 pm title: Exhibitions Assistant description: Manage and install 3 rotations of exhibitions annually (each rotation comprises 1-3 separate shows, but the same amount of display space). I am the entire exhibitions department, and report to a curator. experience: 2.5 years experience + directly related MA location: CT Salary: $41K + benefits (great comprehensive healthcare, 401k + matching, step raises, some financial support for PD, vacation time when I can take it!)
Anon* January 30, 2014 at 1:34 am Definitely trying to get my foot in the door at a museum. The entry level openings are just so fee and far between and with really low pay, at least out here in thr mountain west.
Public Programming* January 30, 2014 at 1:38 am Public programs/exhibit interpretation in a Canadian city $60,000
Exhibitions Coordinator* January 30, 2014 at 10:42 am Description: Coordination of exhibitions, work with temporary, traveling, and permanent exhibitions. Experience: 2.5 years here, directly related B.A. Location: Urban Midwest Salary: $36,000 Benefits: Good health insurance, 10 vacation days, 10 holidays.
Manager of Interpretation* January 30, 2014 at 9:54 pm Description: Manage front line educational staff & volunteers, department budget, gallery programs (develop, implement, evaluate), and daily visitor experience at the Museum. Experience: 7 years experience (PT & FT) with a M.A. in specific field. Location: Urban Northeast Salary: $37,000 Benefits: decent health insurance, 3% 403(b) match, 15 vacation days, and 10 sick days.
Marketing Project Manager* January 29, 2014 at 11:43 am Job: Marketing Project Manager for a large corporation in Southeastern US. No supervisory responsibilities, but I assign work for about 10 freelancers. Years of experience: About 2.5 cumulative. 4 year undergrad. Salary: Approximately $36000, based on billable hours. Mostly salary, but I can’t remember what the split is. Benefits: good company and leadership, decent time off policy (all holidays, 10 days vacation, 5 sick, 1 personal day), good insurance and company 401k match. We also get tuition reimbursement and lots of training opportunities. Profit sharing into our 401k, last year I think it was 10% of our salaries, which is great.
MPM* January 29, 2014 at 12:00 pm Oh, and I’m a woman too. Although I don’t think it impacted my salary. My non-negotiation probably did, but I didn’t have much experience when I first started so I didn’t really have much on my side of the negotiation table.
Executive Director* January 29, 2014 at 11:43 am Executive Director of a small human services nonprofit St. Louis area 6 years as ED, 11 with agency $60K
Economics Research Assistant* January 29, 2014 at 11:43 am Industry: Government Area: Washington, D.C. Job: Primarily statistical analysis of data using a number of different software programs for various reports. I’m currently developing a probability model that will (hopefully) inform reforms to a large subsidy program. My office is very flat and while I’m technically junior to the economists, I feel like I receive lots of responsibility and have the opportunity to work on projects independently and in teams without a formal economist. Experience: 2 years Salary: $43,000 plus decent health insurance, retirement matching, transportation subsidy Context: I have a M.A. in Economics and was more qualified than what my office was originally looking for. I think I’m probably underpaid, but I’m still getting a lot of value from what I’m learning so I’m willing to stay for at least another 6 months to a year (and hope for a promotion in the time period).
State Gov't Lobbyist* January 29, 2014 at 11:43 am Title: Assistant Legislative Director (junior lobbyist) in a state agency Area: Midwest Experience: 3 years Education: bach & masters Salary: $55,000 + 4 weeks holiday and vacay + super cheap bene’s
Anon88* January 29, 2014 at 11:44 am Job: Desk-based adviser for a non-profit business support organisation (I answer the enquiries phoneline/emails from potential & current clients, and also follow up with potential clients following marketing activities – difficult to simmer that down into a descriptive job title!) Geographical area: UK Years of experience: 4 months in this exact role, had no direct experience when hired although do have 8 years of customer service/phone-based experience and 3 years working in similar private government-funded organisations. Salary: £18,000 (approx 30,000 USD currently) Context: 33 days annual leave (5 more than the legal minimum of 28 days), plus extra gifted days for the Christmas/new year period.
Junior Architect (B.Arch, unlicensed)* January 29, 2014 at 11:44 am I’m in New York City with about 3 years’ experience and I make $49,000 annually. My last job I got about at $1000 holiday bonus, I did not get one at my current job. Benefits are barebones but paid for almost entirely by the company after a year. 10 vacation days, 3 sick days, no overtime.
Computer Scientist* January 29, 2014 at 11:44 am Redo with title as username. I do software engineering and data analyis for sensor platforms in the defense industry. Current role is midlevel non-management. Geographic Area: rural Southern California Years of Experience: 8 Salary: $90k Salary is addition to a decent-but-not-fantastic benefits package (good health plans, dental, vision, health savings program). Bonuses are nonexistent, but annual leave and sick leave accrue separately, the amount of AL accrued per pay period depends on years at work
Principal Technical Writer* January 29, 2014 at 11:44 am Description: Write onscreen text, help systems, admin and user guides, knowledge base articles, technical papers, API guides, video scripts, webinar slide decks; mentor junior writers; collaborate with a variety of teams on information architecture and different types of content (like marketing brochures or checklists for field techs); design web and print templates. Company: Mid size software company Area: So Cal Experience: Approx. 11 years Salary: $108k Benefits: Good health, decent 401k match, 4 weeks PTO and 1 week sick per year (rolls over)
Laura* January 29, 2014 at 5:46 pm Everything under your job description sounds exactly what I’ve love to get paid to do. I have a little experience with user manuals, training guides, marketing copy, and checklists for employees but am not sure how to convert that into a career. I have a Bachelor’s in Business Admin/Marketing, and the bulk of my career experience has been in sales, marketing, customer service, inventory and supply. How did you get started? Do you have any advice?
Principal Technical Writer* January 30, 2014 at 12:02 pm Most of my colleagues came into technical writing from other fields, some technical (like biochem or computer science), some not (English, art history). Most of us in my current group fell into writing professionally. I got an internship at a software company while I was working on a liberal arts degree, and ended up as the de facto writer for the team. After getting my second liberal arts degree, a friend of a friend helped me get a temporary job as a a junior technical writer, and the rest is history. A lot of companies seem to be using contract writers, or contract-to-hire, so that might be a way to build a portfolio. Good luck!
Student Affairs Officer* January 29, 2014 at 11:45 am More specific title: Graduate Fellowship Advisor (My salary info is public anyway since I work for a state university. You can probably figure out who I am if you care.) Duties: Helping grad students (and some undergrads) procure extramural fellowships and grants. I put particular effort into being our school’s FPA for the US Student Fulbright Program. I help undergrads come up with research topics, and with grad students, I edit drafts of fellowship/grant proposals and help them explain their research plans better. I assist with content, organization, wording, etc., and for some awards, I also do the submission to the agency. I also host workshops, organize panels, advertise funding opportunities through social media, etc. Level of awesomeness (as another commenter put it): Very successful at helping students get Fulbright grants, regularly complimented on performance by those both inside and outside my office Amount of experience: PhD plus 1 year of experience doing something else at this university, 2.5 years in current position. (I completed the PhD ~1 year into this job.) Salary: $45k Other benefits: Pretty good health insurance, possibility of pension, 3 wks paid vacation + 12 paid sick days/yr, employee health program, some travel for professional development Location: Southern California
I'll Play!* January 29, 2014 at 12:03 pm I think I can guess who you are, but I wouldn’t have guessed gender correctly. Not that it matters, I just like guessing games.
Student Affairs Officer* January 29, 2014 at 12:08 pm It is pretty cool. I guess under “benefits,” I could have put, “Liking my work, getting along with bosses and co-workers.”
Geneticist* January 29, 2014 at 11:45 am Postdoctoral fellow (scientist in biology) – I “do science” (analyze data) using statistical and computational methods. I work for/within a professor’s lab. Pacific NW 4 years undergrad major in subject with 1.5 years independent research during that time plus working in labs every summer to get into grad school; 5 years getting PhD. $54,000 plus regular university employee benefits minus any defined maternity or vacation days because postdocs fall into a grey undefined category in the HR categorization of job types. This means it’s essentially up to your PI to decide to allow you to take off. I consider myself quite lucky to be paid this much as most PIs across the US just pay the NIH mandated minimum salary which is $39,500 a year for your first year post-PhD. I am more independent than a PhD student as I already finished mine (postdoc= post PhD) but am paid by the professor (my PI, or Primcipal Investigator) so I work for him/her on projects in his/her research program. I publish papers on this research and ideally during this postdoc I will accumulate enough first author papers to be competitive for real jobs (traditionally faculty jobs but nowadays many go into industry because ther aren’t enough jobs to go around).
Research Scientist* January 29, 2014 at 4:39 pm Fresh grad (PhD), essentially in a similar experience situation. Title: Research Scientist Experience: 1 year Region: small town Canada Salary: 60k Four weeks vacation, seven days PTO. Was offered 40k for PDFs, but turned them down.
Program Associate - Nonprofit* January 29, 2014 at 11:45 am $35,000 Work to support department and off-site staff. -Data entry -Creation of marketing materials -Some event management (supplies, schedule, food, transportation for 500+) Seattle, WA 4 Years of random full time experience plus some part time experience in college BS Female
Assistant Manager* January 29, 2014 at 11:46 am Job – Assistant Manager – supervise two teams that processess payroll by linking customer systems together with ETL tools Geographic Area – Orange, CA Years of Exp – 9 Salary – 52,000 Sex – Male Other info: Bachelors degree in computer information systems, masters degree in film studies. Also, this as my first job after school!
Librarian* January 29, 2014 at 11:46 am Job: Head of an academic special collections library Geographic area : Southeast Education: MLIS plus an additional Masters degree Experience: 7 years professional, 20 years paraprofessional Duties: Responsible for all aspects of a 1.5 million item library; manage 6 FT and 10 PT staff members; represent our institution at state, regional and national meetings and conferences. Salary: $53K plus full benefits
Meredith* January 29, 2014 at 11:46 am Title: Outreach Specialist. I coordinate continuing education for library professionals through a state university extension program. I have an MA in library & information studies, which is pretty standard for this position. Outreach specialists for other programs usually have advanced degrees in their fields. Location: Wisconsin Years of experience: 5 (post-MLS) Salary: ~43K Context: I am FT salaried, non-exempt. Mid-40’s is standard entry level/mid-level salary for my field, particularly in the Midwest. I have a generous vacation and sick leave policy, as well as health insurance. While my institution cannot do merit-based pay, I can receive pay increases when my title changes (it has once already).
Project Engineer (Jake)* January 29, 2014 at 11:47 am Project Engineer (construction) Other companies may refer to my position as a Construction Engineer, Field Engineer, Construction Project Engineer, etc. I am responsible for all administration on construction projects ranging from 20-50 million dollars. 3 years experience (most with top 10 contractor, this position with a yearly revenue of about 120 million) 63k in base salary plus $1600/month for a car allowance and living expenses. As a note, I am expected to relocate every 18-24 months. 2 weeks vacation, bare bones insurance plans, gas card. Expected to work between 45 and 55 hours a week, which is much less than industry standard. I found out after being hired that their ceiling during my negotiations was 65k, just for reference. Instead I negotiated for an extra week vacation my first five years.
J.B.* January 30, 2014 at 9:29 am My husband has yet to successfully negotiate extra vacation in engineering consulting firms. I think maybe he’s just too nice. Would love to hear how you did it :)
Research Coordinator (healthcare)* January 29, 2014 at 11:48 am I’m currently unemployed, but my last role was: Research Coordinator (well, equivalent of one; university had opaque titles) Salary: 45k 4 years of experience Southeast Michigan
Anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 11:48 am Job: IT Application Consultant (it’s like more than an analyst, there is some project management involved, system support, general IT knowledge) Area: Northwest (rural) Illinois/Southern Wisconsin Experience: 7 years in this job, 15 total in IT, healthcare specifically Salary: $65,000 The range for this job is pretty wide. It can go as low as 40K and as high as 80K, depending on what company you work for and whether you are in something non-profit like healthcare or education, or more corporate. Region has a lot to do with it too. I’m about to be capped in my pay grade and I would have to go further in towards Chicago to see more money for the same job.
IT Application Consultant* January 29, 2014 at 12:00 pm Same anon as above, I messed that up, sorry! I wanted to add that I started at 42K when I transferred into this job from being a regular, helpdesk answering, support tech. I went up to 65K through a combination of annual merit increases (around 3% each) and a re-negotiation of my pay after a job offer from another company several years ago. (I wasn’t sold on taking the job but it made me realize how undervalued I was so I talked to my boss).
Social Worker* January 29, 2014 at 11:48 am Foster care social worker Two years of experience New Orleans, LA $39K + good benefits
Foster Parent* January 29, 2014 at 1:10 pm I’m a foster parent, and I know you guys are underpaid for what you do! We’ve worked with some awesome social workers in our area.
Adult Foster Care Provider* January 29, 2014 at 2:54 pm Thank you as well for all you do! We have 2 adult foster care patients in our home and we appreciate the social workers greatly.
Admin but you'll probably guess it's me* January 29, 2014 at 11:49 am Title: Consulting Assistant (admin who also edits reports; technology company that services the financial industry) Area: Midwest Experience: 15 years customer service and admin (mostly front desk but one job in nonprofit development) Salary: $36,000 / year (around $17 an hour–I recently got a merit raise). This is going from $12.50 an hour previously, and $9.00 before that. Average around here is $7.50–$9.00 hourly for receptionists. Sad. :P Edumacation: B.S. English, A.S. Criminology, working on B.S. Professional Writing Supplemental income: ??? Who knows? First Reader said my new book is like a cross between Michael Crichton and Bruce Joel Rubin (author of Ghost screenplay). Holy cow–the Great and Powerful Crichton! 0_0 Sorry to go off topic, but I couldn’t hold that in. :)
Admin but you'll probably guess it's me* January 29, 2014 at 11:49 am Well of course you will guess……I left my avatar on it! :P
Admin but you'll probably guess it's me* January 29, 2014 at 1:35 pm Thanks–you know what? Right after I posted this, I heard from the person critiquing Oldbook, and he said he hasn’t sent it back because he’s waiting on some publishers he pinged to see if they might want to take a look at it. 0_0
Not So NewReader* January 29, 2014 at 6:18 pm I knew it. I felt good vibs on that one! Keep us posted!
Administration Assistant* January 29, 2014 at 11:49 am Admin Assistant for a non departmental government organisation. Scotland, UK, F (sounds a bit like a dating ad!!) I have been in this job for 14 months, nearly 15. Prior to this I worked in Council Libraries. I am currently studying for a BA Hons in Humanities, I’m two thirds the way through my degree with the Open University. I have worked since I was 18 but usually in retail/bar work. My salary is £16,194 a year (approx 26, 815 us dollars). We recently got a pay rise of 1%.
Service Assistant (kitchen worker)* January 29, 2014 at 11:49 am your job: You know, cleaning, cooking, prepping… that crap your geographic area: Lower Mainland, BC your approximate years of experience: 6 years and until I die probably your salary: minimum wage ($10.75?) hourly & part time which amounts to something like $9k to $12k annually. No benefits. anything else: For reference, rent for a crappy 1 bedroom apartment is $750/month. Don’t go to culinary school, kids! haha.
Service Assistant (kitchen worker)* January 29, 2014 at 11:57 am Oh I guess I should mention I’m female, and yes, that makes a difference.
Financial Analyst* January 29, 2014 at 11:49 am Title/Description: Financial analyst at a business valuation firm Female Location: Mid-south (would be more specific, but it’s a niche industry) Experience: Two years, all at same company Salary: $55,000 + bonus, exempt Other: Average vacation, unlimited sick time, employee health premium covered by company, 401(k), fairly functional workplace. Often work crazy long weeks.
Human Resources Representative* January 29, 2014 at 11:49 am Human Resources Representative at a large public university in Texas: assist departments with questions regarding timekeeping, policy interpretation and best practices, process background checks for all of campus, process I-9 and new hire items for all of campus 8 years experience, $37,000/year with additional benefits such as health insurance/HSA accounts/etc.
TV Researcher* January 29, 2014 at 11:49 am Title: Director of Strategic Research Geographic Area: NYC area Years of Experience: 2 years at this company, 8 years overall Salary: $105,000, plus benefits (healthcare, 401k)
Legal Secretary* January 29, 2014 at 11:50 am Legal secretary for a large international law firm in Texas. $56,000/non-exempt, benefits, bonuses are given annually (started four months ago). Seven years’ experience in the legal profession, including paralegal work. Took a pay raise with a title downgrade at previous job, legal admin asst/office manager (office manager role officially added later) in the legal office for a huge corporation based in North Carolina, starting salary of $57K with benefits/bonus, left after three years at $62K with benefits/bonus.
Human Resources Manager* January 29, 2014 at 11:51 am HR Manager Greater Cleveland area 20 years exp. $75,000
Human Resources Manager* January 29, 2014 at 11:53 am Forgot to mention I am female. Benefits are OK/average Not extremely fond of the High Deductible Health Plan Company is on the smaller side Exempt
Research Assistant--Medicine* January 29, 2014 at 11:51 am -52K/year starting – 0 yrs experience in industry (but see education–academic field) – PhD ABD (so hired a MS pay level–will get significant raise with completion of PhD) – New England university – 15 days vacation – 8 days holidays – 6 days recess – 1 day floating holiday (so total of 30 days off/year) – 9 days sick leave – 10% salary retirement contribution – full medical benefits (no out of pocket costs or copays) – good dental and vision benefits (miniscule out of pocket cost) – (other benefits: 30K grant for down payment on home purchase; personal cell phone benefit, free continuing education, college benefit for dependents for any school, tuition waiver for dependents at this school, etc etc) – telecommuting several days/week – flex schedule (though this is academia, so really 24/7 job!) – tons of training and mentoring and growth Best benefit of all: – Doing meaningful work for disadvantaged populations!
Recruiter* January 29, 2014 at 11:51 am Title/Description: Corporate Recruiter Location: Toronto, ON Experience: 8+ years Salary: $65k with the ability to bonus Other: 3 weeks vacation, plus 2 personal days. Flexible benefits. Summer hours – work extra hour each day and then get every other Friday off. Can work remotely when needed.
3rd Party Recruiter* January 30, 2014 at 2:57 pm Title: Recruiter (recent promotion from Recruiting Assistant) Location: Southern Alberta (not the oil-y part of the province) Experience: 1 year in this role (3 years previous in office management) Salary: $32K + bonus (this rate based on Recruiting Assistant title…hoping an increase and commission structure implement is imminent) Other: Female, Bachelor’s Degree. 2 weeks vacation.
Corporate Recruiter* January 30, 2014 at 5:53 pm Position: Recruiting and Relocation Manager (Corporate Recruiter also handle temporary housing for training and relocations for current employees for major restaurant company) Location: Dallas, TX Experience: 4 years Salary: $65k + profit sharing Gender: Female Other: 401k with company match, free food, flexible schedule and ability to work from home
Software Engineer* January 29, 2014 at 11:52 am I am a junior software engineer for company on the east coast that makes radar simulation software for the military. I’ve been here 1.5 years. I’m male. Salary: $64,000
Admnistrative Assistant* January 29, 2014 at 11:52 am This is not my current position, but what I held in 2011. Office management, weekly payroll, some accounts support, scheduling help for the many many part time staff, some research. Ad-hoc receptionist for our department. Mostly regular admin things. Located in NYC No experience. Straight out of college, but with a pretty bulky resume from all the masses of things I was involved in while there (mostly solid work experience that was translatable to the working world) Salary: $40,000 (started at $36,000). Great health insurance (No co-pays! Not even on epipens! Even dental was low enough that I went to the dentist for funsies, because I could). 4 weeks vacation plus sick leave and personal days. We were encouraged to use it all. There would have been a 401K had I stayed longer. I’m not in the US at the moment but I honestly fear never having it so good again.
Communications Manager* January 30, 2014 at 3:58 pm Is it possible to go to the dentist for funsies? I wish I could get paid to go, because even my free dental isn’t enough motivation sometimes (though pain is).
Sales & Marketing* January 29, 2014 at 11:52 am Title: Sales and Marketing Associate/Executive Duties: Handle all marketing for a small technology firm (under 30 people) plus do some sales of products we resell. Includes trade shows, email marketing, etc. Experience: 4 years in sales positions, Bachelor’s degree with multiple business internships Salary: $55,000 in 2013 including performance bonus (maxed out this year), generous Christmas bonus, and commission *note this is my highest salary so far in my career, they have been very happy with me and treat their employees well* Location: work remotely for company based in a large metropolitan area Benefits: happy with them, I don’t pay for my health insurance but if I had a family it’d be very expensive. 3 weeks personal time – any combination of sick/vacation allowed.
Compliance Specialist* January 29, 2014 at 11:52 am Compliance Specialist for self-funded health insurance, responsibilities include: Review and response of first level appeals, coordination of review for second level and external appeals, act as a government liaison, represent company in small claims court as necessary, draft monthly compliance updates to C-level team, create quarterly compliance updates to be sent to all clients and brokers, manage HIPAA authorizations and subrogation cases, review contracts before they’re sent to clients, train clinical team on how to review and draft written appeal responses, manage policies and procedures for organization. I’m a female Geographic area: Northeast Experience: I started this role in August 2012 Salary: $40k
Director of Field Services* January 29, 2014 at 11:52 am Manage a large cadre of volunteers working across the country to realize the mission of my non-profit, manage staff who do the same. NYC 8 years experience in this organization with roles leading up to this one. Some prior experience with volunteer management and engagement. BA in liberal arts, MA in peripherally related field – most learning has been on the job and through additional professional development $93,000 small non-profit
Controller* January 29, 2014 at 11:52 am Description: Manage the day-to-day finances, payroll, and accounting, up to and including month end statements, for three companies within a larger corporate group. They have a combined total of about 65 employees to give you an idea of size. Geographic Area: Medium sized city in British Columbia, Canada Years of Experience: I’ve been with the same company for 8 years. The first 7 were as an office administrator and payroll coordinator. I’ve been in my current role for just over one year. Salary: $62,400 in wages plus about $4,000 in other benefits. Includes 3 weeks of paid vacation. Education: 2-year Accounting and Finance Diploma (which was paid for by the company). Gender: Female
Staff Accountant* January 29, 2014 at 12:26 pm Is that US$? I’m surprised by this, in U.S. a controller with CPA gets around US$80K minimum. Interesting
Public Accountant* January 29, 2014 at 1:22 pm A two year accounting degree and a CPA are very different.
Controller* January 29, 2014 at 5:28 pm It is in Canadian funds, but as Public Accountant mentioned, I’m pretty far off from a CPA. We do have our year-end statements prepared by an independent accounting firm. They’re also there for me if I need any advice, but I’ve only had to take advantage of that a couple times. For the level of complexity in our businesses, having a CPA on staff would be overkill.
Assistant Controller* January 30, 2014 at 4:23 pm I’ll put mine here for comparison: Description: manage 6 accounting staff and provide financial statements and other financial reporting to executive management Geographic area: also a medium-sized city in British Columbia, Canada, but probably not the same one Years of experience: seven as an accountant, previously twelve in corporate communications Salary: 90k, medical/dental, RRSP matching, 3 weeks paid vacation Education: BA in English Literature, just finished CPA Other comments: I changed careers because I maxed out as a communications director and was very bored with what I was doing. I love my job now and work with a fantastic controller who is perfectly happy to see me take over his position when I want it. Awesome, right?
Communications Specialist* January 29, 2014 at 11:52 am Job: Communications Specialist at a Big 10 university in its college of engineering. I do not currently directly supervise any people…yet, but that will be coming at some point within the year. I am responsible for developing all media, PR, etc. for the unit that I am in. I also function as the office AV and IT expert (not part of the job description, but I am fine with the responsibility). Area: The Midwest Experience: 5 years working professionally since finishing grad school, but I had some internship experience before that. I worked at a nonprofit government research org. for three years as a communications specialist and then transitioned into higher education communications and web strategy. I have also worked as a freelance copywriter and journalist for various ventures. Salary: $56,000, plus extensive and generous benefits. The retirement isn’t the greatest, but I enjoy 24 vacation days a year, plus 3 personal/floating holidays.
Communications Specialist* January 29, 2014 at 12:02 pm Let me clarify that when I say the retirement isn’t the greatest, it’s still really, really good compared to some of the 401K match programs that companies offer. It’s a 9%/9% match.
Chief Program Officer* January 29, 2014 at 11:53 am Job: Chief Program Officer at a social service non-profit. I supervise direct service programs, work on program development, manage our foundation grantmaking, etc. Supervise (directly and indirectly) about two dozen people. Geographic Area: Major urban metropolitan area in the Northeast US. (One of the big ones, but not New York.) Years Experience: 10 Salary: $64,000 Benefits: More time off than I know what to do with (20 vacation, 8 personal, 10 sick), about 85% employer contribution on the medical insurance but 0% employer contribution dental and no 401(k) match and no tuition reimbursement. Additional Info: Female. We did a salary survey last year and confirmed that we’re on the low end compared to our partners.
Public Librarian* January 29, 2014 at 11:53 am Includes managing frontline staff 5 years exp. (Plus MLIS) $55K Canada (Maritimes)
Manufacturing Engineer* January 29, 2014 at 11:53 am -Job Title: Manufacturing Engineer -Description: small medical device company, I work on support for equipment/operations, investigating and correcting product defects, install new equipment, validate equipment changes, and in my spare time (ha) work on process improvements. There is also a metric crap-ton of paperwork and documentation I have to work on since the industry is FDA regulated. -Geographic area: Denver, CO -6+ years experience -Salary: $68k with benefits and a small yearly bonus -Female
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:54 am Title: Associate Pastor Responsibilities: Basically assist the lead pastor. I lead several auxiliary ministries, assist with pastoral care, do a lot of admin, and pretty much anything that needs to be done. Geographic Area: Southern Alabama Years of Experience: 4 Full-Time; 8 Part-Time Volunteer Education: MA Religion (not an MDiv) Salary: $37,000 (I made $40,000 in Middle Tennessee.)
Youth Program Director* January 29, 2014 at 2:57 pm Love seeing other ministry jobs posted! Here in Minneapolis, I make $35,000 full time as Youth Director with an MA (also not MDIV). Salary is so dependent on church size and location.
College administrator* January 29, 2014 at 11:54 am Title: Mid-level college administrator Description: Manage large academic division (400+ employees total, many PT contingent–which means adjunct faculty) Experience: PhD, decade+ of teaching, 7 as administrator Location: Northern CA Salary: $130K Bennies: pretty good health care; pension (assuming the system survives until I retire); total ~6 weeks vacation; sick leave accrues throughout career and can pay out at retirement. Female, but we have published salary schedules so that doesn’t impact my salary. My salary has been in the newspaper, so really I don’t know why I’m going anon here!
MentalEngineer* January 29, 2014 at 12:51 pm Reading this thread has made me bitter, so I’m going to go there. How much did you make as a prof. before you turned to the “dark side”?
College administrator* January 29, 2014 at 1:03 pm About $85K, if I remember right. Could have earned more teaching overloads, but I had my hands full with a 5/5 load. Summers and winter break off, though, so it really works out to about the same hourly salary if you compare apples to apples.
Project Manager (Software)* January 29, 2014 at 11:55 am Job Description: I work as a project manager for in-house software projects. This involves working with stakeholders from various areas of the business to define requirements, write use cases, and work as a liason between development teams and the business during development. I also hold the business accountable for putting together training plans, marketing plans, etc. to ensure a successful launch of our feature sets. In addition, I oversee and prioritize work for our Production Support Team. These 2 individuals function as 3rd tier support for our internal users and work on tasks that take 3 days or less to complete. Geographic Area: Boston, Massachusetts Years of Experience in this job function: 4 Salary: $70,000 / year
Project Manager (Software)* January 29, 2014 at 12:11 pm Benefits: Decent health and dental (nothing to write home about), 401k match (100% up to 3%, then 50% up to 5%), 20 PTO days, 9 holidays + 3 floating holidays, semi-flexible schedule
EDI File Processor* January 29, 2014 at 11:55 am EDI File Processor – I take Excel files that companies send in for their group benefits with my company and then make sure they will go through right and fix any problems that don’t. Omaha, NE 3 years experience in this type of role $13.57/hour
Sales Representative* January 29, 2014 at 11:55 am Salary: $50,000 + commission (approx $15-20,000 before taxes) Industry: Publishing Experience: 3 years sales, 5 years in industry Benefits: 2.5 weeks vacation, health/dental/vision insurance Location: Boston, MA
Lead Financial Analyst* January 29, 2014 at 11:55 am – Job description: Financial planning and analysis for a Fortune 500 company – Location: North Texas – Years of Experience: 10 years in “financial analyst” roles with increasing responsibilities as I have progressed in my career – Salary: $102,000 base salary with an additional 10 – 15% bonus each year – Additional information: Fairly consistent 40 – 50 hour work week. The salary range for this position is similar across all of our US locations, with minor cost of living adjustments. We also have paid vacation (amount depends on seniority and number of years at the company), 401(k) matching, and medical/dental/life insurance offered.
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 11:55 am Title: Archivist (at a small academic institution) Geographic Area: Small-town Midwest Experience: 3-ish Years Salary: 42,000 with ok benefits and 3 wks. vacation
Academic Support (College)* January 29, 2014 at 11:55 am My job on Paper: – Address transitional issues that challenge first year students – Promote student engagement and success – Provide academic advisement and mentorship – Refer students to appropriate college departments/services – Assist in retention activities My job in reality: – Play on the internet, hoping a student will “drop in” My Geographic Area: – a small city in Ontario, Canada My approximate years of experience: – 5 years in this field – an additional 4 years in a related field My salary: – $30,000 + benefits (***8 month contract only***) Other info: – ZERO job security – I get laid off each spring – I have no recall rights to this job, and have to reapply each year
Anonymous* January 30, 2014 at 12:23 am Out of curiosity, are you generally able to find work over the summers? I’d imagine summer jobs are geared more towards students, so I don’t know how hard it would be for you.
Marketing Manager* January 29, 2014 at 11:55 am ◾handle all social media strategy, website strategy + execution, email and media campaign strategy + execution, manage team of 3, IP launches, event marketing, sales collateral/case studies ◾Silicon Valley, Bay Area, CA ◾5 years of experience ◾$82K, (includes 401(k) matching, small merit bonus and small end-of-year profit-sharing, no health benefits b/c I am on my husband’s plan), 15 days of vacation + standard company holidays, relocation allowance when I took the job ◾Female, MBA, privately-owned design agency, small marketing team so I wear a lot of hats
Press Secretary* January 29, 2014 at 11:55 am Title: Press Secretary for U.S. Senator Geographic Area: DC Years of Experience: 2 as PS, 2 as Deputy PS, 2 previous in comms Salary: about $50,000 (womp womp)
Event Designer / Studio Manager* January 29, 2014 at 11:56 am *Your Job* I am a Studio Manager (office manager) at a small full service event design firm. I also have clients, so also have the title of Event Designer. I work hand-in-hand with the owner (no other full timers besides me) to manage her business. *Your geographic area* Chicago *your approximate years of experience* 4 years in event operations prior to this, 4 years in this position *Your Salary* I skew the data points, because I am severely “underpaid” by industry standards. I am paid an hourly rate of $16 per hour, which usually equates to about $35,000 a year. I also don’t receive benefits (luckily I have a husband with a great health plan, or else I couldn’t do this job) or 401(k) or any of that, but I have this job because I love it. I am torn about how I am impacting my future earning potential, but hopefully the right match will come along one day.
Lizard* January 30, 2014 at 11:00 am I’d be interested to know whether people are single or married and how this affected their choice of position. Speaking from personal experience, pretty sure I’d be in a totally different career if I had someone else’s income to fall back on.
Library Specialist Lead* January 29, 2014 at 11:57 am Job: Library Specialist Lead at a university library Geographic area : Southwest Education: MLIS (job only requires a bachelor degree) Experience: ~3 years Duties: Harvesting digital documents for a specialized online repository collection, preservation work and binding coordination for deteriorating print volumes, reference (desk, phone, email, chat), monthly displays, social media management, occasional instruction, (no supervision responsibilities) Salary: $32k + two weeks vacation + health + tuition waiver
Web Developer* January 29, 2014 at 11:57 am salary: 75,000 benefits: slightly above average but not outstanding experience: 20+ area: southeastern U.S., mid-sized city job description: create, maintain websites related to biological research; some database work (Oracle, MS SQL); some programming (JAVA); some of lots of stuff connected to websites like writing, editing
Emma* January 29, 2014 at 4:41 pm Interesting! Did you get a degree in web dev, or did you learn on-the-job? Did you start out in web development or another computer science area?
Principal Engineer* January 29, 2014 at 11:57 am female medical devices and pharmaceuticals – R&D, manufacturing 20 years exp greater Denver area $120,000 + 20% bonus program
Administrative Assistant* January 29, 2014 at 11:58 am -Administrative Assistant at a creative marketing agency -Large Midwest city -40,000 + good benefits (healthcare, PTO, 401k, paid parking or bus pass, etc.) -Bachelor’s Degree, English -Age is mid-twenties
Sr. Analyst* January 29, 2014 at 11:58 am The job: strategy-business-dev-marketing-related research in the energy industry. Mostly reading & writing reports and analysis. I’m also a data analysis go-to person for the group (excel, database stuff). your geographic area: central US your approximate years of experience: 15 your salary: ~100K, good benefits education: BS mechanical engineering, MBA (not top tier) best perk: easy commute & job autonomy
Tamara* January 29, 2014 at 11:59 am “Client Relations Specialist” I work for an Enterprise Learning Management System developer so I troubleshoot with clients, contact the development team about bugs, write help documentation, interface with clients, user integrations, client tutorials and work to solve any problems that affects the clients use of our web-based software. I’m kind of the first level of defense. Our company is small so my responsibilities can change drastically day to day. Atlanta, GA I worked with a clientele in retail for 5 years. Had 6months experience working with students in online learning communities. But with actual troubleshooting/help desk less than 1 year. $40,000 I have a BA: English – Advanced Composition & Rhetoric (Technical & Professional Writing)
Tamara* January 29, 2014 at 12:02 pm In regards to salary I also have great benefits: Medical and dental premiums 100% paid by company. 401k matched 100% up to 6% of my salary.
Legal Assistant* January 29, 2014 at 11:59 am (NB: not paralegal. Paralegals in my area require a diploma and are higher up the chain.) Job: Legal assistant/office admin Duties: general office admin/front desk, some accounts payable/receivables, lots of writing letters to clients Area: Lower Mainland, BC Yrs Exp: 1 Salary: $31K and change, health insurance, unpaid sick time, about 10 days of vacation a year.
Dip-lo-mat* January 29, 2014 at 11:59 am -tenured Foreign Service Officer (Department of State)–FS-3. Unlike most of the civilian government, dips are rank-in-person, not rank-in-position. Promotions are competitive and up-or-out. -Anywhere and everywhere to do anything and everything; DC when in the US -8 years in, 3 years previous pro experience, BA & MS in unrelated fields (no college education is necessary, but you start at a higher rank if you have degrees and previous experience) -$76k base, plus locality in US or COLA, hardship and danger pay overseas; started with $48k base at FS-5 -Other perks: Usual federal benefits plus mandatory home leave in between foreign assignments (at least 4 weeks, often more, of PTO that you are legally obligated to take so you don’t forget ‘Murica); obviously lots of travel to weird and wonderful places; (small) wardrobe allowance if you go from, say, Angola to Siberia back-to-back; paid education at international schools or stipend for boarding school if post does not have an appropriately credentialed school; furnished housing at most places and housing allowance if not (not in US, of course); R&R tickets if at a hardship post; car and HHE shipped by guvmint. (Those last few ones aren’t really perks; they’re necessary if you are dragging your family around the world for 20+ years, but some people still see them as a bonus.) -Good to know: you must retire by age 65
AVP* January 29, 2014 at 2:09 pm Can I ask how much hardship and danger pay go for, when applicable? Does it Change depending on location (i.e., more in places that are REALLY dangerous as opposed to just somewhat dangerous?)
Dip-lo-mat* January 29, 2014 at 6:20 pm Up to 35% each at a post. So, say, an assignment in Afghanistan will yield base + ⅔ of DC locality pay (long story) + 35% danger + 35% hardship + 15% shift differential (because there are no/no days off there). You’ll also get 3 R&Rs there. I’ve had assignments with no danger and hardship, with just danger, and with just hardship, ranging from 5 to 20% each. The upside of going to a 0/0 post, as we say, is that you get to live in, say, Sydney. The downside is you have to fly your entire family home on your own if you want to visit family during your 3 year assignment …super super expensive. Oh, though they have reduced the number of languages in the program, if you have a certain level of reading and speaking proficiency, you do get an incentive bonus to go to places where they use that language. Lest you despair, you are generally taught that language for 6 – 24 months as your full-time job.
TL* January 29, 2014 at 3:24 pm Oh, I’ve been seriously considering starting the application process for the FSO. Do you have any advice you’d be willing to pass on?
Dip-lo-mat* January 29, 2014 at 6:27 pm Sure! I am actually the one on the open thread who said she is looking to get out of her well-paying great job. Crazy, I know. I’ve wanted to do this forever and I highly recommend it to anyone who has a sense of adventure, the ability to represent the U.S. 24 hours a day, and tendency toward workaholism. I do love what I do, but it can be really tough on families. It’s just not working for my son. Other kids end up very worldly and flexible, so it’s not always a bad thing for families. Best advice is to not get discouraged if you don’t pass any portion the first or fourth times. It can take time. For the written: read read read. Read the Post, the Times, the Economist. Brush up on geography and generally know culture and history (American music, art, etc.). The idea of the written test is: can you walk into an event at Ambassador’s house and respond when a guest asks about Bob Dylan? Or at least fake it? They are searching for well-rounded people who can write and have great interpersonal skills. The oral assessment is a different beast. Be a leader and a team player simultaneously, think about what the question is asking and the information you need and the information you don’t, and be confident even when you don’t feel it. Anyway, I think it is the career of a lifetime, whether that career lasts five years or thirty-five. Just remember, it is very rarely Paris, and quite often Guangzhou.
AVP* January 29, 2014 at 6:39 pm Oh, man. Except for the “representing the US 100% of the time” thing, this is my dream job. Unfortunately I think that’s an important aspect of it which I couldn’t fake…
Dip-lo-mat* January 29, 2014 at 7:57 pm This is a common concern, as no one agrees with everything all the time. We are free to disagree during the foreign policy sausage making and with our vote. But FSOs should recognize–and most do–that once our game face is on, it’s on, and we represent the government of the United States. By “100% of the time,” that translates to keeping your game face on at the grocery store and in traffic and on Facebook, which can get a bit exhausting when you just want to rant at the complete lack of lines in the host country. But, alas, that wouldn’t be very diplomatic.
TL* January 29, 2014 at 11:36 pm Thanks, that’s really helpful! I think I could be good at the job – I’m well-rounded, can fake a conversation on most subjects and am really good at game-facing. But yeah, I want travel, adventure, and a nice secure job where I can feel like I’m doing some good (but making decent money because I do like the money-having part of jobs.)
Asst. Director Alumni Relations* January 29, 2014 at 11:59 am • I am in charge of online communications for a college alumni office. I’m not directly involved with event planning, but do provide support for the other directors in the office. • Northeast Ohio • Just started my second year in this job, but I am an alumnus of the school and have worked in other departments on the campus over the past 10 years. • Started at $41,000 • Masters degree in communications and significant side experience (blogging, social media). Assistant Director = entry-level, with Associate Director and Director higher up the ladder.
Industrial Waste Inspector (aka Sewer Cop)* January 29, 2014 at 12:00 pm Municipality near Seattle 30+ years experience, 23 at current city. Male, though that doesn’t matter here. $76,700/year, no bonuses, no 401 contribution, defined benefits retirement.
Industrial Waste Inspector (aka Sewer Cop)* January 29, 2014 at 12:10 pm I regulate and enforce on local, state, and Federal waste discharge regulations. Inspect businesses ranging from one-person shops to the largest manufacturing building in the world. Sample wastewater flow ranging from less than a gallon a day to in excess of 1.5 MGD (Million Gallons per Day). Sample in collection system manholes with line sizes from 8″ to 72″. Determine and prepare enforcement that can range from a phone call to Administrative Fines of $10,000/day, on to the possibility of civil and criminal charges. Receive and review self-monitoring reports for compliance. Draft and issue discharge permit and discharge authorizations. And more.
IT Manager* January 29, 2014 at 12:00 pm Job: IT Manager: I manage 5 systems administrators and do substantial project management as well. I also write lots of reports. Salary: ~$75k annually Benefits: substantial 403b contribution (without required matching), excellent healthcare with low monthly premiums, better-than-average PTO, good work/life balance Industry: Higher Education– a midsize private university Area: a mid-size midwestern city with a low cost of living Experience: 4 years as a manager, 10+ years as a sysadmin Education: BA in somewhat related field, several tech-y certifications
Application Analyst* January 29, 2014 at 12:27 pm IT Application Analyst – primary support for financial and HR applications, some web development, some SQL report writing, some project management Smaller Midwest city (approx. 30K people) 7 years in current role, 14 years in IT for healthcare/hospital non-profit $63,000, salaried, 403b with matching, decent health/dental/vision insurance, great PTO plan (up to 8 weeks per year), flexible schedule when I need it. BS in Computer Science from regional public university female
Sales Support Representative* January 29, 2014 at 12:00 pm I do operations and some customer service for a retail branch of a large mobile phone carrier in US. I’ve been here 2 years 3 months and counting. I started out making $13.92 an hour and now make $16.75 ($34,500 a year or so). We get great benefits: employer subsidized healthcare, matching 401k, tuition reimbursement, 2 weeks of vacation plus about 5 days of other PTO. FWIW I’m female.
Anne* January 29, 2014 at 12:01 pm Team Manager/Senior Analyst at a social media software company (small start-up) SF Bay Area 9 years experience in the field, 3 in this position $60,000 salary, with an additional $8k reimbursement for health insurance (we’re so small that employees find their own health insurance plans and are reimbursed). No other traditional benefits like 401k, health insurance, EAPs, etc.
Anne* January 29, 2014 at 12:02 pm I should add that we have a very generous vacation policy: 20 paid PTO days plus 9 paid company-wide holidays
Project Coordinator* January 29, 2014 at 12:01 pm Job: I work at a non-profit research/biotech organization doing grants & contracts management as well as budget management for my department Geographic area: Seattle, WA Years experience: 5 years in related work Salary: $54,000, exempt, 401k matching, low-cost health benefits and some other perks Other: female with a bachelor’s degree and some other random professional experience (~5 years)
Copy Editor - Ad Agency* January 29, 2014 at 12:01 pm – Copy editor / proofreader / occasional copywriter at a boutique ad agency – Long Island – 8 years (1 in ad business, 8+ as a proofreader/copy editor; before this, I was in the dying field of book publishing where I didn’t get a raise from $43K for 5+ years) – $50K base (started at $48K), plus $1K bonus for add’l in-house work. Yearly bonus is about 1/wk of pay. – 20 days PTO (sick/vacation in same bucket). 14 holidays. Summer Fridays (leave at 2 p.m.). – Hours are pretty 9-5 with occasional late nights. (Much better than industry usual.) – Female, early 30s. Degree in Journalism, Master’s in history.
Copy Editor - Ad Agency* January 29, 2014 at 12:09 pm Just wanted to say, I’m not *complaining* about my former salary, but the NYC area is an incredibly high COLA for those who aren’t from around here (and I’ve lived elsewhere, like FL, OH, CT). So while it seemed like I was raking it in … yeah, not so much :P
Copy Editor (New Media)* January 29, 2014 at 12:30 pm I’m just going to tag onto this, so that all the copy editors can be in one place. This was my last job because my current one won’t be relevant/helpful (VERY niche) Title: Copy Editor Job: Copy editor/proofreader/social media coordinator/what-have-you for a VERY SMALL new media company specializing in regional stories of a more literary bent (rather than straight up news). Location: Mid-sized city in the lower Midwest (very low COL) Experience: 3 years before I started working for this company, worked there for 1.5 years. Salary: $20/hr, part time. Started out at 20 hrs/wk, going up to 30 hrs/wk. No PTO, no insurance. Definitely had one of the higher salaries, possibly contributing to my eventual lay-off. Other: Female, mid-20s, BA in English. Used a mix of Chicago and AP Style (if you were wondering).
Development Associate* January 29, 2014 at 12:01 pm Development Associate for a small theater within a larger community organization. I’m responsible for managing our relationships with individual donors to the theater, Theater’s special events, grant writing and essentially manage all of the theater’s fundraising. Area: DC Experience: 9 month part-time fundraising internship, 3 years as administrative/development assistant at another position, 1 year in this position Salary: $35,000 a year plus health insurance and small company match into 401K (2% matching)
Content Strategist* January 29, 2014 at 12:02 pm (New position) Description: Develop content guidelines and work with doc writers, marketing, product management, engineering, and support to create and manage different forms of content for both customers and company initiatives. Industry: Software Location: Remote, Texas (most staff is Boston or Raleigh, though) Pay: $81,000, plus 10% bonuses Other compensation: 20 days PTO, 3% matching 401(k), and health/life/disability insurance Experience: 12 years
Content Strategist* January 29, 2014 at 12:03 pm Oh, I forgot: Female, early 30s (or mid-30s, if you’re a h8r)
Usually not Anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 1:14 pm This makes me feel better, since we have roughly the same experience and job description. I’ve been thinking my salary is probably an anomaly, but maybe not.
Technical Editor* January 29, 2014 at 1:36 pm Good to see that Content Strategy positions are paying well. This is the next step for me as my duties are essentially project management for documents and ensuring that the content produced by engineering and related department aligns with user and company goals.
Programme Support Officer* January 29, 2014 at 12:02 pm Programme Support Officer Writing and editing lots of reports, especially for donors; producing communications materials, such as case studies; keeping track of donor deadlines; some research including desk and field research, some strategic planning and support. Location: East Africa Years of Experience – 2 – 3 in this area, plus BA and MSc. Salary – Approx $15,000, serviced apartment, including all bills, driver/taxis for work, flights at start and end of contract, all medical expenses, flights, food, transport and per diem when in the field. (It’s not costing me money to be here, but there’s not really the opportunity to save, as I’m in a fairly big city with plenty of things to do)
Programme Support Officer* January 29, 2014 at 12:05 pm Oh, and my holidays are statutory, at about 22 days a year, not including public holidays, and I’m female.
Higher Ed Admin* January 29, 2014 at 12:02 pm -Official Title: Office Admin, Pretty accurate although I would say I do slightly less data entry/filing and slightly more higher level projects than others with similar titles at my university -Geographic Area: Chicago -2 years experience+BA -Salary: $19.42/hour which annualizes to about $38,400+ 5% automatic 403b contribution, additional 5% matching contribution, 3 weeks vacation, and affordable health insurance. Lagging behind on the flexible work arrangements that so many others seem to have though.
Technical Editor* January 29, 2014 at 12:03 pm Job duties: Part of a dedicated tech pubs team; my role is to edit technical documentation written by other authors; manage the style guide; write internal process and quality documentation. Company: Telecom, about 1200 employees worldwide Geographic Area: Raleigh/Durham, NC Years of Experience: 7 years Education: MA Technical Communication, BA English Salary: $78,000 with 7.5% annual bonus potential Other benefits: 3 weeks vacation, 2 floating days, unlimited sick time, generous WFH policy, 401k matching, health/dental/vision
AR* January 29, 2014 at 12:03 pm Payroll/HR Administrator – develop and bring payroll and HR into compliance for a company that is in growth mode (30 employees 4 years ago to 130 employees today) in charge of all payroll/HR functions and creation of Payroll/HR policies for the company – anything & everything that is Payroll & HR related, I do Original position description: Payroll with some HR First year and a half that was true now due to streamlining payroll Current position make up is: HR with some payroll Washington State 10 years of Payroll experience – CPP 3 years of HR (all in this position) – working on PHR $40,500 yearly salary Manages no one (unless you count managing up) Pay is based off of payroll duties not HR
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 12:03 pm Title: Communications Specialist Experience: 1 year at present company, previous experience 5 years in both communications and administrative roles Education: some college, no degree Geographic Area: Southeast Salary $52K, exempt with 5% bonus, decent health vision and dental and 2 weeks vacation
Anon Salary* January 29, 2014 at 12:04 pm IT System Administrator Level 3 Chicago Suburbs 18 years experience in IT field (help desk, programmer, sysadmin), have masters degree in computer science 100k/year
HR Representative* January 29, 2014 at 12:05 pm Comparable Title: HR Generalist The Job: Administer HR for sales-heavy company with 200 employees. Department consists of me, my manager (who handles hiring/firing, discipline, compensation, etc.) and an intern. I do benefits admin, payroll, new hire orientations, timekeeping, expense reimbursements, commissions, and manage our intern Location: Midwest, mid-size metro area Years of Experience: 5 Salary $43,000
High School English Teacher* January 29, 2014 at 12:05 pm Job: High School English Teacher Description: I teach at a charter high school for underprivileged students. My main responsibilities include fostering a love of literature in students, working with students to bring their reading up to grade level (most ninth graders come to our school reading on a fourth grade level or lower), creating a safe classroom environment where students feel empowered, tutoring after school, planning lessons, and sponsoring the Chess Club. Geographic area: Virginia Experience: 1 year Level of education: Master of Ed. Salary: 12,982 with benefits Gender: Female
Z* January 29, 2014 at 2:02 pm This is exciting. A surprising number of people making a little less than me, relatively few people making so much I want to cry, but lots of people making *just* enough more than me to give me hope that I might be able to step it up in the future.
Victoria Nonprofit* January 29, 2014 at 2:18 pm If you don’t mind a follow-up: Are you in an AmeriCorps program?
AVP* January 29, 2014 at 2:44 pm I was just going to ask if this was Teach For America – otherwise it seems under minimum wage, no?
Victoria Nonprofit* January 29, 2014 at 11:58 pm TFA teachers are paid the standard salary for the school or district in which they teach, btw.
High School English Teacher* January 29, 2014 at 3:41 pm No, I’m not involved with Teach for America or AmeriCorps. To follow up with the other question, I am only paid for the months I “work.” My salary is based on the idea that I only work from 7:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. during the school year (Sept. to June) I actually work most of the year and am usually at the school until 5:00 or 6:00 in the evenings.
Spanish Teacher* January 29, 2014 at 9:16 pm As a fellow teacher, I hope you are looking for something else. They are taking advantage of you. In my southern district, teachers with a master’s degree start in the low $40s, not counting sponsoring clubs.
I agree* January 30, 2014 at 12:26 am My mother is an English teacher, and she started at $35k with her MAT in the early 1990s in NJ. Assisting with or running clubs and being the sponsor for a certain class (like she would sponsor the freshman class and be their faculty representative for the 4 years, helping them with spirit week activities, putting together prom and home coming their senior years, etc) earned her extra stipends. $12k for this is criminal.
Anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 12:05 pm $35K, Staff Accountant, 4 years experience (2 year public), SE, male, NonWhite I know, I know I’m way below the market. It sucks
NBB* January 29, 2014 at 9:32 pm I have heard that is a pretty normal salary for a staff accountant in the SE with less than 10 years of experience.
Accounting/HR* January 29, 2014 at 12:05 pm Job: Office Manager at a small machine shop. I am responsible for most of the accounting and human resource aspects of the business – the company has an outside accountant to take care of the tax filings and a benefit coordinator to take care of the claims submissions and processing for medical and dental. I am also responsible for some of the less glamorous aspects such as phones, reception and making sure the coffee is fully stocked, but it is understandable since I am the one and only office staff other than the company president. 15 years experience in accounting/hr, MBA with Specialization in Finance Health/Dental benefit premiums paid by employer and health deductible is also paid by employer. Geographic Area: Detroit, MI Salary: $60,000 + profit sharing bonus + varied employee bonus – $9,000 minimum bonus per year, more depending on profit levels. I feel my current employer is generous given the area and level of responsibility. Working for a privately owned business single unit business is quite different from my previous job, which was also accounting/human resource, but was at a facility that was one of many belonging to a large corporation. I earned substantially less with the corporation, but had more responsibility and was a supervisor to other staff.
Sr GIS Analyst* January 29, 2014 at 12:05 pm Create Maps and Analyze spatial data. Masters in Economics. 7 years in GIS. $85,000- includes hardship pay Remote location. Female
Wants a job working in GIS* February 2, 2014 at 4:21 am I’m finishing up a masters at the moment in an obscure field, but chose to specialize in GIS. Was it easy for you to get a job in GIS given that your masters was not in say, urban spatial analytics? This is something that I’m really worried about at the moment, so any advice would be great, thanks!
just do it* January 29, 2014 at 12:06 pm I work for Nike. I’m the Digital Sport knowledge base author for our consumer services group. I write FAQs and internal knowledge base content about our digital products (apps, wearables, watches) and serve as a general subject matter expert on the technology. My salary is $48k, and my annual bonus is generally around $5k.
just do it* January 29, 2014 at 12:13 pm Edited to add: I’m in the Portland, Oregon metro area, and the benefits and overall work atmosphere here are rather amazing.
Communications Coordinator* January 29, 2014 at 12:07 pm Job Description: Manage print and online communications for a faith based non profit. Location: New Orleans Years of Experience: 4 years of nonprofit work experience (development & communication) this includes 2 AmeriCorps years. Salary: $41,000, exempt with full benefits. Additional Information: I work a 40 hour week, and receive comp time if I work extra. Since my first nonprofit (non AmeriCorps) job I have had a $17k salary increase. My current salary is definitely above average for New Orleans, my last communications gig netted me $36,500. Female
Administrative Assistant* January 29, 2014 at 12:07 pm Description: I work for medical school school pathway, basically creating the exams (adding questions the director chooses, building, formatting, etc.) , about 55 two hundred question board-style exams a year. Put their peer evaluation data into a spreadsheet they can all take with them (and counts for a grade). I put together the medical cases they study (about 70 a year for me). Oh and there’s creating and maintaining the schedule, emailing the students about updates, and so much more… Location: Pennsylvania Experience: I have been in this position over a year, at my company nearly 3 years. I have a Bachelor and a Masters in Sociology Salary $10.25 an hour ($21,320 a year, before taxes) We do get health insurance, 133.3% employee match contribution, and 10 days paid vacation (more if you’re faculty/been here longer), but for me, no hope of a raise except for the 2.5% “cost of living increase” every summer.
Administrative Assistant* January 29, 2014 at 12:21 pm Oh yeah, female, early 30s, and sad/horrified at how little I’m paid (not that it’s news to me, but to see it compared with everyone else’s salaries? Yikes!)
HR lady* January 29, 2014 at 1:17 pm Are you near a city in PA? (Philly, Pgh, Scranton, or Hbg?) Most areas of PA have a very low cost of living, except for the cities.
Administrative Assistant* January 29, 2014 at 1:46 pm I am near a city. The local paper recently did an expose that people need to make at least $16 an hour to afford a decent apartment at most rental places in the city. And, perhaps oddly, the prices go up (or at least stay the same) away from the city because of the local universities spread out around here. So not many good options besides “get a better job” but…easier said than done!
Client Relations Specialist* January 29, 2014 at 12:07 pm Female, 25 I work for an Enterprise Learning Management System developer so I troubleshoot with clients, contact the development team about bugs, write help documentation, interface with clients, user integrations, client tutorials and work to solve any problems that affects the clients use of our web-based software. I’m kind of the first level of defense. Our company is small so my responsibilities can change drastically day to day. Atlanta, GA I worked with a clientele in retail for 5 years. Had 6months experience working with students in online learning communities. But with actual troubleshooting/help desk less than 1 year. $40,000 (first year) with Medical and dental premiums 100% paid by company. 401k matched 100% up to 6% of my salary. 2 weeks pto. 5 personal days. Forgot how many sick days. I have a BA: English – Advanced Composition & Rhetoric (Technical & Professional Writing)
Anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 12:07 pm Job: Grantwriter at large non-profit arts organization Area: Midwest Experience: 12 years in fundraising Salary: $48,000* *My current position was a lateral move – I sacrificed salary for the opportunity to focus my career specifically in the area of grantwriting. If I had moved upwards, I’d probably be in the $65K-$70K range (hope to achieve that with my next position in a few years!)
Development Director* January 30, 2014 at 6:43 pm I am considering exactly this kind of move. All I really enjoy doing is grantwriting and I would happily take a pay cut to do that full time!
Anonononono* January 29, 2014 at 12:08 pm Undergraduate Program Coordinator for a small-mid-range Social Sciences Department at a 10-20,000 student university in the Northeastern United States (Scheduling Classes, Student Advising are main duties) 32,500 take-home, after health insurance, monthly train pass, union dues, retirement are paid. Also, benefit of tuition reimbursement – employees receive 100% tuition back for first class each term, and 75% reimbursement for second class each term (huge considering the price of graduate courses at this university)
Anonononono* January 29, 2014 at 12:10 pm Sorry, forgot to mention experience: Was about a year out of university when I got the job, but had worked as an admin assistant for 4 full years (generally 3/4 to full-time) at time of interview/hiring.
(Junior) Software Developer* January 29, 2014 at 12:08 pm title: Software Developer (Junior, even if that isn’t in my actual title) area: Boston company age, size: established (not start-up, but not 30+ yrs old, either), mid-sized experience: 0-2 years* degree: computer science from good 4-yr university salary: $86,000, with 3-15% performance bonus in contract benefits: okay. 4 weeks PTO, medical/dental/vision, 401(k) with some level of matching that I don’t know because I haven’t really started paying attention to savings yet (supposedly you’re enrolled automatically and have to un-enroll) * I graduated in 2011, and worked for 1.5 years in a technical but not-development position (at a place where I’m pretty sure I was verrry underpaid). So I had a bit of workplace experience, but was still considered entry-level when I was searching for a new gig.
Marketing and Communications Coordinator* January 29, 2014 at 12:08 pm Marketing and Communications Coordinator Wisconsin 3 Years experience $47,000/year In the Financial Services industry.
Marketing and Communications Coordinator* January 29, 2014 at 12:11 pm EEeep. I should have included more info. Some College, no degree exempt with full benefits. Bonus eligible but haven’t been at the current place long enough! 18 Vacation/PTO/Sick days
Marketing Manager DC* February 19, 2014 at 11:18 am I’m moving back to Wisconsin! I don’t make much more than you and the cost of living is twice has high here!
Web Designer/Content Manager* January 29, 2014 at 12:08 pm Geographical Area: Large-ish city in southeastern US Employer: Private college Years of Experience: total work experience is nearly 8, but only 1 in this particular field Salary: 45,000 salaried, non-exempt + health insurance + vacation time + sick + 5% match on a 403(b)
Rat Racer* January 29, 2014 at 12:08 pm Title: Chief of Staff Industry: Healthcare Insurance Salary: 120K + 15% bonus Experience: 12 years + Masters in Public Administration Location: SF Bay Area Gender: Female Other Perks: work full time from home Am I going to get eggs thrown at me?
Rat Racer* January 29, 2014 at 4:21 pm I think of all the people struggling to pay their health care premiums each month, and am mortified by how much people make in my industry. Note that I am at the low end of my salary bandwidth and one of my direct reports makes more than I do. But people should know how effed up the health care industry is.
Anon If You Don't Play Detective* January 29, 2014 at 8:16 pm I work for a broker but in a non-commissioned position. I make good money for my experience and region, but it is INSANE how much some of sales staff makes.
Project Archivist* January 29, 2014 at 12:08 pm FT; term-limited; partially grant funded; cultural institution Los Angeles, CA, US 5 years experience $51,500 I have no clue if this is more or less than a permanent Archivist position in the same area.
Project Archivist* January 29, 2014 at 12:28 pm includes lots of vacation/sick time; health/dental/eye insurance (partially paid); some kind of matching retirement program. female, mid-30s. masters degree
Production Manager* January 29, 2014 at 12:08 pm Commercial & film production manager NYC-based, small company 5 years experience $52,000, no benefits
Production Manager* January 29, 2014 at 1:05 pm I should add in here, if I went freelance this would likely be more in the 70K range, but I hate freelancing as a rule and am trying not to go that route if I can help it.
Environmental Consultant* January 29, 2014 at 12:08 pm Job: Environmental Consultant, with a focus on air permitting Geographic Area: Seattle Years of Experience: 2 Salary: $59k, plus health insurance, 401k match + pension, currently 14 days of vacation, 10 days of sick time per year time that accrues up to 520 hours
Paralegal* January 29, 2014 at 12:08 pm Title: Litigation Paralegal; handle work-up for cases and clients for a small team of attorneys at a small to mid-size firm Area: Boston Experience: 2.5 years here (recent college graduate) Salary: $43,000.00; total compensation was $51,000 including overtime and bonus
Paralegal* January 29, 2014 at 12:14 pm Sorry, should’ve added benefits – small company match on 401K contributions, good health and dental, undefined vacation (as long as the billable hours are met, it’s usually 2-4 weeks).
Supply Chain Sr. Project Manager* January 29, 2014 at 12:08 pm Supply Chain Sr. Project Manager for major retailer. I manage multi-million dollar systems and technology projects Midwest but east coast home office 15 $100k bachelor’s degree, no addtl certifications up to 75% domestic travel female
Anon* January 29, 2014 at 12:09 pm Admin Assistant at a University Metro Detroit almost 5 years (2 in non-profit work; 2.5 at the university) $37K plus benefits (generous sick time, retirement matching, paid vacation days, FSA/HSA,etc)
Electronic Resources Librarian* January 29, 2014 at 12:09 pm Description: manage database, electronic journal, and electronic book purchases/subscriptions in a mid-sized (@5,000 FTE) university library. Update website and various linking tools, answer reference questions, work the occasional weekend. Geography: Ohio, USA Years Exp: Been here 6 months, librarian for 20+ years. I’m over-qualified but was looking for a step down and was geographically limited. Salary: $50,000 base plus 10-21% merit bonus (unheard of in higher ed)
Systems Analyst/Programmer II* January 29, 2014 at 12:09 pm Description: Oracle development, Crystal Reports, documentation. Recent previous jobs also included working in SQL-Server, SSIS, other database programming, C#, C++, VB.Net, ColdFusion, server issues, user training, troubleshooting, user support, implementation, and anything else that anyone came up with. Experience: about 22 years Location: Eastern WA Salary: just under $62,000 Gender: female According to payscale.com that was mentioned in a previous post, for my experience and location and job, for this job I’m being paid more than exactly nobody.
Senior Analyst, Business Intelligence & Analytics* January 29, 2014 at 12:09 pm your job – I do data analysis, root cause analysis, forecasting/modeling, and reporting development. I work a lot with Big Data & I use tools like Minitab/SAS/Tableau/Microstrategy/etc. your geographic area – Twin Cities, MN (Upper Midwest) your approximate years of experience – 18 months in this specific role; 8 total years working FT after graduate school in a different field your salary – $82, 300 anything else pertinent to put that number in context – I started my career as an engineer so that has inflated my salary compared to others. I made a career change after 7 years in technical roles because I wanted to learn more of the business side.
Senior Analyst, Business Intelligence & Analytics* January 29, 2014 at 12:20 pm I’ll also add: * I have a BS & MS in a technical field * My current company is a Fortune 100 company & I work at HQ * We have (what I consider) standard benefits: medical/dental/vision, 2 weeks vacation (low to me), 401k, tuition reimbursement, life/disability insurance.
Not Me* January 29, 2014 at 12:33 pm This sounds like an amazing job – really interesting work. If I didn’t do whatever it is I do, I would want to do something almost exactly like this.
Sales Rep* January 29, 2014 at 12:09 pm Title: Sales Rep Industry: Advertising Experience: 7 years sales experience Area: Large Canadian city Salary: Base $45k + commission, total salary last 3 years has consistently been over $90k Benefits: 4 weeks vacation, health, dental, vision, car allowance, work provided cell phone, laptop and ipad And I’m a female.
Admin Assistant* January 29, 2014 at 12:10 pm Title: Administrative Assistant Location: Toronto, Canada Industry: Investment Job info: providing senior level support to department execs and a large team Salary: $60,000 plus $6,000 bonus, pension plan, medical + dental Experience: 22 years (2 yrs at this job)
Programmer* January 29, 2014 at 12:10 pm Software development for web and server systems. Experience: 10 years experience in IT, 5 as a programmer Education: High school education only Location: Philadelphia Salary: $74,000/exempt, decent benefits, some working from home, matched 401k
Meghan Magee* January 29, 2014 at 12:10 pm Title: Service Management Deployment Lead – I gather business requirements and then help design a Service Management solution using a particular Service Management application tool set. Then I oversee the deployment of that solution while making ad hoc ‘fixes’ to the plan as needed to meet to overall requirements. Geographic Area: Global (I live in MS but my projects could deploy anywhere in the world) Years of Experience: 14 years Salary: $72,000
Exec Marketing & Operations (female)* January 29, 2014 at 12:10 pm Salary: 15ok, + unlimited bonus based on net profit. Usually 50% to 100% of base most years that aren’t 2008 & 2009. Benefits: fully paid health, nothing else unusual. Experience: 30 years Area: East Coast city suburbs (not NYC) Job Description: responsible for the entire final results of this division of the company. Making money, have a job. Not making money, don’t. Side note: started at the company, many years ago, as an admin assistant at $16,000 a year. Was at that point in time a male dominated field.
Exec Marketing & Operations (female)* January 29, 2014 at 5:34 pm Time and place. If I’d been born 10 years earlier, I’d have been in the secretarial pool at Sterling Cooper. People like Peggy made the first strike. The business world was warmed up by the time women my age came along. If I’d been born 10 years later, it would have been STEM or bust! :)
FRRibs* January 31, 2014 at 2:25 am My sister had the same sort of success; starting as a secretary in a small office, she moved through a succession of employers with increasing responsibility and after twenty years she’s head of HR making 130k a year. Determination and meeting your destiny rather than waiting for it (plus skill, a measure of luck and location, location, location) can pay off!
Non-Tenure Track Academic* January 29, 2014 at 12:10 pm your job: non-tenure track academic with admin, research, and publishing responsibilities your geographic area: non-urban midwest your approximate years of experience: decades + PhD your salary: around $88k, a portion of which is stipend; benefits include insurance and pension
MentalEngineer* January 29, 2014 at 12:43 pm What’s your field? I’m curious because there’s no way any non-TT job in my area would pay even close to that.
Non-Tenure Track Academic* January 29, 2014 at 12:52 pm It’s not a hugely common arrangement, it’s true! But it’s not like a non-tenure teaching job: stipend ($25k) is from a research directorship; the rest is from journal publishing. It’s in LIS.
Non-Tenure Track Academic* January 29, 2014 at 12:57 pm To clarify, I do teach sometimes, but it’s not a teaching post.
Project manager / software architect* January 29, 2014 at 12:11 pm Architect, trainer and now also project manager on a specific piece of software in the Microsoft stack for enterprise implementations. 7 years of experience in this field, 9 years total. Female and had to work hard to get my salary up with negotiations, etc. Based in Stockholm, Sweden, for a Swedish company – approximately 550.000 sek or 85,000 USD per year. Just note that health care and pension all work differently in Europe/EU.
Project manager / software architect* January 29, 2014 at 12:19 pm 30 days of paid vacation Sick leave as stated by Swedish law (first day is non-paid, after that full salary for 3 weeks) Working area: mostly the Nordics now, though occasionally western Europe No matching on pension.
Software Developer* January 31, 2014 at 5:11 am Do you mind saying what Microsoft enterprise software? I am also in Europe and starting a new job with a Microsoft partner next month.
Contract Attorney (aka Document Review Attorney)* January 29, 2014 at 12:12 pm Job Description: I’m hired on a project basis for a specific case, which can last anywhere from a day to a few years. I review documents to be produced in litigation as well as those produced to us by other parties and do a lot of factual research to support legal arguments. This tends to be very long hours. Right now I work about 56 hours/week but I’ve worked a few 90-100 hour weeks. Geographic Area: NYC Years of Experience: 4 Salary: Curent project pays $35/hour plus OT. My yearly income has ranged from $55,000-110,000 based on project pay and hours. I do not receive any benefits. I’m eligible for a health plan through my agency but it is hugely expensive and ends whenever my project does, which could be any day. We rarely get any notice that a project is ending, we are just told not to return the next day. I also will have access to a 401K without any match after being employed by my current agency for 1 year, which hasn’t happened yet.
Contract Attorney (aka Document Review Attorney)* January 29, 2014 at 12:16 pm I’m female. Each project pays people at my position the same amount. The only people who receive a higher rate are team leads or are doing a different type of review. In my experience, these people are split pretty equally between men a women.
Financial Grants Manager* January 29, 2014 at 12:12 pm Financial Grants Manager – I am responsible for all the accounting/financial duties for over 30 grants – approving payables, budgets, financial statements & reports as well as other miscellaneous accounting duties. My Location – Mid-Size city in Michigan Experience – 5 years in non-profit accounting Salary – $48,000/year with good health/retirement benefits and a very laid-back & flexible work culture. I’m happy with my compensation package.
Food and Beverage Supervisor* January 29, 2014 at 12:12 pm Job Description: Supervise several hotel outlets on the floor…in practical terms, put out brushfires as they come up, facilitate communication between departments, do various projects Geographic Area: Midwest Experience: 1 year management, about eight years customer service Salary: $14/hour non-exempt, but I average about ten hours of overtime per week, so it’s likely to come to about 35k this year, if the average holds true. We also get decent health and dental. Notes: This is an entry-level management position in the hotel world. The hours are long–yesterday I went in at 9AM and didn’t leave until 2AM this morning, and my average day is about 10.5 hours, mostly on my feet–but it’s a really great springboard position if you want to get into hospitality management.
Food and Beverage Supervisor* January 29, 2014 at 12:13 pm Also, I’m female, but my company has a very strict compensation structure, so every person at my position starts at the same rate of pay.
I'll Play!* January 29, 2014 at 9:16 pm “Dany Targaryen,” is that you? (You don’t have to answer that.)
Software developer* January 29, 2014 at 12:12 pm Java Software Developer (woman) Germany MSc, but not in Computer Science Three years of experience in a more support focused role, first job as a pure software developer. 42K €, 6 weeks of vacation
Software developer #2* January 29, 2014 at 2:41 pm Also Germany, also female. Technically I’m the department head of programming but at the moment my department is three people (including me) plus one freelancer. We do website programming. * Bachelor’s * Just above €50 K, 24 vacation days * 7 years experience I feel a little underpaid reading this thread, but as I found out when I was promoted my salary was previously equal to or better than my male colleagues, and those who’ve moved on to other jobs earn about the same as they did before.
Software Engineer (male)* January 31, 2014 at 4:28 am Software Engineer (male) * Technology: Java, JEE (and C#) * Location: Germany * MSc, in Computer Science (excellent grades) * Employer: Large international company * Experience: 3 years (total and in this job; age 29) * Salary: 60k €, 6 weeks of vacation (starting salary was just above 50k €)
Director, Learning & Development* January 29, 2014 at 12:12 pm Title is a bit inflated: I manage learning and development projects (don’t manage people) and am lead designer on a few nation-wide learning projects (conferences, in-person training, online university courses, leadership development initiatives) that involve about 50 regional offices. Large non-profit. Geographic area: NYC metro Years of Experience: 8 years Education: M.Ed. in Adult Education Salary: 74K + 5% match on retirement and pretty solid health benefits Gender: Female
Pastor Anon* January 29, 2014 at 12:12 pm Senior pastor of a medium sized “mainline” church Midwest, female, 10+ years experience Salary – 50k which includes both salary and housing allowance Health insurance (decent) 4 weeks vacation per year (!!! I know) Masters degree (4 year program, still paying it off) Work about 50 hrs per week
Youth Program Director* January 29, 2014 at 3:03 pm Love seeing ministry jobs post salary! Midwest as well, making $35,000 as Youth Director with MA. And YES– still paying it off!
Editorial Assistant* January 29, 2014 at 12:12 pm Job: Editorial assistant for a mid-sized book publishing group (a division of a much larger organization) doing administrative work for several senior editors as well as some research, writing, editing, and general project management of my own. Area: Washington, D.C. Experience: Graduated with a B.S. last year, did several internships over the course of college. Have been in this job since November. Salary: 36K with benefits: insurance (health, dental, vision, life, pet), 18 vacation days, 11 sick days, and every other Friday off in the summer, some telecommuting, 401K contribution matching, subsidized cafeteria, probably some other benefits that I’m forgetting/don’t use
Anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 7:21 pm Can I ask how you got into this field? I’m in college now and my degree isn’t really relevant, but this seems like something I’d enjoy.
managing editorial assistant* January 29, 2014 at 8:10 pm Not the OP, but I’ll answer anyway–it’s all about the internships! The field is very competitive–any kind of editing experience will give you an edge. (I volunteer copy edited for a few local nonprofit magazines.)
Sr. Contract Manager* January 29, 2014 at 12:12 pm Manage a team of 6+ who handle contracts for $1.2B in spend in a division of a Fortune 100 company located in the southwest. Experience: 15 years in career (2 in management) Salary: $130K plus bonus (target 15%), 401K matching, 4 weeks vacation.
Lori* January 29, 2014 at 12:13 pm Ooh, I’ll play. I’m an in-house PR/Marketing Director for a privately-owned company, and I make $93K. I have 15 years of experience and I’m in LA.
manager crim just/law enforce* January 29, 2014 at 12:13 pm Duties- manage an office responsible for supervision of offenders in the community Female Geographic Area NYC Salary- $104K Year Exp – 20 in this agency , 26 total Education- Bachelors in Psychology Additional Info – 60% pension at 55 with 30 years service, sick leaves accrues up to 1500 hours and provides additional pension time and credit toward retiree insurance premiums , 12 holidays, 20 vacation days, 5 personal days, and all insurance ( health, prescription, dental and optical)
manager crim just/law enforce* January 29, 2014 at 12:18 pm In addiiton to me there are 19 professional staff and 5 support staff.
Public Health Analyst* January 29, 2014 at 12:13 pm Title: Public Health Analyst (federal contractor working on-site at a government agency) Gender: Female Location: Atlanta, GA Years of Experience: 9 Education: BA in Psychology, MPH candidate Salary: $72,000 – As I work for a private company rather than the federal government, I have received annual merit raises and bonuses. I started with this company with the same title/responsibilities 3.5 years ago at $65,000. My prior position was in state government where I earned $36,000.
Anonymous* January 29, 2014 at 10:20 pm Do you mind expanding on what exactly you do as a public health analyst? I’m just beginning to get into the public health field and would like to eventually get my MPH. Thanks so much!
Health Educator/Counselor* January 29, 2014 at 11:41 pm I posted down below as Health Educator/Counselor. This way I can find this comment thread later =)
Public Health Analyst* January 30, 2014 at 10:28 am Public Health Analyst (or Public Health Advisor) is a very broad title that includes a lot of different roles. In my case, I am contracted under a specific, short term, funding allocation to coordinate a project with state and local awardees. So the awardees apply for the funds and I come in after the funds have been awarded to make sure the awardees are fulfilling the terms of the funding allocation, monitor and evaluate their activities as well as the overall project, and help them when possible if they run into problems with their project and/or they need additional assistance or in some cases, intervention from the government agency. However, since I am not a government employee, I have to defer any significant actions to the official project officer. This is my second contract like this and although I have had basically the same responsibilities for both, I have a lot more autonomy on my current project partially because I have a lot of experience with this particular project area and partially because the office I am contracted to is extremely understaffed. But every office is different in how they view the Public Health Analyst/Advisor role and how they view contractors.
Public Health Analyst* January 30, 2014 at 4:33 pm After reading all the comments, just wanted to add a couple of things. I started out as a secretary in a state health department and worked my way up. I recommend to anyone to work a couple of years in public health and get their MPH – my path would have been much easier if I already had it and not having the MPH has limited my potential salary by about $20K.
Accountant* January 29, 2014 at 12:14 pm Financial Reporting Manager/Cost Accountant DC metro 10 years BA, BS, MBA (not top tier) $75K + upto 15% in bonus includes health insurance, 401(k), and fairly flexible hours