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.

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{ 2,035 comments }

{ 2,035 comments… read them below }

  1. amp2140*

    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

    1. Feed Fido*

      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.

      1. danr*

        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.

      2. Hunny*

        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.

    2. System Librarian - Academic*

      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

  2. Nicole*

    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

  3. Anon*

    $130,000
    Lawyer at a small, public-interest side regulatory firm in Washington, D.C.
    5 years experience.

  4. ANON1*

    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

    1. anon for this one*

      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.

      1. Mike C.*

        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.

        1. anon for this one*

          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.

        2. Clinical Research Associate*

          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.

          1. Clinical Research Associate*

            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.

          2. anon for this one*

            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!

          3. anon*

            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

            1. anon for this one*

              Try explaining proper survey design and methodology to an MD with no research background….ugh.

              1. Melissa*

                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.

            2. Drug Safety1*

              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?

      3. alsoanon*

        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.

    2. Darcie*

      I’m curious what your undergraduate education is in. I was applying for similar jobs with my BSc Math.

  5. Anon*

    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.

      1. Anon*

        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.

        1. Anonnynonny*

          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.

            1. Anonnynonny*

              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!

              1. Quality Engineering Analyst*

                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.)

  7. anon*

    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.

      1. anon*

        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.

        1. Director of Finance*

          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.

          1. anon007*

            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.

            1. Elaine*

              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.

              1. MBAWife*

                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.

                1. MBAGrad*

                  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.

  8. Anon*

    Job: Administrative Assistant I
    Area: Chicago
    Experience: 1 year here, several years admin experience other places
    Salary: $40K

  10. Anon*

    Corporate Librarian
    Large Canadian City (Downtown)
    $53,000
    1 year of experience
    Basically I run a small corporate library/reference service.

    1. Anon*

      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.

  11. Anon*

    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

    1. KB*

      My previous job as well. Topped out at $67,000. Excellent benes. Was “involuntarily retired” after 20 years and my pension tanked.

  12. Anonymiss*

    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.

    1. Anonymiss*

      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.

  13. Anon*

    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.

    1. Anonymous - question*

      I’m very interested in this field–do you mind expanding a bit more about how you got into it? Thank you!

    2. Prospective Development Employee*

      What exactly is a fundraising researcher? I googled it but not much came up that seemed to fit.

      1. In Devo*

        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.

  15. Non*

    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.

  18. I'll Play!*

    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

    2. I'll Play!*

      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.

      1. I'll Play!*

        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.

    3. Also a Project Specialist*

      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.

    4. Annon*

      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.

  19. Anne 3*

    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.

    1. Kate*

      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!

      1. Anne 3*

        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).

      2. Anne*

        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!

      3. Europe*

        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).

  20. Clinical Research Associate*

    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.

    1. Scary Salary*

      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!

      1. Clinical Research Associate*

        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.

    2. Sr. Clinical Research Specialist*

      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.

      1. Clinical Research Associate*

        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.

  21. Just a Reader*

    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.

  22. Anonymous for this*

    Job: Biostatistician
    Area: Minneapolis/St. Paul
    Experience: 11 years, with a PhD
    Salary: $129,000, no bonus

      1. Scary Salary*

        I pushed my ex to be an actuary when he had no idea what to do with his math degree. He loves it.

    2. Melissa*

      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*

  23. Love This Topic!*

    Communications Associate (non-profit). Includes writing, social media, development, event management, media, etc.
    Mid-Atlantic mid-size city
    2 years experience
    $36,000

    1. Program Coordinator*

      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

        1. Program Coordinator*

          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.

  24. Anonymous*

    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

    1. Anon*

      You know this makes me appreciate how diverse AAM’s readers are. Everything from college students to a COO.

    2. Gail L*

      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?

      1. Ask a Manager* Post author

        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.

          1. Ask a Manager* Post author

            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.

            1. Elaine*

              See Yahoo! for recent COO example. Though, they both came from Google so chances were higher that they’d be aligned well.

  25. Jen*

    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.

    1. I'll Play!*

      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

      1. JessA*

        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.

        1. CollegeAdmin*

          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.

          1. TL*

            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.

        2. anon*

          Be careful with the tuition remission for graduate degrees. Under some circumstances the value is considered taxable income.

      2. Jen*

        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.

        1. Elaine*

          The health sciences/medical school where I work does NOT have tuition remission for employees…only a slight discount for limited classes. I wish!

    2. SC Manager*

      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.

  27. Anonymous*

    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!

    1. Anonymouse*

      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.

    2. Anonymous*

      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.

      2. Low Wage Earner*

        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.

          1. Anonymous*

            I will add – I do have experience with medical problems that can’t be solved at any cost. But I take your point.

        2. Low Wage Earner*

          Also, I don’t mean to speak on the OP’s behalf. I just feel very strongly about this issue.

        3. Anon*

          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.

        5. Not So NewReader*

          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.

        6. Gjest*

          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.

      3. Anonymous*

        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.

    3. Bartender*

      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

      1. Another Low Page Earner*

        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 :(

        1. Anonymous*

          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!

  28. Usually not Anonymous*

    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.

    1. Z*

      Out of curiosity, does your MFA relate to your job? Was it maybe in creative writing, and that translates to marketing materials?

      1. Usually not Anonymous*

        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.

      1. Another MFA*

        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.

    2. Anon*

      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

      1. Anon*

        Teacher Librarian
        Public High school
        Northern Calif.
        $74,000
        5 years as librarian, 13 years as English teacher
        Summers and school holidays off.

        1. Another Librarian*

          Corporate Digital Librarian
          MLIS, 3 years experience in digital libraries, 4 years experience as a database manager and web developer
          104,000

          1. Another Librarian*

            Forgot to add:
            California, large city
            That’s the going rate for managerial level information science jobs in this area, including DAM, KM, etc.

    3. Another Anon*

      Public Library Branch Manager
      Mid-sized city in California
      6 yrs librarian, 1 as manager
      75,000

      1. Anon, too*

        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).

        1. Academic Web/Systems Librarian*

          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

          1. Academic Web/Systems Librarian*

            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.

      1. archivist*

        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…)

  30. ExceptionToTheRule*

    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

    1. ExceptionToTheRule*

      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.

      1. Former Newscast Director*

        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.

          1. Former Newscast Director*

            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.

              1. ExceptionToTheRule*

                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…

    3. hope to be former radio producer*

      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.

  31. AnonGovvie*

    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.

    1. AnotherFed*

      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

        2. AnonGovvie*

          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.

  32. Ann Nonomous*

    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!

    1. Grantwriter*

      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.

      1. TempReceptionist*

        How did you get into grantwriting because that is something I am definitely interested in!!!

  33. Anonymous Too*

    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

  34. Scary Salary*

    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

  35. Anon*

    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

    1. librarianlady*

      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.

  36. Anita*

    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

    1. College Career Counselor*

      Yay, Peace Corps! Evidence that international experience there is valuable in the business world!

  37. A. Muss*

    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.

    2. louise*

      This is a role I think I’d thrive in! (I think, anyway. Really it’s something I’d love to explore more.)

      1. A. Muss*

        Hello, colleague!!

        And yes, Louise, if you have a background as a journalist or writer, you should definitely check it out!

  38. Anon*

    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

  39. Anon*

    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.

    1. HR lady*

      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.

      1. HR lady*

        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.

  40. AnonM*

    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.

  42. not usually anon*

    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…)

    1. Just curious*

      $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?

  43. Anon*

    – 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)

  44. Another Reader*

    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.

          1. Operations and Administration Manager*

            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.

      3. HR lady*

        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.

        1. Anon*

          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.

      4. Not So NewReader*

        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….

      5. meesh*

        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. :(

    3. Katie the Fed*

      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?)

    4. Mike C.*

      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.

      1. Victoria Nonprofit*

        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).

        1. Natalie*

          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.

        2. tcookson*

          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. :-)

        4. Lo how mighty are fallen*

          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.

      2. Dan*

        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.

        1. Mike C.*

          It’s a fair point. The BLS has those numbers as well, but I didn’t feel like digging those up.

    5. Jen in RO*

      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?)

      1. CollegeAdmin*

        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!

        1. Jamie*

          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.

          1. Mints*

            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)

            2. Human Resources Coordinator*

              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.

          3. Anonymous*

            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.

      3. Coelura*

        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%.

        1. Jamie*

          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.

          2. Jen RO*

            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.

            1. Jen in RO*

              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).

            2. Neeta(RO)*

              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*

          3. Gjest*

            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”)

            1. Elaine*

              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!

        2. TL*

          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.

          1. Jamie*

            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.)

            1. Accountant, US Gov't.*

              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.

              1. TL*

                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.

                1. Elaine*

                  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. :)

        3. Admin Assistant*

          @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!

      5. Neeta(RO)*

        Don’t I know it? It’s so frustrating, especially because our salary would probably give us away instantly.

      6. Tech Writer in the US*

        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.

        1. Jen RO*

          Thanks! This is interesting to learn. I also prefer stability, so I’m glad contract work is not yet popular here.

      7. The RO-Cat*

        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.

        1. Jen RO*

          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.

          1. KireinaHito*

            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?

            1. Neeta(RO)*

              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.

              1. KireinaHito*

                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.

      1. Dan*

        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.

        1. kdizzle*

          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.

          1. Seattle Writer Girl*

            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!

          2. tcookson*

            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.

          3. LK*

            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.

        2. Ohio Person*

          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.

  46. not myself today*

    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

    1. production editor*

      Same poster as above:

      education: BA and MA (though the MA was in preparation for an entirely different career, so not really relevant)
      female

    2. Production Editor #2*

      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

      1. Lore*

        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.

  47. Katie the Fed*

    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.

    2. keep changing my name today*

      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

    3. literateliz*

      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.”

      1. Anon today*

        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.

      2. Marketing Specialist*

        A bigger salary is awesome; a bigger dinosaur than your colleague’s would be EVEN BETTER.

      3. Anon*

        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.

      4. Anna*

        “My dinosaur is not as big as yours”. The possibility of that sentence even being uttered in a conversation about money made me smile.

  48. anon*

    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

  49. AJ*

    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.

  50. anon58*

    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.)

    1. Rachel*

      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.

      1. anon58*

        I hope so too! And I bet she would love to hear from you. Sometimes we get paid in compliments and hugs. :)

    2. Puffle*

      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

  51. Decimus*

    Title: Archivist
    Geographic Area: Atlanta Metropolitan Area
    Experience: 6 Years
    Salary: 42,000 (no benefits)

    1. Project Archivist*

      are you comfortable saying what kind of company/institution you archive for? university, etc?

  52. Hous*

    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

  53. anon*

    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)

  54. Anon*

    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.

    1. Anon*

      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.

      1. Anon*

        Good grief. I need more coffee, or better proofreading skills!

        That should be 3 weeks vacation, 6 *sick* days.

  55. Anonymous*

    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

    1. AnonM*

      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.)

      1. Anonymous*

        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.

    2. Instructional Designer*

      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.

      1. KellyK*

        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.

      2. Anonymous*

        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. :(

    3. Learning & Development Facilitator*

      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.

      1. Project Manager*

        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…

  56. LOLwhut*

    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.

  57. excited anonymous*

    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

      1. excited anonymous*

        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.

    2. really*

      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!

      1. excited anonymous*

        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!

        1. Ask a Manager* Post author

          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”?

  58. Anon*

    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).

  59. Project Management Operations*

    Title: Project Management Operations Support / Manager
    Description:
    Area: New York City
    Experience: 6
    Salary: $70,000 + bonus opportunity

    1. Project Management Operations*

      doh. I intended to write PMO support, including reporting, business processes, and resource management.

  60. Anon*

    Senior Reimbursement Analyst (Hospital)
    Medicare/Medicaid programs & all governmental payers
    Experience: 5 years at job, 12 years overall
    BS in Accounting
    Salary: $90K
    California

  61. Anon*

    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.)

    1. Anon*

      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.

      1. Anon*

        My boss is potentially going to be under investigation from the Ministry of Labour, so there are plenty more issues besides lack of PTO.

  62. Anon*

    Senior Analyst, government consulting
    JD plus 10 years experience in business and law
    $120,000 plus bonus (typically very low 5 figures)

  63. Great Topic*

    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

    1. Marketing Manager DC*

      You’re my new idol. I’m don’t even make half your salary and it seems we have the same job!

  64. Anon*

    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

  65. Anon*

    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!

  66. CollegeAdmin*

    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

    1. CollegeAdmin*

      Ugh, should have formatted this or put an enter line between them. Sorry for the text wall, folks!

    3. Just a Reader*

      I’m wondering if you work at my alma mater. Is it formerly single-sex education and is there an historic tower on campus?

      1. Another reader*

        Hah I was thinking the same thing! (Only my alma mater west of Boston is still single-sex)

  67. Anon*

    ■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)

  68. Anon*

    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.

      1. Leslie Yep*

        I would be down to create a google drive spreadsheet of some kind if someone else knows how to GIS-it into something awesome!

        1. pgh_adventurer*

          I got some (limited) GIS skills and am always looking out for new projects. Would love to try my hand at this!

          1. Research Assistant*

            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.

    2. Geographic Information Systems Programmer*

      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.)

    3. Ask a Manager* Post author

      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.

  69. Anon*

    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

    1. CG*

      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.

  70. Purr purr purr*

    – 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

    1. I'll Play!*

      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.

      1. Purr purr purr*

        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.

  71. Anonymous*

    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.

  72. Belle*

    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+

  73. Thomas*

    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.

      1. Thomas*

        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.

  74. Anonynony*

    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.

  75. Annie*

    Title: Matching Gifts Specialist
    Industry: Higher Education Development
    Location: Boston
    Years Experience: 1
    Salary: $38,000

  76. Anon for this*

    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.

    1. Anon for this*

      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.

        1. Anon for this*

          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.

  77. Anon*

    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

  78. Anonymous*

    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 :)

    1. Production Manager*

      Out of curiosity…are you considered an intern in the sense that it’s not a permanent position? How does that work?

      1. Judy*

        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.

        1. Anonymous*

          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.

      2. Anonymous*

        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).

    2. Assistant Engineer - Traffic*

      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.

  79. Anonymous*

    Document Programmer for public opinion surveys
    Major city in Texas
    $30k + overtime + benefits
    Entry-level/Recent grad

  80. Anonymous*

    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

  81. Thomas*

    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).

  82. Aanon*

    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).

  83. Office Admin - Legal*

    Title: Legal Office Assistant
    Industry: Law
    Location: Toronto, ON
    Years Experience: Less than 1 (8 months)
    Salary: $36,000

  84. NCCP*

    Real Estate Paralegal
    large law firm, NC
    3 yrs
    44K, bad health insurance, max $750 pretax bonus based on billing hrs

  85. Anon*

    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.

    3. Geologist*

      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!

      1. Geologist*

        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.

    4. Anon scientist*

      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.

  86. Anon*

    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

  87. Organic Search Strategist*

    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

  88. House Manager @ an Orchestra*

    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.

  89. Senior Software Engineer*

    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.

    1. Senior Software Engineer*

      and benefits, sorry: 401k with match up to 2%, decent but not amazing health coverage, stock participation plan.

  90. Regional Director (nonprofit, female)*

    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).

    1. Rachel*

      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.

  92. Program Director*

    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)

    1. Rachel*

      Cool job! Salary sounds similar to what I posted above for a non-profit coordinator/director job.

  93. techy*

    title: field technician
    area: chicago
    experience: 5 years
    salary: $51,000, excellent benefits, 40 hrs/wk, no bonus

  94. Anonymous*

    -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.

  95. Anon*

    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.

      1. Anon also*

        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. :)

  96. Anonymous*

    ■ 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

  97. Anonymous*

    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)

  98. Anon*

    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.

  99. Clinical Placement Coordinator*

    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).

  100. Grants Mgr*

    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.

    1. Grants Manager too*

      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.

  101. Anonymous*

    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

  103. Anonymous*

    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

  104. C. Cavour*

    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

  105. Anonymouse*

    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.

  106. Anon for this*

    Title: Reference librarian in public library
    Geographic Area: Midwest, near large metro area
    Salary: $43,000, with 5+ years experience

  107. Software Development Manager*

    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.

  108. Anon*

    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

    1. Anonymous*

      My first job was Admin Assistant NYC- same salary, 1 less week of PTO.

      Its about normal depending on industry

  109. Secret*

    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.

        2. Secret*

          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.

          1. AJay*

            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.

  110. Anon*

    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

  111. Freelance Ghostwriter*

    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)

      1. Love This Topic!*

        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.

        1. Freelance Ghostwriter*

          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.

    2. Internal Communications Manager*

      What a great gig! Did you find the transition into freelancing tough? Do you mind the admin tasks (paying taxes, billing, etc)?

  112. Anonymous Agreer*

    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.

      1. Anonymous Agreer*

        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.”

  113. consultamous*

    Consultant
    For-profit education company
    Greater Boston area
    Experience: 7 years, 3 with company, Masters Degree
    Salary: $75,000 + bonus ~10%

  114. Compliance Officer*

    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

  115. Anon Today*

    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)

    1. Anon Today*

      Note: I got my master’s degree while working full-time, so I never took any time off work for school.

  116. Anon*

    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)

    1. Anon*

      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!

    2. Public Programming Coordinator at Museum*

      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.)

    3. Anonymous*

      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!)

      1. Anon*

        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.

    5. Exhibitions Coordinator*

      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.

    6. Manager of Interpretation*

      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.

  117. Marketing Project Manager*

    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.

    1. MPM*

      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.

  118. Executive Director*

    Executive Director of a small human services nonprofit
    St. Louis area
    6 years as ED, 11 with agency
    $60K

  119. Economics Research Assistant*

    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).

  120. State Gov't Lobbyist*

    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

  121. Anon88*

    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.

  122. Junior Architect (B.Arch, unlicensed)*

    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.

  123. Computer Scientist*

    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

  124. Principal Technical Writer*

    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)

    1. Laura*

      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?

      1. Principal Technical Writer*

        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!

  125. Student Affairs Officer*

    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

      1. I'll Play!*

        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.

          1. Student Affairs Officer*

            It is pretty cool. I guess under “benefits,” I could have put, “Liking my work, getting along with bosses and co-workers.”

  126. Geneticist*

    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).

    1. Research Scientist*

      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.

  127. Program Associate - Nonprofit*

    $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

  128. Assistant Manager*

    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!

  129. Librarian*

    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

  130. Meredith*

    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).

  131. Project Engineer (Jake)*

    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.

    1. J.B.*

      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 :)

  132. Research Coordinator (healthcare)*

    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

  133. Anonymous*

    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.

    1. IT Application Consultant*

      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).

    1. Foster Parent*

      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.

      1. Adult Foster Care Provider*

        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.

  135. Admin but you'll probably guess it's me*

    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. :)

        1. Admin but you'll probably guess it's me*

          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

  136. Administration Assistant*

    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%.

  137. Service Assistant (kitchen worker)*

    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.

    1. Service Assistant (kitchen worker)*

      Oh I guess I should mention I’m female, and yes, that makes a difference.

  138. Financial Analyst*

    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.

  139. Human Resources Representative*

    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.

  140. TV Researcher*

    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)

  141. Legal Secretary*

    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.

    1. Human Resources Manager*

      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

  143. Research Assistant--Medicine*

    -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!

  144. Recruiter*

    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.

    2. 3rd Party Recruiter*

      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.

    3. Corporate Recruiter*

      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

  145. Software Engineer*

    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

  146. Admnistrative Assistant*

    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.

    1. Communications Manager*

      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).

  147. Sales & Marketing*

    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.

  148. Compliance Specialist*

    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

  149. Director of Field Services*

    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

  150. Controller*

    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

    1. Staff Accountant*

      Is that US$? I’m surprised by this, in U.S. a controller with CPA gets around US$80K minimum. Interesting

        1. Controller*

          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.

    2. Assistant Controller*

      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?

  151. Communications Specialist*

    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.

    1. Communications Specialist*

      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.

  152. Chief Program Officer*

    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.

  154. Manufacturing Engineer*

    -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

  155. Anon*

    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.)

    1. Youth Program Director*

      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.

  156. College administrator*

    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!

    1. MentalEngineer*

      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”?

      1. College administrator*

        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.

  157. Project Manager (Software)*

    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

      1. Project Manager (Software)*

        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

  158. EDI File Processor*

    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

  159. Sales Representative*

    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

  160. Lead Financial Analyst*

    – 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.

  161. Anon*

    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

  162. Academic Support (College)*

    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

    1. Anonymous*

      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.

  163. Marketing Manager*

    ◾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

  164. Press Secretary*

    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)

  165. Event Designer / Studio Manager*

    *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.

      1. Lizard*

        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.

  166. Library Specialist Lead*

    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

  167. Web Developer*

    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

      1. Emma*

        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?

  168. Principal Engineer*

    female
    medical devices and pharmaceuticals – R&D, manufacturing
    20 years exp
    greater Denver area
    $120,000 + 20% bonus program

  169. Administrative Assistant*

    -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

  170. Sr. Analyst*

    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

  171. Tamara*

    “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)

    1. Tamara*

      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.

  172. Legal Assistant*

    (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.

  173. Dip-lo-mat*

    -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

    2. AVP*

      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?)

      1. Dip-lo-mat*

        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.

    3. TL*

      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?

      1. Dip-lo-mat*

        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.

        1. AVP*

          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…

          1. Dip-lo-mat*

            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.

        2. TL*

          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.)

  174. Asst. Director Alumni Relations*

    • 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.

  175. Industrial Waste Inspector (aka Sewer Cop)*

    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.

    1. Industrial Waste Inspector (aka Sewer Cop)*

      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.

  176. IT Manager*

    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

    1. Application Analyst*

      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

  177. Sales Support Representative*

    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.

  178. Anne*

    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.

    1. Anne*

      I should add that we have a very generous vacation policy: 20 paid PTO days plus 9 paid company-wide holidays

  179. Project Coordinator*

    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)

  180. Copy Editor - Ad Agency*

    – 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.

    1. Copy Editor - Ad Agency*

      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

    2. Copy Editor (New Media)*

      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).

  181. Development Associate*

    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)

  182. Content Strategist*

    (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

      1. Usually not Anonymous*

        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.

    2. Technical Editor*

      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.

  183. Programme Support Officer*

    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)

    1. Programme Support Officer*

      Oh, and my holidays are statutory, at about 22 days a year, not including public holidays, and I’m female.

  184. Higher Ed Admin*

    -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.

  185. Technical Editor*

    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

  186. AR*

    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

  187. Anon*

    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

  188. Anon Salary*

    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

  189. HR Representative*

    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

  190. High School English Teacher*

    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

    1. Z*

      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.

      1. AVP*

        I was just going to ask if this was Teach For America – otherwise it seems under minimum wage, no?

        1. Victoria Nonprofit*

          TFA teachers are paid the standard salary for the school or district in which they teach, btw.

      2. High School English Teacher*

        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.

        1. Spanish Teacher*

          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.

          1. I agree*

            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.

  191. Anonymous*

    $35K, Staff Accountant, 4 years experience (2 year public), SE, male, NonWhite

    I know, I know I’m way below the market. It sucks

    1. NBB*

      I have heard that is a pretty normal salary for a staff accountant in the SE with less than 10 years of experience.

  192. Accounting/HR*

    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.

  193. Sr GIS Analyst*

    Create Maps and Analyze spatial data. Masters in Economics. 7 years in GIS.
    $85,000- includes hardship pay

    Remote location.

    Female

    2. Wants a job working in GIS*

      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!

  194. just do it*

    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.

    1. just do it*

      Edited to add: I’m in the Portland, Oregon metro area, and the benefits and overall work atmosphere here are rather amazing.

  195. Communications Coordinator*

    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

  196. Administrative Assistant*

    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.

    1. Administrative Assistant*

      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!)

      1. HR lady*

        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.

        1. Administrative Assistant*

          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!

  197. Client Relations Specialist*

    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)

  198. Anonymous*

    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!)

    1. Development Director*

      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!

  199. Anonononono*

    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)

    1. Anonononono*

      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.

  200. (Junior) Software Developer*

    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.

  201. Marketing and Communications Coordinator*

    Marketing and Communications Coordinator
    Wisconsin
    3 Years experience
    $47,000/year

    In the Financial Services industry.

    1. Marketing and Communications Coordinator*

      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

      1. Marketing Manager DC*

        I’m moving back to Wisconsin! I don’t make much more than you and the cost of living is twice has high here!

  202. Web Designer/Content Manager*

    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)

  203. Rat Racer*

    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?

      1. Rat Racer*

        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.

        1. Anon If You Don't Play Detective*

          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.

  204. Project Archivist*

    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.

    1. Project Archivist*

      includes lots of vacation/sick time; health/dental/eye insurance (partially paid); some kind of matching retirement program.

      female, mid-30s.

      masters degree

  205. Production Manager*

    Commercial & film production manager
    NYC-based, small company
    5 years experience

    $52,000, no benefits

    1. Production Manager*

      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.

  206. Environmental Consultant*

    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

  207. Paralegal*

    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

    1. Paralegal*

      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).

  208. Supply Chain Sr. Project Manager*

    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

  209. Anon*

    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)

  210. Electronic Resources Librarian*

    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)

  211. Systems Analyst/Programmer II*

    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.

  212. Senior Analyst, Business Intelligence & Analytics*

    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.

    1. Senior Analyst, Business Intelligence & Analytics*

      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.

    2. Not Me*

      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.

  213. Sales Rep*

    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.

  214. Admin Assistant*

    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)

  215. Programmer*

    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

  216. Meghan Magee*

    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

  217. Exec Marketing & Operations (female)*

    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.

      2. Exec Marketing & Operations (female)*

        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! :)

      3. FRRibs*

        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!

  218. Non-Tenure Track Academic*

    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

    1. MentalEngineer*

      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.

      1. Non-Tenure Track Academic*

        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.

  219. Project manager / software architect*

    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.

    1. Project manager / software architect*

      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.

      1. Software Developer*

        Do you mind saying what Microsoft enterprise software?

        I am also in Europe and starting a new job with a Microsoft partner next month.

  220. Contract Attorney (aka Document Review Attorney)*

    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.

    1. Contract Attorney (aka Document Review Attorney)*

      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.

  221. Financial Grants Manager*

    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.

  222. Food and Beverage Supervisor*

    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.

    1. Food and Beverage Supervisor*

      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.

  223. Software developer*

    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

    2. Software developer #2*

      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.

      1. Software Engineer (male)*

        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 €)

  224. Director, Learning & Development*

    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

  225. Pastor Anon*

    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

    1. Youth Program Director*

      Love seeing ministry jobs post salary! Midwest as well, making $35,000 as Youth Director with MA. And YES– still paying it off!

  226. Editorial Assistant*

    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

    1. Anonymous*

      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.

      1. managing editorial assistant*

        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.)

  227. Sr. Contract Manager*

    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.

  228. Lori*

    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.

  229. manager crim just/law enforce*

    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)

  230. Public Health Analyst*

    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.

    1. Anonymous*

      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!

      1. Health Educator/Counselor*

        I posted down below as Health Educator/Counselor. This way I can find this comment thread later =)

      2. Public Health Analyst*

        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.

        1. Public Health Analyst*

          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.

  231. Accountant*

    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

  232. pizzagrl*