New York Times tool lets you compare your income to that of demographically similar people. I turn out to be pretty typical for a person like me, which, I guess, is itself pretty typical.
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Something Else to Worry About
18 Jun 2007 10:52 am
Comments (13)
Using this calculation gives me a good news/bad news result. The good news is that I'm slightly above the median for white men of my age doing my type of work in the Middle Atlantic states. The bad news is that I'm far below the top 10% of this group. And the bottom 10% is not much below the median. What seems to be the conclusion is that my field is the sort of thing in which most people make pretty much the same amount, admittedly not a bad living, but a few "superstars" rake in money like crazy.
That's a pretty flakey page. None of the links work in Firefox 1.5 and the page won't even display in IE 6.
The typical ivy league graduate in his mid-20's has a six-figure book contract?
I was amazed. Comparing my income to someone like me,I never realized how much I had in common with myself. We're so much alike, I'll bet we could develop a life long friendship.
Seriously, what is the point to these things? The only thing that such comparisons do is make one person feel unnecessarily inadequate and one feel insufferably superior. I don't waste my time on such trivialities. I strive only to be a better person than the one I was yesterday. And that's a feat in itself.
"The typical ivy league graduate in his mid-20's has a six-figure book contract?"
More Harvard grads probably have 6- or 7-figure TV- or movie-writing contracts than book contracts. With his screenwriter Dad's contacts, Matt probably could have gotten one too; by working for D.C. pundit money, Matt is living a monastic life by comparison.
Seriously, what is the point to these things? The only thing that such comparisons do is make one person feel unnecessarily inadequate and one feel insufferably superior.
Well, since there is, always has been and always will be fewer rich than poor, the point is to make most people feel pissed and cheated. Remember that this article was coupled with the "inequality report".
I am self-employed because no one will pay me more than I will pay me. By this calculator, I'm knocking it out of the ballpark for my profession.
The only thing that such comparisons do is make one person feel unnecessarily inadequate and one feel insufferably superior.
Another possibility: People above the median think, "I'm doing better than I realized; maybe I shouldn't be obsessing over that last pay raise I didn't get." And people far below the median think--well, you're right about the unnecessary inadequacy point.
The graph encourages me to stop fucking around in the wonkosphere and get back to work.
"Seriously, what is the point to these things? The only thing that such comparisons do is make one person feel unnecessarily inadequate and one feel insufferably superior."
Uh, it's pretty handy to have this sort of information when you're negotiating a raise.
There's a major omission on this that makes it nearly useless as a salary assessment tool for any kind of "technical" professional: education stops at "College Graduate" -- so your M.S., M.B.A., Ph.D., J.D., or M.D. can't factor in to the information.
Of course, it isn't really a salary assessment tool, it's just a demographic comparison tool, but such information would still be interesting.
Like Alex I was annoyed that I couldn't put in my graduate degrees. I actually came out looking better than my husband, even though he makes more than I do, which I think reveals a flaw. We are both health care professionals, but the calculator doesn't let you enter your specific job. So I think, as a female, I got compared primarily to nurses; in reality I'm a psychologist and a nurse practitioner, so I came out on the high end. My husband, also a psychologist, came out in the middle, I suspect because he was mostly being compared to physicians. His range also went much higher than mine, I assume due to the presence of very-highly-paid surgeons.
We are both health care professionals, but the calculator doesn't let you enter your specific job.
I wonder where the industry/occupation categories come from; they seem oddly distributed: is "furniture stores" really on the same level as "engineering" or "information technology"?
In my "industry", "educational services", the interdecile range is so great as to be pretty much uninformative: from about $30K to about $140K. I guess I'm doing better than teachers' assistants but worse than college presidents.
Comments closed July 02, 2007.
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Heads in the Sand
This is something to worry about. That income can be so closely related to other demographics is proof positive that we live in the kind of society I've long said we live in, and not the kind of society people like Jasper say we we live in.
Posted by soullite | June 18, 2007 11:01 AM