

Still on the Job, but Making Only Half as Much  - cwan
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/business/economy/14income.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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varjag
"[...] he said, adding that his wife does not want to be married to a pilot
with so little earning power"

God, what's up with those people!

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patio11
It is possible that he is projecting his insecurities onto her. "Making less
salary makes me less of a man, my primary yardstick for being a man is as
husband to my wife, accordingly my wife must think less of me."

At least, I hope that's what is happening.

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mavelikara
I remember reading an article some time back that students graduating in a
recession year start with a lower salary than usual (expected), but that
effect persists well into their careers (unexpected). I wonder if taking a 50%
pay cut now will impair his earning potential for the rest of his career.

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percept
Could it be because salary history is used to determine starting pay (in later
jobs)?

Another possibility is that lower salaries indicate lower starting positions.

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maukdaddy
These articles are ridiculous.

1\. Bought too much house 2\. Bought motorcycle 3\. Had FOUR kids 4\. Bought
loads of presents at christmas 5\. Wife wants to stop working

Yet they live in a VERY cheap part of the country. If they had been better
with their money they wouldn't be in such a terrible position. I'm not going
to argue that losing 50% of your pay doesn't suck - because it does; yet
whining about it while also bitching that your wife must now _gasp_ work is
lame.

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BigZaphod
During the part about the Harley and the gold band it is worded almost as if
those purchases happened recently. I don't think they did; I think they
happened before the downgrade when they thought times were good because it
later says the Harley sat for months before a buyer was found - so it's sold
off now. The house and kids situation is similar as well. Obviously the kids
all happened prior to this situation when they felt they were moving up in the
world. You can't just un-have kids when things get tough later! The house deal
sounded like it was in progress when the downgrade came. Now they're
effectively trapped there. You can't just sell a house immediately after
buying and expect to break even - they'd likely end up taking a loss selling
the house (especially if the real estate market there is still dropping). (Of
course it's important to consider if the loss of selling now offsets the loss
of paying a higher mortgage payment while you wait for things to recover.) If
they had canceled the in-progress house deal at the last minute, they'd
probably have been liable for some fees or perhaps even a lawsuit from the
seller. (I've lived in my house just over 2 years and will be selling it soon
due to a job and location change and we'll be lucky to even break even - and
we paid a lot extra on principal each month while the times were good!)

EDIT: I missed that the house they bought was actually his parents! Deals with
family screws with people's sense of priorities, for sure.. :)

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petercooper
The article lists the guy's income as $34000 and the woman's as $40000. Even
in 2000 when employment was high, Wikipedia lists (for Mechanicsville, VA)
_"median income for a family was $62,209."_ So even in "hard times" their
income is far above the median in good times.

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furriner
Yes but they weren't aiming for median - they were aiming for rich.

Suppose you became/married a doctor, bought the nice house and BMW - then the
hospital started paying $10/hour. Hey it's twice minimum wage what are you
complaining about ?

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omouse
This is how it is for my dad. He's a mechanical/process engineer who hasn't
had a job for a year and he has a LOT of experience (and a university
education of course). But almost every job he's applied for pays less than the
previous job. The previous job was in a parts plant for the automotive
industry and they're now operating on as few work days as possible to save
money.

It's funny how an automotive industry company can pay its employees a decent
salary even while the industry declines, while other companies think you
should be grateful to get just $10/hr.

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coryrc
> It's funny how an automotive industry company can pay its employees a decent
> salary even while the industry declines

That might be due to the taxpayer subsidies? Perhaps if they paid market
(which is apparently ~$10/hr) they may actually become successful again and
require hiring more engineers, driving wages back up?

