How Much Are You Making?

Filed in archive General on October 5, 2007

Post of the week has to go to Madame X at My Open Wallet, who got over 100 people to tell how what they do for a living, where they live, and what they're getting paid. A random sample:

I'm 44, female and married. I earn $100k per year as a software engineer in the Atlanta, Georgia area.

I'm a 29 years old woman, living in Chelmsford, MA. I'm a Web Developer in the IT department of a large-ish company (~2000 employees worldwide). My boyfriend and I own our home. I make $64K, plus $0-4K/year in bonuses.

35 year old, single, female living in a suburb of Seattle. I'm an office manager making $43,700/year.

I'm 26, a master's degree-holding librarian in Denver, and I make $42,000. It's the best job I've ever had.

23 years old, married, living in the Midwest (between Chicago and Milwaukee). I'm an accountant and make $50k plus around $5k+ in annual bonus. My husband and I bought a home a year ago.

late 20's lawyer in the Twin Cities at a large private firm. We start at $120k with 3% annual inflationary raises and additional raises calculated off the year-end bonus (which, unless you kill yourself at work, is rather small). I don't come from money and don't usually like talking about what I make because I find it kind of embarassing given that background. But I know that's my issue, so I'm trying to get over it here!

34, single male w/ an mba, in Los Angeles, own my own business. I typically pay myself $100k plus a portion of our net profit at the end of the year. And to give the rest of the country (and world) a chuckle, 67% of my take-home salary goes towards a mortgage on an 850 sq foot house in a decent but by no means high end neighborhood.

I think it's absolutely fascinating to see these numbers from people all over the country, and some outside the country (check out what they're making in Peru). Thanks, Madame X, for asking, and thanks to everyone who anonymously spilled the beans.

It's too late for me to be anonymous, so I'm not saying...