Are Long Islander's Under Paid?

[ClarkStreetKid]

Originally Posted by OhBeeHave

I don't believe it is being underpaid as much as it is being overtaxed.

Well there is always that. Seriously though, taxes on the Island have always been rather high. Does anybody know the difference from what should be a living wage on the Island and what is the average wage on the Island?

[dman72]

Originally Posted by Chrisk327

funny dman, I'm married to a teacher in a private school and I'm also an accountant. I keep telling her that wee should move out of state, shee keeps telling me family and she wants the public school teaching postion, a personal goal.

I could get a transfer to many of my US offices keep 100% of my salary, buy a much nicer house for half the value of mine. So instead of a 4br 3 bath colonial with a pool and a master suite, I have a 2 br 1 bath cape.

It depends on how young you are. If you are approaching 30 and her prospects for getting that public school job don't look good, move, and when some of your family sees how much easier life is, they will probably follow you. I had a friend who was NYPD living in an upstairs apartment in Nassau, got a job in a suburban Richmond VA dept...almost the same salary, and bought a 2500 square foot house for $200K 10 minutes from the city. It has everything LI has, minus the bad winter, and it's all newer.

People need to realize that LI is just like any other suburb in the country. The thing that makes it expensive is proximity to NYC. If you don't go there regularly or pull a big salary working there..it just doesn't make any sense to me to stay here. A lot of Southern areas are being taken over by NYers anyway. My wife and I looked at houses in Chesterfield Cty, Virginia a few years back. Believe me, if she was still subbing here...we would be gone.

[TomMoser]

Early on in my career I was complaining to someone about how much things cost. This person, who I looked up to, said to me, "Tom, it's not that it costs too much, it's that you can't afford it." He made me realize that you can, indeed, earn as much as you choose to and enjoy whatever lifestyle you like. He also said, "Work harder on your self then you do on your job." In other words, increase your value in the marketplace and you will be rewarded accordingly.

Just a different take on things.