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Owned my own company for 20 years with anywhere from 6 to 22 employees depending on the economy and commercial construction.
About $70k in 2000 BUT perks certainly made up for the low salary. Most of my flying was business related so the company paid all the costs associated with my PA28-200R. Whenever we flew somewhere I made sure it was business related.
My wife was an employee so she got a new company car every couple years. I owned my own vehicle because I drove so much... 4,000 miles a month was typical and the reimbursement of $0.40 per mile ($1,600/month) more than made up the cost of owning. I just had to be careful not to use the company gas credit card for my gas..... never mind.
I suppose life was good but I hated my job. I like the technical end of things... I like the designing, sales and estimating but not dealing with employees. In 2006 I got out of it and ended up taking a job for less but it was the best move I ever made because I was happy.
Employees... if only I had made half the money many of them were certain I made I could have retired 15 years ago. Ever lay awake on a Tuesday night trying to make plans for a Thursday payroll when there wasn't enough money in the checking account? I always made it even if my check had to sit in the drawer for a couple weeks. Employees got their before I got mine and I was NEVER late with that.
On the plus side my employer and I get alone great because he knows I understand exactly where he is because I've been there.
30+ years ago, i actually had two full time jobs that brought in great money.
1 was a retail supervisor, at more than 3x then minimum wage, and one as a cook in a very popular restaurant in a resort area where many celebrities were brought to eat.
But point being...30 years ago I was making $12 /hr + and now only make NY s (higher than fed) minimum wage, currently at $11.10/hr going to $11.80/,hr by years end.
When i moved "back home", i took at least a 2/3 pay cut, but then again the reason i left the resort area was due to ",the recession of 1990", and the economy there tanked. At least here it is low, but stable service economy.
It also used to mean something if you had "some college, ", now unless you have a full 2 yr or 4 yr degree or above you are nothing.
I find it odd that the BIG university here only pays $30k for most campus jobs AND requires a 4 yr degree to get the on campus job. Full time minimum wage here currwntly is $23k+!!! $24,500+ by years end.
Oh well as someone famous said, we can't live in the past.
My current job, a truck driver, or as I like to say, “Logistics Conductor”. I work for a company and do not own my own truck. Depending on the amount of trouble, it’s a $40-50k/yr job, on the downtrend right now due to some new regulations plus an industry wide trend away from preloading trailers to having us wait at a dock for a “live load” or “live unload”. Methinks it’s time to buy my own truck, or do something else.
In 77-78, I made $95,000 today's-dollars a year. Twice as much as any other year in my life. I continued frugal living and saved 80% of it, and still have most of it.
By taking a risk and leaving my previous crappy job, I increased my take-home from $45k to $125k.
I was a UNIX sysadmin contractor, mostly at an old school computer company. Contractors tend to get paid more than salaried employees, sometimes a lot more, and some people didn't take kindly to that. One kid still in college working there on a work study program doing tape backups was visibly upset on a daily basis that this middle-aged woman was making six figures while he was limited to $19/hour. I just shrugged. I made my opportunities -- other people need to make their own.
I have worked as a medical transcriptionist for over 40 years. My highest years I made over $60,000. That was me working one full time job, and two part time jobs. The transcriptionist career is now dying, with work being sent to India or requiring the doctors to do the work themselves. I currently make $35,000 to $40,000, one job and will retire whenever this government contract I am working on ends. Currently, its on a yearly renew, and I was just told last week it was renewed for another year.
When I completed my corrections career in 2015, my final average salary was $131,000.
My pension is half of that, so retirement is my second highest paying “job”.
My last job, from which I retired. It was in the central valley of NorCal. I was a program manager at a utility, which paid $96K plus possible annual bonus of up to $10k. I worked for them from 1985 to 2010, started at $7/hr, and gradually promoted my way up. I held 7 different positions, and took a couple of temporary volunteer stints in other departments which branded me as a "team player" to management.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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That would be the current job, I’m a middle manager, and this year will break the 6 figure barrier. My plan is to stay another 2-3 years before retiring, as long as I enjoy my work.
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