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Jobs that pay 80k tend to be located high COL metro areas. That 80k does not go very far and it's no surprise people need second jobs. Especially if one has student loans to pay back that earned you that piece of paper to be able to earn more than minimum wage.
One thing that has changed since back in my day is to be able to get any job that pays more than low wages one needs a college education. When I college aged, you could work part time at McDicks and pay a good deal of that college tuition. Today, that job at McDicks will barely cover gas money to get to college. You're better off skipping the part time job, and just living off of student loans.
In the old days you could still get a decent paying job without that expensive piece of paper. Now you need a college degree to be the shift manager at the aforementioned McDicks restaurant.
Almost all of my coworkers talk about going to their second job in the evening when they are about to get off work. Some of them make close to $85,000 a year and still need to work a second job in order to make ends meet. Do you see this with coworkers on your job? I rather just cut back and pay for things I can afford rather than work two jobs. It's also a couple of them who don't have kids and still have to work two jobs to make it. So it seems like this is becoming a normal thing for a lot of people today since the primary job is not paying as much. It also can be that 30 years ago there was no such thing as these bills below
Cable
Internet
Cell Phone
Netflix
Hm. Well, a lot of people paid those back when I was a kid, and still pay them now.
I just pay for my cell phone which has a data plan.
Most of my co-workers have one job but we work in tech so salaries are good.
One thing that has changed since back in my day is to be able to get any job that pays more than low wages one needs a college education. When I college aged, you could work part time at McDicks and pay a good deal of that college tuition. Today, that job at McDicks will barely cover gas money to get to college. You're better off skipping the part time job, and just living off of student loans.
In the old days you could still get a decent paying job without that expensive piece of paper. Now you need a college degree to be the shift manager at the aforementioned McDicks restaurant.
The big cost driver today is not what we would consider luxuries, but basic items. Cost of housing, cost of insurance, cost of transportation (which BTW, why is it so hard today to find basic transportation; everything out there is loaded with electric this, and automatic that that all adds cost). At the store today a pound of ground beef was $7.99 for the 90% lean. Found a list that says in 1977 the average car cost about $4000, average house about $58000 and average income about $10000. Today the average car is about $34000, house about $400000, and income between $40000 and $60000. Or a car costs 8.5 times as much; a house costs 6.9 times as much; and incomes is only 4 to 6 times as much. Simple reality, income has not kept pace with costs over the last 40 years.
Note: Several sources quoted different values for income, mixing individual and household. Hence the range.
Found a list that says in 1977 the average car cost about $4000
you can buy a 15 year old car for <$2000 that is still safer than one made in 1977 new for $4000...
the housing cost is skewed as well, price per foot hasn't changed much, it's people wanting larger houses that drove the cost up. Location cost not being figured in
Almost all of my coworkers talk about going to their second job in the evening when they are about to get off work. Some of them make close to $85,000 a year and still need to work a second job in order to make ends meet. Do you see this with coworkers on your job? I rather just cut back and pay for things I can afford rather than work two jobs. It's also a couple of them who don't have kids and still have to work two jobs to make it. So it seems like this is becoming a normal thing for a lot of people today since the primary job is not paying as much. It also can be that 30 years ago there was no such thing as these bills below
Cable
Internet
Cell Phone
Netflix
I can't imagine any of those things are making the difference in them either having to work a 2nd job or not.
There's more to it than that. It's likely cumulative.
Where they choose to live, the status of their health, their means of transport, their eating habits, their spending habits, credit score (especially if it was bad in the past), the size of their family, etc.
They could be paying off debt or trying to pay down their mortgage. Or maybe they want to buy an investment property in cash or something. I don’t thibk the $10 Netflix bill or the $50 Internet is breaking the bank.
One thing that has changed since back in my day is to be able to get any job that pays more than low wages one needs a college education. When I college aged, you could work part time at McDicks and pay a good deal of that college tuition. Today, that job at McDicks will barely cover gas money to get to college. You're better off skipping the part time job, and just living off of student loans.
In the old days you could still get a decent paying job without that expensive piece of paper. Now you need a college degree to be the shift manager at the aforementioned McDicks restaurant.
The average salary of the Store manager seems to be about $35k. That's insane. I make that as a 2nd year electrical apprentice.
I only just started managing workers these past few years and I make at least $63k to do it. (And that doesn't even seem like enough some days!)
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