Re:Ask HN: What is really wrong with the US economy, really?
by rdl on Thursday February 27, 2014 @06:50PM
(#7316218)
$110k isn't very much for late-30s professional anymore, especially for a single income earner.
$150k x 2 for Seattle, or $200-250k x2 for SFBA, is more like a high-end DINK situation, if you count the value of stock and other benefits. $110k is solidly middle class, and fine if you're in your 20s, but by late 30s I'd consider that on the low end of someone in the software engineering field.
Muni drivers or police/fire/etc. in SF can easily make in the 100-250k range, without college.
(I agree this is all insane, but...inflation. And particularly in the coastal areas. If we were a separate country from the midwest, inflation would be vastly more pronounced. In SF, items e.g. iPhones bought by your employer cost basically 10-20% what they cost in the midwest bought personally for non-business reasons, once you account for taxes, salary differentials, etc. Crazy.)
$150k x 2 for Seattle, or $200-250k x2 for SFBA, is more like a high-end DINK situation, if you count the value of stock and other benefits. $110k is solidly middle class, and fine if you're in your 20s, but by late 30s I'd consider that on the low end of someone in the software engineering field.
Muni drivers or police/fire/etc. in SF can easily make in the 100-250k range, without college.
(I agree this is all insane, but...inflation. And particularly in the coastal areas. If we were a separate country from the midwest, inflation would be vastly more pronounced. In SF, items e.g. iPhones bought by your employer cost basically 10-20% what they cost in the midwest bought personally for non-business reasons, once you account for taxes, salary differentials, etc. Crazy.)