Hello, as you may know, there’s a string of posts and TikToks going around about living wages, and how most people are/have always suffered.
I linkd a recent post, which started the conversation on the small side (50k average).
I have always lived on the small side. My family lives on the small side. I don’t know many people who make more than 50k usually. We grew up poor usually.
But I do ask people often. People often don’t mind telling me. because I’ve asked, I’ve learned a lot from people, that some people make tons of munny for doing seemingly easy or unrelated things, while some people work hard and still get paid terribly.
For full time work (usually ACTUALLY more like 60+ hrs/wk), I’ve always only made around 20k a year, maybe 30k a year at some points in my life.
(I can list jobs in comments if you wanna know)
Until I came to Texas. I started making a little more, around maybe an average of 40k.
But see, I’m always, or often working many times 6+ days a week, and often over 8 hours.
I finally found work as a locksmith (I changed jobs usually every 3 months. I’ve done A LOT of jobs)
As a locksmith, I started to make 70ish/yr, for 12/6, 12/7, on call, so slow nights maybe only 3 jobs, like 3 hours, sometimes no jobs.
I found work at an oil refinery one time as well (2 months), temporary, but 10k/mo, so if it were full time, 120/year. It’s called “turnaround work”
After that ended, I ultimately have come back to locksmith work as a career, and if I work hard, I can get between 100-150k a year, but yes, 12/6 12/7 still, or more.
I never thought I’d make this much, but often times I wish I had more free time, and sometimes I forcibly take time off for mental health, thank God my boss is understanding.
What about you, where are all the high rollers (100k average) who always were in that bracket, or what was your journey and what do you do now?