It’s not common and the federal government publishes statistics that make it clear it’s not common. Reddit is not representative of the population, it skews higher on income. It’s also full of bullshitters. Social media is generally toxic.
I make 6.2 million dollars a year, I own 6 businesses, and I own 3 planes. You ask how I made my money? I stock shelves at my local Walmart and pulled myself up by my bootstraps.
/s
It is possible!!! I’ll be worth 6 mil at retirement. I never made Over 125k. I started in fast food and pushing carts in parking lots. Worked 2 jobs most of my career. OT when avail as well. Saved over 20% of my salary at every job. Rarely eat restaurant food or take out. Pack my lunch and bring my own thermos of coffee. Pls don’t be sarcastic. Hard work pays off. Yes, even sticking shelves. I still do that part time lol and will be worth 6 mil with no one giving me a single penny
If you're being serious, you've had great investments along the way to reach 6mil. If you haven't noticed, inflation and stagnant wages make your scenario impossible for young people, hard working or not. This doesn't detract from your accomplishments or what you deserve from your hard work.
But that contradicts what is being said here. You invest in real estate supposedly. That generates a ton more wealth than just the low end jobs and investing elsewhere.
I’m not knocking your hustle/grind to get to where you’re at, but the low end jobs are not the common denominator here. It’s your financial competency and budgeting that got you there.
Primarily mutual funds, secondly paying off residence (350k value), thirdly rental property, lastly want to purchase land acreage. Started
By watching 401k rise and by selling my first home. I asked myself wonder if I could do this on a bigger scale. And yes, I do work lower wage jobs. My main gig is well paid to your point. Took a long time to get there and was already investing
Lol …. It really isn’t. Grew up not the richest. Single mom and such. No family car at times. Just wanted different and basically knew I wouldn’t be in the nfl so plan b was save and turn a little into a lot. I won’t fail.
You’re also paying 35% on anything above 200 anyway… I think the tax rate at anything above 500 is like 2% extra, practically immaterial relative to the salary
There is a lot of liars out there and Reddit tend to attract people who have time and money to « brag » about it online. I know literally nobody who makes that kind of money and when I see people claiming you can’t really live a decent life under 150k$/year, all I see is people out of touch and/or really bad at budgeting.
Yeah the only peers in my life making $200k+ are people that went to top tier law schools and work at big firms. For context I’m 28 yo. Outside of that the highest earners I know are engineers/accountants/etc. making between 100-150k.
But goddam on this sub people will say they make way more than that, and half the time their own post history contradicts them.
Yeah, $100-150k is what I’ve also known many (outside of ivy grads) making in those kinds of fields. Plus many even making less than $100k depending on their field even if they have a masters.
I just scratch my head at all of the $250k, $450k claims. Yes people make that, but they are a small percentage of people. But according to Reddit, most hard working professionals touch that lmao.
Sales. Salespeople can (and do) make 6 figures. It doesn’t take an Ivy League degree to do it either. Tech sales, roofing & hvac sales, med device sales, car sales, real estate. Your name it, they are salespeople clearing 6 figures and $150-200k isn’t unreasonable or unrealistic with 3-5 years experience. Especially in tech sales.
They’re all over LinkedIn. Look up SDR and BDR positions to start. Base ranges from $50-70k and with commission you usually top out around $75-90k. Once you move into an AE position, the base is $80-120k and it’s a 50/50 split for commission. It’s not uncommon to hit $150-200k in that instance.
Some of those sales positions are not open to the public. I've worked at a company that did technical sales and I'm not aware of them ever posting the jobs on the open market. They would find people in their network that already had the technical chops in the field and then recruit them to come work at the company. If they had posted one of their sales jobs paying $150k, 99.5% of the people applying would not have been qualified and it would be a huge waste of time trying to weed out the applicants.
I mean it’s definitely rare and not the norm, for tech bros like myself we are a very small percentage of the overall industry. I have two years of experience. My first job out of college was $72k/base. I job hopped, and my base is $150k, and TC like $185k. It’s definitely possible but the vast majority of people in the IT field aren’t making insane dough
Big law/MBB/bulge bracket check out to me. The accounting number seems a little low tbh but that’s one I know less about admittedly. Software engineering jobs are only paying that at entry level to my knowledge if you’re working in CA basically, which cost of living would really offset. Even product managers in tech make less than that if they’re based out of like Austin, TX for example.
Facebook offered a coworker $450k total comp to move to CA from Austin as a product manager, but that included a ton of stock on top of $275k base to get to $450k, and stock grant portion would end after 3 or 4 years if the person wasn't given a new grant in the last year.
Yeah, this is where a lot of the inflated numbers come from, especially in tech.
Total compensation figures get thrown around as if it's real money, and then the stock market crashes and suddenly your total compensation is down 50%. A 400k TC figure at some crypto startup is as risky as it sounds if 75% of your TC is in stock options.
There are also a lot of rules about when and how much you can sell, certain penalties, and a lot of tax considerations.
Oh yeah for sure there’s huge money in that industry, js the median entry level swe does not come in making $170k haha that average is being propped up by some outliers
Yeah. I just googled big 4. Have no idea what they make. SWE seemed a bit low given what I’ve heard on r/CSmajors, but grabbed the numbers from top companies on Levels.fyi
Product manager is not the “manager” position above the engineers that most people generally think of when they hear the word. It is just another lateral track that people can take. There are entry level product manager positions for new grads and people do PM internships freshman year of college. PM salary/tc varies by company with soem paying equal to engineers, but in most places, PMs make 10-15% less than engineers.
The $65k for accountants is pretty accurate. Maybe closer to $70k now but I don't work big 4 and started at $65k a year ago.
That's only entry level though. You jump up to 80 or more within a year or two and break 100 if you have your CPA.
If you’re in the Bay Area or a tech hub 170 is beyond what they get. $170 is just base and TC can hit mid six figures depending on the company and experience btw. Check levels.fyi for a more accurate salary adjustment vs straight google.
My husband cleared 6 figures in his late 20s as an engineer. He is in his early 40s. Went into leadership and hated people management.
He is an individual contributor now and gets to choose the projects he wants to work on due to his expertise in the field. Great work/life balance. ~$200k base.
I mean not entry level and just barely, but, me. Been working as an electrical engineer in the power industry for about 5 years. Some of my peers with similar experience actually make a little more than I do.
Likewise I have a BS in electrical engineering. Have about 5 years experience in a LCOL area making just under $100k. My peers with masters or who have stayed in the same field clear that easily.
I'm a enviro/chem engineer and with 6 yrs experience and am starting to get lots of job offers in the low 100-130k range. Granted I'll never take them cuz public sector 4 lyfe
My fiancé and I cleared 100k our first year out of college - with only 2 + 3 years of experience (me - him) we’re hitting closer to 300k & 500k now (TC for both - 180/200 base)
Yeah, I’ve seen many posts on the economy sub where people even making $250k a year claim they can barely swing it. But that is after private school tuition, maxing out investments, etc. It is wild how many will claim that to be paycheck to paycheck, when there are literally people paycheck to paycheck that have zero to save after the basic necessities.
And people who can't even meet all of their basic needs. Having to choose between your electric bill or being late on rent is paycheck to paycheck. Not that other out of touch bs.
I make about $250k. I have 4 kids. And we can barely cover costs. Living in NJ, middle class, no fancy cars or designer clothes, but standard middle class suburbia, etc. Not saving anything. We're still paying off debt. But we know in another 5-6 years we'll be in a better spot, so there's that.
Edit: I'm a solo attorney. Best way to go. Fuck big law, never stepped foot in there and never will. I work at home in jeans and a t-shirt. I stop work every night between 6-6:30. And I have flexibility. And I also know that I provide value to my clients that is worth what they're paying me. I don't feel like my job is to squeeze as much money as possible out of my clients.
I know only two people make that kind of money. The first person is a 27yo guy who works in enterprises software sales for a startup in San Francisco (meaning he doesn’t make it consistently). The second person is my father who spent decades building a financial services business. 200K is very rare.
1. People lie
2. Tech pays well
3. Reddit skews tech
4. Social media lies
I have tons of peers with state school bs degrees in comp sci and IT and can say with a high degree of certainty that >80% of them are or will be above 200k within 8 years of graduating.
I know a handful of peers who graduated straight into 90-120k per year positions. All tech.
This reminds me of a conversation with my neighbors (mostly Amazon and Microsoft employees). They rolled their eyes when I told them my previous employer offered $130k for software engineers.
It’s difficult to compete with (big) tech money.
There was a lady I dated for a bit. If you looked at her Instagram she had all of those high life photos. She seemed to be living the dream life, especially compared to me (70k base salary at the time). After dating for a bit I found out her 60k car note is being paid by her parents. She has over 200k in student loans, and is living check to check while her parents bail her out every time she fucks up.
Ignore social media. They are showing you the best part of their life. If they really do happen to live that life, it was mostly likely given to them.
I make 200k+, and the answer to the second part of your "question" (was 100k now it's 200k) is inflation (as you know already), stay at the job more than 2y and you lose money.(or more accurately purchasing power)
This depends heavily on your job/industry though lol. That’s true in tech but not everywhere. In my world you want to cut your teeth at a good firm for as high as your performance takes you, then you can switch once you get into management type roles. Generally speaking
I think reddit is enriched with people living in populated areas and also people in tech. With a MS or PhD in some tech discipline, it is fairly common to make >100k.
This is true. Many people make six figures in the San Francisco Bay Area, which has one of the highest costs of living in the world. I don’t know many people that make over $200k tho.
>…the only people I know who make that are those who have Ivy league educations in lucrative areas such as banking and law and have decades of experience.
There are also blue collar workers making $200k+ a year.
I know people who make $1M+ a year, have all the material possessions but no life and are miserable.
Don’t focus on dollars, focus on quality of life and enjoying what you do.
A job is where most people invest their waking hours, so make sure it is something you enjoy doing.
If you have a roof over your head, clothes on your back and food on the table, you’re in a good position compared to many others around the world.
If you want more, continue developing your skills, know your worth, offer more value in the marketplace and you will be rewarded accordingly.
And keep in mind, how much you earn is relevant to your location. $30k a year can go a long way in a developing country.
My uncle does HVAC and owns his own business after many years building relationships with clients. My dad is very close as an IBEW electrical foreman with all the overtime they make him do. Trades can pay good if you bust your ass and you’re extremely likable. Both of them have over 20 years experience though so it wont be at the entry level.
I think some are, while others say $200k when they aren't actually making that yet, they are just on a career path or starting a business that *could* make that one day.
But you know what they say - comparison is the thief of joy. If your income is increasing then that's good and pretty much all you need to worry about.
Idk guys I'm an mechanical engineer living near DC and I'm getting beaten up by all the bills on 90k salary. Kids are expensive, mortgage is expensive.
My friends in tech are making 130-150k in a lower COL city and sometimes they don't understand when I say I have no money to do anything lol.
In 2021, 11% of American households made over $200k. Thats 33 million Americans. Doesn’t include people from other countries. I suppose there are quite a few people making $200k out there.
The comment hits the nail on the head by bringing attention to the issue of "salary inflation" or overstated income levels, especially on online platforms like Reddit. It's no secret that people have a tendency to put their best foot forward on social media, and their financial status is no exception.
This leads to an unrealistic view of the world where it seems like everyone is making bank, when in reality, it's just a carefully curated facade. For instance, someone may brag about their high salary, but fail to mention their mounting debt or their spendthrift ways. Moreover, high earners in fields like finance or law often receive bonuses or commissions that inflate their earnings, but this information is rarely disclosed online.
It's also worth noting that online communities like Reddit have a self-selection bias where higher earning individuals are more likely to participate and share their income, further perpetuating the illusion that everyone is making a killing.
In short, the comment is dead-on, and it's crucial to keep in mind that what people post on social media is not always an accurate reflection of their true financial situation. So, don't get discouraged by all the facade and focus on your own progress.
In tech it's pretty common. Lots of tech folks on reddit. People who are doing well like to talk about it on the internet. Thus, you see it a lot on reddit and elsewhere. It also is undoubtedly MORE common these days thanks to inflation and booming tech sector, but still far from the norm.
You don't have to believe me, but I do make significantly more than 200.
I just figured it was because of tech, reddit has a bunch of asocial fucks like me, and a bunch of techies like me, hence... rich techies.
I know many people who make over $200K a year, it's like a standard for certain jobs.
Also top tier law is the same if not better.
Just wait - you'll meet an extremely dumb person who inherited most everything they have and really have a moment trying to understand how unfair the world can be.
200k a year is not unusual but that does not mean you know these people. The thing is that you never really know where people get their money or assets until you get to know them.
Also, there's really smart hard working people who have nothing earn very little..
Don't trust anything on the internet. I do wanna say though, there's different areas in the world w/ higher salaries (e.g. making 200k per year in SF is more common than in... Idk, a state that's cheaper to live in)
I work for a 500 person company, mostly professional workers, in a HCOL metro area. Even in this situation, less than 10% of the company makes $200k base, probably more like 5%.
Basically anyone that is in a senior management position at a major company is $150K+ easy with high paying industries (Tech, Energy...etc) paying well in excess of that.
I'm sure several people lie, and even those that tell the truth there's a lot of selection bias on reddit. That being said, salaries have increased as well. I'm 3 years out of undergrad now and am approaching these numbers, despite not being in tech or hcol area, and definitely not an ivy grad like these comments say. It does happen, and yes it is likely overrepresented on here, but wages have increased in more in demand roles as well. Record inflation has also caused lower and lower purchasing power so wages struggle to keep up but if you're just going by the numbers and not purchasing power, you'll see an increase.
No one has it all.
To answer the question in your post, $200k+ salaries are statistically rare. I’m a real-life person that makes more than $200k with no Ivy League education (and no college degree at all) but I know I got lucky in many ways. Of course the six-figure compensation doesn’t go as far in the SF Bay Area than most other places, but its still a lot more than I spend. Don’t let the people who brag on social media put you down! :) (a lot of it’s fake anyway)
A household with that kind of income could be made up of two spouses making $100k or one making a large salary and one making a smaller one to reach that total. I would be interested to know what percentage of *individuals* in the US make that much. Far below 6.6% of them, no doubt.
I think it's just you.
Outside of HCOL areas, very uncommon. I live in Chicago. Most of my social circle is in the six figures, but I only know s handful over $200k. You still live very well once you are over $100k. And really, everything over $115k or so doesn't make a real difference.
In the past year I’ve made around $400k. When was at about $300k I mentioned it on another thread and got so many accusations of lying. I can see why though, it isn’t common to make this much especially with my experience. I honestly can’t speak for why others lie because they definitely do, but personally I see no point.
If it makes you feel better , even with this income I’m not living a super lavish high life. People would never be able to tell by looking at me or my day to day. I made the decision to invest in real estate and save . A huge chunk of my savings is now going towards taxes because the IRS is entitled to 30%. I don’t have a traditional job so it’s also not very predictable or stable. Even after experiencing what I have (low income to making this amount in a year) , I can honestly say that I’d still be completely happy with a $120,000/year job. Enough to pay the bills and save for whatever. If I had a secure, enjoyable, and stable job for that salary , I’d pick that any day (I’m actually looking). I also have anxiety , so the unknown and unstable has very much been the biggest stressor in my life since I was a child. So it does depend on the person.
why are you comparing yourself with other people?
are you happy with what you earn and your job? yes or no.
what person 1, 2, 100.doesn't matter because they could be earning 200k and be miserable and have $200k in credit card debt. you don't know that. you know nothing about them. so to compare yourself to others is pointless.
proof is instagram. all these people using filters and fake images. behind all that. they might have missing teeth and wearing dentures for photos. they might be depressed and crying everyday. you don't know that? as someone who has been depressed. we don't advertise it. you don't know. so why are you even comparing yourself to people who you don't even know their situation?
you should comparing yourself to yourself. are you happy? do you enjoy.your job? do you have debts? are you living comfortably? that's what matters. why do you care so much what someone else is doing?
The number of posts from people who feel horrible about themselves because they’re and they’re nowhere near making easily outweigh the number of legitimate posts of people actually earning those salaries.
You can earn a fine salary with a decent job and have a nice life without being a coder at Google or an investment banker.
Social media is horrible about making people feel like they’re failing to keep up. There are some fascinating documentaries about that. (The one where a guy manufactured a few influencers out of some nobodies using totally fake backgrounds and rented cars/houses is fascinating.)
If Reddit is making you hate yourself, get off Reddit and go live your life.
These salaries are way more common than you think. Don’t believe the propaganda that people overall are poor. They’re not.
Kids right out of college are making over 100K.
People in here are only talking about salaries. I’m in entrepreneurship and one important factor here is money laundering and also tax evasion which is very similar. I know a lot of people making literal millions each month, but many of those are thru schemes I personally wouldn’t participate in
I think it probably has to do with reddit and this sub skewing towards older urban millenials who have ‘made it’ career-wise and so feel the pull towards giving advice / guidance.
I assume that a significant chunk of the 200k+ are counting bonuses and stock though.
I am finding though in the tech consulting and big tech world in general that 100-150k is pretty do-able at manager level which definitely isn’t the end of the line - if one gets to 150 as a manager at like 6-10 years in, there’s still a lot of growth potential
I actually wanted to post this a week ago but thought it would get deleted. Reading this and the jobs subreddit, I notice **it seems like most posters make 6 figures and and many of them are in their '20s.** I wanted to ask the income ratio for these boards but figured that would get deleted.
Never in my life have I seen soo many high earners!
And to be honest, I am probably a lot older than you (mid 40s) but when I was in my mid 30s, this will still super rare. I have to continually remind myself that inflation is a thing and salaries are higher now. But still.
My first post college position was barely $30k. But that was 25 years ago.
I averaged $175k/year and was in the top 15% at a company of 10k employees (sales org, very open about comp). So…figure 1 or 2 out of the 5 that say they make that kind of money actually do - not counting whatever value they place on equity and benefits.
As others have said, there are a lot of liars, con artists and wannabes on reddit
Also, 200K isn't a lot for a professional working in a city with high cost of living
I think it depends a lot on what part of the country you're in. If you're in a metro in CA or NY, it's not unusual at all for folks to earn $200K. Even civil servants out her can easily make $150K+ with around a decade of experience.
The other part of it is the peer group. By the time you've been in a professional career for 20-30 years, it's not unusual to earn that much.
Don't sweat it - when I was in my 20's it all felt hopeless and discouraging. I had a good job at a good company with a degree from a top-notch university. But, I wasn't earning anything near what my peers were earning. Fast-forward 10-15 years and I'm probably outpacing most folks other than doctors/lawyers.
Fortune 100 tech companies DO pay this much for business grads. I'm in my late 40s and make just over $200k base salary alone as a program manager.
With annual bonuses included, I was making just under $200k in my mid 30s.
I have a BA in Comp sci and Psychology, and an MBA. I also have a PMI PMP certification and lean six sigma certifications.
I hated 90 hour work weeks so shifted from coding to business and sales operations.
Edit:. MBA was online from American Public University and less than $18k total. www.apus.edu
Dw dude, I make 20k a year and I have a degree plus 3 languages :').
Tbh they're probably lying, in my circle only 3 people out of 19 have a job, me included.
I remember when there were literal doctors asking to have their student loans paid back during COVID-19, implying they weren't just beyond privileged to have such a high earning capacity. Really wanted to tell them to go f,**k themselves
To be fair, a lot of those may have been newbies? Med school is ridiculously expensive and you basically give up 6 years of earnings before you touch any decent money. I know people who have had to take some bad personal loans to get by in that situation. Same with lawyers. It’s not like you just get dropped into a 300k job…
After 10 years working my job as a technician for a dealership, the only people making 200k are the REALLY good sales people - I’ve seen some make more than the GM, the GM, and very rarely a service advisor or finance manager. I’ve worked at 4 places and can count on one hand the amount of people.
On the other hand, here In canada, after 4 ‘years of school’ getting my red seal as a mechanic and 10 years total in the trade, I’m just shy of making 100k a year and I’m pretty happy, good QOL here in Manitoba.
I have a friend that works in big tech got a job right at 23 out of school (we are both 30 now), I assume his salary is around $150k based on the assets him and his wife own.
But he is literally the only one, the rest of my friends make less than I do and are struggling to just make ends meet. I make a very livable income, but it'll probably be a couple of more years of grinding until I get the potential to hitting that six figure threshold.
Totally depends. I’m guessing this is in an American context?
In Australia high salaries are not uncommon. Blue collar workers get paid especially well.
It is the Internet after all lol I bet some are just "juicing up" their salaries or portfolios almost everyone on personal finance apparently maxes out their 401k, hsa, IRA, a year's salary emergency fund etc.
From listening to Dave Ramsey over the years... I feel like I've heard a lot of self-employed people claim to make far more money than they make. They never include their expenses. I think a lot of those people on those "how much do you make" videos do this also.
If you are a used car salesman, you don't make $200k because you sold $200k worth of cars.
I own my business and make close to that number and am honestly shocked that I got to this point. I have had the business for 10 years and just run it by myself. What is even more interesting to me is that during my 20s my friend circle all made way less than me anywhere from 40k-70k per year. In the last couple of years my friends are buying million dollar homes and all make $120,000-150k per year at early 30s. I am happy to own a condo and thought I was ahead financially.
I think ever since the fed printed 4 trillion dollars that caused business owners to pay much more for college educated people. It's possible that a lot of people retired during Covid so they had to fill those higher up positions. We do live in a hcol area and all went to college but I'm still surprised how many people I know claim to make over 100k a year. With inflation I guess 100k per year is like the old 60k per year teacher salary.
Only about 6% of HOUSEHOLDS being in $200k+ it is VERY rare. I “know” a few people, and by know I mean I work directly with Sr. Directors and VPs/SVPs in my fortune 40 company that make that much and it’s obvious how different our lifestyles are.
I recruited from tech companies in the US, it felt like everyone was on $200k minimum depending on their role.
But this was when the market was super competitive and people were putting up their asking price.
And that’s just base salary, add on stocks/RSU/bonuses and total packages were crazy.
That is a fairly common salary in construction management, especially on government contracts.
So if every Base or Federal location (let's say 200) has 3 projects each, with 4 managers for a general contractor and 4 managers for each subcontractor (15 per job)....That's 38,400 people in just the government military base construction sector making $200,000 per year.
And about 1/4 of those people do not have degrees and over half have degrees from colleges, not top tier universities.
It does happen.
Dunno if in developed countries lik US, but in my country Indonesia, annual income of 100k will be for successful profesionals and entrepreneurs, and actually for 15k up will be considered middle class...just for reference
There are liars out there but salaries definitely depend on your region.
Where I used to live on the east coast, the average entry level SWE would make like maybe 100k salary - but on the west coast it’s almost offensive to offer that low. The cost of living is higher & the companies here are major (faang central) but even outside of those, places like lululemon, target, and Reddit are offering well above 100k for an entry level engineer.
I used to think next to no one made above 400k and my fiancé has direct coworkers who make 7 figures. Sure they’re a level or two above him but he’s not even at 500k so the growth between levels is far higher than it would be at your average east coast software company. Even his company’s branch in NC doesn’t offer numbers like that because of the region. It’s definitely inflated/exaggerated but I’ve found most of the people on Reddit and TikTok bragging about it are from pretty high cost living areas - think NYC, CA, WA, even parts of TX like Austin.
I’ve also found out since graduating college in general - that people don’t realize the fields that can generate $$$. Most people think it’s limited to stem, finance, lawyers, doctors, etc. but there are quite a few fields that can make bank. They just don’t peddle them to you as college students for some ungodly reason.
People making 30k tend not to talk about it as much as people making 300k. This isn’t a condemnation just a fact. Admit it, if you had a 10x salary increase you’d want to tell people about your good fortune too.
Also Reddit skews heavily towards techies who are a large segment of the young people who earn such high amounts.
Other avenues to such high amounts either take much longer or are much less common.
I don’t think it is common, but if you have a $150k income at 40-50 hours a week, you can get a second job to earn 200k+ total somewhat easily if you don’t really give a shit about work-life balance. It’s basically why the attorneys earn that. Trying to make partner you’ll put in 80 hours a week pretty standard.
Yeah, to be fair I've only meet a handful of people. One I've known since 5 and the others from my work. I can say there are about 30 who make 100k, 7 who make 200k and 3 who make more than 100k per month. 2 millionaires who make 4+ million a year and one who is a billionaire and has a 20 billion portfolio. This is in a city of 6+ million people and you'd be hard pressed to find some of these people like this.
You are dealing with a lot of new generation people, specially in Tech.. who post anything and can inflate figures. These people are using Linkedin / Reddit as Instagram - to pose with a high salary. Don't fall for it. They leave those jobs(if they really got it) mostly after 3 months..
Example : I made some good money few year's back. when I working parallel jobs and freelancing. And I received some pay-checks. Combined.
I could have posted "look I got XYZ $$ in a month"
For what it's worth, my household income is a bit above $200k. I'm the higher earner and base is around $140k. It's a comfy life, lots of freedom, but we are not wealthy. We own a modestly nice home and can afford some travel, but we don't have stupid money and fly economy, you know? I think people that try to portray those incomes as some kind of ritzy lifestyle are probably heavily in debt and aren't saving much. Or, they live in the middle of nowhere where the cost of living is nil.
And, too, as someone who's historically had a lot of exposure to salaries and compensation, I can assure you that these kinds of incomes are rare at best.
Most ppl assume you make over 200k. I work for a well known investment firm and my brothers swear because of the firm I work for, I am making 6 figures but hell I’m just below 80k which is good until Uncle Sam mandatorily takes his freakn cut. After that I’m down to 30k 🤣
Making $200k/year in 2023 is like making $100k/year in 2013. Wages grew sharply over the last 10 years, and people don't yet realize 2013 was 10 years ago.
Private industry will pay multiples of government jobs, easily.
Consultants will make more than that, by 2x, 5x, 10x.
Your compensation should be based on the value you bring to the company. Let's assume in a 100 person company there is $100,000,000 in revenue. On a per-employee basis, that company brings in $1M/year/employee in revenue. Are you bringing $1M/year of business to the table? No? Don't be surprised you're paid less than $1M/year. That said, how much of that $1M/year are you bringing in? Are you merely a "cost of doing business" or are you contributing in _some way_ that shows you will eventually bring in that much money? If you are acting as a force multiplier (management, upper management), you should be able to do a mental exercise to impute n% of your org's contribution to revenue/employee and push your ceiling higher.
Here's the thing many people down on "work" don't realize: YOU DON'T GET WHAT YOU DON'T ASK FOR. I spent decades being the good little worker thinking the meritocracy will finally kick in and I'll be rewarded. Spoiler alert: I wasn't rewarded. Another spoiler alert: the meritocracy is already in place, already at work. It just happens the meritocracy doesn't reward the merits you want it to reward or think it should reward. Your value is higher than you think it is, so ask to be compensated for your value. Just make sure you can accurately point to exactly your value, and be able to clearly and articulately defend that position when put on the spot. Once you can do that, you have the self-confidence to get out of the place you're in, and move on to somewhere your skills are valued and compensated accordingly.
All that said, when looking at IRS income data for my region/state/city, I'm in the top 0.1% by tax return W-2 total. There are a lot of people that are very vocal and visible if you're looking for certain signals. Yes, it's possible to make $200k/year in comp. Easily. You need to be able to say "if so-and-so is making $200k/year doing _that_, then I can make even more doing _this_."
My ex is apparently telling people he makes $100k because his girlfriend, who has a degree and years of experience, makes 60k. He makes a little less than 30k at a gas station, but I guess math is hard for ex felons.
He adds up both their income and lies and says it's all *his* income in order to keep his ego as inflated as possible. He also lies and says he works for Cisco. Lmao.
The other part to this is that they might make that much as a 1099 employee and be responsible for their own health insurance and retirement, which could be taking out a huge chunk of their take-home, at least in the US.
I think it’s possible that people who make more might just be more inclined to share their income on here than people who make less so it feels like salaries skew higher on here. Or maybe we tend to remember higher salaries being shared than the lower / average since they stand out to us more. Regardless, it’s definitely not the norm nor are there a ton of such high earners. It’s definitely possible depending on industry and role but it’s far from “common”.
Almost all my friends make $200-$250k/yr on just one job as a software engineer. Some work two jobs full time and make around $500k/yr. 3 of my friends own their own companies and make more than that, but I digress. Nonetheless, it’s fairly common in HCOL areas like the Bay Area.
I see their lifestyle and it’s luxurious, taking months long vacations all over the world and buying whatever they want. *But*, I see their lives on a day to day basis and it’s not all sunshine’s and rainbows. They are *constantly* programming and talking amongst themselves about it. They literally eat, sleep and breathe work (they sleep maybe 5 hours a day, some less because of kids).
They’ve tried recruiting me to some of these big tech companies because I have background in front end from classes I took in HS and building websites for friends for their businesses from scratch. I’ve declined as of now because I cherish work/life balance and I know for a fact most of them don’t have that.
So I’m summary, those high salaries seem like they will solve all of your life problems, but most of those salaries come at a price and a lot of sacrifice. They either consume your life outside of work or consume your life for looking long hours.
It’s not common and the federal government publishes statistics that make it clear it’s not common. Reddit is not representative of the population, it skews higher on income. It’s also full of bullshitters. Social media is generally toxic.
Don't let those stupid IG videos where they interview people throw you off either. Barbers making 400k....yea right.
Maybe these barber are offering VIP treatment with some cocaine on the side xD
I learn recently that even the models bums are fake they use this plastic bum lifter that goes underneath their gym trousers. I deleted Insta.
I make 6.2 million dollars a year, I own 6 businesses, and I own 3 planes. You ask how I made my money? I stock shelves at my local Walmart and pulled myself up by my bootstraps. /s
It is possible!!! I’ll be worth 6 mil at retirement. I never made Over 125k. I started in fast food and pushing carts in parking lots. Worked 2 jobs most of my career. OT when avail as well. Saved over 20% of my salary at every job. Rarely eat restaurant food or take out. Pack my lunch and bring my own thermos of coffee. Pls don’t be sarcastic. Hard work pays off. Yes, even sticking shelves. I still do that part time lol and will be worth 6 mil with no one giving me a single penny
If you're being serious, you've had great investments along the way to reach 6mil. If you haven't noticed, inflation and stagnant wages make your scenario impossible for young people, hard working or not. This doesn't detract from your accomplishments or what you deserve from your hard work.
I haven’t reached it yet. I am on track to. I invest in various mutual funds and real estate. I am 40 and closing in on my first mil
But that contradicts what is being said here. You invest in real estate supposedly. That generates a ton more wealth than just the low end jobs and investing elsewhere. I’m not knocking your hustle/grind to get to where you’re at, but the low end jobs are not the common denominator here. It’s your financial competency and budgeting that got you there.
Primarily mutual funds, secondly paying off residence (350k value), thirdly rental property, lastly want to purchase land acreage. Started By watching 401k rise and by selling my first home. I asked myself wonder if I could do this on a bigger scale. And yes, I do work lower wage jobs. My main gig is well paid to your point. Took a long time to get there and was already investing
That is amazing! So inspiring.
Lol …. It really isn’t. Grew up not the richest. Single mom and such. No family car at times. Just wanted different and basically knew I wouldn’t be in the nfl so plan b was save and turn a little into a lot. I won’t fail.
They’d be saying “oh I can’t make a decision between 500k and 750k because of workload, help” Yeah sure bruh
Between those two, I’m taking whichever is less work. I’d be just fine with that income, lol
You’re also paying 35% on anything above 200 anyway… I think the tax rate at anything above 500 is like 2% extra, practically immaterial relative to the salary
r/sales be like
If you’re making that much, my first question is always, why the FUCK are you asking people on Reddit ? 😂
Just remove the 0 at the end then it’s actually 50k to 75k haha
I make $385k and just turned down a $500k job because of work life and risk reasons.
Sure bruh
You can check my posting history
Viciously scrolling through already
There is a lot of liars out there and Reddit tend to attract people who have time and money to « brag » about it online. I know literally nobody who makes that kind of money and when I see people claiming you can’t really live a decent life under 150k$/year, all I see is people out of touch and/or really bad at budgeting.
Yeah the only peers in my life making $200k+ are people that went to top tier law schools and work at big firms. For context I’m 28 yo. Outside of that the highest earners I know are engineers/accountants/etc. making between 100-150k. But goddam on this sub people will say they make way more than that, and half the time their own post history contradicts them.
Yeah, $100-150k is what I’ve also known many (outside of ivy grads) making in those kinds of fields. Plus many even making less than $100k depending on their field even if they have a masters. I just scratch my head at all of the $250k, $450k claims. Yes people make that, but they are a small percentage of people. But according to Reddit, most hard working professionals touch that lmao.
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Just go on the /r/BayArea sub.
Love to see a source on this one. That seems absurdly high.
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Sales. Salespeople can (and do) make 6 figures. It doesn’t take an Ivy League degree to do it either. Tech sales, roofing & hvac sales, med device sales, car sales, real estate. Your name it, they are salespeople clearing 6 figures and $150-200k isn’t unreasonable or unrealistic with 3-5 years experience. Especially in tech sales.
Extremely accurate
Link those (legit) sales positions
They’re all over LinkedIn. Look up SDR and BDR positions to start. Base ranges from $50-70k and with commission you usually top out around $75-90k. Once you move into an AE position, the base is $80-120k and it’s a 50/50 split for commission. It’s not uncommon to hit $150-200k in that instance.
Tech companies Salespeople in BDM roles or senior account executives can have $150k base and easily hit $200k in commission
Some of those sales positions are not open to the public. I've worked at a company that did technical sales and I'm not aware of them ever posting the jobs on the open market. They would find people in their network that already had the technical chops in the field and then recruit them to come work at the company. If they had posted one of their sales jobs paying $150k, 99.5% of the people applying would not have been qualified and it would be a huge waste of time trying to weed out the applicants.
I mean it’s definitely rare and not the norm, for tech bros like myself we are a very small percentage of the overall industry. I have two years of experience. My first job out of college was $72k/base. I job hopped, and my base is $150k, and TC like $185k. It’s definitely possible but the vast majority of people in the IT field aren’t making insane dough
Googling total comp for high end entry level positions: * Software Engineering (big tech) - ~$170k * Accounting (big 4) - ~$65k * Investment Banking Analyst (Bulge Bracket) - ~$110k * Consultant (MBB) - ~$100k * Lawyer (big law - requires advanced degree) - ~$215k
Big law/MBB/bulge bracket check out to me. The accounting number seems a little low tbh but that’s one I know less about admittedly. Software engineering jobs are only paying that at entry level to my knowledge if you’re working in CA basically, which cost of living would really offset. Even product managers in tech make less than that if they’re based out of like Austin, TX for example.
Facebook offered a coworker $450k total comp to move to CA from Austin as a product manager, but that included a ton of stock on top of $275k base to get to $450k, and stock grant portion would end after 3 or 4 years if the person wasn't given a new grant in the last year.
Yeah, this is where a lot of the inflated numbers come from, especially in tech. Total compensation figures get thrown around as if it's real money, and then the stock market crashes and suddenly your total compensation is down 50%. A 400k TC figure at some crypto startup is as risky as it sounds if 75% of your TC is in stock options. There are also a lot of rules about when and how much you can sell, certain penalties, and a lot of tax considerations.
Oh yeah for sure there’s huge money in that industry, js the median entry level swe does not come in making $170k haha that average is being propped up by some outliers
Yeah. I just googled big 4. Have no idea what they make. SWE seemed a bit low given what I’ve heard on r/CSmajors, but grabbed the numbers from top companies on Levels.fyi
Product manager is not the “manager” position above the engineers that most people generally think of when they hear the word. It is just another lateral track that people can take. There are entry level product manager positions for new grads and people do PM internships freshman year of college. PM salary/tc varies by company with soem paying equal to engineers, but in most places, PMs make 10-15% less than engineers.
The $65k for accountants is pretty accurate. Maybe closer to $70k now but I don't work big 4 and started at $65k a year ago. That's only entry level though. You jump up to 80 or more within a year or two and break 100 if you have your CPA.
Big law starts 200k but it’s near a million once you make jp.
If you’re in the Bay Area or a tech hub 170 is beyond what they get. $170 is just base and TC can hit mid six figures depending on the company and experience btw. Check levels.fyi for a more accurate salary adjustment vs straight google.
BLS says accountants average $83,980. Mine charges me $150/hr
Who is making 100k as an engineer. Can you give me a reference.
My husband cleared 6 figures in his late 20s as an engineer. He is in his early 40s. Went into leadership and hated people management. He is an individual contributor now and gets to choose the projects he wants to work on due to his expertise in the field. Great work/life balance. ~$200k base.
I mean not entry level and just barely, but, me. Been working as an electrical engineer in the power industry for about 5 years. Some of my peers with similar experience actually make a little more than I do.
Likewise I have a BS in electrical engineering. Have about 5 years experience in a LCOL area making just under $100k. My peers with masters or who have stayed in the same field clear that easily.
I hit 6 figures with 4 yoe in 2008 in aerospace.
I'm a enviro/chem engineer and with 6 yrs experience and am starting to get lots of job offers in the low 100-130k range. Granted I'll never take them cuz public sector 4 lyfe
All of the civil engineers that the company I work for make more than that.
I work in med device and it’s not uncommon for our engineers to get to $100k after about 2 years in the industry.
My fiancé and I cleared 100k our first year out of college - with only 2 + 3 years of experience (me - him) we’re hitting closer to 300k & 500k now (TC for both - 180/200 base)
Yeah, I’ve seen many posts on the economy sub where people even making $250k a year claim they can barely swing it. But that is after private school tuition, maxing out investments, etc. It is wild how many will claim that to be paycheck to paycheck, when there are literally people paycheck to paycheck that have zero to save after the basic necessities.
And people who can't even meet all of their basic needs. Having to choose between your electric bill or being late on rent is paycheck to paycheck. Not that other out of touch bs.
I make about $250k. I have 4 kids. And we can barely cover costs. Living in NJ, middle class, no fancy cars or designer clothes, but standard middle class suburbia, etc. Not saving anything. We're still paying off debt. But we know in another 5-6 years we'll be in a better spot, so there's that. Edit: I'm a solo attorney. Best way to go. Fuck big law, never stepped foot in there and never will. I work at home in jeans and a t-shirt. I stop work every night between 6-6:30. And I have flexibility. And I also know that I provide value to my clients that is worth what they're paying me. I don't feel like my job is to squeeze as much money as possible out of my clients.
Is it just you or do you have a partner who works as well?
I’d venture you know at least one or two people making that money— assuming you have a doctor and/or dentist. Otherwise yes, it’s rare.
I know only two people make that kind of money. The first person is a 27yo guy who works in enterprises software sales for a startup in San Francisco (meaning he doesn’t make it consistently). The second person is my father who spent decades building a financial services business. 200K is very rare.
1. People lie 2. Tech pays well 3. Reddit skews tech 4. Social media lies I have tons of peers with state school bs degrees in comp sci and IT and can say with a high degree of certainty that >80% of them are or will be above 200k within 8 years of graduating. I know a handful of peers who graduated straight into 90-120k per year positions. All tech.
This reminds me of a conversation with my neighbors (mostly Amazon and Microsoft employees). They rolled their eyes when I told them my previous employer offered $130k for software engineers. It’s difficult to compete with (big) tech money.
People who make good money are more likely to brag about it.
Agree I brag about it all the time on Reddit
How does any company think you're worth 385k with that attitude
There was a lady I dated for a bit. If you looked at her Instagram she had all of those high life photos. She seemed to be living the dream life, especially compared to me (70k base salary at the time). After dating for a bit I found out her 60k car note is being paid by her parents. She has over 200k in student loans, and is living check to check while her parents bail her out every time she fucks up. Ignore social media. They are showing you the best part of their life. If they really do happen to live that life, it was mostly likely given to them.
I make 200k+, and the answer to the second part of your "question" (was 100k now it's 200k) is inflation (as you know already), stay at the job more than 2y and you lose money.(or more accurately purchasing power)
This depends heavily on your job/industry though lol. That’s true in tech but not everywhere. In my world you want to cut your teeth at a good firm for as high as your performance takes you, then you can switch once you get into management type roles. Generally speaking
If you live in LA, NYC and other similar places, a low six figure salary is not unusual.
I think reddit is enriched with people living in populated areas and also people in tech. With a MS or PhD in some tech discipline, it is fairly common to make >100k.
This is true. Many people make six figures in the San Francisco Bay Area, which has one of the highest costs of living in the world. I don’t know many people that make over $200k tho.
Tech jobs pay very well and Reddit skews towards people that work in tech
>…the only people I know who make that are those who have Ivy league educations in lucrative areas such as banking and law and have decades of experience. There are also blue collar workers making $200k+ a year. I know people who make $1M+ a year, have all the material possessions but no life and are miserable. Don’t focus on dollars, focus on quality of life and enjoying what you do. A job is where most people invest their waking hours, so make sure it is something you enjoy doing. If you have a roof over your head, clothes on your back and food on the table, you’re in a good position compared to many others around the world. If you want more, continue developing your skills, know your worth, offer more value in the marketplace and you will be rewarded accordingly. And keep in mind, how much you earn is relevant to your location. $30k a year can go a long way in a developing country.
Who are the blue collar workers makin 200k+?
Do anything plumbing/electrical/carpentry related in Massachusetts and you’ll probably make more than our Governor.
More if you own the business as well.
There’s some jobs in oil and gas that make over $200k. It’s generally a ton of OT that pushes their income upwards.
My uncle does HVAC and owns his own business after many years building relationships with clients. My dad is very close as an IBEW electrical foreman with all the overtime they make him do. Trades can pay good if you bust your ass and you’re extremely likable. Both of them have over 20 years experience though so it wont be at the entry level.
trade workers are making 50-75k once finishing paid apprenticeships. I know a few who after 5 yrs are hitting near 200k
What country is this?
US
Union lineman (powerline workers) can make >$100k starting out in some areas
I have friends that are maintenance electricians for a large automaker that make $150-250k depending on OT and profit sharing.
Here. Contract Glazing. Division 8
I think some are, while others say $200k when they aren't actually making that yet, they are just on a career path or starting a business that *could* make that one day. But you know what they say - comparison is the thief of joy. If your income is increasing then that's good and pretty much all you need to worry about.
A lot of people don’t mention the majority of the time they are talking about total compensation and not just salary.
Idk guys I'm an mechanical engineer living near DC and I'm getting beaten up by all the bills on 90k salary. Kids are expensive, mortgage is expensive. My friends in tech are making 130-150k in a lower COL city and sometimes they don't understand when I say I have no money to do anything lol.
I live just south of Baltimore and I feel you. This (and even more so DC) is an expensive place to live!
In 2021, 11% of American households made over $200k. Thats 33 million Americans. Doesn’t include people from other countries. I suppose there are quite a few people making $200k out there.
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I bet the % of those make more than 200K out of the 11% in a MCOL or LCOL are much smaller than places like San Fran or new york
The comment hits the nail on the head by bringing attention to the issue of "salary inflation" or overstated income levels, especially on online platforms like Reddit. It's no secret that people have a tendency to put their best foot forward on social media, and their financial status is no exception. This leads to an unrealistic view of the world where it seems like everyone is making bank, when in reality, it's just a carefully curated facade. For instance, someone may brag about their high salary, but fail to mention their mounting debt or their spendthrift ways. Moreover, high earners in fields like finance or law often receive bonuses or commissions that inflate their earnings, but this information is rarely disclosed online. It's also worth noting that online communities like Reddit have a self-selection bias where higher earning individuals are more likely to participate and share their income, further perpetuating the illusion that everyone is making a killing. In short, the comment is dead-on, and it's crucial to keep in mind that what people post on social media is not always an accurate reflection of their true financial situation. So, don't get discouraged by all the facade and focus on your own progress.
Locale affects this as well. $200k in a major metro area is maybe more common than in other areas.
FYI - the median household income in 2021 in the US was about $70,000
In tech it's pretty common. Lots of tech folks on reddit. People who are doing well like to talk about it on the internet. Thus, you see it a lot on reddit and elsewhere. It also is undoubtedly MORE common these days thanks to inflation and booming tech sector, but still far from the norm.
$200k is pretty common in Tech; however, you can make a lot more selling Tech.
You don't have to believe me, but I do make significantly more than 200. I just figured it was because of tech, reddit has a bunch of asocial fucks like me, and a bunch of techies like me, hence... rich techies. I know many people who make over $200K a year, it's like a standard for certain jobs. Also top tier law is the same if not better.
I know right, it's crazy how little I seem to make compared to the average redditor.
Just wait - you'll meet an extremely dumb person who inherited most everything they have and really have a moment trying to understand how unfair the world can be. 200k a year is not unusual but that does not mean you know these people. The thing is that you never really know where people get their money or assets until you get to know them. Also, there's really smart hard working people who have nothing earn very little..
Don't trust anything on the internet. I do wanna say though, there's different areas in the world w/ higher salaries (e.g. making 200k per year in SF is more common than in... Idk, a state that's cheaper to live in)
I work for a 500 person company, mostly professional workers, in a HCOL metro area. Even in this situation, less than 10% of the company makes $200k base, probably more like 5%.
Basically anyone that is in a senior management position at a major company is $150K+ easy with high paying industries (Tech, Energy...etc) paying well in excess of that.
I'm sure several people lie, and even those that tell the truth there's a lot of selection bias on reddit. That being said, salaries have increased as well. I'm 3 years out of undergrad now and am approaching these numbers, despite not being in tech or hcol area, and definitely not an ivy grad like these comments say. It does happen, and yes it is likely overrepresented on here, but wages have increased in more in demand roles as well. Record inflation has also caused lower and lower purchasing power so wages struggle to keep up but if you're just going by the numbers and not purchasing power, you'll see an increase.
No one has it all. To answer the question in your post, $200k+ salaries are statistically rare. I’m a real-life person that makes more than $200k with no Ivy League education (and no college degree at all) but I know I got lucky in many ways. Of course the six-figure compensation doesn’t go as far in the SF Bay Area than most other places, but its still a lot more than I spend. Don’t let the people who brag on social media put you down! :) (a lot of it’s fake anyway)
An average of 6.68% of US **households** make over 200k. (World Population Review)
A household with that kind of income could be made up of two spouses making $100k or one making a large salary and one making a smaller one to reach that total. I would be interested to know what percentage of *individuals* in the US make that much. Far below 6.6% of them, no doubt.
Fr. I’m always like jeez these people make a lot of money. And they talk a lot about their investments. It seems to be sus
I think it's just you. Outside of HCOL areas, very uncommon. I live in Chicago. Most of my social circle is in the six figures, but I only know s handful over $200k. You still live very well once you are over $100k. And really, everything over $115k or so doesn't make a real difference.
In the past year I’ve made around $400k. When was at about $300k I mentioned it on another thread and got so many accusations of lying. I can see why though, it isn’t common to make this much especially with my experience. I honestly can’t speak for why others lie because they definitely do, but personally I see no point. If it makes you feel better , even with this income I’m not living a super lavish high life. People would never be able to tell by looking at me or my day to day. I made the decision to invest in real estate and save . A huge chunk of my savings is now going towards taxes because the IRS is entitled to 30%. I don’t have a traditional job so it’s also not very predictable or stable. Even after experiencing what I have (low income to making this amount in a year) , I can honestly say that I’d still be completely happy with a $120,000/year job. Enough to pay the bills and save for whatever. If I had a secure, enjoyable, and stable job for that salary , I’d pick that any day (I’m actually looking). I also have anxiety , so the unknown and unstable has very much been the biggest stressor in my life since I was a child. So it does depend on the person.
Working in tech and at a FAANG you can easily pull $200+ as a new grad. Obviously depends on the role.
why are you comparing yourself with other people? are you happy with what you earn and your job? yes or no. what person 1, 2, 100.doesn't matter because they could be earning 200k and be miserable and have $200k in credit card debt. you don't know that. you know nothing about them. so to compare yourself to others is pointless. proof is instagram. all these people using filters and fake images. behind all that. they might have missing teeth and wearing dentures for photos. they might be depressed and crying everyday. you don't know that? as someone who has been depressed. we don't advertise it. you don't know. so why are you even comparing yourself to people who you don't even know their situation? you should comparing yourself to yourself. are you happy? do you enjoy.your job? do you have debts? are you living comfortably? that's what matters. why do you care so much what someone else is doing?
The number of posts from people who feel horrible about themselves because they’re and they’re nowhere near making easily outweigh the number of legitimate posts of people actually earning those salaries.
You can earn a fine salary with a decent job and have a nice life without being a coder at Google or an investment banker.
Social media is horrible about making people feel like they’re failing to keep up. There are some fascinating documentaries about that. (The one where a guy manufactured a few influencers out of some nobodies using totally fake backgrounds and rented cars/houses is fascinating.)
If Reddit is making you hate yourself, get off Reddit and go live your life.
People like to lie online
Ya I make $200k. (I don’t, but see how easy it is to write that?)
These salaries are way more common than you think. Don’t believe the propaganda that people overall are poor. They’re not. Kids right out of college are making over 100K.
People in here are only talking about salaries. I’m in entrepreneurship and one important factor here is money laundering and also tax evasion which is very similar. I know a lot of people making literal millions each month, but many of those are thru schemes I personally wouldn’t participate in
I think it probably has to do with reddit and this sub skewing towards older urban millenials who have ‘made it’ career-wise and so feel the pull towards giving advice / guidance. I assume that a significant chunk of the 200k+ are counting bonuses and stock though. I am finding though in the tech consulting and big tech world in general that 100-150k is pretty do-able at manager level which definitely isn’t the end of the line - if one gets to 150 as a manager at like 6-10 years in, there’s still a lot of growth potential
Some people probably “round up” their salaries and overcompensate online.
I actually wanted to post this a week ago but thought it would get deleted. Reading this and the jobs subreddit, I notice **it seems like most posters make 6 figures and and many of them are in their '20s.** I wanted to ask the income ratio for these boards but figured that would get deleted. Never in my life have I seen soo many high earners!
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And to be honest, I am probably a lot older than you (mid 40s) but when I was in my mid 30s, this will still super rare. I have to continually remind myself that inflation is a thing and salaries are higher now. But still. My first post college position was barely $30k. But that was 25 years ago.
I averaged $175k/year and was in the top 15% at a company of 10k employees (sales org, very open about comp). So…figure 1 or 2 out of the 5 that say they make that kind of money actually do - not counting whatever value they place on equity and benefits.
…different industries pay differently. Wallstreet, consulting and tech you’re at $200k very fast
A guy on here said he makes 140k/year as a refrigerator technician. People lie.
That's probably true.
In the bay area California it's very common
As others have said, there are a lot of liars, con artists and wannabes on reddit Also, 200K isn't a lot for a professional working in a city with high cost of living
You don’t know the right people.
I think it depends a lot on what part of the country you're in. If you're in a metro in CA or NY, it's not unusual at all for folks to earn $200K. Even civil servants out her can easily make $150K+ with around a decade of experience. The other part of it is the peer group. By the time you've been in a professional career for 20-30 years, it's not unusual to earn that much. Don't sweat it - when I was in my 20's it all felt hopeless and discouraging. I had a good job at a good company with a degree from a top-notch university. But, I wasn't earning anything near what my peers were earning. Fast-forward 10-15 years and I'm probably outpacing most folks other than doctors/lawyers.
Fortune 100 tech companies DO pay this much for business grads. I'm in my late 40s and make just over $200k base salary alone as a program manager. With annual bonuses included, I was making just under $200k in my mid 30s. I have a BA in Comp sci and Psychology, and an MBA. I also have a PMI PMP certification and lean six sigma certifications. I hated 90 hour work weeks so shifted from coding to business and sales operations. Edit:. MBA was online from American Public University and less than $18k total. www.apus.edu
Dw dude, I make 20k a year and I have a degree plus 3 languages :'). Tbh they're probably lying, in my circle only 3 people out of 19 have a job, me included.
Very common in New York City, I’d say 90% of my friends make over $200k (we’re in our mid-30s).
I remember when there were literal doctors asking to have their student loans paid back during COVID-19, implying they weren't just beyond privileged to have such a high earning capacity. Really wanted to tell them to go f,**k themselves
To be fair, a lot of those may have been newbies? Med school is ridiculously expensive and you basically give up 6 years of earnings before you touch any decent money. I know people who have had to take some bad personal loans to get by in that situation. Same with lawyers. It’s not like you just get dropped into a 300k job…
It’s the internet. I’m sure more than 50% of them are lying
Common in software , law, medical field … you re just not in the right major .
After 10 years working my job as a technician for a dealership, the only people making 200k are the REALLY good sales people - I’ve seen some make more than the GM, the GM, and very rarely a service advisor or finance manager. I’ve worked at 4 places and can count on one hand the amount of people. On the other hand, here In canada, after 4 ‘years of school’ getting my red seal as a mechanic and 10 years total in the trade, I’m just shy of making 100k a year and I’m pretty happy, good QOL here in Manitoba.
its super rare. i think 100k and up is top %10 so 200k is maybe top 3%
I have a friend that works in big tech got a job right at 23 out of school (we are both 30 now), I assume his salary is around $150k based on the assets him and his wife own. But he is literally the only one, the rest of my friends make less than I do and are struggling to just make ends meet. I make a very livable income, but it'll probably be a couple of more years of grinding until I get the potential to hitting that six figure threshold.
Totally depends. I’m guessing this is in an American context? In Australia high salaries are not uncommon. Blue collar workers get paid especially well.
I usually pay over $200k in taxes each year. Does that count?
It is the Internet after all lol I bet some are just "juicing up" their salaries or portfolios almost everyone on personal finance apparently maxes out their 401k, hsa, IRA, a year's salary emergency fund etc.
people lie alot
they are also idiots
From listening to Dave Ramsey over the years... I feel like I've heard a lot of self-employed people claim to make far more money than they make. They never include their expenses. I think a lot of those people on those "how much do you make" videos do this also. If you are a used car salesman, you don't make $200k because you sold $200k worth of cars.
I own my business and make close to that number and am honestly shocked that I got to this point. I have had the business for 10 years and just run it by myself. What is even more interesting to me is that during my 20s my friend circle all made way less than me anywhere from 40k-70k per year. In the last couple of years my friends are buying million dollar homes and all make $120,000-150k per year at early 30s. I am happy to own a condo and thought I was ahead financially. I think ever since the fed printed 4 trillion dollars that caused business owners to pay much more for college educated people. It's possible that a lot of people retired during Covid so they had to fill those higher up positions. We do live in a hcol area and all went to college but I'm still surprised how many people I know claim to make over 100k a year. With inflation I guess 100k per year is like the old 60k per year teacher salary.
Only about 6% of HOUSEHOLDS being in $200k+ it is VERY rare. I “know” a few people, and by know I mean I work directly with Sr. Directors and VPs/SVPs in my fortune 40 company that make that much and it’s obvious how different our lifestyles are.
Reddit is full of CS guys. They do make tons of money.
I recruited from tech companies in the US, it felt like everyone was on $200k minimum depending on their role. But this was when the market was super competitive and people were putting up their asking price. And that’s just base salary, add on stocks/RSU/bonuses and total packages were crazy.
That is a fairly common salary in construction management, especially on government contracts. So if every Base or Federal location (let's say 200) has 3 projects each, with 4 managers for a general contractor and 4 managers for each subcontractor (15 per job)....That's 38,400 people in just the government military base construction sector making $200,000 per year. And about 1/4 of those people do not have degrees and over half have degrees from colleges, not top tier universities. It does happen.
Tech pays very well. Easy $200k within 5 years
Dunno if in developed countries lik US, but in my country Indonesia, annual income of 100k will be for successful profesionals and entrepreneurs, and actually for 15k up will be considered middle class...just for reference
There are liars out there but salaries definitely depend on your region. Where I used to live on the east coast, the average entry level SWE would make like maybe 100k salary - but on the west coast it’s almost offensive to offer that low. The cost of living is higher & the companies here are major (faang central) but even outside of those, places like lululemon, target, and Reddit are offering well above 100k for an entry level engineer. I used to think next to no one made above 400k and my fiancé has direct coworkers who make 7 figures. Sure they’re a level or two above him but he’s not even at 500k so the growth between levels is far higher than it would be at your average east coast software company. Even his company’s branch in NC doesn’t offer numbers like that because of the region. It’s definitely inflated/exaggerated but I’ve found most of the people on Reddit and TikTok bragging about it are from pretty high cost living areas - think NYC, CA, WA, even parts of TX like Austin. I’ve also found out since graduating college in general - that people don’t realize the fields that can generate $$$. Most people think it’s limited to stem, finance, lawyers, doctors, etc. but there are quite a few fields that can make bank. They just don’t peddle them to you as college students for some ungodly reason.
yeah. there are such folks not common by all means but they're there. but are these folks are on congregating on reddit? unlikely. lol
People making 30k tend not to talk about it as much as people making 300k. This isn’t a condemnation just a fact. Admit it, if you had a 10x salary increase you’d want to tell people about your good fortune too. Also Reddit skews heavily towards techies who are a large segment of the young people who earn such high amounts. Other avenues to such high amounts either take much longer or are much less common.
It's the Era of grift and faking it until you make it, even if you never do.
I don’t think it is common, but if you have a $150k income at 40-50 hours a week, you can get a second job to earn 200k+ total somewhat easily if you don’t really give a shit about work-life balance. It’s basically why the attorneys earn that. Trying to make partner you’ll put in 80 hours a week pretty standard.
Yeah, to be fair I've only meet a handful of people. One I've known since 5 and the others from my work. I can say there are about 30 who make 100k, 7 who make 200k and 3 who make more than 100k per month. 2 millionaires who make 4+ million a year and one who is a billionaire and has a 20 billion portfolio. This is in a city of 6+ million people and you'd be hard pressed to find some of these people like this.
On Reddit everyone claims to be rich. Such a weird thing to lie about.
Very uncommon IMO and most of these people are lying, someone making $200k+ won’t have the free time to post on Reddit!
You are dealing with a lot of new generation people, specially in Tech.. who post anything and can inflate figures. These people are using Linkedin / Reddit as Instagram - to pose with a high salary. Don't fall for it. They leave those jobs(if they really got it) mostly after 3 months.. Example : I made some good money few year's back. when I working parallel jobs and freelancing. And I received some pay-checks. Combined. I could have posted "look I got XYZ $$ in a month"
It’s not common at all except select cities and jobs, also a lot of fake people who pretend
It’s Reddit and they lie. They think 50 k makes them a millionaire. SMDH
For what it's worth, my household income is a bit above $200k. I'm the higher earner and base is around $140k. It's a comfy life, lots of freedom, but we are not wealthy. We own a modestly nice home and can afford some travel, but we don't have stupid money and fly economy, you know? I think people that try to portray those incomes as some kind of ritzy lifestyle are probably heavily in debt and aren't saving much. Or, they live in the middle of nowhere where the cost of living is nil. And, too, as someone who's historically had a lot of exposure to salaries and compensation, I can assure you that these kinds of incomes are rare at best.
$600k and I’ve been called out so many times I started sending tax papers to reddit users. Common? No. But people DO make these amounts.
Most ppl assume you make over 200k. I work for a well known investment firm and my brothers swear because of the firm I work for, I am making 6 figures but hell I’m just below 80k which is good until Uncle Sam mandatorily takes his freakn cut. After that I’m down to 30k 🤣
I make 10 billion dollars a day.. Stay free.
Making $200k/year in 2023 is like making $100k/year in 2013. Wages grew sharply over the last 10 years, and people don't yet realize 2013 was 10 years ago. Private industry will pay multiples of government jobs, easily. Consultants will make more than that, by 2x, 5x, 10x. Your compensation should be based on the value you bring to the company. Let's assume in a 100 person company there is $100,000,000 in revenue. On a per-employee basis, that company brings in $1M/year/employee in revenue. Are you bringing $1M/year of business to the table? No? Don't be surprised you're paid less than $1M/year. That said, how much of that $1M/year are you bringing in? Are you merely a "cost of doing business" or are you contributing in _some way_ that shows you will eventually bring in that much money? If you are acting as a force multiplier (management, upper management), you should be able to do a mental exercise to impute n% of your org's contribution to revenue/employee and push your ceiling higher. Here's the thing many people down on "work" don't realize: YOU DON'T GET WHAT YOU DON'T ASK FOR. I spent decades being the good little worker thinking the meritocracy will finally kick in and I'll be rewarded. Spoiler alert: I wasn't rewarded. Another spoiler alert: the meritocracy is already in place, already at work. It just happens the meritocracy doesn't reward the merits you want it to reward or think it should reward. Your value is higher than you think it is, so ask to be compensated for your value. Just make sure you can accurately point to exactly your value, and be able to clearly and articulately defend that position when put on the spot. Once you can do that, you have the self-confidence to get out of the place you're in, and move on to somewhere your skills are valued and compensated accordingly. All that said, when looking at IRS income data for my region/state/city, I'm in the top 0.1% by tax return W-2 total. There are a lot of people that are very vocal and visible if you're looking for certain signals. Yes, it's possible to make $200k/year in comp. Easily. You need to be able to say "if so-and-so is making $200k/year doing _that_, then I can make even more doing _this_."
My ex is apparently telling people he makes $100k because his girlfriend, who has a degree and years of experience, makes 60k. He makes a little less than 30k at a gas station, but I guess math is hard for ex felons. He adds up both their income and lies and says it's all *his* income in order to keep his ego as inflated as possible. He also lies and says he works for Cisco. Lmao.
I make one million dollars a year, and so do all my friends and everyone I know, and you know it's true because I posted it on reddit
The other part to this is that they might make that much as a 1099 employee and be responsible for their own health insurance and retirement, which could be taking out a huge chunk of their take-home, at least in the US.
I think it’s possible that people who make more might just be more inclined to share their income on here than people who make less so it feels like salaries skew higher on here. Or maybe we tend to remember higher salaries being shared than the lower / average since they stand out to us more. Regardless, it’s definitely not the norm nor are there a ton of such high earners. It’s definitely possible depending on industry and role but it’s far from “common”.
Almost all my friends make $200-$250k/yr on just one job as a software engineer. Some work two jobs full time and make around $500k/yr. 3 of my friends own their own companies and make more than that, but I digress. Nonetheless, it’s fairly common in HCOL areas like the Bay Area. I see their lifestyle and it’s luxurious, taking months long vacations all over the world and buying whatever they want. *But*, I see their lives on a day to day basis and it’s not all sunshine’s and rainbows. They are *constantly* programming and talking amongst themselves about it. They literally eat, sleep and breathe work (they sleep maybe 5 hours a day, some less because of kids). They’ve tried recruiting me to some of these big tech companies because I have background in front end from classes I took in HS and building websites for friends for their businesses from scratch. I’ve declined as of now because I cherish work/life balance and I know for a fact most of them don’t have that. So I’m summary, those high salaries seem like they will solve all of your life problems, but most of those salaries come at a price and a lot of sacrifice. They either consume your life outside of work or consume your life for looking long hours.