kjpliny said:
Considering first-year rookie cops make $100k+ and average teacher salaries are $70-90k, two supposedly "average" professions, at least they're living nicely. The people paying the high taxes to support those salaries are the ones struggling if they don't have decent paying jobs themselves. I don't know how some people make it in this area, especially those working the service sector jobs.
WOW, I am sure "rookie" cops and "average" teachers in my area would be overjoyed to have
incomes like these. I would think in this area (Seattle) a rookie cop might make $60K tops, and
most school districts would pay a starting teacher around $35K tops.
Of course most average teachers probably have been in their profession for maybe 10 years
or more. The district my wife works in (one of the higher paying for the area) pays about
$50K after 10 years or so.
I'd be very surprised to see most police officers making $100K even with many years of
service.
Perhaps East Coast incomes are really that much higher than here in the West, at least in
the Pacific Northwest?
I would say a moderate income here would be about $70K, and with that you would have
difficulty buying a single family home, making two car payments, saving for retirement or
college, etc.
Our average home price now is about $400K so for many (like my adult "kids")
they will struggle to ever own a home without two persons in a household working
very hard to get in and hang on.