How Gross Is Your Salary

You got all of your paperwork out, cause it’s tax day. So I thought it’d be a good time to talk about how much you really make. I mean, the numbers are sitting right in front of you. Oh wait, you already finished yours. [Sigh] Yeah, I haven’t done mine yet, but I’ll have ‘em in by midnight.

Somehow it always looks like more on paper, like you make more. Where does it all go?

Guys, check the garage; ladies, you look around the closet. That’s probably where most of it goes.

The real question is ‘How much is your time worth?’ Most of us spend a hefty chunk of our days doing what we do for a living, but you’re probably not making as much as your 1040 or your W2 would have you believe.

Here’s some things to factor in:
The real amount of time you spend at work, especially the time you’re salaried; Your commute time; Your commute cost; Taxation; Uniforms required, and that’s not just for like a McDonald’s uniform, that’s for your nice business clothes, too; Other expenses; Non-paid time at work functions…

All of that stuff is going to detract from what you make.

Let’s say you’re a workaholic sixty hour a week type, and you live in a nice place that’s thirty minutes from your office, you might be surprised to find that the guy who cleans your office and lives half a mile away makes more than you. Or, at least, makes more than you per hour. But he only works forty hours a week, so as long as you make fifty percent more than he does, you’re still top dog, right?

It all depends on what your time’s worth to you. I mean, hourly employees make more money on overtime, salary people generally don’t. So if cleaning guy did sixty hours a week like you do, he’d be getting paid for seventy five hours of work.

8 + (2 * 1.5) + (2 * 2) = 15 * 5 = 75 hours

That janitor is cleaning up.

But that doesn’t count your other expenses you have, like your commute. Thirty miles each way five times a week at roughly 25 cents a mile to fuel to maintain your car: that drains twenty hours out of your month, and $300 off your bottom line.

So *that’s* where it all went. Try to put a value on intangible things, too, like if your coworkers drive you crazy, or how much you hate trade shows, if that’s possible.

It’s not how much your job pays, it’s how bad your job sucks.

Yeah, that janitor job is looking really appealing.

But wait! You get a Christmas bonus and paid vacation and, and other perks!

Great, throw those in, too, but there’re perks to working less as well, like seeing your family, enjoying some down time, or having a hobby!

Normally, those kinds of things don’t figure into a salary, but it does seem, the higher your salary, the less time you have for them.

I have a six thousand square foot house on the river, a yacht, a jet boat, and four cars, but I’m always at the office. It’s a good thing the maid enjoys it.

Now I’m not saying you should walk off your salary job and go back to punching a clock, but I know a lot of people who stick it out with jobs they don’t like just for the bigger paycheck. All I’m saying is you might want to include all the factors and re-crunch the numbers, cause you could be doing the job you love for just as much.

But this job is my life, it’s who I am.

Yeah, I can tell.

Transcribed by: RandomGuy

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