I don't have any real idea what my co-workers make, and haven't since one of my former co-workers left about 7 years ago. But I assume that the management types above me make considerably more, the office manager who has seniority on me makes a bit more, and everyone with equal or lower positions to mine and less seniority makes less.

If anyone at my company is lurking, please don't disillusion me should this prove incorrect.

I was raised not to ask how much money the family had

Yep. "Just enough that you don't have to worry."

I may add that every raise or bonus I've gotten has come with a warning not to tell anybody else, but that's because of intra-work competition and the boss not wanting to hear "Why didn't I get one, too?"

Not just the boss not wanting to hear about it -- I've known places where saying anything about your compensation to anyone in the company is an immediate firing offence; if you don't know what other people are making, you're much less likely to try to bargain collectively.

Yeah, it was funny to see everyone reporting their sick and vacation time - would we feel as comfortable reporting our salaries to each other? Nooooo.

My salary is public record, so I don't care. Like Sara, my family are mostly open about money, and I have to watch myself to not be too nosy with people about how much they make, or how much rent they pay, but I'm always curious.

Hell with the hours (okay, not exactly, because I am lazy and would not like working 60 hour weeks and above), but not having benefits? The mere thought scares the crap out of me. When I tripped and ripped up my ankle, I could have the surgery that fixed it because my husband's health insurance was good. If I were single and working 3 jobs at 30 hours a week, none of them providing benefits, and I had children to take care of? I can't imagine how people do it, and I admire those who can.

Sometimes when I asked for something expensive, my mother would tell me how many hours of her work it was. Usually kind of boggling.

Yup. It's February and I've already spent close to $2000 in medical expenses. Two eye-doctor visits a week, plus two X-rays and an MRI.

But, Noumenon, Americans generally treat money the way the Victorians treat sex. Which is to say, they talk about it with shame, and only in situations of extreme intimacy.

I think I might be kind of an asshole about this the same way I am with politics and religion -- I push these subjects, these are what I'm interested in, I make people talk about them. So maybe people have to defend against me. I shoot for sensitivity, less bragging, more sympathetic, don't know how successful I am. I like talking about sex too.

No way I'd talk about my salary around here. No way, no how.

What's funny about life in the Public School world is that anyone can go to my district's website, find my pay scale (all teachers and adminstrators and even the clerical staf) and if you know how many years I've taught (6) and where I am in terms of credits (Step 24) you can see not only exactly what I get paid annually, but also, how's it's broken down monthly. with a little bit omre searching, you can see precisely what days I get paid.

As a result, we talk about pay checks, show each other ours to figure out weird codes or things that shouldn't be, with impunity at my school.

The privacy of salaries, NSM with public school districts.

I don't see rent curiousity as an offensive thing, really, since people are always looking for places to live. I was happy to tell the cable installation guys that asked me about my place while hooking up Roadrunner. But not everyone pays the same percentage of their income toward rent, so it doesn't necessarily give a feel for the more personal salary question.

Yep. "Just enough that you don't have to worry."

Since my dad was a farmer, his yearly income could vary quite a lot, depending on what the weather had been like and the price of milk. So there were one or two "back to school" shopping events where we were told we couldn't afford to buy as much as usual, but I think that was the only time(s) where we were made aware that money was a concern.