I don't see rent curiousity as an offensive thing, really, since people are always looking for places to live.

It's funny, though, because I don't at all mind saying ($859, FTR, about to go to $885), but it feels like something I shouldn't be saying out loud. Dunno why.

In one of the usual odd coincidences around here, I've spent the day doing the one thing you're never, ever supposed to do at work: researching job opportunities and salaries for my position.

But my VP asked me to! She wants the info to put in front of the Big Boss she meets with him to discuss performance and compensation. I've been specifically instructed to find data that shows I should get more money.

Why should I care about something as ridiculous as this? You know what I do for a living, some of you have seen the small box I live in and the car I drive, so, I mean, really?

I heart Allyson. Add 31k, 50 dollars, and about 78k and you've got me only it's mortgage instead of rent and the last figure would actually be about the same if not for the mortgage.

I mean, I tell you people when I have earwax the size of a roach making me deaf. Why should I care about something as ridiculous as this?

Exactly.

Now that I've moved to the swing shift for an extra $1.05, I make $12.30 an hour. With overtime, that should put me over the median for the first time ever this year. I do think it's harder to reveal this information when you're doing well. When I was making $9.20, and I only knew the median income for all households ($43,300), I felt like anyone I told my income would suddenly feel better off.

My rent is only $400, but it's an efficiency, so that's not making anyone jealous either.

I've listened to a co-worker here complain that the company never gives bonuses, and that raises are always below cost of living.

I'm more than happy to keep my mouth shut, because this rant was right after a large bonus and decent raise of my own. I'm not sure he was told that it was company policy, or it was the conclusion his ego forced him to -- either way I'm not collateral damage of his anger, and I'm good with that.

We basically have pay ranges, so some people will know about how much I make. But I can't work out how to find out the range/grade correlation.

I've spent the past hour twiddling with an Excel spreadsheet to try and get it to fit a specific size. (Please don't offer suggestions - I've tried them. Trust me.) This may be the very definition of tedium.

The above post makes me positively love the fuck out of Allyson.

Than whom I make about a thousand and change more a year, and whom I'm matching for debt. Which I've been paying down forever, but I make so little for the Bay Area that all it takes is one shitty event with the car to set the pay-down back a good 6 months or so (current status: something like $400 in parking tickets right now, it needs to get smogged and have the registration renewed, and eventually that "Check Engine" light will have to be seen to).

I'll disclose my salary (I have the same type of job as Allyson)

Salary: 25K
Rent: $650/month
debt: 16K (mostly credit cards, so it is bad)

last year I made 17K, and all the years before it, much less. Every time I start to look like I want to leave, I get a raise, until it is pretty much impossible for me to leave and find work that pays comparably.

Salary: $13.92 an hour; adds up to $28K. I feel some shame at how little it is for how educated and bright I am.
Rent: $800 for a small 3-bedroom house in a pretty great location (frat boys next door notwithstanding). I am not the sole income earner in my household, of course.
Debt: none. I've paid off my student loans and have never carried comsumer debt. I am very conservative financially - I was saving (a little) money when I made $12K a year as a graduate student.

I'd disclose mine, but it varies depending on how much work I get in a year. Last year I earned about $15k more than I did the two previous years, because there was less time between gigs.

This year, I expect with the masses of unpaid time off I'll be taking, I'll earn about $15k less than I did in those years.

The mortgage is about $1500, I think.

Debt = a lot. See mortgage. (See also: the year-I-was-without-work, which doubled our credit card debt, because we had to pay the mortgage and still eat.)

Hmmm. My rent as a percentage of my salary is much smaller than other folks. I blame that on me being single, and on me buying crap I don't need.