you can see something's wrong just from the averages, where the median salary for a single male is $26,700 and for a single female is $18,160.

And I must be East coast-spoiled (and middle-class spoiled), because I cannot concieve how anyone can survice on $18K, much less that it's a national average.

I make $29K right now, but that comes with a footnote because I took a big paycut when I started this job. (Different industry, plus I had been fired, and any job beats no job.) My husband makes more than twice as much, which makes me feel guilty. Our rent is $1600 a month. I have no idea what our total debt is.

ok I did the math, my housing costs are 26% of my gross and 35% of my take home.

2 years ago I was paying 17.5% of my gross but I think that is the best ratio I have ever had in NYC.

From flickr, mappr: [link]

My college friends and I have always talked about what we make -- what's been interesting is seeing how different industries work. One friend was making money like non-profit me for years and years before she finally got the big bump. And it was BIG. I know I'll likely never match my for-profit friends, salary-wise, but I also know I make way more than most people, and I live a perfectly comfortable life.

This is part of why it pays to change jobs.

Believe you me, I have tried. For some reason, I have had the worst luck ever in the LA job market. My review is in March and there will be a serious talk. If they don't cough up the dough, I am finally in a place to say, "Take this job and shove it."

My rent is 22% of my gross, 30% of my take home.

I was surprised just now when I did a mortgage calculation of a hypothetical $150K 2BR condo only a few miles from work, and saw that if I could come up with a $5K downpayment, at today's rates (if my credit rating would get me those rates, which is a big if), the mortgage payment would only be an additional $125 a month. Of course, that doesn't include the condo association fee, which is usually another $100-200/month, nor any repair costs that are currently covered by my landlord.

I think I'll keep renting for a while...

My rent is 24.5% of my gross. I could pay less in another neighborhood, though.

I don't usually consider my student loans in my debt tally. Or rather, I do, but it's a sort of separate category. I've paid off most of my accumulated cc debt though, and now my priority is cleaning up stuff from long ago when I was young[er] and [more] irresponsible.

My review is in March and there will be a serious talk. If they don't cough up the dough, I am finally in a place to say, "Take this job and shove it."

Good for you! Seriously, I know it's not that easy to just say "well, get a new job!" but this coworker was wack, staying like she did.

my salary is public record I make about 21,500 a year - part time. i guess what I find scary is that at full time - I couldn't make it out here on my own, at least not by staying in our house.

In general, I don't talk about money we make or debt. We hve the morgage, the car and the credit card debt. only the cc debt bothers me. I can't pay the cc down fast enough to make me happy. I could throw the saveings at it. ( that would deplete savings by 1/3 to 1/2), but our savings is right at the 6 months level. I have promised myself that if we make it to july with out dipping in to the savings - one or two credit cards will be paid off with savings.

This job was an entirely new field for me so I never had any idea what was fair pay. But noticing that everyone who found out what I made tended to respond with the drop of their jaw kinda clued me in.