Can everyone earn a high salary?

amother

Seafoam

Tue, Jul 30 2019, 9:45 pm

momsrus wrote:

Take everything here with a huge grain of salt.

Someone here was told to quit here job because she wasn’t invited on a boat trip and she loved her job.

Oh c'mon. They told her she might ultimately be happier working in a different type of environment (not to quit, but to get another job), which is not the same thing at all. And I agreed with that advice. Because I've been there.

amother

Ecru

Tue, Jul 30 2019, 9:45 pm

amother [ Rose ] wrote:

I didn't say 'big bucks'.

My point was just that as an OT there are ways to make a living beyond working in a school environment. Meaning the income potential of an OT is more than whatever that poster stated was what she could earn working at at school.

If you yourself have never tried to work it out and you don't know what you're talkin about. And I'm assuming you're not an OT so by definition you've never tried to find a high-paying OT job.

amother

Lawngreen

Tue, Jul 30 2019, 9:50 pm

amother [ Ecru ] wrote:

If you yourself have never tried to work it out and you don't know what you're talkin about. And I'm assuming you're not an OT so by definition you've never tried to find a high-paying OT job.

Yes. I work in the therapies and though supposedly I can make much more than I do, I've never found a job to do that. And if you've always been working, say, in schools, it'll be very hard to break into a job in a medical facility. It's not as easy as it looks on paper.

amother

Mustard

Tue, Jul 30 2019, 9:53 pm

amother [ Lawngreen ] wrote:

Yup. Working in private practice has many advantages for me, but I really don't earn what anyone imagines. Salaries in most places outside of NYC are not very good.

amother

Rose

Tue, Jul 30 2019, 10:13 pm

amother [ Ecru ] wrote:

If you yourself have never tried to work it out and you don't know what you're talkin about. And I'm assuming you're not an OT so by definition you've never tried to find a high-paying OT job.

I know what I'm talking about. There are OTs who make more money that is what is paid to work in a school. Am I incorrect in saying that?

amother

Oak

Tue, Jul 30 2019, 10:22 pm

amother [ Pumpkin ] wrote:

The definition of "decent" seems to vary greatly.

What would you call a "decent" salary?

And so does tuition costs vary greatly! Lakewood tuition is nowhere near 13k. More like 4-5k for girls and 6-8k for boys (and that's FULL tuition). So u can't compare incomes until you also include tuition and other expenses. My tuition bill for 2 kids is 10k. In some places it would be 13*2=26k. So 100k in Lakewood can be a decent salary but a bad salary in upper nj where tuition costs are prohibitive.

amother

Pumpkin

Tue, Jul 30 2019, 10:29 pm

amother [ Oak ] wrote:

True, but salaries in NYC tend to be higher, while tuition is not as high as in other places.

amother

Seafoam

Tue, Jul 30 2019, 10:43 pm

amother [ Saddlebrown ] wrote:

It's not reasonable to expect everyone to earn the $250k plus that it takes to comfortably pay tuition for a large family. But it is reasonable to think that someone who has had a private school education ought to be able to earn significantly more than the national average.

"The Average Salary by Education Level:
Median earnings for holders of master’s degrees are $1,341 per week, $69,732 per year."

That's a master's degree. Not a high school diploma. Considering the fact that I live in a community that barely have degrees at all and the vast majority make significantly more than that, I don't think we are doing too badly at all.

Except that $69,732 is just about the price tag for a frum private school education for multiple kids... There are no answers here that do not involve open nissim.

amother

Royalblue

Wed, Jul 31 2019, 10:28 am

Obviously not everyone can earn a "high" salary - and I am assuming that a "high" salary is one that is "upper middle class" - successful professional (doctor, lawyer); high level executive; CPA or someone with a job in a relatively high paying field - IT.

I am sure there are other jobs that pay well and I think that it makes sense that someone go into life with a reality check. They should have the cost of living laid out in front of them for their chosen lifestyle including the realistic costs of raising the number of children they want. Obviously man plans and Hashem laughs but this is just a general idea to get blinders off eyes on young people.

There should be career counseling which includes information on what fields are expected to have growth and even perhaps bringing in people in different fields like a "career day". At the very least most parents could ask people in their community with certain jobs to briefly talk with their children about the realities of certain field.

A kid would then be able to make more educated guesses because the reality is that some jobs are better in terms of a cost/benefit analysis. Why get training for X job if basically the same skill sets/training/aptitude would enable one to go for a more lucrative job.

A doctor makes more than a nurse - a nurse practitioner makes more than a nurse and a nurse makes more than someone in PT or OT I would imagine. And those with a BA or BS even within certain fields have better ability for jobs that require more than just "technical" skills. For example, my cousin got her BS in nursing in a four year program and this enabled her to get a higher paying administrative position and she also took some business courses which enabled her to get a high level/high paying job in a health care/insurance corporation. So she was able to use all of her background and education to get a high paying job which she liked more than actually being a "nurse".

imasoftov

Wed, Jul 31 2019, 11:56 am

amother [ Saddlebrown ] wrote:

But it is reasonable to think that someone who has had a private school education ought to be able to earn significantly more than the national average.

I'd like to see numbers, both for all private schools, and for Jewish schools (perhaps broken down by the emphasis placed on secular studies). But there would have to be some way to control for students in private schools that have a higher proportion of graduates who go on to higher education.