What is your monthly net income?

ora_43

Sun, Feb 03 2013, 4:06 pm

Mrs.K wrote:

If the AVERAGE income is 15,000, I would assume that takes everyone into account, from the young singles to the government officials. Isn't that what average means?

I think it's the median family income that's in the 15,000 range. But yes, it's probably the young couples on the lower side, government officials higher.

Karnash

Sun, Feb 03 2013, 4:11 pm

I definitely don't live in an anglo bubble - never have, even when I lived in Petach Tikva, before I moved to my yishuv. I wanted to see if my gut instinct was correct.
Frankly FS, I think you are living in a bubble. Go to the malls, the shops, the supermarkets, the coffee shops,
the airport, hotels on shabbat and chag. Everyplace is teeming with people spending money.
Am Yisrael likes to complain. Yes, sometimes money is short, and lots of people have overdrafts, but that has always been true, and as someone who has been living here almost 4 decades, the standard of living has never been so high. We just always want more, MORE,MORE!!!
I don't deny that there are people living on very tight budgets and have difficulty covering expenses - you can see that in the poll - but they are not the average.
Your view on salaries is skewed, and you can see that in the responses here. People are reporting NET salaries and income.

ora_43

Sun, Feb 03 2013, 4:19 pm

I don't understand the debate over young people's salaries. I think we can all agree that starting salaries for people in their early 20s are usually less than what people with more experience earn. Fortunately, they also tend to need less, what with not many people getting past 2-3 very young kids before entering the workforce.

But in any case, OP didn't ask what a 25-year-old fresh out of college with a degree in Whatever Looked Kinda Fun could earn, she asked what we earn.

Tablepoetry

Sun, Feb 03 2013, 4:58 pm

Karnash wrote:

I agree with you that much of Israel seems to be thriving economically.
However, this poll actually does emphasize that half the population is NOT. It's late and I'm too tired to calculate exactly, but it seems that around 54% replied that they earn less than 12K income as a family. Now maybe these are young couples just starting out. Or maybe they are families with 5 kids.

As someone mentioned, the poll illustrated how polarized society here is.

amother

Sun, Feb 03 2013, 5:16 pm

Smiling Wife wrote:

amother wrote:

Approximately 30000 NIS/month

What do you you do to bring that much bli ayn hara? Is it from investements or job only? If job care to share what you/ dh do? Either way may you be matzliach and only spend them in good things for you and your family and kehilla :-)

B"H it is income from a job as a systems analyst for an American company.
Plus rental income as we still own a home in the USA.
Thanks for your bracha as I know it can end at any time.

Karnash

Mon, Feb 04 2013, 12:51 am

Too tired to respond last night, but this morning - looking at the poll - I don't have any conclusions, just some observations.
Obviously, the poll is very limited - it doesn't include many parameters - no. of children, no. of salaries, education, work experience, age, disabilities, special needs children, etc.
According to Bituach Leumi, the average gross salary in Israel is 8,506 shekel or 17,000 shekel for a 2 income family - before taxes and BL, before kitzvaot.
I imagine the imamother population is younger and has more children than the average population. There are probably more 1 income or 1 1/2 income families and more kollel couples with very limited income. Perhaps that's why the median income here seems to be somewhat lower than the national average.
I disagree with Tablepoetry about the polarization - I don't think there is concentration at the extremes, but there is a continuum evident.
What does it all mean? I don't know - as I said, observations, not conclusions.

amother

Mon, Feb 04 2013, 3:10 am

We are a young couple with one child. DH makes 9.5-10 k net. Hopefully once he's done his MA he will make much more. I'm home with our kid because:
1. As FS said- it's just not worth it for me to go out to work when at least half the money I make will go for baby's metapelet. I have a BA from a good university but I can't do much with it.
2. I choose to live more humbly (though we do live very very nicely- go out a lot, live in a beautiful apartment etc. but we don't save) and raise my kid rather than have a bit extra but let someone else spend her days with her.
If I were to work part time, it would not be worth it AT ALL with babysitting expenses.

So basically because of how little I would make and because of my kid I choose to be home.
I am aware that it's very hard to live in this country with one salary only and I do constantly think of what to do next so I can- if needed or when my kid grows up- go out to work in a way that it will be worth it for us both salary wise and that I won't hate what I do.

etky

Mon, Feb 04 2013, 3:18 am

Karnash wrote:

I'm really no expert on these matters but I've noticed (on economic news sites mostly) that every time these or other average wage related figures are published there is always a hue and cry from the talk-back writers that really the median (חציון) is what should be published as more truly reflective of what the average wage earner is making because the incredibly inflated salaries of the top executive rank earners skew the average. Also - I'm not sure that it's accurate to extrapolate that a family's income is double the average salary . Many times the wife does not work full time or works in a much lower paying "female" field such as teaching, social work, nursing, low ranking govt. job etc.

amother

Mon, Feb 04 2013, 3:42 am

I don't understand why there's more polarization in Israel then in any other country. Walk through certain neighborhoods or cities and you think, "Where is this recession of which they speak?" In the neighboring cities, people are struggling to put basics on the table.

Okay maybe public assistance in America is more money and more widespread. Maybe the salary gap between the CEO and the employee isn't all that big. But this is sort of just the way it is, regardless of country, in my opinion. During a recession, the malls are still packed. Someone is still buying cars or taking trips. That's not exclusive to Israel, and the malls and coffee shops aren't just filled with CEOs.

sarahd

Mon, Feb 04 2013, 3:42 am

Karnash wrote:

So it's distressing to see that more than 2/3 of Imamothers earn less than the average. Probably closer to 3/4 when you realize that the incomes voted on include lots of non-salary items. Just goes to show you that there is considerable polarization in Israeli society. A few people are earning NIS100,000 a month and they pull up the average for those earning only NIS5000.

Last edited by sarahd on Mon, Feb 04 2013, 3:44 am; edited 1 time in total

Mrs.K

Mon, Feb 04 2013, 3:49 am

sarahd wrote:

But then 15,000 isn't a real average.

Furthermore, as many responders wrote that their husband's are in Kollel, I don't think it's distressing. No one expects a Kollel couple to pull in 15,000 shekel a month. It's not distressing, it's factual.

Tablepoetry

Mon, Feb 04 2013, 4:10 am

Mrs.K wrote:

sarahd wrote:

I think I read once the MEDIAN for household income in Israel is 12 000 NIS. I could be wrong, though.

etky

Mon, Feb 04 2013, 5:04 am

Mrs.K wrote:

Right - I see that's what Ora wrote above - but the median would still be effected by such a huge gap in salaries, no?

From what I understand, the median is supposed to give you a better idea of what the salary made by the highest number of people is by listing all the salaries and defining the "middle point" of all the salaries (half the earners earn less and half earn more) and thus attributing less weight to the actual amounts. This gives an idea of how a salary ranks in terms of the frequency of it occurring in the economy and this index is what is generally used to define the middle class. It is usually quite a bit lower than the average salary.