9 Of The Top 10 Occupations In America Pay An Average Wage Of Less Than $35,000 A Year

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/9-of-the-top-10-occupations-in-america-pay-an-average-wa ^ | April 2nd, 2014 | Michael Snyder

[blueunicorn6]

I worked as a janitor in a hospital to help pay for college. I had to clean toilets after really ill people used them. I figured that if I worked hard and sacrificed and received an education that it would pay off in the long run. It has.
All jobs teach you something. My janitor job taught me that I didn’t want to clean toilets for the rest of my life. Everyone has the opportunity to improve their life. You don’t like your $35,000 a year job? Then figure out how to get a $70,000 a year job.
Nobody felt sorry for me when I was scrubbing filthy toilets. I don’t feel sorry for anyone with a $35,000 a year job.

[dragnet2]

Wages have been stagnate for over 15 years...Hours slashed, benefits gone.....

Yet in that time, everything has nearly doubled in price...

Most of those in the working world are screwed.

Watch the economy in the future...It’ll nose dive...

Bet the rent...

[Mr Rogers]

We aren’t going to see a return to a one income family model. Too much divorce and too many unmarried with kids. And many of those lower skill repetitive jobs can be filled by a robot that never goes on strike.

And in the 60s, when I was growing up, the average home was around 1200 sq ft and my Dad, a military officer, owned one car.

[dragnet2]

Right....The American middle class is headed into an abyss...

[cherry]

I've always felt poor....always...even living on a nice 5 acre plot with a good size home and a few bucks in my retirement account....

but we drive cars with lots of miles....we are careful in spending....we don't go on fancy vacations although we do vacation but on our terms, which is cost saving....

I look at the big Ram trucks, the new houses, the shoppers at Nordstrom, and the many, many people eating out on a daily basis, and yes, I feel poor...

[C210N]

In fact, you can even be working for the government or the military and still need food stamps...

That supplies the bread. What about the Circuses?

[dragnet2]

Most of those are in debt up to the rafters....It eventually all comes crashing down....

[morphing libertarian]

The housewives would keep the car and pick hubby up from work 1-5 days a week. Or they would do their shopping car pooling with a neighbor.

My mon worked since she was 8, during the expression. Helping clean the bedding and towels at my gramma boarding house and throwing a paper route. At age 12 she was a waitress. Worked until age 65 and said she retired too early.

She never had the housewife routine.

[virgil]

High prices and taxation makes for 2 economic classes; rich and poor. No middle class. We need fewer lawyers and political scientists, and more economists in Washington.

[dragnet2]

BTW, in 1950s/60s America, only my Dad worked, one income, they bought a new home, had full retirement benefits and medical for the entire family....Took family vacations, built onto the home etc.

Just try that in today's America...

[morphing libertarian]

NFL, Twitter, Kardashians, TV, movies, etc.

[SamAdams76]

Here in DFW, it’s deceptive. It appears that we are surrounded by wealth, with expensive homes and “lofts” popping up everywhere, and highways glutted with nice cars. In Southlake/Colleyville one ponders “What do those people DO to make all that money?”

I see this in the Northeast too. From Boston on down to D.C., the suburbs are booming with $400K and higher homes going up everywhere. Somebody's paying for those. Also, just try getting a table at a restaurant on a Friday or Saturday night without at least an hour wait. Even the casual eating joints like Longhorns, Yard House, Olive Garden, etc., are jammed.

So all this study did was lump a bunch of low-paying jobs, that were always low-paying jobs, into categories so that they could say that all the fastest growing jobs were low-paying jobs. You could have done this in 1990, or 1979.

[bigheadfred]

I had a short day at work yesterday and the boss told me to be back this morning. So I got up at the usual 4 am and make it to work by 5. Shower, coffee, cigarette. The 30 minute drive. When I get there he tells me there isn’t anything. Great. Couldn’t he have at least called before I wasted the gas? But he doesn’t care.

4 years ago we were doing ok....64k... now it is just over half. My wife is now unemployed.

It isn’t a brag but it is a point of pride that I am a highly skilled tradesman (cabinetry). My current employer wants (needs) that skill but doesn’t want to pay for it. They cancelled our insurance Jan. 1. At the Christmas party they announced there wouldn’t be any raises. No more paid leave (5). No more sick days (2). And despite the fact the business made 9% profit we needed to work harder.

uh huh

Weird as it sounds my wife told me last night that she had talked to a couple of our mutual friends wives to see if they wanted to just get out for a bit (people we used to go out to dinner with, etc.) who told her they weren’t into it because their lives were a mess.

To quote my wife she told me to stop stressing so much because “we aren’t the only ones trying to swim upstream harder and faster only to go further down the river”.

I guess that makes me feel better, right?

[ExTxMarine]

You don’t like your $35,000 a year job? Then figure out how to get a $70,000 a year job.
Nobody felt sorry for me when I was scrubbing filthy toilets. I don’t feel sorry for anyone with a $35,000 a year job.

Exactly. My wife has been a housewife for at least 21-22 of our 27 years of marriage. The only time she worked outside of the home was when she wanted something that was NOT affordable on MY current income. In other words, we figured out how to make MORE money than the monetary level at which we were currently operating! That's the way most self-reliant, conservative people move up in the world.

In 2002, I was laid off from an $89K a year job and started a full-time business, where over the first three years I didn't make $35K a year. So, I worked a second, FULL-TIME job to supplement my fledgling business. My last two years while in business, I made over $67K. We were able to survive, because 1) we didn't live beyond our means, we actually lived well UNDER and saved, 2) we adjusted our lifestyle by lowering our food costs, dropped the extra cell phones, dropped cable, etc... 3) we worked TOGETHER with our families to make it through the tough times.

These are the very steps that conservatives espouse! we weren't looking for nor asking for pity, we were too busy trying to survive! DUH!

[RWB Patriot]

What I find amusing and ironic when I read articles griping about falling wages and the “1 percent” is that the government they petition to “fix things” keeps taking action that makes it so only the “1 percent” have any chance of getting anywhere in this life.

Name any “easy money scheme” being run by big brother today and you’ll find it’s bringing down the real value of wages and driving up the cost of living for the very people it’s supposed to help...and those very people call for even more. I honestly wonder if such people really are that dumb or if they’re just that devoted to the belief that reality will cease to exist if they don’t acknowledge it (which isn’t much different from being a complete dumb@$$).

[xzins]

See #17

[Nepeta]

In general your jobs with the most people are also your jobs with the lowest necessary skill level. Which makes them entry level jobs, which makes them low paying, and if you want to make more money get more skills and move up or move out.

You are assuming that education and skills will translate to decent paying jobs. For all the whining and moaning about a lack of technical degrees, the truth is employers aren't willing to pay much for such training.

Frequently, employers will hire marginal people for jobs that really should be done by people with some background in the field. For example, I worked at a contract lab where much of the alar testing was done. The person doing the alar analyses had just gotten her GED; she could push the right buttons but she couldn't begin to recognize if something wasn't working right. But, she worked cheaply and they made a lot of money out of the alar scare.

[RWB Patriot]

In those days, we didn’t have a dollar worth two cents and the government constantly spending money it didn’t have. People also had a better work ethic and an understanding that one wasn’t entitled to a life of luxury with no action on their part.

In fact, weren’t we generally good in regards to debt and deficits until LBJ got into office?

[discostu]

Manufacturing got replaced by automation. Technology does that to people on the bottom, the easier you are to replace with people the easier you are to replace with not people.

[RWB Patriot]

For the record, twenty to thirty grand would be riches for a guy like me (aiming to become an EMT and/or Firefighter, both of which pay about that much), but then again, I have no interest in having kids and am generally paid up on everything (own the house and the car except for paying the government protection racket bill every year), so perhaps it would be hard for a family.

Then again, there once was a time where families were formed AFTER all involved could afford it, not formed on the belief that someone else would pay for it.