One of our Class of 09 journalism grads went straight into a combo PR/marketing/admin role at $60k a year. I remember her telling us that, and I’m pretty sure my jaw literally dropped when she named the figure.
$60k is, and has always been, an interesting number to me. I feel like it’s quite a polarising one.
To a huge section of the population, it’s a number they’ll never hit. To others, it’s an entry-level income.
A colleague recently asked for my thoughts on a piece of work that he was involved in. It will reach thousands and thousands of people – from all industries, regions, life stages, etc – and it had to reference a certain number as an example. Specifically, it had to be an example of an average salary over a lifetime.
Was $60k too high to cite as an average salary over a career, he wondered?
Old me would have said yes. New me, no.
But I’m not sure if I’m in the majority on that – I suspect possibly not, given that NZ is such a low wage economy.
I used to think $60k was so much money. But realistically, in Auckland, it is not. It’s possible to survive on a $40k journalism income, but if you aspire to more than just survival…
I wanted to hit $60k when I left journalism, but it felt like so much to ask for. I could not imagine my work being worth $60k. They offered me a salary even higher than that, and at that point my jaw literally dropped, once more.
Failing to value yourself is a key trait of underearning – a concept I’ve really only stumbled across in the past year or so. And that, my friends, is the topic of my very next post. Stay tuned.
This week’s links
How much do flight attendants really make?
How to buy a house in your 20s
Don’t let your debt depress you
Yes please. Stop telling your friends to become an entrepreneur
I once won a job with an Australian company but I was based in Auckland. What they offered me as a starting package (over 6 figures) left me so stunned I could barely say “yessssss”. They were paying me what I’d earn doing the same job if I was in Oz, but I had been earning around that magic $60k doing virtually the same thing for several years.
Now that I’m living in Oz, you realise how poorly paid NZ’ders are and with a comparative cost of living as Oz, we are severely underfunded. Over here, an average labourer earns around $50k and more with overtime etc.
No wonder, when the Australian economy is doing well, half of NZ packs up and moves over here.
Ps. The Oz company I took that job with turned out to be a bunch of pricks and I only worked for them for about a year.
60k is average I would say. It’s high for a graduate though imo in most industries. That said I’ve never been good at valuing myself and knowing what salary I should aim for as it’s such a hush hush topic that no one talks about.
Isn’t it interesting how salaries (and the value that goes with them) change in our mind over time? I used to make $10 an hour babysitting and was shocked when I hit $15. A few years back I made 30k and lived well and now I make 80k and wonder how I lived at 30…and I don’t live any differently now! I can’t speak to what 60k buys you there, but in the states they say the Happiness Factor tops out at 75k. Based on that, I would imagine 60 means a decent salary. 🙂