5% pay cut

[hornadylnl]

So I've had a 5% pay cut for the last 2 years. I never took an actual dent in my check in that a got a slightly higher seniority raise the same time the pay cut was implemented. Now that I'm finally topped out, it equals $1.10 an hour. We just got word that we're getting our 5% back in about a month.

That $1.10 sounds like a lot. But when you put it in terms of weekly, it's $44 or $2200 for the year. Now take out taxes and it's about $30-35 a week. I'll gladly take it but I certainly wasn't complaint it was gone. $2k less per year is much better than no job at all.

I think people need to use a little perspective when complaining about prices. OMG, milk went up a dollar a gallon! Gas is over $4 a gallon! I'm going to have sell my house and set up house in a cardboard box!

 

[45fan]

True enough, its never fun to see prices jump up on anything, but so far it hasnt been anything that should cause a meltdown of a persons budget.

Even though it doesnt add up to much at the end of the week, but its always nice to get a little extra. Glad to hear that you are getting yours back, maybe it is a sign things are starting to turn around.

 

[E5RANGER375]

So I've had a 5% pay cut for the last 2 years. I never took an actual dent in my check in that a got a slightly higher seniority raise the same time the pay cut was implemented. Now that I'm finally topped out, it equals $1.10 an hour. We just got word that we're getting our 5% back in about a month.

That $1.10 sounds like a lot. But when you put it in terms of weekly, it's $44 or $2200 for the year. Now take out taxes and it's about $30-35 a week. I'll gladly take it but I certainly wasn't complaint it was gone. $2k less per year is much better than no job at all.

I think people need to use a little perspective when complaining about prices. OMG, milk went up a dollar a gallon! Gas is over $4 a gallon! I'm going to have sell my house and set up house in a cardboard box!

no offense but I have seen pics you posted of your new house and I really doubt a $2k a year cut would hurt you that bad, and if it did your living beyond your means. no offense meant to you for being successful, im happy for you. but to some people thats a lot of money and would pay a bill for the week maybe. I dont think your in a position to speak for them. enjoy your success.

 

[hornadylnl]

no offense but I have seen pics you posted of your new house and I really doubt a $2k a year cut would hurt you that bad, and if it did your living beyond your means. no offense meant to you for being successful, im happy for you. but to some people thats a lot of money and would pay a bill for the week maybe. I dont think your in a position to speak for them. enjoy your success.

No offense taken. It wasn't that long ago that I was scraping out a living with a single income of $16 an hour with a family of 3. I had a mortgage and 1 car payment, a tracfone, and basic utilities. True, I didn't have a new escalade with billet wheels, a new car, an iPhone, a $150k house, etc. I did without a lot of things so I can have more now. And when I came into something, I was able to pay cash for stuff instead of having to pay off credit cards, student loans, etc. At 30 years old, I was making about $17 an hour and my wife was making very little. I had a net worth of about $50k over debt. That's because we lived within our means and made right choices.

The point of all the above is this. If you can't survive without that $2k, you won't survive with it.

 

[iamaclone45]

I think it’s funny when people complain and freak out about $0.10-0.20 gas price increases. Ohhh no you are going to spend an extra $1-2 for every 10-20 gallons.

 

[dhnorris]

I had a massive overtime cut ($14000 per year) for the last two years It's getting better now with 8 hours overtime in a week. I have one income and no debt other than the house we have nothing fancy and all six of my kids are fed and clothed. We took the financial peace course 3 years ago and that was $110 well spent. debt is bad. Thank God my last tank of gas returned 54.8 mpg. I drive 81 miles to work and before you say move, six months from now I may be driving 81 miles in the opposite direction.

 

[hornadylnl]

I think it’s funny when people complain and freak out about $0.10-0.20 gas price increases. Ohhh no you are going to spend an extra $1-2 for every 10-20 gallons.

Exactly. $1 an hour sounds big until you calculate it over time. That's less than a lot of peoples weekly booze budget.

 

[hornadylnl]

I had a massive overtime cut ($14000 per year) for the last two years It's getting better now with 8 hours overtime in a week. I have one income and no debt other than the house we have nothing fancy and all six of my kids are fed and clothed. We took the financial peace course 3 years ago and that was $110 well spent. debt is bad. Thank God my last tank of gas returned 54.8 mpg. I drive 81 miles to work and before you say move, six months from now I may be driving 81 miles in the opposite direction.

I've already worked about 230 hours of overtime this year for a total of $7500. I went over 2 years without any at all and some weeks off of work. I was off 6 weeks in the beginning of 2010. I don't want the overtime I'm getting now. A little here and there is nice but it gets old quickly. I'm averaging 58 hours a week since mid February.

I don't begrudge anyone driving any distance to work. I drive 25 miles each way and don't want to be any closer. My location puts me within that vacinity of several large towns or cities if I need to find work elsewhere. Plus my property taxes are multitudes cheaper where I live than in the big city. I'd rather give my money to Achmed for gas than to the government.

 

[Suprtek]

My net pay has been dropping for over 10 years. Even with an occasional raise, the cost of insurance and other deductions is rising faster than my pay. Not that I'm happy about it, but my world hasn't crashed down around me...yet.

 

[hornadylnl]

My net pay has been dropping for over 10 years. Even with an occasional raise, the cost of insurance and other deductions is rising faster than my pay. Not that I'm happy about it, but my world hasn't crashed down around me...yet.

I'm waiting to hear the people say "they give us a raise and take it all back in insurance hikes, etc". Some cases, that's true but they even say that when the hikes are 10% of the raise. They're still getting more than they had before. They just refuse to see it.

 

[shooter1054]

I'm a self employed carpenter. I've gone from about 30k 6 years ago to about 18k last year which was an improvement over the previous year. And yes, I am aware that somebody else has it worse than me. We all have to play the cards we are delt.Play cards witha smile

 

[grimor]

my company just gave everyone a gas stipend of $14 a week until gas prices go back down under $4 a gallon. But no one there makes over $20 an hour, specially not us salary guys lol

 

[Lucas156]

I go 42 miles each way to work and the $4 gas aint too bad. Now $5 gas and I will have to change the budget but I would still do fine unless the price of everything else skyrocketed.

 

[ruger1800]

I'm waiting to hear the people say "they give us a raise and take it all back in insurance hikes, etc". Some cases, that's true but they even say that when the hikes are 10% of the raise. They're still getting more than they had before. They just refuse to see it.

the company i work for takes money back in insurance premiums, havent had a raise in 5 years, but my insurance has went from 45 to 85 a week,340 a month out of my pocket, is this extreme or all you guys paying this much.

 

[mizzi]

my single person premium, wife's separate, is $288 per month. i am lucky that my employer pays $208 toward the premium, and contributes a few bucks per pay to my HSA. Benefits are going to continue to rise as the Board(s) demand larger profits. Oddly enough my pay was effectively reduced for the first time earlier this year due to lower payments from insurance companies in which our company bills for our services.

How does that work... they are paying less to health care providers per service, yet collecting more from their "patients"(ca$h cow$)?!?!?!?

please no replies, it was meant to be rhetorical and have no intention of thread stealing.

At the end of it all... i'm just happy to be working in these tough times.

 

[hornadylnl]

My empires went 7 years without a premium increase and infirmary 5 years or so, it's went up 3-4 times. I think that's happening with almost every employer. We have some temporary contractors in my departicle who make under $2 an hour more than us. Of course the full time guys are complaining about that. But they don't stop to think that the temps receive vitually no benefits. Infuses they can get insurance but it's about $140 a week for a plan that only pays about 70%. I'll keep the lesser pay, way better benefits, and way more secure job, thank you.

 

[dhnorris]

My insurance is $960 per month

 

[hornadylnl]

My insurance is $960 per month

Makes you want to slap the person who complains about his weekly premium going from $40 to $50, doesn't it?

 

[shibumiseeker]

I have structured my life so that I can live on a very low income if I have to. Even so, I live on an income that's fairly low by most people's standards. I don't have a lot of nice things, and my house is small and very energy efficient. I could make half of what I do now and still be able to meet my obligations.

There are a lot of things that I do without to make it so that I can live how I want. I don't drink, smoke, have cable, have a big TV, etc. My only real vice is shooting, and I budget for that and have enough stashed away that I could shoot for many years without buying any ammo if I lost my income.

As it turns out, because I own my property outright and don't have a lot of debt, I'm worth a fair amount, but most of that wealth is locked up in real property and so is not really accessible to me. It's the benefit of 2 decades of moderately frugal living. Could have been even more if I'd been smarter with my money earlier on.

 

[IndySSD]

5% pay cut is definitely better than downsizing but that doesn't mean to me that people shouldn't be concerned about rising costs of necessities and how those will be impacted by a potential pay cut.

Anyone living on a good budget should have their expenses laid out by percentages of net monthly income at least.

Lets use round numbers for a single income family home of someone who makes lets say around 1500$ a month net after taxes (3 exemptions for mom/dad/baby) Family Insurance (Med, Dent, Vision, life) (350$ a month). etc which would be around a 20-25k a year job. right?

So that gives you 1500 a month to LIVE on...

So if your commute is 20 miles (easy to do in Indy via 465) you drive at least 800 miles a month not to mention grocery runs/etc..... if you have a moderate gas usage vehicle (25MPG) and gas went from 3.19 to 4.19 per gallon in a years time like it did last year then you just lost 32$ a month of income (which could be the difference between paying your water bill and not).

Also Milk went from around 2.99 a gallon to 3.99 a gallon. If you have a young child or cook a lot it's not uncommon to go through 3-4 gallons of milk per week. That's another 16$


So far you've had a 48$ a month reduction in income which is a 3% decrease, on top of your 5% pay cut from work which puts you at a total of 8% down on your total monthly income.

I know my % of net income spent on gasoline just for commuting is 9% of my monthly net which is basically the same amount.

So basically between gas price increases, food increases and a "small ish" pay cut, one would have to restructure their entire budget, while it should be doable, it's still a big event and I can see why people tend to over react.