DH's job is a joke--do people really get paid this much for this amount of work?

[Anonymous]

Wow. And state workers and federal government workers' pension are a drain on our economy. Yeah.

[Anonymous]

Sometimes people get paid a lot to sit around and put out fires when they occur. This is why lawyers get paid so much - they help with risk management. Sounds like your husband worked hard to get where he is, so bully for him.

[Anonymous]

OP, not sure why you are complaining...it sounds like this is a great situation for your family!

Also, and this is slightly off-topic....I don't get why so many people on DCUM are obsessed with what time people leave work and how that relates to the amount of work they do. My DH is home by 5:30 everynight and gets to work around 8:00. However, he busts his ass during that time and is one of the top billers at his firm.

[Anonymous]

OP you are SO lucky -- my DH went through 8 years of gruelling school. Took over 8 hellish exams to get his professional licensing. Often works from 7:00am to 6:30pm and it's not uncommon for him work later in the evening from home. While he is incredibly amazing and talentend at what he does, he makes less than $60,000 per year.

He is the hardest working person I know, yet he beats himself up daily for not having a better paying job. Unfortunately NO one is is field is hiring. It sucks. I feel so badly for him (and myself).

[Anonymous]

I have a job somewhat like your DH, I make about 1/2 what he makes but I do feel very blessed and sometimes, I don't know why they pay me what they pay me to be quite honest. Its what the market will bear I suppose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is he in government or work for a government contractor? I used to work for an org where the employees were grossly overpaid (not as much as your DH though). They got paid for showing up by 9am and going home by 5pm. In between, most days they chatted with co-workers for an hour to an hour and a half about personal matters, surfed the internet, chatted on the phone with friends and family, went for half and hour to an hour and a half plus lunches (my boss occasionally snuck out for six hour lunches and did not come back if he didn't think he would get caught that day), went to exercise classes, ran personal errands, went to lunch for two or three hours and talked about how they were underpaid. And you wonder why some governments are broke.

She said DH makes $250-300K. High level govt workers make half that. So no, I don't think he works for the govt.

and I DO work for the government and work a lot harder than that. way to stereotype (and exaggerate)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP you are SO lucky -- my DH went through 8 years of gruelling school. Took over 8 hellish exams to get his professional licensing. Often works from 7:00am to 6:30pm and it's not uncommon for him work later in the evening from home. While he is incredibly amazing and talentend at what he does, he makes less than $60,000 per year.

He is the hardest working person I know, yet he beats himself up daily for not having a better paying job. Unfortunately NO one is is field is hiring. It sucks. I feel so badly for him (and myself).

OK, you have to tell us what career this is so we can advise our dc to avoid it. That stinks. Architect?

[Anonymous]

One thing to keep in mind is that if your DH ever does want or need to find a new job, he needs to be able to demonstrate to potential employers that his skill set is commensurate with his level of experience. That's been really hard for me, as I'm a 6th year associate, but have done very little substantive work for 2 years, so my skills are more in line with a 4th year. I've been able to make up for that by spending a lot of the down time keeping up with developments in my practice area (bar events, CLEs, article writing, etc.) so that I at least interview very well, but obviously that only gets you so far.

[Anonymous]

Only on DCUM would you read this type of post.

[Anonymous]

I find this sort of thing very interesting from a gender equality point of view. Every year statistics are released about women earning less than men for the same job. And I've never understood how this happens. But this seems like a good example. Men (on average, of course) clearly have a set of skills that gets them on higher salaries, often with less education. It's complicated, I guess. Time off for maternity/childcare plays into it a bit. But there's more than that. Sheer bullishness to apply for these jobs or ask for raises? How can we teach our girls to have more of this?!

[Anonymous]

LOL! yes, people have jobs like that.

My DHs last company, I joked that he worked PT, honestly he really did. He would get in around 9:30 and leave around 4ish (he is allergic to traffic). He would also take run each day at his lunch, 5 or so miles. His job had no stress and he was in the best shape of his life. It was REALLY hard for him to give that job up, but he knew that he needed a new job to keep his skills sharp, even though he could have hung out at the PT job, probably for decades.

He has been at his current company for 6 years and worked his ass off for 4 of them, he ran a huge program and was pulling insane hours. He then transitioned for a year into a different role where he hid under the radar and again went to a PT type situation. He then of course needed to sharpen his skills again and is now in Business Development, and again works his ass off. When he has a proposal due, he works into the wee morning hours and weekends.

For my DH it is like the tides, sometimes it is crazy and sometimes it is a complete joke.

I get paid to work FT, but honestly, I probably only do 30hrs a week of actual work. I'm not in the super high salary, but I have a great salary of 120k/yr and can fully participate in my children's lives. I'm thankful each and every day for this opportunity. This is going to sound snotty, but seriously, to work your ass off in school and in the workplace for 60k/yr? No way, I'd rather be home with my kids, that would not be worth it, unless I was single handedly saving the world from impending collapse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I find this sort of thing very interesting from a gender equality point of view. Every year statistics are released about women earning less than men for the same job. And I've never understood how this happens. But this seems like a good example. Men (on average, of course) clearly have a set of skills that gets them on higher salaries, often with less education. It's complicated, I guess. Time off for maternity/childcare plays into it a bit. But there's more than that. Sheer bullishness to apply for these jobs or ask for raises? How can we teach our girls to have more of this?!

Bullishness-men have it, many women don't. I got my overly paid job because I was not afraid to ask to get PAID. Women are not aggressive and confident in these regards. I felt embarrassed even asking for my 6 figure salary (considering I have only 40 college credit hours) for what I was going to do, but I did it anyways. Again, I'm in a role where I have to be a bit of a bully, so this sort of thing comes natural to me. In my role at work, I'm called the bulldozer because I will knock over anything in my path to get the job done. Even in the workplace, I find women much easier to steam roll than men.

I'm not sure how to teach this to our girls, I'm not sure if this is nature or nurture.

[Anonymous]

Pay doesn't increase with physical output or stress levels. For example, I make a hell of a lot more money than a construction worker and I work a lot less hours and sweat a lot less. Has to do with responsibility and effeciency.

In reality, the higher up you go the more you get paid for less work. That is how it works, for better or worse.

[Anonymous]

This is my DH's job. He goes to meetings, sees a couple of patients maximum, fils out rote report forms, probably rubs one out in the bathroom and then comes home by 5. 300k a year. Yes, he kicked serious ass for 25 years before he got this job, but still. I could never have a comparable job, no matter how hard I worked.

[Anonymous]

This is my DH's job. He goes to meetings, sees a couple of patients maximum, fils out rote report forms, probably rubs one out in the bathroom and then comes home by 5. 300k a year. Yes, he kicked serious ass for 25 years before he got this job, but still. I could never have a comparable job, no matter how hard I worked.