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"Today, Mr. Davis, 27, is a cybersecurity specialist working on an incident response team at the company. He earns above $40,000, more than twice his salary in

"Today, Mr. Davis, 27, is a cybersecurity specialist working on an incident response team at the company. He earns above $40,000, more than twice his salary in retail." Isn't that like what people at Costco make for running a cash register and being friendly? And who do you think has more job security? edit: To be less coy about it, if you are any good at this stuff and are only making "above $40k", you are getting f-ed.

javagram 7y ago
Costco jobs are an outlier in retail as I understand it. $40k/ year in Georgia may be a liveable salary, and if this is an entry level job for him there’s probably the possibility to increase that salary by a 1.5x factor or more over 5 years if he can continue career growth (not sure exactly what a cybersecurity job path looks like, but I assume there is some upward mobility or increased ability to transfer to other higher paying tech roles).
- jstewartmobile 7y ago
  I know some fairly credentialed people in the same field. Their pay is much better, but the job security seems very tenuous--especially for something so joined-at-the-hip with the defense industry.
- mynameishere 7y ago
  Out of curiosity, what compels people to use terms like "liveable salary"? ("Living wage" used to be more common, but whatever.) The median salary in the US is less than 32,000/year. Do you think half the country is failing at "living" in anything but a totally fantastical definition of the word "living"? It's a cheap propaganda term--obviously--so why use it? Is it just habit? (https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/COLA/central.html https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/COLA/central.html)
  - javagram 7y ago
    Median salary may be less than 32,000 but keep in mind a lot of people get welfare assistance. EITC, food stamps, Medicaid, and many other programs are available for the people making very little. Personally I started my career on what was probably a similar salary to this person’s 40k (adjusting for inflation.) I had my own experience in mind when I used the term liveable - thinking about being able to afford an apartment on my own and eventually save up to buy a car rather than use public transit/bike exclusively. Obviously, people do make do with less. Sometimes that means stuff like spending 4 hours a day commuting on multiple buses or something, or juggling multiple jobs and increasing stress levels, etc...
- rayiner 7y ago
  The explosion in cost of living in places like SF has severely distorted peoples’ views of what is a reasonable salary in the vast majority of the country. $40k/year is a good salary almost anywhere in the US. It’s above the median starting salary for college graduates. For a couple, that’s probably $60,000-70,000 in household income. In my county you can get a 3BR house in a good school district for $200-230k, which is affordable for a family making $60k. And I’m not even in a particularly cheap area (an hour from DC, and these houses are maybe a 15 minute drive from the Metro). The median household income for a married couple in the US is about $80,000, so two people making $40,000. Although that’s poverty level in San Francisco, that’s a problem with San Francisco, not the country. It’s among the highest in the entire developed world, and a very comfortable life in most places. (Particularly so if, like many Americans have done over the last few decades, you move to a sun belt state where your dollar goes a long way.)
  - jstewartmobile 7y ago
    "3BR house in a good school district for $200-230k, which is affordable for a family making $60k" Maybe if you have no children, live in a low-tax area, have an awesome deal on homeowner's insurance and a fantastic health insurance plan, and neither you nor your spouse ever get laid-off or injured. Otherwise, that's cutting it pretty close.
    - aey 7y ago
      At 60k a year, $1k a month is totally fine for a house. At that salary with a mortgage I would guess that you pay almost no tax. Areas with cheaper housing typically don’t have $30/hour nannies. The risks are that the house price and the job are usually super correlated.
      - jstewartmobile 7y ago
        No need to guess. In most states, unless you're retired, the property tax is the property tax. I sold real estate in Alabama (with some of the lowest property taxes in the country) 15 years ago. Even back then, on $230k, you'd be looking at around $1500/mo at today's rates, ~$1500/yr property tax, ~$2000/yr homeowner's insurance. Unless a person is 100% OK with being a wage-slave, cracking a $21,500 nut every year--when you've only got $60k/yr pre-tax--is not a good situation.
Kalium 7y ago
Honestly, that sounds like a sexed-up description of a SOC analyst. There's plenty of room to move up from there, but it's definitely not automatic.

javagram 7y ago

Costco jobs are an outlier in retail as I understand it. $40k/ year in Georgia may be a liveable salary, and if this is an entry level job for him there’s probably the possibility to increase that salary by a 1.5x factor or more over 5 years if he can continue career growth (not sure exactly what a cybersecurity job path looks like, but I assume there is some upward mobility or increased ability to transfer to other higher paying tech roles).

jstewartmobile 7y ago
I know some fairly credentialed people in the same field. Their pay is much better, but the job security seems very tenuous--especially for something so joined-at-the-hip with the defense industry.
mynameishere 7y ago
Out of curiosity, what compels people to use terms like "liveable salary"? ("Living wage" used to be more common, but whatever.) The median salary in the US is less than 32,000/year. Do you think half the country is failing at "living" in anything but a totally fantastical definition of the word "living"? It's a cheap propaganda term--obviously--so why use it? Is it just habit? (https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/COLA/central.html https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/COLA/central.html)
- javagram 7y ago
  Median salary may be less than 32,000 but keep in mind a lot of people get welfare assistance. EITC, food stamps, Medicaid, and many other programs are available for the people making very little. Personally I started my career on what was probably a similar salary to this person’s 40k (adjusting for inflation.) I had my own experience in mind when I used the term liveable - thinking about being able to afford an apartment on my own and eventually save up to buy a car rather than use public transit/bike exclusively. Obviously, people do make do with less. Sometimes that means stuff like spending 4 hours a day commuting on multiple buses or something, or juggling multiple jobs and increasing stress levels, etc...
rayiner 7y ago
The explosion in cost of living in places like SF has severely distorted peoples’ views of what is a reasonable salary in the vast majority of the country. $40k/year is a good salary almost anywhere in the US. It’s above the median starting salary for college graduates. For a couple, that’s probably $60,000-70,000 in household income. In my county you can get a 3BR house in a good school district for $200-230k, which is affordable for a family making $60k. And I’m not even in a particularly cheap area (an hour from DC, and these houses are maybe a 15 minute drive from the Metro). The median household income for a married couple in the US is about $80,000, so two people making $40,000. Although that’s poverty level in San Francisco, that’s a problem with San Francisco, not the country. It’s among the highest in the entire developed world, and a very comfortable life in most places. (Particularly so if, like many Americans have done over the last few decades, you move to a sun belt state where your dollar goes a long way.)
- jstewartmobile 7y ago
  "3BR house in a good school district for $200-230k, which is affordable for a family making $60k" Maybe if you have no children, live in a low-tax area, have an awesome deal on homeowner's insurance and a fantastic health insurance plan, and neither you nor your spouse ever get laid-off or injured. Otherwise, that's cutting it pretty close.
  - aey 7y ago
    At 60k a year, $1k a month is totally fine for a house. At that salary with a mortgage I would guess that you pay almost no tax. Areas with cheaper housing typically don’t have $30/hour nannies. The risks are that the house price and the job are usually super correlated.
    - jstewartmobile 7y ago
      No need to guess. In most states, unless you're retired, the property tax is the property tax. I sold real estate in Alabama (with some of the lowest property taxes in the country) 15 years ago. Even back then, on $230k, you'd be looking at around $1500/mo at today's rates, ~$1500/yr property tax, ~$2000/yr homeowner's insurance. Unless a person is 100% OK with being a wage-slave, cracking a $21,500 nut every year--when you've only got $60k/yr pre-tax--is not a good situation.

Kalium 7y ago

Honestly, that sounds like a sexed-up description of a SOC analyst. There's plenty of room to move up from there, but it's definitely not automatic.