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High-Earning Men Are Cutting Back on Their Working Hours

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Re: High-Earning Men Are Cutting Back on Their Working Hours

#11
The article talks about top 10% – $175k+/year https://www.investopedia.com/personal-finance/how-much-incom...

That’s a fun grey area where you’re making a lot but not a lot. And the path to making more is paved with leverage, not with hours. You absolutely cannot get to the top 1% by just grinding away.

I can’t find the study right now, but I remember reading that “work for money” tops out at about $400k. The highest average income in USA goes to car wash owners.

Re: High-Earning Men Are Cutting Back on Their Working Hours

#12
Key phrase: The top-earning 10% of men in the U.S. labor market.

So nowhere near the top 10% of income earners. The real top earners don't do much traditional "work", instead earning money thorough investment and/or family income streams. I would also quibble with the definition of "work", as many activities of top earners would not be considered work by the majority of people. I've been to my fair share of "conferences" that we attendees considered work but looked very much like vacation time to the people serving us drinks at the bar.

Re: High-Earning Men Are Cutting Back on Their Working Hours

#13

> Since this group already put in longer hours than the typical U.S. worker—and women at the highest income levels—these high earners had longer work days to trim > Before the pandemic, Eli Albrecht, a lawyer in the Washington, D.C., area, says he worked between 80 to 90 hours a week. Now, he says he puts in 60 to 70 hours each week Key lines from the article, which give important context and invert what many people'…

Right. This isn't about four day work weeks. It's mostly about people who were working insane hours cutting back to merely long hours.

Re: High-Earning Men Are Cutting Back on Their Working Hours

#14

We’re exhausted and there’s little real upside. Makes sense to me to cut back.

Agree. I used to work 60+ hours to make a huge impact on my firm and our revenue. Now I am like fuck it. Down to 30.

What would you say are some of the positives and negatives that have come about from this change?

Re: High-Earning Men Are Cutting Back on Their Working Hours

#15

We’re exhausted and there’s little real upside. Makes sense to me to cut back.

Agree. I used to work 60+ hours to make a huge impact on my firm and our revenue. Now I am like fuck it. Down to 30.

Same, earlier in my career I was excited by the impact I make, but then it dawned on me, that impact has almost zero impact to my own bottom line. And I failed to come up with reasons why I should kill myself over making other people rich.

Re: High-Earning Men Are Cutting Back on Their Working Hours

#16
post #6

A lot of people in the medical field (of both genders) I know cut back their hours once they can control their schedule in private practice - if you're still going to be making 3-5x of what would be considered a good salary working 50-75% of whatever is considered full time (usually in the 30-35 hours a week range), it just makes sense. Then again, this applies less to technology and other knowledge work where it's h…

Yep. I have found that some folks get too caught up on the salary number, and wait too late to discover their hourly wage is not as high as it could be since they are working far more than the standard 40 hours each week.

It’s definitely a trade off—work more hours to advance more quickly and make more money—but working 60 to 80 hours per week is cutting your effective hourly wage by 25 to 50 percent.

Re: High-Earning Men Are Cutting Back on Their Working Hours

#17
> That translates to 1.5 hours less time on the job each workweek, or a 3% reduction in hours.

A search for “statistically significant” yielded no results. So why am I not to assume, especially given the source, that this is more of that “Americans are lazier and less productive” thing that plays out daily in right-leaning media?

Re: High-Earning Men Are Cutting Back on Their Working Hours

#19
In the 80's the place where I worked incentivized employees to start working fewer hours. In the IT department we looked at the request in bafflement: "How many hours would you like to work?". We put in '40' and somewhere between HR and our bosses it was straightened out.

Re: High-Earning Men Are Cutting Back on Their Working Hours

#20
post #8

> "High-earning men in the 25-to-39 age range who could be described as “workaholics” were pulling back, often by choice" This seems like great news. I know several guys who've recently opted to earn less in exchange for more time off at home with their young kids. They are happier and the kids love it.

I just had this conversation with a potential employer yesterday. I have worked hard at not working so hard (seeing a therapist for life coaching) and I am "guarding my calm" with looking for a job.
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