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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

#141

Post by zdw »

starkd wrote: post #76
zdw wrote: 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…

Are there any doctors actually in private practice now? I've found most have already sold their practices to hospitals or some kind of provider network, and they are told the patient load they must provide. It's just not economical to stay independent and reduce your workload.

Assuming that this is US-based, but I would wager this is more related to the incredible byzantine health insurance system created to leech profit off the overall system without delivering useful services.

Most doctors don't want to engage with a crazy actuarial accounting, hence they outsource it, which can be a reasonable tradeoff.

Nuking that system from orbit with universal single payer would solve this, and also have the beneficial side effect of eliminating the coercive practice of employer-linked health care, which would lead to reduced barriers to entrepreneurial activity.

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

#144

Post by bluefirebrand »

bradlys wrote: post #75
xyzelement wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nearsighted view that's probably not common among those raised with a long term values perspective. Being a broke bartender is maybe cute in your 20s and maybe they are enjoying the "great women" they are dating. The problem is - once you hit 30 and beyond, being a broke bartender ain't that cute, and the kind of women stuck dating them aren't that *great" either. And there's no easy leap from a broke bartender in yo…

I’d also argue that for young men - unless you’re an absolute unit and breathtakingly handsome… you’re always going to need to make more than your partner for a long term relationship. Being a bartender or taking a lower wage job is a surefire way to only being able to sleep around. I’ve only met a few women who earn more than their spouse and can actually only think of one off the top of my head. Every other couple…

Yup.

When I met my girlfriend she was really clear that she didn't want to date someone who didn't have a similar level of accomplishment to her. It wasn't about money entirely, but money was a part of it.

She has a master's degree and manages a department of people at a fairly big company.

I only have a bachelor, and I don't manage people, but I earn more than her. So I guess it balances out?

She would never date a barista. Not because there is something wrong with being a barista, but I think because what she was looking for was a partner, and it's hard tp be partners if there is a large "success" imbalance between you.

Men are much more willing to "date down" imo because it's culturally more ingrained into us. Women used to not be able to own much, so the expectation was that men "date down" for a long time! We like to think that's all gone away now but it's still very much ingrained into our culture I think.

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

#145

Post by greatpostman »

lightbendover wrote: post #115
greatpostman wrote: post #21

Controversial opinion: Men are concluding that women don’t care about money as much as they used to, and having an amazing career to snag a great woman is no longer the best (or even a good) strategy. In some ways, being a dedicated corporate employee makes you unattractive as a person. I know a lot of guys in their late 20s that think this. And I know a lot of broke bar tenders dating great women. Unless you are mak…

> Unless you are making huge money I don’t see how your statement becomes less true as income increases. More true if anything in my experience.

Actually I agree with you. But a lot of money can buy you a great life.

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

#146

Post by ameminator »

thatfrenchguy wrote: post #139
xyzelement wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nearsighted view that's probably not common among those raised with a long term values perspective. Being a broke bartender is maybe cute in your 20s and maybe they are enjoying the "great women" they are dating. The problem is - once you hit 30 and beyond, being a broke bartender ain't that cute, and the kind of women stuck dating them aren't that *great" either. And there's no easy leap from a broke bartender in yo…

I love how you cannot imagine a world where the women is the high earned, pretty insanely conservative to me.

Unfortunately, the current trend is for women to marry around the same income/social class, so it seems by personal choice women are marrying these types of people.

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

#147

Post by sandworm101 »

lumost wrote: post #129
sandworm101 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> it's just companies screeching that they are making less money because salaried employees are doing less unpaid work. That depends on how many of these jobs are positional and therefore cannot be easily supplemented. In my kneck of the woods we are having an issue with judges. There are only so many jobs for judges. But in recent years more than half of them switched to reduced hours. That lost time cannot be just…

> But more than half of them have switched to reduced hours. Why are they switching to reduced hours? This sounds like the value/output equation is out of line. Why not pay more, or hire more judges to reduce the workload?

A judgeship is often a specific job. They are paid good money and, like tenured professors, cannot have their salary easily reduced. It's like being the mayor of a town. If a mayor wants to reduce their worked hours, you cannot just hire another one to make up the difference. Their income is protected. There can be only one.

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

#148

Post by chiefalchemist »

starkd wrote: post #57
chiefalchemist wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Women have done the same. The dirty little secret of the current "labor shortage" is that the worker bees are no longer willing to over do it, for the same pay. The commitment to work is still there, but now more and more have reasonable boundaries.

That's the optimistic take. But there is also another grim reality in that some have simply given up (to some degree) and simply stopped caring as much. Less diligence.

Fair enough. But to me, those people should update their CVs and start looking. You're not a slave. No one owns you. Life is too short embrace "no meaning" as a means to make it through the word day.

There's not a relationship in the world worth self-subverting for.

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

#149

Post by sandworm101 »

aqme28 wrote: post #83
sandworm101 wrote: post #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 "conferen…

I think the number of top earners that get their money from investments isn’t a very significant number compared to the top earners via labor. They might make a large percentage of the money in that top 10%, but there aren’t nearly as many of them.

Only if you remove real estate income. A great many of the top earners (say 100-200K/year) are pumping their money into property via mortgages on their houses. After say 30 years of work, what percentage of their net wealth will be from salary and how much from property appreciation? Then in their 30+ year retirement, how much will come from investments stemming from that original salary?

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

#150

Post by patrick451 »

cbeach wrote: post #38

> The average male worker put in 2,006 hours last year, while the average female worker logged 1,758 hours. Is this ever factored in when we look into the gender pay gap?

There is no wage gap. It's an illusion arising from myriad differences in life choices such as this.
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