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Surprising salaries for jobs you’d never imagine

bbc.com

21–30 of 41 posts

Re: Surprising salaries for jobs you’d never imagine

#21

Is this what passes as journalism now? I mean: >“My 19 year-old boss was taking home $35,000/year with benefits,” he said. “Plus they train you on the job for free. She told me that she was on track to be a regional manager by the age of 30 and would make 100k by then.” >Katie Nellis said managers of Walgreen's drugstores in the US “often retire in their 40s.” Are we just taking these wild, likely highly exaggerated…

BBC's articles often report direct quotes from average Joes, it's part of their style. I don't like it either.

Re: Surprising salaries for jobs you’d never imagine

#22
I don't buy the numbers on dog walkers. I live in NYC, which is probably at the high end for this and many other things, and I don't know anyone who's paying $25/day to walk a dog with up to 7 other dogs. People will pay more to have their dogs walked by themselves or in small groups. I don't think I see groups of more than 4.

The theater/opera carpenter one really surprised me. I wonder why they are paid so much? Unions?

Construction I totally understand. I come from Perth, Western Australia, which is in the midst of a resources boom that has been going on almost unabated for 15-20 years. The scope and scale of what is being dug up from the ground or drilled from the sea is probably unprecedented.

This puts an incredible amount of pressure on construction. So much so that in 2000 you could buy a house for ~$100k in Perth. 5 years later that same house was $350k+. Most of that was just increased construction and materials cost, not land appreciation.

The problem with such massive increases in the cost of construction is that it feeds into virtually everything else. If you've ever been to Perth, you'll know it's an incredibly expensive city now. Back in the 90s I lived comfortably as a student in a 2 bedroom apartment and all expenses for I often wonder if Australia will suffer (or is already suffering) from Dutch Disease [1]. It's a place now of the haves (those in mining/construction) and have nots (everyone else). Even if you're one of the lucky ones, the standard of living is not great.

I say this as someone who lives in Manhattan. But New York City has way more options for the whole income spectrum. Less than $200k can get you a 1 bedroom in Sunnyside, Queens that's In Perth, there are no cheap options anymore. Even 5 years ago, 40-50 year old crappy apartments were being rented out for $300/week sight unseen.

Anyway I don't begrudge any of these jobs their good fortunes (I am a software engineer after all). I do worry about construction in particular however because of the on-flow effect into everything else.

Construction really is a mixed bag too. Highly paid crane operators? That's a stressful/demanding job. No problem there. 6 figure incomes for guys who stand on the street with a stop sign wearing a hard hat? Well, that's just a racket.

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_disease

Re: Surprising salaries for jobs you’d never imagine

#23
I'm not at all sure why these are 'surprising'. $100k/year for a dog walker is not possible in most areas unless there's a lot of dogs to walk for a lot of dog owners with disposable income. That $96k figure is 'up to', and while much may be in cash, it's probably closer to 50-70% that on an annual basis. If you're doing this in an area with enough rich dog owners to sustain that business year 'round, you're living in an area where earning, say, $60k isn't going to afford you a great lifestyle. Liveable, certainly, but not wealthy.

The 'not surprising' part really is the down to hustle - it should not be surprising at all that some people can hustle up paying customers for services that we'd ignore or look down on. The dog walking gig - you must really love dogs to be cleaning up dog crap for up to 8 dogs at a time, 5-7 days per week, 6-8 hours per day.

I've known dog walkers and pool cleaners. Most don't make anywhere near that, because they're not good hustlers - they're not networked sufficiently, and don't know how to attract enough customers and manage a business. Someone with the skills to attract customers and properly manage 'busyness', money will flow almost in spite of whatever skills/education they may have or, more usually, not have.

Re: Surprising salaries for jobs you’d never imagine

#24
I really dislike this - an article with unverified sources and no original content in the BBC, what I consider a very reliable, ethical news source. To me this is yet another example of the cheapening of modern journalism - quora has been "partnering" with several "content distribution partners" including BBC to market themselves while doing the newspapers' jobs.

> Quora exec Marc Bodnick sees the media deals as a win-win, where Quora writers get more distribution, and media partners get good content. (http://allthingsd.com/20131119/quora-will-push-its-most-link...)

At least some publishers have been called out and ended up doing the right thing, like when huffpo published unsourced, ridiculous answers about trader joes' two buck chuck:

>This blog post contained un-sourced claims about Two Buck Chuck and its proprietor, Bronco Wines. It has been removed from the site in accordance with our blogger terms. (http://www.starkinsider.com/2014/08/trader-joes-two-buck-chu...)

Re: Surprising salaries for jobs you’d never imagine

#25
post #24

I really dislike this - an article with unverified sources and no original content in the BBC, what I consider a very reliable, ethical news source. To me this is yet another example of the cheapening of modern journalism - quora has been "partnering" with several "content distribution partners" including BBC to market themselves while doing the newspapers' jobs. > Quora exec Marc Bodnick sees the media deals as a wi…

>I really dislike this - an article with no original content and unverified sources in the BBC, what I consider a very reliable, ethical news source.

About that...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilmidgley/2014/06/03/bbc-news-...

I personally thought that the BBC News jumped the shark when they introduced a "BBC Capital" section. It really rammed home Chomsky's point about major newspapers having a "business" section but no "labor" section.

It's been a downhill slide ever since Hutton, to be honest, and a crying shame.

At least we still have Al Jazeera, though.

Re: Surprising salaries for jobs you’d never imagine

#26
post #22

I don't buy the numbers on dog walkers. I live in NYC, which is probably at the high end for this and many other things, and I don't know anyone who's paying $25/day to walk a dog with up to 7 other dogs. People will pay more to have their dogs walked by themselves or in small groups. I don't think I see groups of more than 4. The theater/opera carpenter one really surprised me. I wonder why they are paid so much? Un…

It's $25 per session... Their math is $25 * 8 dogs * 2 times daily * 240 days a year. That's how "up to eight dogs" turns into "eight dogs every day, every time".

Re: Surprising salaries for jobs you’d never imagine

#28
Several years ago I knew a hair dresser who made 90K working only a few hours a day while I worked three times longer as a software engineer making only 75K. A third of her income was from tips (and I've heard that a lot of people don't pay taxes on those).

Re: Surprising salaries for jobs you’d never imagine

#29

Is this what passes as journalism now? I mean: >“My 19 year-old boss was taking home $35,000/year with benefits,” he said. “Plus they train you on the job for free. She told me that she was on track to be a regional manager by the age of 30 and would make 100k by then.” >Katie Nellis said managers of Walgreen's drugstores in the US “often retire in their 40s.” Are we just taking these wild, likely highly exaggerated…

BBC's articles often report direct quotes from average Joes, it's part of their style. I don't like it either.

I've heard it called grain of sand journalism. It usually goes from a couple of very broad statements about the entire desert directly to an in depth look at a few grains of sand.

Re: Surprising salaries for jobs you’d never imagine

#30
post #24

I really dislike this - an article with unverified sources and no original content in the BBC, what I consider a very reliable, ethical news source. To me this is yet another example of the cheapening of modern journalism - quora has been "partnering" with several "content distribution partners" including BBC to market themselves while doing the newspapers' jobs. > Quora exec Marc Bodnick sees the media deals as a wi…

It's amusing that they did include this disclaimer at the bottom:

> Quora respondents are required to use their true names under the site’s Real Names policy. To help ensure legitimacy and quality, Quora asks some individuals, such as doctors and lawyers, to confirm their expertise.

Yet there was not a single doctor or lawyer quoted in that article.

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