OK. Doesn't anyone else who read this now think, "Well gee why would I ever write a book then?" You could easily make $23 an hour as an entry-level server in a diner if you include tips.
I won’t say it’s a universal truth but, for the most part, you don’t want to write non-fiction books in most fields unless 1. You just feel compelled as a way to learn or just because you want the experience or 2. It will enhance your career in some manner.
You could easily make $23 an hour as an entry-level server in a diner if you include tips.
I don't think this is true—the median pay for servers is $10 an hour in the U.S. [0] Even servers in areas with unusually high pay barely reach $23 an hour. [1]
With a median personal income in the United States of $31,000 [2], most people make significantly less than $23 an hour.
Keep in mind this is going to be reported income only. When I was waiting tables nobody declared more than half their tips if they declared any at all. In fact a lot of folks just declared whatever amount they need to go to $10 an hour.
You make less than $920/wk as a developer, before taxes? Are you in eastern Europe?
I worked in a diner ca. 2002-04 and was paid $3/hr from the restaurant but routinely was close to $30/hr after tips as an awkward male teenager. Even $23 back then is equivalent to $35 now.
Yes I make less than $920 a week, and I'm in the midwest US. Comparing this to Eastern Europe is ridiculous. ~60% of Americans make less than that. It seems like people in the ultra-expensive big cities have a really skewed idea of what the rest of the country is like.
What does median income have to do with anything? If you're writing software for a living you're doing a job most Americans can't. A job that is objectively worth much more than ~$40k a year. That's like saying a doctor can be paid $80k because he's in a low COL area and most Americans make less so whatever.
> Comparing this to Eastern Europe is ridiculous.
You're right because a lot of Eastern European devs make more than that.
> It seems like people in the ultra-expensive big cities have a really skewed idea of what the rest of the country is like.
If the average US cost of living is a 100 the area I live is 84 (San Francisco is 273). Omaha is 88. I don't live in an "ultra-expensive big city" and I've spent more time in rural Georgia than I have in urban California so I don't think I have a skewed idea of what people live on. But I do know my worth and I do know that $40k is objectively underpaid for software development.