[furriner]

Yes but they weren't aiming for median - they were aiming for rich.

Suppose you became/married a doctor, bought the nice house and BMW - then the hospital started paying $10/hour. Hey it's twice minimum wage what are you complaining about ?

[omouse]

This is how it is for my dad. He's a mechanical/process engineer who hasn't had a job for a year and he has a LOT of experience (and a university education of course). But almost every job he's applied for pays less than the previous job. The previous job was in a parts plant for the automotive industry and they're now operating on as few work days as possible to save money.

It's funny how an automotive industry company can pay its employees a decent salary even while the industry declines, while other companies think you should be grateful to get just $10/hr.

[coryrc]

> It's funny how an automotive industry company can pay its employees a decent salary even while the industry declines

That might be due to the taxpayer subsidies? Perhaps if they paid market (which is apparently ~$10/hr) they may actually become successful again and require hiring more engineers, driving wages back up?

[petercooper]

Hey it's twice minimum wage what are you complaining about ?

That's not a fair comparison. Median household income there is far above the minimum wage. The median household income there ($70k+ in a country town) is good living.

In this case, the median household income seems to be based on a median male income of about $40k and a median female income of about $30k. That's around the $25-$30 per hour mark or 3.5 times the minimum wage.

Besides, no-one's entitled to earn $X or more for the rest of your life just because they did in the past or because they're "aiming at rich."