Would You Work More If It Means Earning More? POLL

WOW...

I have to send this thread on to a few people! I used to work in a law firm during college. Our new hire attorneys made less than 55 per year. Of course this is about 10 years ago...

I think there's several things to keep in mind here when looking at these numbers:

1. these #s reflect the salary of liw girls most of whom are in their early 20's to early 30's - (i 'm guessing the avg age here is 25-27?)

2. these #s are not meant to make you despair you're getting paid less (if say you're making 20k to someone else's 100k) because keep in mind the ones who made more are most likely more experienced (ie. older) or have chosen a job that is more demanding, hence the higher pay :D

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Posted by akaMrsT

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Posted by neener1211

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Posted by dancinmyazoff

I'd love to know what the 6 of you do who make over 110K a year...I may need to change professions

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I would like to know too!! Are there any job openings available? I'm dead serious!

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Not sure about those who responded $110K and up but 'entry level' lawyers in many NYC firms make $125K to start. Some firms pay first year lawyers $145K to start.

It's searchable here - http://www.nalpdirectory.com/dledir_search_advanced.asp

Granted, many first year lawyers have about $60K in student loan debt - more if adding in undergrad loans. Most first year lawyers at mid-sized to large firms have to bill at least 2,000 a year which means spending probably 2500 a year in the office since you can't bill for every moment you are at work (lunch, bathroom breaks, coffee breaks, talking with colleagues about random stuff, etc.)

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FH and I are both young lawyers and make very good money. But we do work hard - for those of you who don't know this, billing 40 hours a week means you're working at least 10 hour days (you're always there more than you bill; for me 8 billable hours means a 10 hour day) - and I owe A LOT. I went straight to law school from undergrad and paid for law school entirely on loans... so I owe about 160K I think. Thankfully, we're both in niche specialty areas so although we generally work 10 hour days and work hard those 10 hours, we don't do weekends and our hours are fairly consistent. But ever since I moved here (I'm from Chicago originally), I really applaud the many NYers who make it work on much less. This is a VERY expensive place to live. If FH and I lived in Chicago instead of here, we'd make the exact same salary and we'd OWN a brownstone in one of the nicest neighborhoods in the city. Here, we rent and when we buy, it won't be a brownstone - maybe we'll get a 2 BR in a decent neighborhood. Big difference. It always amazes me that people do just fine on much less. Those of you out there need to teach me! I should be able to save much more. Maybe I should start watching Suze Orman....

I thought more about this... and I realized something. I actually quit a job because it took too long for me to commute home - which cut into the time I got to spend with my son. I was unemployed (happily) for 8 months and then took a job for SIGNIFICANTLY less money than I could have made working in the city. So there is my answer! i would take time with my family over more money any day of the week.

But before I had kids... when I was a singleton ... I worked non stop.

My FH and I make the same exact amount, to the penny.. we work for the Federal government and get grossly overpaid for the type of work we do. We never have to work more than 40 hours a week, we get a TON of leave and have flexible hours....

Anyone wanna move to DC and become an Economist?

I know I am blessed and how good I have it and I eventually want to move back to LI, but its gonna be hard to give this up.

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Posted by melbalalala

My FH and I make the same exact amount, to the penny.. we work for the Federal government and get grossly overpaid for the type of work we do. We never have to work more than 40 hours a week, we get a TON of leave and have flexible hours....

Anyone wanna move to DC and become an Economist?

I know I am blessed and how good I have it and I eventually want to move back to LI, but its gonna be hard to give this up.

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I'm grossly overpaid for what I do too...

I probably work about 35 hours a week (that's probably a stretch...more like 30) and when I do work it's mostly from home.

Would I work more to get paid more? Sure, because I'm not really working that much now...

I think you just need to fall into the right field.