r/Salary

I work at a company who has a development rotation program for young grads. I’ve also been a part of a different companies rotational new grad programs or worked at places that had variants of the same. The number one thing that I noticed historically as I have helped with the filtering process is out of touch salary expectations for brand new graduates.

This is for many entry level roles though. Even though things cost a lot more you as a brand new graduate with limited experience are not going to get that 80k salary to start. I keep running into candidates who attend universities big and small asking for 70-90k base salary. Maybe if this was an engineering rotation or in a super high cost of living location but for the majority of the country especially in the south where I’m currently located you aren’t getting that type of starting base pay for most roles.

I’m happy to hear of some exceptions to this but I think a lot of young candidates are shooting themselves in the foot because they see online everyone making six figures so of course a new grad has to make 75k or 80k. The reality? Most new graduates programs for things like claims, underwriting, sales, credit analyst etc are going to pay 50-65k to start. 70-75k is if it’s something super competitive but that is the exception not the norm. So please keep your request reasonable. You’re not getting 80k in Atlanta to come be someone’s phone monkey.

M 41, Foreigner, Title is the offer I accepted last year; I will start working at the new school in August.

2016 $0 Master's

2017 $0 Master's

2018 $8,000 Ph.D. Student

2019 $20,000 Ph.D. Student

2020 $20,000 Ph.D. Student

2021 $23,000 Ph.D. Student

2022 $23,000 Ph.D. Student

2023 $47,000 Small College Prof

2024 $71,000 Small College Prof

2025 $72,000 Small College Prof

2026 $100,000 Public Uni Prof

2027 $128,000 Public Uni Prof +$16,000 Summer Teaching Pay

Obviously not the best ROI career path unless you publish top journal papers. I'm just happy with the work-life balance and flexibility. Not having to worry about visa and green card is also a big plus to me.

I am posting this because I think military service is typically related to low pay and doing evil things for the government. Being an officer is a solid option for someone who wants a good salary and incredible job security. I don't know why more people don't do this.

I know military service doesn't appeal to alot of people, but it is a guaranteed path to $100K and the benefits are astounding. The way to go is below.

1. ROTC (or the other military officer programs) - Have college paid for, do a few more classes in return, leave college with $0 debt. Already ahead of most of your friends with degrees.
2. Enter military service in active duty. Salary is instantly around $75K base, depending on where you live (housing allowance changes based on location). About 1/3 all of the pay is not taxed. Free health insurance, 30 days paid leave year, a 3-4 day weekend every month. Start contributing to TSP and the military matches up to 5%.
3. Within 2 years, you are getting around $97K annually (as of today). The gov increases pay by 1-3% yearly, already putting you at $100K.

You don't have to be in the Army or Marines, you have minimal actual "hard work", and you get to do cool things. Anyways, hope this opens one person's eyes. Younger me would have loved to get this info in highschool.

I honestly feel like as of 2026 you truly dont need to

A) Go to college for x amount of years

B) Apply on indeed/linkedin

C) Get hired and make 100K+ salary

So I wanna hear from people making atleast 85K+ or have some knowledge on the topic

How are people making 100K+ a year in this subreddit? (No nepobabys pls)

Is College needed? Was it luck? Was it investing into stocks/crypto? how are yall doing it?

47m. Considering growth is stagnant for years. not sure if I'm at Ok in terms of average age 🤔 but certainly I'm happy.

2010 : 50,000, 10K bonus

2011 : 50,000, 10K bonus

2012 : 51,500, 7.5K bonus

2013 : 51,500, 3.5K bonus

2014 : 52,500, 0 bonus

2015 : 55,000, 3K bonus

2016 : 58,000, 5k bonus

2017 : 59,500, 5k bonus

2018 : 61,500, 5k bonus

2019 : 70,000, 7k bonus

2020 : 72,000, 10k bonus

2021 : 72,000, 10k bonus

2022 : 0

2023 : 85,000, 0 Bonus

2024 : 88,500, 0 Bonus

2025 : 88,500, 0 Bonus

I’ve seen too many of these posts that I figured I’d make my own on this topic.

“I have zero mechanical engineering experience and no schooling but I’ve been a plumber for 4 years so I want a job as a mechanical engineer making 100,000$!” That’s how ridiculous these posts sound, just reversed.

So many of the college educated/non trades individuals on here discuss the blue collar route like it’s some easy hack to making 100k a year. Like anyone can get an apprenticeship anywhere, and all you have to do is learn to use some tools and you’re golden. Not even close lmao

Getting into a union is difficult. They may only hire 3 guys out of thousands of applicants, from high schools, trade schools, private companies. Theres nepotism in the trades too.

Or you get hired by a private company. Then it’s the Wild West in terms of scheduling, pay, mandatory OT, etc.

Then if you get a job, you’re gonna be working from 6:30 am until 7-8 some nights. Saturdays the first year or so too probably. Don’t get me started if your company has on-call. 50 hour week is the norm. The trades are not like a 9-5.

So no, with zero experience and zero connections you will not be getting into an apprenticeship and making 100,000$ a year. And if you do, it’s not just some 9-5 where you punch in and clock out. At the same times every day.

Sorry for the rant, just sick of people who have no idea what they’re talking about spouting off on this stuff.

I’ve noticed something weird online: a huge percentage of the people aggressively telling young people to “skip college and learn a trade” don’t actually work in the skilled trades themselves.

They romanticize it from the outside.

They’ll point to union electrician or lineman wages like that’s the standard outcome, when in reality those are often some of the best-case scenarios, not the norm. If you actually look at U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data, most tradespeople are *not* making $150k+ a year.

And a lot of the “6 figure tradesman” stories conveniently leave out:

* insane overtime

* travel work

* years of apprenticeship

* inconsistent employment

* physical wear and tear on the body

People talk about trades like they’re some cheat code to financial success while ignoring the reality that many of these jobs are physically brutal. Knees, backs, shoulders, hearing, joints — there’s a reason older tradesmen constantly talk about pain.

Another thing I notice is that trade advocates often compare learning a trade to getting a completely non-marketable degree with massive debt attached to it. Of course becoming an electrician or plumber is probably a better financial decision than borrowing $120k for a random liberal arts degree with no career plan.

But that’s not the only alternative.

They also act like every college costs $30k–$80k per year when there are way cheaper paths:

* community college

* in-state universities

* scholarships

* employer tuition assistance

* transferring after 2 years

* commuter schools

A nursing, accounting, engineering, IT, or healthcare degree from an affordable state school is a completely different conversation than taking on huge debt for a low-demand major.

People also love bringing up tradesmen who own successful HVAC/plumbing/electrical companies. But at that point you’re really talking about entrepreneurship, not just “learning a trade.” There are successful entrepreneurs from both blue collar and white collar backgrounds.

And honestly, one of the biggest tells is this:

A lot of skilled tradesmen themselves encourage their kids to go to college if they can.

That doesn’t mean trades are bad. Society absolutely needs skilled labor, and some people genuinely thrive in those careers. But the internet has swung so far in the anti-college direction that people act like college is always a scam and trades are guaranteed wealth.

Neither path is guaranteed.

Both have pros and cons.

But the online conversation around trades feels heavily romanticized by people observing from the outside.

I know two linemen. Both make great money. One is on track to make over $300k this year in a small Midwest town (works probably 60-hour weeks), and the other will make at least $150k working about 45 hours a week. They both love their jobs. If I was starting over in 2026, the age of AI, I would 100% go into this. Every time you say anything about being a lineman, everyone talks about all the overtime and how hard it is. It's not for everyone, but I've worked harder jobs for minimum wage than being a lineman.

I used to work on roofs in the summer making $15/hr. The job was more dangerous, with no benefits, no union, low pay, etc. If you drive a vehicle for your work that's more dangerous than being a lineman. The union has made it a very safe job and the pay is great. I personally know linemen who work less than me and make more, at my cushy white collar job.

Then I even see comments like, "Union contractor JL out of St. Louis. Working 5 days a week, 8-hour days plus some overtime, and I’ll probably be at $140k this year." You can almost choose how much you make too. Like if you want a sane life work max 50 hours a week and make $150k. Want to make $300k+ work a ton. You can flex your hours. Some make $150k working 9 months out of the year. Most white collar jobs your salary is your limit and if you're lucky you can work 11 months of the year.

Most white-collar jobs making the same amount of money are working more than that. The white collar workers can be laid off at any time, less benefits. Go to the r/Lineman subreddit and look. Some are making $600k+. They love the job. It's not the easiest job in the world but the dollar for work its a great job.

I've worked at my company for about five years. I have gotten promotions to Assistant PM and to PM since I started here. The promotions usually are just handled verbally (no real written documentation).

The weird scenario I have is that every other project manager in the company that I know is getting paid salary. When I was promoted early last year, I got the raise associated with it, but I remained classified as hourly and received overtime pay. Fast forward over a year later, I am still getting paid overtime.

Do I have to be worried about potential action being taken since I have been getting paid overtime and other PM's are salary? I am just worried about them asking for the overtime back, but I don't think they have much of a leg to stand on.

I'm capped at making less than $20/hour personally. Given inflation, it's only a matter of time until gas prices exceed that. As it stands, I wouldn't be working this job if I had to drive there. It wouldn't make financial sense. But in the future? Oh gosh.

Is it worth it to work the job? It's not as if I'm gaining any skills there. And I can't get any other job. No reason to go back to college either; it'll just be a repeat of the same old.

Wages haven't truly kept up with cost of living, not for a long time. The version of capitalism that acted as a rising tide to lift all boats is long gone. The next generation isn't needed in the workforce.