Getting paid less at a new job
Last week I started a new job in San Francisco. The new position came with a small increase in salary, but I thought this would be a good time to talk about real hourly wage.
I first read about the real hourly wage in Your Money Or Your Life. Most people think of their wage as simply the amount of money they make divided by the number of hours they work. But what many don’t factor in are the small things that are affected by your job everyday. Commuting time should be factored into the number of hours worked, and the cost of commuting should be subtracted from your wage. If you wear jeans and t-shirts to work that’s awesome, but most of us are required to buy some sort of uniform, whether it is a typical uniform or a business suit. This should also be factored into cost.
Even intangibles, like money spent on alcohol or cigarettes to relax after a long day at work should be figured into how much you actually make. So your real hourly wage is the amount of money you make at your job, minus the costs required for you to work, divided by the total number of hours you spend doing work related tasks, including commuting or going to business dinners. It’s very likely you make a lot less than you thought you did when you look at work this way.
So now back to why I started this post.
Before working in the city I commuted to work by car, about 20 miles each way. Not a short commute, but not terrible either. Now I ride BART everyday, which is actually pretty expensive for public transportation, about $10.50 a day. So while I am spending less on gas, I am spending a bit more on BART fare. On top of that I still need to drive to and from the BART station which requires gas. And thanks to the many traffic lights between me and the station I feel like I’m not saving that much on gas.
In addition to the added cost of BART, I am required to dress a little nicer in my new office. So I will need to go out and by some nicer clothes than what I have, and I will probably be spending more on dry cleaning bills.
On top of the increased costs of working in San Francisco, I am now spending more time at work AND spending more time commuting. So it looks like my real wage took a pretty big hit. I was well aware of that when I took the job, but the new job presents a lot of opportunity for me. So for the time being I will have to suck up the small hit until my pay increases, which hopefully doesn’t take too long.
I encourage everyone to think about how much your job costs you. Does working more really get you more when you factor in all of the little things? If your work requires you to spend money is it worth it? If it’s not, what are you doing to make sure that one day you don’t have to work for money anymore?
