Here’s a fun question to ask at your next social gathering: what’s the lowest salary you’d think the average American would be willing to accept for a new job?
Your friends (especially if you remember a time when $50,000 was the median household income) may be surprised to discover that figure is now $81,822 — a new high, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s March survey of Consumer Expectations Labor Market.
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Just four months before, in November 2023, the same survey discovered that most Americans would have been okay with nearly $10,000 less: $73,391 per year.
Yet the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) numbers show that expectations don’t always line up with reality. The median income is at $59,228 — over $20,000 less than what Americans expect from a new job.
If you’re one of the many Americans earning less than that coveted $81,822, there are ways to supercharge your salary.
Find a new job
If you’re like just under half of Americans, you may be feeling dissatisfied with your wage compensation.
Getting a new job may be the key to changing that. Hiring platform ZipRecruiter discovered that 65% of people who switched jobs in the second quarter of 2023 received a pay bump. In fact, a higher salary is why over half of people take new jobs.
However, getting a new job isn’t an easy feat when hiring is apparently slowing down. The BLS reports that, as of March, an unemployed American remains without a job for an average of 22.3 weeks (5.5 months) right now, slightly higher than at the same time the year before.
But if you’re looking for a new role as a deli clerk, sales manager or barista, you may not have any issue finding a new role — and possibly higher pay. LinkedIn says that they’ve seen the highest quarterly increase in paid posts for these jobs on their platform.
Read more: Suze Orman says Americans are poorer than they think — but having a dream retirement is so much easier when you know these 3 simple money moves
Find supplemental income
Maybe you don’t want to quit your job entirely, but you just want a little extra cash on the side. A side hustle might be the best choice for you.
Side hustles can be as simple as selling your old VHS tapes, creating an Etsy store of your artwork or Uber driving. Some people even start full-fledged businesses on the side.
It’s likely that you have a skillset or items that can be monetized. Use them to find ways to make you a bit more money.
But keep in mind that some business experts are skeptical of the value of side hustles. New York University professor of marketing Scott Galloway believes that you should focus on one hustle to make more money.
“The way to economic security, the way to success, the way to professional currency, in my view, is [to be] 110% focus[ed] on one thing,” he said on his podcast, The Prof G Pod.
Find ways for your money to make money
Investing is an accessible, low-effort way to make your money work for you. It’s also one of the riskiest, depending on your investment portfolio and risk tolerance.
Even if your paycheck isn’t much, personal finance author Suze Orman says it’s important to start putting away some money early on to take advantage of compound interest.
“[Young people] don’t understand the value of compounding and that the key to their financial independence is their age,” Orman told The Wall Street Journal in an interview.
NYU’s Stern School of Business calculated that if you’d invested $100 in the S&P 500 back in 1928, that investment would be worth over $780,000 now. The average American worker may not be investing for a century, but say you’d put aside $100 at the start of your career in 1928, 35 years later that initial investment would have grown to $2,285.80 (equivalent to $22,322 today).
The sooner you start, the more time will do the heavy lifting for you.
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This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
