Annual Salary?

[Endur]

There's usually only a minor pay advantage after a masters unless it's a professional degree.

I disagree. The pay advantage is not always easy to see, but it is there.

There are a lot of jobs out there where they won't even consider you unless you have a masters degree. Just like there are jobs out there where they won't consider you unless you have a bachelors degree.

This isn't always a written requirement. But when you meet everyone who works there, and everyone has a masters degree+, you understand. Its part of the culture. And it doesn't even have to be a "relevant" masters degree, especially since no degree is directly related to what you do at work.

 

[Darrin Drader]

My household is in a transitionary period, so my annual income was much higher than it is this year, and will likely be much higher than it is this year again.

 

[drothgery]

I find there to be a diminishing return on salary. Like, the jump from say, $30k a year to $50k a year is probably huge, the jump from $50k a year to $70k is probaby hardly noticable at all. Anyone else feel this to be true?

To some degree, but
- I went from $30K to $50K in far less time than it took me to get from $50K to $70K
- My cost of living went up a lot when I went from $50K to $60K
- The ~$70K I make now has been the result of a few annual raises at the job I started at $60K

 

[Imruphel]

I find there to be a diminishing return on salary. Like, the jump from say, $30k a year to $50k a year is probably huge, the jump from $50k a year to $70k is probaby hardly noticable at all. Anyone else feel this to be true?

Yep, very true.

Once I hit six figures, the subsequent increases really had no effect other than to boost my savings. Of course, I'm a one income, one adult household (well, two households in two different countries) so my expenses are fairly low (and many are covered by my companies).

 

[Zander]

Hmmm... This brings up another question from me: Do you have a college, Bachelor's, Masters, or PhD?

If so, how does this correlate to your salary? For me, I make more now than I ever did before I got my BS in CompSci. It helped me get into a more corporate environment with more room for growth.

I have a doctorate from Oxford U. I think it made it harder to get into the business job market to begin with as employers found it intimidating. But it didn't faze my current boss who has a couple of degrees from Harvard (though not a PhD). It certainly helped me get my current position. Now that I have considerable business experience, my doctorate grants me additional credibility and gravitas.

 

[tarchon]

I disagree. The pay advantage is not always easy to see, but it is there.

It's not that there isn't a pay advantage, which there obviously is, but that the pay advantage often doesn't balance out the lost income from the period of study, particularly since the lost income is from early in your life when the opportunity cost of not having the money is relatively high. Sometimes a PhD on top of a masters is monetarily advantageous, but it's usually a toss up.

 

[drothgery]

It's not that there isn't a pay advantage, which there obviously is, but that the pay advantage often doesn't balance out the lost income from the period of study, particularly since the lost income is from early in your life when the opportunity cost of not having the money is relatively high. Sometimes a PhD on top of a masters is monetarily advantageous, but it's usually a toss up.

It really depends on your field. In a lot of scientific fields, a PhD is almost a necessity for a serious research position. In computer science, advanced degrees are worth very little outside of academia and research-oriented positions (though picking up a Masters in CS is worth something if your undergrad degree isn't in CS). At a lot of medium to large companies, an MBA is nearly a pre-requisite for senior management.

 

[Endur]

It's not that there isn't a pay advantage, which there obviously is, but that the pay advantage often doesn't balance out the lost income from the period of study, particularly since the lost income is from early in your life when the opportunity cost of not having the money is relatively high. Sometimes a PhD on top of a masters is monetarily advantageous, but it's usually a toss up.

Well, I'm expecting you to do both. Work full time and go to school.
No lost income from the period of study.

 

[tarchon]

Well, I'm expecting you to do both. Work full time and go to school.
No lost income from the period of study.

For a PhD? I don't know what kind of PhD programs you're familiar with, but that's a pretty unrealistic expectation. It's something you can do with a masters, but I've never seen anyone pull that off on the doctoral level, though sometimes you can get away with doing some part-time consulting.

 

[tarchon]

It really depends on your field. In a lot of scientific fields, a PhD is almost a necessity for a serious research position. In computer science, advanced degrees are worth very little outside of academia and research-oriented positions (though picking up a Masters in CS is worth something if your undergrad degree isn't in CS). At a lot of medium to large companies, an MBA is nearly a pre-requisite for senior management.

Note that I didn't say a PhD isn't worth doing for some reasons, but those fields where a PhD is a prerequisite just to work in them generally are also not the sorts of fields that one goes into to maximize one's income. If someone's advice is "go back to school to get a PhD so you can make more money" they are smoking crack. Period. If their advice is "go back to school to get a PhD if you want to be a rocket scientist instead of a rocket technician," that's good advice.