How much do New Yorkers make? 🗽

Hey, Hannah here! We just got back from Massachusetts to interview festival goers at The Big E. 🎠

This was the second stop of our tour—we’ll be in New Orleans on Wednesday for a trade women’s conference and on Saturday, we’ll be at the Texas State Fair! 

Interested in meeting us? Reply to this email (or DM us on social media!) and we’ll coordinate a time. 💚

How Much Do New Yorkers Make? 🗽

Let’s face it: NYC isn’t for the faint of heart—or wallet. Ranked the seventh most expensive city in the world, a $100,000 salary shrinks to just $35,791 (!) when you factor in taxes and cost of living. 

Since NYC can be a tough place to thrive—or even just survive—it made perfect sense to kick off our 2024 Transparent Tour in the Big Apple. 🍎 How much do New Yorkers earn to afford living here? And do they feel fairly compensated? 

Here are three professionals who shared their answers:  

Ad Sales 

We met a New Yorker with 10 years of ad sales experience who earns $300,000 OTE with a 50/50 split. Breaking down that salary: 

• OTE means “on-target earnings,” which is the total pay someone earns if they hit all their sales targets. 

• The 50/50 split likely means half of their compensation is a fixed base salary (in this case, $150,000) while the other half is commissions or bonuses. So if they meet their sales quota, they pocket the full $300,000. 

Management Consultant 

Next up, a management consultant with three years of experience earning $130,000 a year. If you’re wondering, “What does a management consultant even do?!” you’re not alone. 😅

Basically, management consultants help companies solve problems and implement solutions. Those include business dilemmas such as:

• “Should we enter this new market?” 

• “Should we invest in this new technology?” 

• “How do we organize our business structure?” 

This consultant's best piece of advice? Be a people person. The role is mostly client-facing, meaning you’re meeting—and presenting—to tons of people daily! 

Actor with Three Side-Jobs

We also met an aspiring actress juggling three jobs as she pursues her dreams in NYC. Those jobs are…

1. Custodian: $17 an hour 

2. Receptionist: $19 an hour 

3. Freelance Photographers Assistant: $40 an hour 

Currently, she’s earning less than $25,000 a year as she just went on Medicaid. We’re incredibly inspired by this actress’ tenacity and hustle (and manifesting that she wins a Tony Award in the future). 

We interviewed dozens more New Yorkers—from a former metro employee turned entrepreneur to a self-employed managing director earning $175K. Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel to get the full scoop!

Grab your popcorn 🍿 because in this episode of Two Cents, we’re revealing the behind-the-scenes secrets from our past street interview tours! 

Tune in to hear:

• The reason why you shouldn’t trust Dollar Rental  

• The one thing not to do if you ever run into us in public 

• Why Vegas is the worst state we’ve done interviews in (sorry to our Nevadan readers 💔) 

• Big win for Massachusetts ride share drivers. 🚙 Uber and Lyft drivers will now earn a minimum of $32.50 per hour plus benefits including paid sick leave, accident insurance, and healthcare stipends. Let’s ride!

• Billionaires are after the people of Solano County, CA. 🙅‍♀️ Silicon Valley elites have spent over $900 million to build a private “utopian city” in Solano County. Now? They’re suing farmers who refuse to sell their land. This is as George Orwell as it gets.

• Frontier flight attendants vote to strike. 🛬 They’re protesting Frontier’s “out-and-back” business model, which slashes stipends and forces flight attendants to travel to the airport on their own dime more often.

• Data center jobs are on the rise. 💾 Employment jumped 17% from 2017 to 2021, per The Washington Post. Now, it’s not uncommon to see data center salaries fetching up to $150,000. Even better? As AI grows, so will the demand for these roles.

Thanks for being here! A friendly reminder that it is not rude to discuss your salary! The notion that it’s inappropriate (or even illegal) is all because of turn-of-the-century capitalism…and bosses who want to avoid scenarios like this.👇 

See you next week!