this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2024
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Upper class problems
My mother seriously recommended I hire cleaners if I wasn't able to always keep my place clean at a time in my life where I was super busy.
I made like $30k in 2014. I wasn't poor by any stretch, but suggesting I hire cleaners was a clear indicator of how out of touch she was with the lower half of the middle class.
That’s what $14 an hour? That’s minimum wage in most U.S states.
It is now but the comment mentioned 2014.
I graduated college in '14 and got my first professional job that August. I made $17.09 an hour and I was an 85% FTE. I was still in grad school at the time (never finished, whoops). That inflates to right about $22 today, if the BLS' inflation numbers are to be trusted. Or about $39k at 85% FTE
My rent was $800 in uptown Oklahoma City.
Again, I was doing alright for a single guy with a bachelor's degree at 22 with little work experience. I kept my bills and rent paid. I got to buy a PC component every once in a while. Sure, I wasn't going on vacation every year, but I wasn't starving.
But I was a long way away from hiring cleaners. I couldn't really afford a therapist back then. Which I desperately needed more than I realized.
Oklahoma's minimum wage still follows federal, but most places do start at $9 or $10 anymore. Still not nearly enough. And that's really in the city. Out in the sticks, you're making $7.25.
My mother makes a near median salary but still hires someone to clean her apartment every 2 weeks because she hates cleaning. To pay for it and other things she does pet sitting and travel booking on the side.
Division of labor is a useful thing.
Comfortable middle class. Upper class people have full time servants. They don't come to your house. They're just always there.
The traditional definition of middle class was being able to afford a servant or two.
These days it's certainly well within middle class income to hire a cleaning service, have groceries delivered, etc.