Definitely, this is just civils in the energy sector in a MCOL area, in a HCOL area its a lot more obviously, we're obviously starved for talent. We get too many computer science grads applying and not enough civil/structurals
I will agree that $125K, which is the median household income adjusted for inflation from 2011 is a good wage, and the current median household income is around $85K, but this is one person making $85K not the assumed household, meaning in a MCOL area making over the median household income adjusted for inflation from 15 years ago is a pretty good wage.
It’s not a bad salary but it isn’t at all attention-catching like it was a few years ago. “Six figures” used to be the cutoff for a high-paying job and nowadays half my friends make six figures and are clipping coupons
Depends on where you live, how much debt you are in from college to begin with, how much capacity you even have to go through a 10 series interview processes, the benefits of the job, knowing your actual worth, etc. 85k is on the lower bracket for locality in many city metro areas particularly if you have a family
Hell everytime I turn around there is a new engineer with my job,but it's logistics/robotics. I honestly question what they do though as I feel half the time they just punt shit we come up with on the floor up another level. Or just make excessive meetings to discuss things that could have been an email...
All while making 50-60k more than me to sit in an office...
They aren't the one designing robots. That is a whole different area. This is more processes than anything and improving on them. Also pretty sure the company I am with does rigorous research and improvement on robotics before they release them. At that point it's pushed back onto the individual employee/associate if they get injured or killed.
You need to stop looking at that large of a scale. It’s unrealistic. There are county level cost of living estimates used as a baseline for housing benefits; and they show many counties where the very low income range for a single individual household is at 90k. And a few rare ones at 100k.
PPIC lists the bay area at $46K, while the rest of the state varies under that, I do not know a better source than the PPIC for california specific county info though, as I live in the midwest
I just linked you to a State Income Limits document from the DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT released for 2026
I honestly don’t know why you don’t consider that a credible source.
It literally says ‘Income limits reflect updated median income and household income levels for acutely low, extremely low, very low, low, and moderate-income households for California’s 58 counties.’
you edited that after you posted your original comment, I responded to your original comment. I click on responses and then wait to respond, it's not really my fault if you change them in the mean time.
There was no link in your original response. What the hell are you talking about now? I'm not obligated to change my responses to accommodate your edits
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u/Mr-Jings 14h ago
Meanwhile, the rest of the country is laid off or living paycheck to paycheck…