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Discover what your job should pay—and how to earn it. Hosted by a PhD in HR and compensation analytics expert, What It Pays goes beyond generic advice with real salary data, behavioral insights, and a research-backed system built to help professionals thrive. Whether you're negotiating your first offer or aiming for your next raise, we break down what works, what’s fair, and what’s next. With actionable advice, inspiring stories, and expert-backed tools, this podcast helps early and mid-career professionals unlock their full earning potential.
The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, tax, career, or professional advice. Listeners should consult qualified professionals before making any decisions based on anything discussed. Opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not reflect the views of the host or CompRatio LLC.
Bruce (00:01)
Everyone's chasing $100,000, but how do we know if that's actually enough? Today we're unpacking all the numbers, the myths, and what it actually means for you and your career, and of course, your compensation. I'm Dr. Bruce Brown, PhD in HR, and this is the What It Pays podcast. This is a show that brings salary transparency into the real world. So today we got a couple different segments going on. So the first I want to get us started with is this article from Bank Raid. So,
On this article, it was talking about, it's the financial freedom survey they conducted, in which a quarter of respondents, they said 26%, say they need $150,000 or more per year to feel comfort in their salary. Now that said 16%, actually said over $200,000. 8 % said over $500,000 in order to just feel comfortable. Now,
This is interesting because according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, their most recent data, the median salary is $41,000 and change. And so if you're new to this, the median salary means that's the middle point. So half of the salaries are above that, half of the salaries are below that. So when we're saying $150,000 is what, at minimum, a quarter of their survey respondents said they needed in order to feel comfortable.
you're already talking three times the median salary. half the US population makes less than $41,000 a year. And so this is a really interesting statistic. And as you can see, if you're watching this on YouTube, here's the actual break histogram going over all this, bar chart. And so you've got individuals saying, yeah, 19 % saying they need 100,000 to 149,000.
And then 150,000 plus is where it goes over to that 26 % with 5 % saying they need a million dollars or more a year in order to just feel comfortable. So there's this Reddit thread that I also saw on the salary subreddit and it said, why do people continue to use six figures as their standard of success in a given career? Is it an IQ thing? Do they not understand inflation?
And then they tagged this Twitter slash X post that says $100,000 a year salary in January 2020 has the current buying power as $124,000 in change in April 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. So yeah, so inflation's a thing, things are getting more expensive, buying power is definitely a thing, but as we've already talked about, that's three times the median income in the United States.
It's a pretty significant change there. And yes, things go up and things like that. But when we look at it, this this hundred thousand dollars plus six figures. Also, there's a lot of different six figures. One hundred thousand dollars a six figure. So is nine hundred thousand nine hundred ninety nine. But when we typically say six figures, we're talking about one hundred thousand. And so over the years, it's been associated with a cheap quote, unquote achievement. Comparison culture feeds into this a lot. And it's
Nice to have, definitely, sure. But when we think about it, it's like, is that actually a number to measure ourselves against? Sure, yes, it does have certain things with it, but it's not like $100,000 means exactly these things happen. So the key is, how are we in our day-to-day world continuing to progress every single day in what we're doing with our salary, our careers, and more? And it's the wrong questions, right? So...
We also might be in a career that given that career that we're currently in, that job that we're currently in amongst the nexus and an entire ecosystem of careers we might have in our lifetime, that job might not warrant $100,000 or more in a given year. The skills and return on investment for that product, it might not be that, but also it doesn't mean that that's actually what you need in order to thrive where you are. Cost of living is definitely a thing.
And so there's some better questions that should be asked instead of am I making $100,000 or more? And one of the best questions we should ask ourselves is like, am I maximizing my career? Do I even know what this job that I'm going into or this field of study that I'm wanting to pivot to or the field of study that I'm in or the job that I'm in? Do I even know what I should be getting paid given my requisite skills, knowledge, expertise, abilities, years of experience, et cetera?
And for a lot of people, the answer is no, you don't know. And so that's part of what we're here to help with. It's giving that career confidence and that salary transparency that way. So that way you can make informed decisions and realistic decisions by knowing what's actually going on. And there's some better statistics for this. So one of the things that we really lean in on is using that median salary. That median salary, again, is the halfway point of any job. And so half the country is going to make more than that.
Half the country's gonna make less than that. And what you can do is you can take your salary in a benchmark job, so you look at some big data sets like we have over at whatitpays.com. We're launching a really cool tool really soon in which you're gonna be able to compare your salary to the state you're in, to the nation, kind of see how everything stacks up, and get some tailored consulting advice based on that, where you can check an offer or check your salary, et cetera. So if you wanna be part of that,
go over to whatitpays.com, sign up for the newsletter. So you can take your salary divided by the median salary to get what's called a comp ratio. Sometimes called a comp ratio, but we're just gonna call it a comp ratio because that's so much nicer. And so you can then determine where in relation to the median salary your salary is, right? So if you are making, let's say, half the median for your position, well,
I hope that you are like brand new entry level and don't have the requisite knowledge or skills and are really being given an opportunity rather than already have the skill sets, been in it for a number of years, are very experienced, you should be having a very different comp ratio than half with one being the median salary. And this is a metric that we use in HR to then determine, okay, where are people? And so when you look at things, you can actually have
Okay, well, if it's here, it's gonna be more of an entry level role. somewhere around 0.7 to 0.8 around there, or this person's been in this skill set that an individual might be bringing to this is really industry leading is on the far end of this, they might be at like 1.2 or higher. So use multiples of that median salary. And so that's really the important part there. It's not about am I making $100,000 but
What am I doing right now in the job I have and am I even maximizing the thing that I'm literally in right now? Because you can always, yeah, you can be looking down the road, but if we're not looking where we're standing, we're over dollars to pick up pennies, right? So we're kind of focused on the wrong thing. Because if we're able to maximize what we're doing now, well, that's gonna compound every year. So if you're getting raises each year, et cetera.
Well, if you start at the wrong spot or you're not being paid in alignment with where you should be getting paid, though that's going to have a trickle effect that's going to compound in a negative direction for you over time. And so this is really, really helpful in terms of kind of reframing what success means, because honestly, things cost only certain certain amounts. And so as long as you're avoiding lifestyle creep and things like that, then you're able to continually over time.
build a really great career for yourself. So the first thing though is where am I standing and how am I in relation to things based on my experience, my knowledge, my skills, my abilities, and then maximizing that to take it to the next level, which is gonna be really great. So one of the things we're doing over on Instagram that you definitely wanna check out is this thing called Median Monday. So every Monday we're posting a median salary for a role. Like we were just talking about that median, so half of the salaries are below it, half the salaries are above it.
for that job. And so every Monday we're posting a different state with a different job. So yesterday's, in case you missed it, was all about HR benefit managers in the state of Florida. And so it's just a nice reference point of, well that's what's going on with that salary over there. And so you definitely wanna go check that out. Make sure to go over on Instagram and follow at what it pays so you can see all those Media Mondays. Come on over and shoot us a DM if you ever wanna be like asking questions, shoot us stuff like that.
So it's gonna be really great. And of course you can also link to that just going into the show notes of this episode on YouTube or in whatever podcast you're listening to this on. So let's talk more about really diving in on these whole salary things. Another thread I saw over on Reddit was, this is on the salary subreddit. It's literally one of the most basic posts I've ever seen. It's pharmacist, comma, what's your salary? That's it.
Like that's the header and then there is a little bit of detail but like there's nothing. It's a one line, one sentence. We're not even gonna talk about it. Yeah, so pharmacist, what's your salary? So this is where this person's trying to hopefully do exactly what we were just talking about of knowing what's on the horizon for a field they're wanting to go into, right? Now we're not gonna talk about the rising costs of higher education and in order to get a pharmacy degree.
And that process which I have some friends who have done that it takes a lot of work and kudos to them I thank them for all of the things and keeping us healthy and safe But pharmacists like what do you do like so like how do you what's that salary? So what I'm gonna do right now is I'm gonna do this live and when the tool goes live Again, go over to what it pays calm join the newsletter so you can find out all the latest about the tool that's gonna be coming out for individuals and for businesses to look up job salaries
the track employees over time, track your own salary over time, set your career goals, et cetera, over at whatitpays.com. So I'm going to do this live. I have the databases up in front of me on my computer and we're going to look at pharmacists. Now we didn't get a state that this person might be in or anything like that. And we're going to assume they're at like the more entry point. We're going to assume they're at the more entry point of their career because it seems like they don't know what's going on. Right. And so
nationally, the median salary for someone who is a pharmacist is according to the latest data set is $137,480. So $137,480. Again, that's the median. So half of individuals make less than that half of individuals make more than that who are pharmacists. And so if
someone's brand new to pharmacy, I wouldn't be expecting $137,000 nationally right out the gate, right? So it's like assuming just because you graduated, you're gonna be a director. No, you gotta do your time. You gotta learn some things. Now if you happen to happen into that, great. But that doesn't mean that's what you should realistically expect. So when we think about that, we can look at that and then do those multipliers like we were talking about.
And so if we were to think about it, so if we were to assume maybe a 0.8 comp ratio, that would put them about $110,000, $111,000 right in there for somebody who's more entry level nationally. Now remember, there's cost of living differences from being in Louisiana, West Virginia, California, Texas, Hawaii, New York, et cetera. But nationally,
There's $137,000. Also, interestingly, according to the data, I'm pulling some of this data from Bureau of Labor Statistics, there's 328,000 pharmacists in the United States, which is really interesting.
And then so with the tool that's coming out, you're also gonna be able to look at it by state. And so I thought pulling a little bit of state data, hoping that the person who posted this might actually be in one of these states. This is you, please reach out and let us know, it'd be great. And I'd love to know your thoughts on some of this and how any of this speaks to you. So make sure to email any questions to podcasts at whatitpays.com. But the top median salaries in the United States are...
California, Alaska, Oregon, Washington, and Minnesota, interestingly, for pharmacists. And that salary range, I'm gonna toss in Hawaii too, because that makes it to 150 as that median salary, and that goes all the way up to 165 in California. So Hawaii, number six, is at $150,000, going all the way up to $165,000.
for those in California. Again, this is the median salary. If you're brand new to it, you're just graduating, you should not be expecting the median salary in those states. You should be expecting lower than that. So I would drop these numbers by about 30K just for reference point to get that kind of Agamor accurate like entry level, which is great. Now I know we just talked all about this goal of $100,000 and things, but and how that might not be the right.
metric but what we have to do is we have to take things in context of the job a pharmacist is doing medical things medical has a skill set that demands a higher salary because it's literally Saving people's lives making them healthy etc And so it's really important to think about that and then on the flip side. We also have to think about it Okay, is it content context really? Wherever you are doing a job does matter because on the flip side of the salaries we just talked about
We do have the bottom ones. So we've got Louisiana, the US Virgin Islands, Rhode Island, Guam, and Puerto Rico for the lowest salaries there, for the lowest median salaries with the highest one of those ones we just listed at $129,000 going all the way down to $107,000. So where you are is gonna matter for the salaries that you're benchmarking and that we're benchmarking. And it also is a very different conversation.
And so when you're looking at data, the area that you might be in does play a big difference, right? The cost of living is different. You're probably seeing other costs also go down theoretically by where you're living. And so you're able to maximize in different ways. But again, we're here to help. And so as you have questions and navigating around all of your salary decisions, your career development, and kind of what's next for your job, and maybe you don't know what should even be comparing us,
Feel free to send in those questions to podcasts at whatitpays.com. me an Instagram DM, whatever is the best way for you. So that way it can help you navigate all of this, right? And so what's really important is that we are taking intentional choices and purposeful actions with our salaries and our careers to set ourselves up for that really great success one step at a time. And that first step is really looking where am I at? How am I maximizing things?
because everything else is really out into the future, but I can change where I'm at right now by being able to understand where I'm at right now. And so, like I said, my name is Dr. Bruce Brown. I have a PhD in HR and this is What It Pays. I am so thankful that you are here. Go on over to whatitpays.com to sign up for the newsletter to find out all of the latest things coming out on salary transparency, information on personal finance related to careers, and then also stay up to date on all the things for the app that's coming out.
so you can go in and manage your salary over time as well as employers, can go in and also look this up for your own employees. So please feel free to do all those things and until next time, go make your positive impact on the world and understand what you should be paid and what it pays. See you next time.