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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.
What It Pays (00:09)
If you're trying to figure out if your salary is fair, you're not alone. Salaries can be really confusing and that's why we're here to help. Today we're gonna be breaking down some real stories from real people in Montana and New York trying to figure out what salary they should be paid as well as to look at some other HR questions like how does compensation time work when I have a lot of hours in one pay period? And so whether you're in Montana or trying to figure out if it's right in New York City, we're here to help.
So my name is Dr. Bruce Brown. have a PhD in human resources, and this is the What It Pays podcast, where I'm bringing salary transparency into the real world so you can make smarter career and compensation decisions for you and your family. And as a side note, if you ever want to ask a question, you can always email those into podcast.
at whatitpays.com. it's podcasts at whatitpays.com. And everything that we're gonna be doing, I'm actually building a tool for you to be able to use at whatitpays.com. So make sure to go over there and join the newsletter, because I just hired a developer to help make this become a reality. So you can run all of your own comp analysis of all the kind of fun math that we're gonna be running through today to set these people up for the success, because we know they want to be successful and we wanna help them get on there. So.
Side note, if you haven't noticed over on Instagram, at what it pays, I've been doing a median Monday. So median salary is the salary in which half of the population who have that job make less than that number and the other half make more than that number. This is the gold standard measurement of salaries. And so every Monday we're posting a different job from a different state and the median salary for that job. So this week's is all on Vet Techs . So Vet Techs is going out.
and helping at all our veterinary for our small dogs and cats and all the fun things and kind of find out what the median salary for that career is, specifically in Montana. And so if you're ever curious about vet tech, it's good to know what's going on and by looking at these other ones or if you're looking at anything adjacent in the bio realm, it's always good to know what you could potentially go into with those degrees.
the first story I have for you today is from Reddit. This is a post-grad salary in New York City. So personally, I am from New York. I grew up just across the river from New York City. Would go into New York City all the time. So I can relate to this. Now what's also important to know is that costs can be very different in different places. So we're not only gonna look at the salary, but we're also gonna look at typical cost of living stuff, kind of basic high level.
And when you go onto whatitpays.com and you sign up for the newsletter, you're gonna see how we're actually building in a cost calculator for that cost of living so you can forecast your living expenses and what it's gonna be like to live with whatever salary it is in a given space. So that way you can maximize your margin and maximize your lifestyle. So this one's called, it's on the salary subreddit, reasonable salary for a post-grad job in New York City. I'm going to graduate college this year and
I have received a full-time offer, congratulations, to be a finance analyst at a bank. The office is in New York City, which is notorious for their cost of living, but I am receiving an $81,000 base salary with a $11,000 signing bonus. This is great for them. That's an amazing signing bonus for an immediate post-grad. Now, right off the bat, we know New York City is gonna be a little bit more expensive, but what's great about our salary data that we're gonna be using
is actually pulling from New York. So we're going to look at that. Additionally, we're really going to focus in on the base compensation because yes, that signing bonus is nice, but it's only going to get you so far. And so we really want to look at that base comp and kind of figure out what's going on there. And so when we look at New York City, first of all, let's just look at the stretch of this. So if we do $81,000.
and this person is single, we're gonna figure out kind of what they're expecting take home after tax. And they're in New York, broad strokes, they are looking at, let me delete some expenses, they're gonna be looking at about $4,800 a month in take home after tax. This is not taking out anything for food or housing, et cetera.
So $4,800 per month is what we're looking at after tax. But when we look at financial analysts in New York, the median salary, which we've already discussed, is the midway point. So half of the individuals who are financial analysts make less than this, half make more. Now, what's important to know, though, is this person is saying that they're just coming out of their masters. So I think it's fair to assume that they have
maybe some internships under their belt, but no real full-time work, which is really gonna move the needle. So the median salary, if we're looking at that, that's gonna be somebody more entry level, but the thing is, a financial analyst really looks at like needing a bachelor's degree. So this person's already coming in with a master's, so they are coming in with a higher level of experience in terms of education. The question's always gonna be, how is this person actually in knowing their skills for the job at hand?
So you need a balance of education plus experience. And so for side note, when I was doing my PhD, I was working full time and took a little bit longer to do that PhD because I wanted that real work experience and the PhD, which kind of created a launch pad for after. It's just a good practice for those going out and getting any kind of advanced degree. The more you can get actual experience, the better combo of a package you're going to be as a candidate. So when we look at this, I ran some numbers.
And so we have $81,000 base. They have a master's so they're coming in a little higher their current comp ratio if we look at their median salary the median salary for this role funny all financial analysts in New York is a hundred and twenty six thousand dollars in change so the median salary the median salary then is about forty six forty five thousand dollars higher than this starting salary. Yes, they have a nice
Sinon bonus of 11,000 bringing them to $92,000 for that first year, but that extra $11,000 goes away after that. And so this could look pretty seriously under comped. So there's a really good ratio that we kind of look at in the HR realm called comp ratio, which you take the median salary and you divide that into the base salary. And so when we look at that, we're looking at a
64 % of the median is how much they're making. So this role is making 64 % of the median. Somebody coming straight out of a master's program, and again, this only required a bachelor's theoretically, I would expect to see that more around the 80th percentile. So we'd be looking at an even 100K, and that's just base salary. That's not talking any kind of sign-on bonus and things like that.
Although that sign-on bonus of that first year is bringing this person closer to that kind 0.8 or 80 % ratio, this is probably under comped. The other thing we need to think about is we need to contextualize this, right? So again, this is in New York. So I did a quick look before jumping on this podcast and the average studio apartment as of right now recording this in 2025, the average studio apartment costs
$3200 a month in Manhattan. Well, when they're taking home $4800 a month, that's only gonna leave them not much, $1600 a month in available expenses. So when we look at that math, just to break that out, 3200 divided into 4800? Yeah, so they've got about 45 % of their take-home salary.
left because this has taken up two-thirds of their salary so that's not going to get them very far and so they're going to probably need to be looking at housing situations in which they're living with others and things like that and that's just if they had just had to pay for housing. They've also got to pay for food, they might have a student loan, hopefully not, or other debts. Luckily being in Manhattan you really don't need a car so that should kind of take that away but this
If I had to talk to this person or got the opportunity to talk to this person, I would recommend that they have conversations about what's going on with the actual data for financial analysts in New York and leverage their experiences. Hopefully they got some cool experiences coming into this and really help set themselves up for success because this is going to compound over time, right? So let's say they get a 5 % increase on $81,000, where that's not gonna go as far.
as if they were to start at 100. They're always gonna be about 20 % behind. And so we definitely don't wanna see that. But again, highly recommend leaning into the experiences here. We don't know those kinds of things about them, so we don't wanna jump to too many conclusions. But really we wanna set this person up for success. And in looking at it, this position is under comped. And so what's interesting about that, we've got another one coming up here in a little bit that I want you to remember this one.
This is really important though, kind of some takeaways. New grads often don't know what's a fair salary in some these high cost of living areas. And so that's part of what we're here to help with. And also New York City and New York State for that matter is a salary transparent city and state. And so the salary should have been disclosed on the job posting for that position to comply with those state laws. And so at this time, as of recording this, and I'm not an attorney, I'm not your attorney, but
Salary transparency is a thing and New York and some other states have been kind of leading the way on that. So when we walk through all this, it's important to think about whenever you're thinking about your salary, hey, do I have a benchmark for this? Do I have a place I can go to get a real salary? And that's what What It Pays is here for. So go to whatitpays.com and make sure to put your information into the email subscribing so that way you can get stay up to date on all of that's coming out for the new tool that we're gonna be launching.
where you're gonna be able to run all of the comp analysis on yourself and set yourself and your career up for hopefully even better success. So let's go to the next one.
So this one is talking about comp time. And for those unfamiliar, comp time is the ability for you to just take some time off. It's not paid time off. You get paid for it, but it's just you're taking time off. You're decreasing the value, decreasing the amount of paid time off you have or sick time or things like that. It's usually because you work a lot of hours and then that next pay period, it's like, hey,
Take Monday off kind of thing if you were to work all weekend and they want to kind of honor that for you Sometimes this role is a flexible schedule But really it's the best way to do is in good coordination with your manager. So this person says they work in video production and they went on a big shoot and They're leaving Sunday and returning Friday. So less than no well one week essentially Or almost a whole week almost all seven days
between all the days they're gonna be working around 80 hours total. So six days working 80 hours, so you're looking at close to 10 hour days, which could be a lot. Excuse me. And so it's not in the company policy at all, but they understand that salary's supposed to cover extra hours, but they feel like 80 hours is a little high. So let's talk about this. So what they're insinuating is that they're also an exempt employee. And so...
When we look at jobs across the United States, there's a thing called the Fair Labor Standards Act, which classifies a two-part test. One is the type of role that's in act, so the job itself, and then two is the salary. And if either of those two things meet a certain threshold, then that role is exempt. What exempt means for a full-time staff member is, regardless of the number of hours of work you do, at least 40, you are paid for
That's pretty much how works. And so you're tracking all your time like this person, they have an 80 hour a week, they're still just gonna get paid their normal salary, week salary, which is if you were to take your salary and put it into a 40 hour chunk. And so typically what we see here is this person's kind of going about it in an interesting way of an interesting situation is they know it's coming. They know that this Sunday they're gonna be going out and doing this work.
then for six days. So they can plan for it too. So because they know it's coming, my advice would be for them to talk to their manager and say, hey, I know we've got this big shoot coming up, here's all the prep we're doing, because you've got probably a lot of hours coming in on the front end. And then if they're in video, I want to also make the assumption they might do some editing on the back end. So they're also gonna have a lot to then edit pretty soon after they shoot it all. And so...
What I would recommend, because it doesn't sound like there's going to be a decrease in bandwidth, is the conversation with that manager, or that production company, and say, hey, we know that we got this big shoot coming up. I'm wanting to make sure that I'm going to be my best in my A game, as of course, because I want to get the best shots and also be able to recover from it to then do the best editing. And so while I know we're going to be working a lot and I know I'm exempt, I would like to know if it's possible for me to adjust when I would have taken those weekend days.
and kind of put that in the middle of the week. So kind of flexing some of that out. So it's not that they're missing out on having that Sunday kind of thing, but the most important thing is seeing your manager as a partner in y'all's success together and two, having open and real conversations with them and saying, hey, I'm acknowledging that this is going on. I am here to make this awesome. And I want to make sure that we're all going to be set up for success by doing this.
And so just have a real honest conversation with that manager and then kind of take it from there. And you're not gonna, don't live in the game of what if they say this and what if they say that. Live in the real, data is your friend and just go do the next right thing and that is just having a realistic and human talk with your manager to set all of this up for success. And so when we think about it, some people often think that comp time equals like paid overtime. That's not how it is.
it's comp time is a recognition of a lot of hours or a reward for going through a season of something. And that employer wants to recognize that by giving some time that doesn't decrease PTO banks and things like that. and this all kind of comes from understanding that they're an exempt employee. so protecting your time though is really important. It's just as important as protecting your compensation and your paycheck. because
if you're not able to have that time, A, you could burn out, but then B, you don't have anything, any time to be able to use that money. Also, the more stretched you are, the more that you might go and do takeout or different things because your margin is that much more decreased of your time. And so it's really important that we set the whole person up for success. And so the third one we've got is pretty much the same salary as the one from New York, but this one's gonna be
This was also from the salary subreddit. Is an $85,000 a year salary with a $7,500 signing bonus a good?
Specifically for Dallas, Texas a lot different than Manhattan So four thousand dollars more you know, in Texas but also at another major metro city and And Dallas is one of the more expensive cities in Texas Followed behind Austin, of course, so they're saying also their systems engineer. So
different scope where the other one is a financial analyst, this one's a systems engineer. So it's gonna have a different benchmark, besides for the fact that it also has a different state. And they're curious how hard should they go and look for other jobs? It's not that they're not satisfied with the salary, but they think that they would leave the company if I was getting around $95,000. So this person is already saying, ooh, how hard should I go look for other opportunities?
because I would leave if it was more at $95,000. So again, we're $10,000 different. We're in a state that has zero income taxes of the time of this recording. And so let's just talk about the difference in take-home pay. So first of all, remember at $81,000 in Manhattan, we were looking at about $4,800 a month in take-home pay. Change that to 85,000. Now let's change this to Texas.
And so immediately we're taking home an additional $700 a month. So after federal taxes, you're looking around $5,500 a month. Okay, cool. But that's not everything we talked about before. There's other costs that come with things. So I ran one number earlier just to kind of see where it's at. And that is same studio apartment rent. And so I got this from apartments.com, a studio apartment in Dallas, Texas. Drum roll, please.
$1,200 a month. In New York, we are looking at $3,200 a month. So not only is this position gonna be bringing home an extra $700 a month, it's also saving $2,000 a month. And so $2,700 a month swing just by those factors. And so this person is saying that, hey, is this gonna be a good thing for me to be in? So that's a different conversation. But first of all,
Let's just talk about this. New grad, not even with a master's, just a new grad in software, which honestly, systems engineering, yeah, you better have that bachelor's. But a brand new grad, you're probably looking pretty good. We haven't even looked at the state data for this one. We just know that the margin is gonna be there, assuming they don't have a lot of debt or things like that. But in Dallas, you definitely need to have a car. Because you have to drive everywhere. I'm saying that for somebody who lives in Texas.
So let's look at software engineers now. So when we look at software engineering in Texas, the median salary, again, the median salary is half of the individuals make less, half the individuals make more. The median salary is actually relatively similar to what that financial analyst one was. It's $130,000 a year. But again, this is a brand new grad. They do not have a master's. The position only requires a bachelor's.
And so they're coming in bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. I'm gonna hope that they have some sort of internship or things like that. But when we look at their comp ratio, again, it's about the same because the other one was pretty close, but their comp ratio is 0.65 or 65 % of median. Now, in all honesty, because they're coming in with the basic...
level of education, they didn't say anything about any internships they've had, etc. I could see them coming in more of the 70th percentile at, so maybe bumping it up to 91. But honestly, I would be curious about what the growth trajectory just looks like, right? Because we don't want to just find the salary we're coming in with. It's, okay, what's that career going to be for me in these next couple of years? Because we're not just chasing
that number, we're also chasing a whole lifestyle and environment that's gonna set you up for success now and success later. Because if they're willing to invest in you and have a $7,500 signing bonus, are there other opportunities for growth that they're also going to unlock for you, And so we really wanna be thinking about that. Now, their question though was, is this okay? Not knowing anything about their expenses and things.
assuming they don't have lot of other expenses, I think they're gonna be okay. The important part though is just because you're fresh out of college and you're making $85,000 a year doing software engineering and you're in a low cost of living state like Texas does not mean to live immediately like you're making $85,000 or higher amount of salary a year. Make sure you pay off all your debts and those kind of things and you're just got out of college so you're to living like you're in college.
And so get used to living in that salary for a little bit before you get in let any lifestyle creep and other things seep in so that way you can really set up your financial future and your career and not having it just pour out and so I think they're gonna be okay I think they're close to the things now. Do I think they could also have a conversation about this? Yeah, and I also think that's part of why they're offering the $7,500 signing bonus to take them closer in that first year
to that 91k, they're actually gonna be just above that. So I think they're gonna be okay, I think they're actually pretty right positioned. But that question they asked of, ooh, should I keep pushing just to see if I can get some place that has 95? Well, I'm curious with the place that you got the offer from, if you actually are excited to work with that team. Now, if you find a place that you love the team, love the things,
it's 95,000, then sure, go for that. But I wouldn't just leave just for that change in comp. You're looking at like 5 % maybe in difference overall, especially after the first year. And so, no, I wouldn't just chase that to chase that immediately. Just to be real with you, I wouldn't necessarily just chase that. But is this...
is this position going to be setting them up for success? That's gonna really be up to them. And so if you have questions about your offers that you're getting or your compensation and what maybe you should be getting and want kind of a deep dive analysis, I'm here to help. Shoot that over to podcast at whatitpays.com. Happy to potentially feature you on the show and maybe even ask you some questions back and forth over email to learn a little bit more about you to give you more tailored advice. And again, we're actually gonna be launching a tool
that you're gonna be able to plug all this stuff in and have this data all the time and even update your salary over time, update your expenses, you're gonna be able to see your margin. And so when we think about things, your paycheck is more than just a number. It's a tool to build the career and life you wanna have. And if you have a salary question, you're not alone. The most common thing is people working a job. And so we all have salaries of some way, whether it's hourly salary, et cetera.
or other kind of compensation like stock units, et cetera, we all have this going on. And so let's normalize some more conversations around it and also around maximizing yourself and your career because the only that way is are we gonna really set up all of ourselves to really be the best versions of ourselves. And so with that, we're gonna bring this episode to a close, but make sure to tune in and subscribe on your favorite podcast app or wherever you're watching or listening to this.
as that really helps get this message out to more individuals who could potentially really benefit from having this information or having the opportunity to ask a question that can help set them up for their future. Again, I'm Bruce Brown and this was What It Pays. I'll see you next week.