Inland, Dreaming of Waves

Drowning in email

I’ve been reading Grist’s Poverty and the Environment series again.

Here are some salary facts:

$51,138 -- median annual income of a white man with a bachelor's degree in 2003
$41,916 -- median annual income of a black man with a bachelor's degree in 2003
$33,142 -- median annual income of a black woman with a bachelor's degree in 2003
$30,082 -- median annual income of a white woman with a bachelor's degree in 2003
Source: “Holding a Four-Year College Degree Brings Blacks Closer to Economic Parity With Whites,” The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education.

Looking at some of the salary figures for people with master’s degrees in the article above, I’ve never come close in terms of yearly salary. In terms of hourly wages ($22 to $30 per hour, just for copyediting), I’m around the median income, but here’s the sad fact of freelance life: to earn a decent yearly salary, you probably have to work 60 hours per week. And I've never been able to manage more than 30 hours of editing per week. My eyes just can't take it.

Check out some of the articles in Grist. Click on the Poverty and Environment ad in the upper right-hand corner, or type "Poverty and Environment" into the search pane. Once you've reached the introductory article, scroll down to the end and click on the list of articles. Under Weeks 1 and 2, read the article titled "Facts and Figures." That's where I got these salary figures.

posted by Price of Silence @ 11:24 AM