they went from being a “there is a shortage” to “there is an over abundance” type of employees. You all know how long they were unemployed. When both got back to work they each had to take a 25% cut in pay from what they had been previously making, with fewer benefits. Neither is back to that original salary yet. Even with the good pay raises they’ve received. Add to that the cost of taxes and insurance has gone up and both are still making about 75% bring home of what they were in 2015 and trust me groceries, utilities and such have NOT gone down. Only our debt has gone down.
But guess what, we adjusted, we adapted, and we are moving on. If either of them had said they would “wait” most likely neither of them would be working in their preferred field right now. There is still a glut of designer/drafters in a limited market.
Unemployment runs out, Cobra runs out, like you said, a cut in pay is better than “Do you want fries with that.”
Month: October 2016
When I was laid off from my software developer position in January 2016
the hardest thing for me and everyone else in my circle to accept, was that those jobs were simply gone at that pay rate. It wasn’t that I needed to go “pound the pavement” more, or put out more resumes. The jobs market had simply changed, and my job was one of the holdouts from a previous “money is no object” economy. Of all the dozens of people I knew in my general line of work, I don’t know a single one of them who’s in the same line of work, at the same rate they made even five years ago, let alone what should have been steady yearly increases to cover cost-of-living increases.
Long story short, your DH may be reaching for a salary that no longer exists, regardless of his experience, training, skills, whatever. That’s not a reflection on him; that’s a reflection of The New Normal. If that position was a job he wanted and it met the other criteria you both had in terms of commute time, etc, and the only issue was the income, I’d still take it. Beats the heck out of asking “would you like fries with that?” And it definitely beats out those unemployment checks, which will eventually dry up. Fifty thousand dollars would give you a heckuva lot more than the $100 you’re short each month. And if by some miracle that better salary comes along, THEN he can grab it. But holding out for it? Might be a long wait for a train that ain’t comin’.