Like a 3rd grader, the OC Register has an obsession with 100,000. For some reason, the Register believes that getting to $100,000 in salary and benefits (including health care) in Orange County makes you wealthy and is outrageous compensation. This morning there was another installment, this time talking about the city of Orange - 39% of Orange Workers Crack $100K Club.
What's missing from this continuing obsession is any discussion of the costs of living in Orange County. Is $100K really a luxurious amount of money?
Let's use reliable information to make an objective assessment of the $100K obsession. Each year, the County of Orange teams with the Orange County Business Council (OCBC) and the Children and Families Commission to publish the Community Indicators Report which summarizes the economic condition of the county as it relates to families, the workplace, health care and public safety. Download 2011 Community Indicators
Once you read the report, you realize that $100K doesn't go very far in the OC. If you want to rent a one-bedroom apartment, you need to make $25.52/hr ($53,082 a year.) If you need more space for the family, you'll need to make $63,357 for a 2 bedroom or $89,648 for a 3 bedroom. If you want to buy the median priced home, you need to make at least $84,700. (See page 23 in report.) $100K doesn't look so big next to those numbers.
The numbers thrown around by the Register include benefits like health care. In Orange County, 1 in 6 residents is uninsured (pg 47.) City jobs come with health care benefits for full time and some part time employees. Families need reliable paychecks and health care to thrive and grow. Paying poverty wages without benefits doesn't help families.
The industry that employees the most people now is tourism, where the average annual salary is $20,252 (pg 21.) On that salary, people need to get 2 roommates to afford a one bedroom apartment. And we wonder why there is over crowding is some parts of the County.
We need more $100K jobs, not fewer. The $20K jobs that are becoming very common now need to be entry level jobs which eventually lead to $100K jobs and not the high end of the wage scale. We need to spend more time creating good paying jobs for families and stop wasting time picking apart the decent jobs left.
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