I am Canadian but curious to know how much Americans make. I have family and friends that live in the US that all visited here for christmas. I was talking to them about my new career. I went to training school to be a heavy equipment operator and my starting wage is $24 per hour which I would consider low. From may until october I was working 60 hours per week. With over time pay I was making about $6500 a month before taxes (I would consider this good but not high). Working regular 40 hour work weeks I make $4000 a month (which Is low for most Canadians). My American friends were blown away. Majority of them have college degrees and make between 30 and 40k a year. To them, that's a lot of money and they can live comfortably. I couldn't believe it. Anything less than 40k a year and I'd be broke! Of course we do have significantly higher cost of living. It costs me $180 to fill my truck and gas is almost $6 a gallon.

How much do you make? What do you consider a decent wage?

I make a little under 15 an hour. After taxes and union dues and all I bring home about 1400 a month. I didn't go to college so that's not bad for just a high school grad. Especially for a small town in the midwest. Currently gas is 1.98 a gallon at the closest gas station to my house. My rent is 485 a month and electric gas and sewer is all bundled and averages 120 a month. It cost me about 30 bucks to full up my jeep. And I consider a decent wage about 15 an hour. Any lower would be impossible to survive on your own. I can pay all my bills and still have enough left over to save a little and go out on the weekends.

Rather than adding to a few examples wages, I can add that the current exchange rate is

1 Canadian Dollar equals = 0.86 US Dollar

So your 40K would equal 46.5K in the U.S

There are plenty of salary reporting web sites like this one:

http://www.indeed.com/salary/Heavy-Equip...

The official U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics states:

"The median annual wage for construction equipment operators was $40,980 in May 2012."

anyone thinking $30-40,000/yr (pretty much entry level pay for a college degree) is a lot in the USA must still live at home with their parents - it's not enough to buy a house in many areas of the country. Gasoline is now under $2.40/gal in most of teh US

I retired but my income will be about 110K this year. Thirty is starting for many people who are educated but later in career it will increase, 50K is pretty normal base pay. I was at end of career so with salary, bonus and profit sharing I was making about 90K plus investment income runs 150K last year and 85K this year.