KeithW wrote:My wife and I work for my parents at the family business. We both enjoy our work and plan to take over the business after my parents retire. The business is pretty small and only makes about half a million per year with 6 employees. Before things got tough we did almost a million a year.
Now that you have some background I am wanting peoples opinion on our pay. My wife and I together make a little over $61,000 a year. Looking at department of labor stats it says that the median household income in our area is only about $45,000 per year. You would think that we would be doing ok but I really find these numbers hard to believe. We are able to pay our bills, and do go out to eat more than we should, but it seems like everyone we know has so much more money to spend on this and that.
Basically I am wanting some people to chime in and tell me if we are making a fair wage for someone living in a small city in Missouri. I have never worked for anyone besides my family so I really don't know and statistics can be misleading. Thanks for any input.
Would you be making more if you were working somewhere else? That's the question you should ask... If the answer is yes, then I would talk to the parents and explain to them that you would be making "X" amount of dollars if you were working for "Y"
They could conceivably increase your compensation by providing you a company vehicle, or matching your IRA contributions, or something along those lines which would be tax deductible for the business, and would help you and the wife feel like you were getting ahead instead of barely getting by. They could also start giving you company shares as part of your compensation and to help them with estate planning, if they do indeed plan on leaving you the business when they die... I would say that there are many variables in here that can be worked on so that you and the wife don't end up feeling like hamsters in the wheel.
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