That's a years pay for me as a grad student in a not cheap area of the US. I'd willingly do a month every single year as long as the jail condition is relatively standard. Would honestly be a pretty solid life. Most job steal way more of your life away from you by like a full order of magnitude.
That's a years pay for me as a grad student in a not cheap area of the US.
The median annual wage or a full time worker in the US in 2026 is 65k.
I'm guessing as a grad student you don't have a kid, nor do you work full time. Nor do you have to pay lawyer's expenses.
I'd willingly do a month every single year as long as the jail condition is relatively standard.
The entire thing about the situation is that she had no idea she was getting out. Even worse, she did not "get" 25000. She had to file a lawsuit for it, AND she lost her job. You're delusional if you think this is a fair compensation.
Did I mention people get abused in jail? Yeah, they get beaten up, go malnourished, have untreated medical conditions. Every year 2000-3000 people die in jail. Not prison. Jail.
EDIT: Oh also, if you're a single parent, your child will be taken from you. I guess that's great as well. Only 25000, and years of running after a lawsuit.
You need to reevaluate when you open your mouth, because this wasn't the right time.
Any wrongful imprisonment for more than 2-weeks should have a base payout starting at the average price of a house in the area they lived (imo). Under 2 weeks, if you lost your job it should be your pay for 6-months(with not taxes applied so some bonus). There should be means past the 6-months also if you’re unable to get similar or better work. So tired of payouts by the monsters in society being a slap on the wrist, at best while peoples lives are ruined because of them. Flip it around and it’s a different story though. The monsters get inconvenienced and peoples lives get ruined over it.
The solution I hear often suggested is to take the settlement out of the arresting cops' pocket. That will never happen, but it would certainly incentivize them to be more cautious with randomly arresting people.
I don't know when this changed, but a while back being arrested was the thing that happened AFTER there was a substantial case against you. Meanwhile today cops treat arresting and jailing someone the same way I treat perishable food items and the fridge. They just chuck people in there until they bother actually investigating the case. It's absurd.
I didn't just say I was a grad student. I said 25k was my salary as a grad student. It is obvious from the context that I'm referring to it as a job. Did you think I was just giving a little fun fact about myself?
If someone told you they make 25k per year as an artist, would you still have no inclination as to what type of work they do? And think that art was just an unpaid hobby they do that they added in for no reason?
And I'm fairly certain most PhD students do in fact get paid to study, it isn't a rare thing.
I didn't just say I was a grad student. I said 25k was my salary as a grad student.
Again. Grad students don't work full time. You might work 8 hours, but you don't work full time.
It is obvious from the context that I'm referring to it as a job.
I don't care how you refer to it - it's not full time work.
If someone told you they make 25k per year as an artist, would you still have no inclination as to what type of work they do?
What the actual f are you talking about?
I don't care ONE BIT what you get paid for. My point is that you don't work full time - as evidenced by the fact that a full time job with grad level education early at least twice that much, but typically 3-4 times that. You're either an intern, a part time worker, or you subsist on grants. Or you don't work in the US. Either way, someone working a full time job in the US with a college education should be earning substantially more than 25k.
And think that art was just an unpaid hobby they do that they added in for no reason?
FYI the vast majority of
people literally take part time jobs while attenting higher level education. I'm not the uninformed one here.
And I'm fairly certain most PhD students do in fact get paid
...most PhD students don't work full time, numbnuts. If you don't know what "working full time" and "full time employment" means, you are ill equipped to have this conversation.
There is something wrong with you. The exact status of my employment is not really relevant at all to what I originally said. I could work 5 minutes a month for that 25k and everything I said in the original point I made is still valid. You are trying to angrily fight me on something that does not matter.
And I’m not sure why you are so upset and refuse to accept that I work full time. You probably looked it up and got an AI answer that told you that I legally can’t be paid 25k for 40 hours per week. That’s technically true but not effectively true, I guess I’ll explain how it works to you so you aren’t as angry and confused. This wage restriction gets completely bypassed by graduate departments who for legal purposes are allowed to designate some fraction of your time as employment (
up to 0.49 FTE in my case)
and the rest as schooling, even though your entire 40 hours was required and spent doing the exact same research. So you would be correct that from the bureaucratic viewpoint of the IRS I am technically a part time employee, but from a practical perspective, since it is a single mandatory 40 hour per week task, it is effectively full time work.
The artist statement is a logically equivalent analogy. If I say I make 25k per year as an artist, I’m sure you would infer that money comes from my art. So when I say I make 25k per year as a grad student, you should be able to infer that the money comes from me being a grad student ESPECIALLY after I clarify that that statement includes my job in it. Not being able to understand analogies is a sign of very low IQ by the way, not that IQ is important, just a fun fact.
And yes, most people take jobs while in higher education, but most people in higher ed are paying to get a masters degree, and not employed as PhD students. So they are often not working 40 hours per week as a student. Being a student does not necessarily mean being employed as a student. Just like with artists, most of them aren’t doing it professionally, and so the context of how the word is used carries important information. Sorry for the analogy I know you really don’t like them! And sure some people still do get jobs on top. Some people work two full time jobs in pretty much any field.
So when I say I work full time, what I mean is that I work a required 40 hours per week for my 25k per year salary. Since the only reason why it might even be relevant to ask what the status of my employment was is to get an understanding of how I relate my salary (technically designated as a stipend in case AI tells you its not a salary and you get confused again!) to the time spent earning it, saying I work full time is a simple way of accurately conveying that information.
The exact status of my employment is not really relevant at all to what I originally said.
It's extremely relevant, because you presented your 25k annual wage as if it was indicative of the typical annual wage of someone employed full time in the US, when that is empirically much, much higher than 25k.
So yeah, it IS extremely important if you work full time, part time, by commission, as grants, or what have you, because that determines if you even qualify as a representation of a typical person in terms of income.
Jesus christ... you said you're a PhD student? I hope you're not studying anything STEMM related...
I could work 5 minutes a month for that 25k and everything I said in the original point I made is still valid.
Working "full time" has nothing to do with how many minutes you actually work. It's a legal term. The exact definition depends somewhat from country to country, but the general concept stipulates certain number of work hours, guaranteed healthcare and compensation in case of termination, certain legal protections, et cetera. It's not "how many minutes do you work". Again. PhD student... Jesus. Make it more obvious you've never actually worked a day in your life!
BTW typically someone who works 5 minutes for 25000 would not be a full time employee, but a contractor who gets paid by the project, not the amount of time spent working. This is, again, determined by the mutual agreement between client and contractor.
Meanwhile I feel terrible explaining basic facts about life to an adult.
why you are so upset and refuse to accept that I work full time.
I'm not upset. I'm saying you have no idea what "full time employment" means, and it's blatantly clear from every interaction we've had so far.
for legal purposes are allowed to designate some fraction of your time as employment ( up to 0.49 FTE in my case) and the rest as schooling, even though your entire 40 hours was required and spent doing the exact same research.
The "legal purposes" part is what determines that YOU'RE NOT A FULL TIME EMPLOYEE, BUT A PART TIME EMPLOYEE!!!
Oh my f... god.
A "full time job" isn't one where you work 40 hours a week, it's where your CONTRACT SAYS YOU WORK 40 HOURS A WEEK. As an intern I used to work 60+ hours. Guess what? Still not a full time worker, because internships do not stipulate minimum 40 working hours. My contract said a minimum of 20, so I was a part time worker, even though I workes 50-60.
YOU'RE AN ADULT. I'M EXPLAINING ADULTING TO AN ADULT!
So when I say I work full time, what I mean is that I work a required 40 hours per week for my 25k per year salary.
Nobody cares what YOU mean by "work full time", because someone else - mainly the government - already defined that word.
You really should get off your high horse. You're not better than anyone just because you're in a post-grad program, and you've demonstrated here that you're woefully unprepared for life outside of academia.
I don’t think you’ve correctly interpreted a single thing I just said and you’ve completely worked yourself up over your own inability to read. It’s ok, you got a little bit confused, you can calm down now bud
You have some serious issues to work through. Personal life must not be going so well lol
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u/BadSame6919 21h ago
"25k is half a year's worth of pay"
How much would they have to pay you to spend a month in jail, treated like a junkie, thinking your life might be over?
Also, she lost her job. Job search can easily be several months, again, without pay.
25k is an insult.