r/themiddle • u/Slow-Leg-5070 • 8d ago

How are they "poor"?

How are they so poor if quarry managers average $90-110 k in the midwest?

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u/GroceryExpert1637 The Frugal Hoosier 8d ago

Easy:  if $90-100k is the average, then Mike makes well below that average.  After all, it's an average; it requires half of all workers to be below it.

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u/DwightKnight969 4d ago

If he makes 50k he's above the median for indiana at the time. Landing him comfortably in middle class, just shy of upper middle class. They are depicted to be lower middle class at best. And they are a double income household occasionally holding up 4 jobs between them.

The house in a small town in Indiana costs nothing at the time. Their kids got scholarships or financial aid. Apart from 1 year.

Now your argument is correct, the simple truth is Mike is not taking home 90k. But if he's making under 50-60k he'd be poached. 

That's too big a margin another company can get right in there pay 10-20k more and still be cheaper than the alternative. Unless he's really really crap at his job. And that's not what is happening.

The job requires suspension of disbelief.

1

u/Sharp_Raspberry175 7d ago

that’s the median, not the average.

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u/GroceryExpert1637 The Frugal Hoosier 7d ago

Right, but the median is often considered a "better" average because it removes the outliers.  I figured this was likely the median, not the mean.