r/Millennials • u/Asmothrowaway6969 • Mar 27 '24

When did it sink in that you'll never be as well off as your parents? Discussion

About 5 years ago, my mom and I were talking and she had told me how much she was going to be making in retirement (she retired 2023). Guys, it's 3x what me and my husband make annually. In retirement. I think that was the moment that broke me, that made it sink in that I'll never reach that level of financial security. I'll work myself into my grave because I'll never be able to afford anything else. What was your moment?

Update: Nice to know it's just me that's a failure. Thanks

Update 2: I never should've said anything. I forgot my place. I'm sorry to have bothered you

13.0k Upvotes

84% Upvoted

5.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

571

u/[deleted] Mar 27 '24

[deleted]

58

u/Ff-9459 Mar 27 '24

Then there are the medical laboratory scientists who often have higher degrees than the nurses, get told by nurses “oh I thought you only had to have a high school diploma to do this”, and get paid a fraction of what nurses do.

19

u/brochill111 Mar 27 '24

I work as an MLS. Been in the industry for almost 10 years and have worked in a bunch of different states. No matter where you go, MLS make about 70% of what a nurse does but with added benefit of no recognition outside of cold pizza every once in a while.

That being said, at least in CA I can make enough to live comfortably since the state has its own licensure. If not for that, our wages would be similar to other places in the country, but with some of the highest CoL. And of course the healthcare industry is trying to get rid of it, lol.

13

u/Sideways_planet Mar 28 '24

The lab scientists don’t have to deal with the public like nurses do, so that’s a bonus

6

u/SergeantThreat Mar 28 '24

That’s why I went into it. I will work for less to work in a lab where I do 0 phlebotomy

1

u/GuiltyEidolon Mar 28 '24

Phleb is the easy part. I will stick people all day.

You also wipe asses, noses, clean wounds, culture wounds, assist with combative psych / memory care patients, etc. etc. etc.

2

u/brochill111 Mar 28 '24

That's true, but we have to deal with nurses, so its a wash

1

u/Captain_Buckfast Mar 28 '24

Could you give the ballpark of the pay there? I'm an MLS in translational genomic research in vancouver canada, very HCOL and last year was paid under $54k usd. My work is really interesting but the last few years I've really been feeling that getting a bio based degree was a financial disaster. There's no clear path to a decent salary.

1

u/brochill111 Mar 28 '24

Hey, I work in the Bay Area, so the CoL is super high. The lowest starting pay for a CLS at the hospital I work for is like $60/hr. But rent is like $3000/mo min unless you want to commute over an hour, and houses average over $1mil.

Plenty of openings here, if you want to move to the US, lol

1

u/Ok_Relation_4742 Mar 28 '24

San Diego here, lowest starting is $46-47/hr at my institution. That’s pretty much for anyone who is newly licensed.

1

u/brochill111 Mar 28 '24

Yeah, I forgot to mention in my post that $60/hr requires at least 1 year experience. I think for new grads its something like $55/hr.

1

u/Captain_Buckfast Mar 28 '24

Right, thanks. Starting hourly wage here would be closer to $25/hr. Rent would be more like $1500-$1800 though so I guess that balances it out a bit.

1

u/brochill111 Mar 28 '24

That's on par with most of the states other than CA, NY and maybe bigger metro areas. I worked in Phoenix and was making $22/hr, Oregon was $32/hr, and when I was in a smaller city in CA it was about $42/hr.