$46,000 median income
According to the source, the median income in the US is anywhere from $40,000 (public health sources- often refers to individual incomes) to $52,000/year (US Census Bureau source- often refers to household incomes).
The range averages in those in poverty to the few billionaires. Overall, it seems pretty accurate. America, for the most part still has a large socio-economic middle class.
I've looked for the median income in Doha, and it's $390,000/yr. Seeing that there are a fair number of "unskilled" workers and savvy entrepreneurs, I can't help but think that the unskilled workers' incomes are under-represented.
Also, after reviewing all the cost of living posts here, a comfortable life in Qatar hardly requires $390,000.
My question is: What is the average income for middle class workers in Qatar? i.e. The average income of the skilled worker, expatriate.
Thanks ahead of time!
Thanks for your input. This site is interesting for cost of living rank: http://xpatulator.com/ but it's not personalized. For instance, clothing wouldn't factor into my lifestyle costs but personal care would. They charge $99 USD for a personalized assessment to show what the cost of living comparison would be between where I currently live, New York City, to Doha, where I hope to live. Kind of steep price.
I was curious to the median income for two reasons: one was because my impression of Doha during my visit was that it's a very rich city- yet I know that unskilled laborers get paid very poorly compared to the west, that they make more compared to their origin country in the east BUT that extra money comes at a cost: quality of living while in Qatar.
$46 K in the U.S. , specifically in New York State isn't bad for a young and healthy family of three in Niagra Falls, NY but it's a struggle for a single person living alone in New York City. The poverty line in the US is somewhere around $14K/household on average, but in NYC, it's $37K- huge difference (and NYC is more realistic- on paper it's similar to the national average, but in real life, $14K is suffering level, even with government financial aid).
Regarding equal opportunity- it exists as quotas in the US, but where I currently work, the white Jewish guy with a Bachelors in Science was earning more than the Christian Black girl in my office who has a Masters in Community Health and has 3-4 more years experience than him. Her job performance outshined his. The organization's infrastructure is run by Jews, but the office administration is run by Christians, the latter are the ones who would determine salary and raises but they answer to the former. Clearly there is discrimination involved.
She left but when they replaced her with a black girl who had minimal experience over a Jewish girl who fit the job description perfectly- again, there was job discrimination. I'm sure they were awful to the black girl because of her race, yet they hired a black girl in her place so that they won't be accused of racism.
Equal opportunity employment only exists if all equal candidates name's were thrown in a hat and picked at random. Bias if a fact of life in a lot of circumstances. But that's just my opinion.
I don't know about the Q companies and the Universities in QF but none of the other companies are Equal opportunity companies.
:) thats true
TC...yes the graph of money vs happiness increases linearly till a certain figure(exact amount is debatable) and then becomes horizontal..but i like the following from the article you quoted "it's not absolute wealth that's linked with happiness, but relative wealth or status — that is, how much more money you have than your neighbors."
okay, you maybe right as universities usually have their own ecosystem and take such things seriously specially if its an offshoot of an overseas uni and follows the same mandate...but i have no idea about unis here.
i work for an equal opportunity employer, its all dependent on your negotiation skills
btw for all of you here is an interesting article
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,2016291,00.html
Shapil, my husband used to work for one of the American Unis here...it was 100% equal opportunity.
They may appear so but I highly doubt it with the macro level of visa control and inherent bias in the system no company can be a truly equal opportunity or an equal reward for the same opportunity even if they want to...but you can contradict me by naming a few such companies?
why do you not run a payscale check on payscale.com?
shapil, there are quite a few such companies in Qatar.
"Equal opportunity company" is a 3 word misnomer in here
even though i am south african - Salary less than 9,000QR a month, including all perks.
You could check out the GDP(PPP) per capita which equates to the closest thing to median income. Tables for all countries are available online from IMF, World Bank & CIA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29_per_capita
Careful how you interpret the data though.
it depends on the organizations also. high salaries are only in government and semi-government organizations. private sectors are suffering with low pays, the same skilled workers in private get half then government or semi-government.
i dont see any minimum pays standard according to qualifications or any minimum labour pays scale here unlike west.
it depends on your luck where u get chance to work.
You would be comparing apples to oranges. Why do you want to know ?
Oh, I didn't know! It saddens me to hear that. I am asking about Western expatriates- or those western educated/cultured.
Unless you work for an "Equal opportunity company".
In Qatar, you need to ask whether it is for western expatriates or Asian ones as there is HUGE difference between the salary of the two for the same qualification and experience.