The Cost Of Working

[cspp04]

Have you ever wondered exactly how much it costs you JUST so that you CAN work? I did......and what an eye opener!!

As listed in Miserly Mom's by Jonni McCoy, some of those expenses might be: child care, taxes, commuting fees, gasoline and mileage, car insurance, clothing (incl cost of dry cleaning), gifts for co-workers, fast food lunches and breakfasts out, convenience foods at home, extra eating out, occasional housekeeping help, hair care.

All of our expenses will be slightly different, but here is how mine broke down:
$30/mth in at work meals
$120/mth restaurant meals (cause i'm too tired to cook)
$80/yr for work shoes
$35/yr co-workers b-day gift pooled fund
$30/yr work pants

I tallied it all up and it comes to $1,945/ yr or $1.16/hour for me to work. I'm a single mom, so there's no way for me to NOT work, but I gave some thought to this anyhow.

Have you ever calculated what it costs you for your privaledge to work?

[Valerie in WA]

A couple of things to add to that:

*Childcare costs - that can eat into a lot of income
*Income taxes - if you are a two-income family, and the second income pushes you into a higher tax bracket, the first income will actually be subject to more tax.

I work only weekends (so no childcare) and I usually brown bag. I also work 12hr shifts, so my commuting expenses are reduced.

Mine looks something like this:

*Gasoline $275/yr
*Scrubs $75/yr
*Dh buying junk food when I'm gone $400/yr
*Meals on the way to or during work $200/yr

Those work out to just under $1/hr. I know when I work extra shifts that goes way up because extra shifts means extra meals out for me and extra junk food for dh/dd's and sometimes an extra family meal out.

[McD]

Before I found a sahm willing to watch my son, it would have cost me 848$ to have him in daycare. I plan on brownbagging my lunch, I'll still cook when I come home. Clothing has cost me quite a bit because I work in a bank where pant suits are required. Finding pantsuits for someone who is 4'10 is difficult.

But I require human interaction. If I didn't work I would go crazy.

[SHOPGIRL]

It really all depends on your hourly pay or yearly salary. My commuting costs are minimal. Plus, I have a 25 min. lunch so no time to go out to eat. My other expenses regarding clothes would be the same no matter if I worked or stayed at home. For me, working full-time works out to be better financially.

[Telephus44]

I have worked it out before I became pregnant - but even with daycare, it works out better financially for me to work when I factor in benefits.

Lunches: $10/week
Clothing: $250/year (includes new work clothes and drycleaning - most of the time I can wear jeans to work)
Commuting: $3.00/week in gas (my actual cost is $6. but I figured if I stayed home I'd still use my car to run errands)
Presents: $50/year (cards, Christmas swap, birthday presents, etc.)

Taxes: with both of us working, we owe approx $13,605 in Federal Taxes. If I did not work, our tax owed drops to approx $5435


So looking at the numbers, it costs me $9,146 per year to work, and my salary is $40,000.

However:

Health Insurance: my employer's family plan costs $140 per month. DH's employer offers the same plan at a cost of $211 every two weeks. (Total saved by me working: $3,806)
401(K) Match: My employer gives me $166 per month contribution towards my 401(K) (Total: $1992)
Healthcare FSA: My employer not only offers a healthcare FSA, they match my contributions dollar for dollar up to $500. If I put in the max contribution, I get $500 free money AND save $140 in taxes. (Total: $640)
Vision Insurance: My husband's employer does not offer vision insurance. We both wear glasses. I pay $120 per year for the coverage, and this year they have covered $716.40 worth of vision care costs (Total: $596.40)
Pension: My employer offers a pension. I honestly have no idea how to calculate the yearly value of this.

So total benefits of my job: $7034.40, plus whatever value I would assign to my pension.

So factored in, it costs me $2111.60 per year to earn $40,000. That's $.99 per hour if I broke it down hourly. Not too bad.

I will have to recrunch the numbers for daycare (I plan on working after the baby is born) but I also have a Daycare FSA my employer offers. I believe that they average cost in my area is $9,000 a year, but after I factor in the tax savings the true cost will be closer to $6,000. Still worth it to me!

I have always found this an interesting exercise. DH actually just took a new job (I figured all of the above based on his old job) that pays $10,000 more per year knowing that we'd have to pay daycare, and we ended up doing a cost benefit analysis (his old job paid less but was second shift so we could have avoided daycare entirely).

[Shell]

Originally posted by MrsMcDowell


But I require human interaction. If I didn't work I would go crazy.

Wow! I feel like that too! I get depressed without human interaction.

I was figuring out how much I make after daycare, gas etc. and if I have to work late and dh has to drive all the way to pick her up, there isn't much left. Then if you add in dress clothes and fast food meals because you are just too tired sometimes I wonder if it is worth it.

On Sunday afternoon, I tried to make 2-3 casseroles for the week so I don't get Mommy guilt that my family isn't eating properly.

[Scattymum]

This is one of the reasons I havnt gone back to work yet - by the time I pay higher tax ( 42%) and childcare i would be bringing home negative money, I would love to go back to work but its just not feasable at the moment