I was part of a downsizing and got two weeks severance, my unused vacation time, and was told by my HR rep “you need to check to see if you are eligible for unemployment”.
That’s how seriously they took the downsizing- didn’t even have ANY specifics around COBRA, unemployment, all the statutory requirements.
My husband has made that amount or more for over a decade. He isn’t working crazy hours, 20 days in a row etc. Obviously, many people are doing that but it isn’t everyone. Of course he is late career now - younger folks climbing the ladder are more likely putting in the kind of hours that you suggest.
I think we’re all going to have different perspectives based on our own lived experiences. What does paycheck to paycheck mean to me? Carrying a calculator around the discount grocery adding your purchases up so you don’t exceed the cash you have in your wallet. My obstetrician forgave our outstanding bill when D was born. I’ve rarely been able to put money into a 401k. Keeping a spreadsheet that showed when bills were due and when payday was so I knew how to manage cash flow. Volunteering for every bit of overtime I could get. Both D and I had to take loans for her to go to college. Of course I knew I should have 3 to 6 months of emergency savings in the bank! Of course I knew I should be saving for retirement and maxing my employer match - except most of the places I worked didn’t offer that. That is paycheck to paycheck in my opinion. Things looked “normal” on the surface but life was stressful. If it wasn’t for my parents at one point we’d have been living in a homeless shelter.
Where I received 1 year severance was at an insurance company and I was there less than 6 months, and another was at a tech startup. It’s not the same across the board. I have also been on the other side of down sizing, and I rarely saw just 2-4 weeks. A lot of firms have standard severance written in the employee handbook. It maybe worthwhile to look into when accepting a new job. Most people who make 500k+ are not going to be low level employees.
With severance a lot depends on longevity. Of course with very top executives, there may be a special payout. Those folks are usually making a lot more than $500k though.
I’m going to say that is highly unusual.
He is getting paid for judgment and experience
Right. Not handouts. But those making $500k/yr have social/cultural/psychological/professional resources and opportunities that allow them to have a different mindset about job loss and its consequences than those making $50k/yr.
I think the people making 50k/yr and the people making 500k/yr are sufficiently oblivious of each others’ worlds that they have no clue about each other. It doesn’t pay to opine on the other person should or should not do, or what is easy for one vs the other etc. We can just move in separate worlds and not comment on each other.
It is not that different from saying everyone in the US should be able to live like someone in Ethiopia. Different world. Different cost of living etc. NYC vs rural Iowa for instance.
I think it is very hard to generalize, as industries are so different. It may be difficult for someone in a high paying industry to be laid off and jump to another high paying job right away, particularly with age discrimination.
In my industry, there were a limited number of companies whom me and my husband could even work for, and most jobs were unionized. If we were laid off, we would have to start at the very bottom with another company, if we were even able to get hired at all. It would be far easier to get a job as a waitress, my only other skill.
This is cc, opining about other people is what we do. I have been in both of those worlds, and I’ve been in the world of zero income. Most people aren’t just born into high income, they move up and sometimes down quite a bit along the way. My personal experience as feeling completely destitute is something I will never forget. Pure luck can be a huge player in people’s lives.
A one year severance could be tied to a non-compete, at least in the past when such agreements were enforceable here.
Unless they work for the likes of Jane Street 
I found the
comment funny.
Yes. You should see the torn high school t-shirts they wear to work.
The 1yr non-compete is very expensive for the employee, and you forgo bonus and a year of seniority in the process. Your skills also atrophy.
I’m not disputing that. But unless the law said some compensation for that was required, the company was not obligated to pay even a penny.
of course the law is a factor. but if the company did not put the pay for the non compete period in the contract, no one would join them in the first place.
You would be surprised.
Do you really believe this? How sad!! I have friends who are physicians with a professional spouse who may not make $500k together but probably aren’t far off it, and others who are single parents who probably make more than $50k now but didn’t for many years. Our kids went to the same schools, we went on vacation together, we eat dinner at each others’ homes. Maybe it’s a small town thing.