I’ve often imagined the sound of money falling from somewhere to my bank account while I’m toiling away at work. I do a quick calculation based on my hourly wage or yearly salary to come up with how much time passes between each penny I earn. It’s a quick distraction and gives me a visceral feel of the value you are capturing while doing my job. Intrinsically knowing how much money I’m earning is something I’ve missed in corporate and startup jobs. The stint of time I spent selling cotton candy at the baseball stadium was enjoyable partially because of the direct and obvious connection between work performed and money earned. Each time someone handed me some bills in exchange for goods, I earned money. If they gave a tip, I earned a bunch more.
A project by artist Blake Fall-Conroy reminded me of counting my earnings this way. It’s called the Minimum Wage machine (see image below). You turn the crank on this box, and every 5.04 seconds a penny falls out of the box. That’s $7.15 an hour, the NY state minimum wage. What does $7.15/hour sound like? Here’s a widget to give you an idea:
You might be surprised by how quickly or slowly pennies drop at your job (assuming 40 hr. work-weeks, 2000 hr work-years for the salaried jobs):
- $8.00/hr (Illinois Minimum wage): 4.5 sec/penny
- $10/hr: 3.6 sec/penny
- $15/hr: 2.4 sec/penny
- $20/hr: 1.8 sec/penny
- $25/hr: 1.44 sec/penny
- $30/hr: 1.2 sec/penny
- $30/hr and we’ve not even hit 1 penny per second yet!
- $75,000/year: 1.042 pennies/sec
- $100,000/year: 1.39 pennies/sec
- $200,000/year: 2.78 pennies/sec
You’ve got to get to $200,000/year before you start getting a nice rhythm to your penny flow!
- 1 penny/sec: $72,000/year
- 2 pennies/sec: $144,000/year
- 1 nickel/sec: $360,000/year
- 1 dollar/sec: $720,000/year
What other techniques can you use to get a feel for how much physical money you are earning at hourly or salaried jobs?
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