flu, if the checkstub you posted was YOUR old checkstub, it must have been from a job in the bay area. SD companies don’t pay like that … especially years ago.

Yeah, I agree about the low net pay. Even gov’mt lawyers were making that net pay (and lower) back when I worked with them ~15 years ago, mostly due to heavy deductions for dependent medical plans (spouses were very expensive) and their 457 plans. Especially the ones who were planning on “retiring” in <10 years.

Yes, I also brown-bagged my lunch every day for three decades as did most of my co-workers (including attorneys). Lunch (and dtn pkg) eat up a LOT of money every week while trying to support a family. We only got $60 month for a parking stipend on our paychecks when dtn parking cost $110 to $150 month around the year 2000. OR, you could apply the stipend to the cost of a monthly bus/trolley pass but I never did because I used ~3 lunches per week to conduct all my family's errands so I could ensure picking up my kid(s) from daycare/after-school care by 6:00 pm. (I routinely kept an ice chest in the trunk.) I'm sure the stipend is higher today for current workers but so is downtown parking and a monthly bus/trolley pass. So it's all relative.