If you’re curious how to find out how much someone makes, there are various methods available for discovering their income. Although doing some digging may take some effort, it is worth it for two reasons.
Assuming your state has salary transparency laws in effect, you could have the right to know the salary range for any job or promotion in question.
Ask Your Coworkers
Money conversations can be tricky, but there may be good reason for asking your coworkers about their pay. Perhaps you are planning to negotiate for a raise, or suspecting you may be being underpaid relative to peers in your position. Before embarking on such an exchange, make sure you have an action plan prepared – this way the conversation won’t become uncomfortable!
Jennifer Porter, an etiquette and customer care coach at Satsuma Designs in Seattle suggests that planning ahead can make salary discussions much simpler. Establish rapport with your coworkers before initiating any dialogue about salary discussions.
Your workplace may have its own protocol for discussing salaries. At larger companies, all employees typically know the average salaries associated with various roles; smaller firms may be reluctant to share this information; therefore it would be best to seek guidance from human resources for your local area.
But if this kind of information would be beneficial to you, there are other means available to gather this data without directly asking coworkers for it.
Glassdoor provides one option for salary comparison: you can access information on salary ranges for similar roles at other companies and compare your pay with that of others in similar roles at other organizations to see whether yours exceeds or falls below average.
Or talk with your manager. She should know the salary ranges associated with your position and can explain why you may not be receiving as much pay as should be due.
At the end of the day, this decision ultimately depends on your coworkers and company culture. An inadvertent salary conversation could easily become uncomfortable or lead to feelings of resentment within an office environment.
Starting conversations about ethics may be easiest among your closest colleagues; that way, the conversation will come more naturally and trust can be built more easily. But keep in mind that engaging with someone you don’t trust could prove disastrous for any meaningful dialogue to take place.
If you want to discuss salaries with colleagues, start off small. By building trust first before asking more challenging questions.
Ask Your Alma Mater
No matter if it’s for yourself or for an employer’s evaluation, knowing what your potential earnings and expected salary might be can only benefit. Your place of study plays a pivotal role here.
College, or alma mater, is where you completed your education and gained essential skills and knowledge that are fundamental for building a successful career. Additionally, it can serve as an avenue for building relationships and reconnecting with those who shaped your life experience.
Employ your alma mater as an asset in your job search, capitalizing on its network and reputation to secure the career of your dreams. A recent study discovered that hiring managers place great importance on where candidates went to school – often thinking top-tier schools produce superior employees.
If you’re dissatisfied with where your career stands, consider changing how you approach it. By emphasizing your strengths and recognizing areas for improvement, you could transform your current role into one which maximizes both talents and experience.
Your alma mater’s alumni board can be an excellent place for you to become engaged. These groups meet regularly to plan events, devise initiatives and connect with students, parents and fellow alumni.
Donating to your alma mater’s annual fund is also an effective way of giving back. Many private schools struggle to meet rising tuition costs; therefore, annual funds provide crucial support for students.
Donating to your alma mater’s FIRE campaign, which fights for free speech rights of college students, is another great way of showing support and helping ensure every student can access an education that best serves them.
Next time you find yourself thinking about giving your alma mater a gift, take this chance to remember why it means so much to you and why giving will strengthen the connection. Your generosity will ensure it remains an environment where people can thrive.

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Let’s Calculate Some Metrics to Find Out How Much Someone Makes
- 60,000 a year is how much an hour: To convert an annual salary of $60,000 to an hourly rate, you divide it by the number of working hours in a year. Assuming a standard 40-hour workweek and 52 weeks in a year, the calculation would be: $60,000 / (40 hours/week * 52 weeks/year) = approximately $28.85 per hour.
- 80k a year is how much an hour: Following the same calculation method as above, an annual salary of $80,000 would be approximately $38.46 per hour.
- 50,000 a year is how much an hour: Using the same calculation method as above, an annual salary of $50,000 would be approximately $24.04 per hour.
- $35 an hour is how much a year: To convert an hourly wage of $35 to an annual salary, you multiply it by the number of working hours in a year. Assuming a standard 40-hour workweek and 52 weeks in a year, the calculation would be: $35/hour * (40 hours/week * 52 weeks/year) = $72,800 per year.
- Electrician salary: The salary of an electrician can vary depending on factors such as experience, location, and industry. According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in May 2020, the median annual wage for electricians was $56,900.
- Dentist salary: The salary of a dentist can also vary based on various factors, including experience, location, and type of practice. According to the BLS, the median annual wage for dentists was $159,200 in May 2020.
Please note that these figures are approximate and may vary depending on specific circumstances and factors.
How to Find Out How Much Someone Makes Doing a Google Search
One of the easiest and fastest ways to discover someone’s annual earnings is to perform a Google search. This will give you access to all relevant results for your query and ensure you receive up-to-date information.
If you’re searching for specific information, such as the name of an individual, using quotation marks can help narrow your results. For example, if you want to learn how much someone earns at a company such as John Smith is making there then using quotation marks around his name would reduce results to employee names at that company only.
Google offers many other features to assist with finding information, such as weather forecasts and currency conversions, which may come in handy during research. Although these features may seem less obvious at first, they can often prove invaluable for your study.
Search information through Google Image Search. This feature lets you view pictures of people without visiting their websites directly.
Although you won’t be able to determine someone’s earnings directly with this approach, it can serve as an excellent place to begin your research and check whether they have any social media accounts.
Discover what activities the person likes to engage in on their free time, such as movies. Google may provide useful suggestions as to which flicks you should watch.
Google’s search algorithm considers various factors when assessing whether results are relevant for any given search query, such as scope, synonyms, language and location.
Google spent five years developing their system that allows the search engine to recognize when someone is looking for an answer to a specific query. If your content can answer this query more effectively than anyone else’s, your content may show up more frequently in search results and increase traffic to your website.
Check with the Company
Finding out the salary of someone is often easiest when asking directly. While this might feel intimidating at first, if you remain friendly and continue the conversation they may open up about their salaries and let you in on some details of their pay.
Author and career coach Octavia Goredema advises taking an indirect approach by searching the company website for pay scale information, either by searching employee lists publicly available online or offering to share internal salary averages by position.
Conduct some online research into the job market in your region to gain an idea of salary ranges offered by similar companies and could help determine how much to offer if successful in getting one of those roles.
Consideration should also be given to the size of your company as its impact could have an important bearing on how much you make in the workplace. A small business might not be able to offer you a high salary if the economy becomes challenging.
Search the company records at your local public records office to gain some idea of how much executives or managers are getting paid, which could prove particularly useful if you’re considering switching careers and making the leap across to management side of things. Companies might keep public records regarding executive compensation or you might find annual reports online.