Ben by that point is a congressmen, and their salary is about $174,000 per year.
For Leslie, you'd have to find a reasonable replacement for Pawnee and the jobs listed with corresponding salaries.
Hi I actually work in the field. None of the positions anyone in the show holds really remotely reflect reality, but a second in command at a midsize park and rec dept in the Midwest is likely making between 60-80k.
Ron could be anywhere north of $100k depending on how supportive Pawnee is of its parks dept and how well the City and Dept are doing.
Could you clarify what you mean when you say "none of the positions reflect reality?" - to me it seemed like the structure was fairly typical for a local government departments (Director, Associate Director, with several other lower-level positions and an assistant/intern)
I think they more meant their lifestyles don’t match the reality of their salaries at that position. Tom absolutely balls out on everything, Leslie spends enough on banners to pay for the shop guy to buy a Rolex Submariner, Ron has a board of gold plus several cabins, Donna gets in on the “treat yo self” game with Tom. Everyone’s far outspending a regular government salary.
Primarily that they don’t do what anyone in those positions would actually do.
To have that many administrative staff (the whole cast is admin), Pawnee would most likely be a larger department.
Who is supervising aquatics? Sports? Who’s in charge of the mowing crew? Who is the park planner? Hiring lifeguards and officials?
It’s not uncommon for a small department to have only a handful of staff, but Pawnee only has administrative staff. No one, day to day, is running the actual parks and programs. Obviously it’s a workplace sitcom so the goal is not reality.
A Deputy Director is most often found in a larger parks and rec department. Generally a larger department would have a Recreation Supervisor or Superintendent. Same goes for Parks/Grounds/Maintenance Superintendent. Then you’d have staff that really put in the work in the parks. Grounds crew/maintenance, Sports Turf Maintenance, Recreation Specialists. Aquatics Supervisor, titles along those lines.
A city with a Parks Dept of 6+ people (not including maintenance) has to be pretty rare outside large cities, and Pawnee was supposedly pretty small. I think if anything the show creators don't understand what a small town actually is.
>how well the city and department are doing
Considering there’s a pretty big plot line centered around a government shutdown due to lack of funding, I’m gonna guess Pawnee isn’t exactly doing great (though better than Eagleton, apparently). So I’d imagine the budget is a little hamstrung. Ron doesn’t really need a large salary with his large gold surplus anyway.
So….although the pay scale technically goes up to 250k for SES positions, they are subject to a salary cap of about $184,000 (base pay, locality pay in DC would make this higher, but Pawnee probably wouldn’t get a locality bump)
Ah yes... and there it is. The standard Reddit response when someone gets put in their place. Some variant of "you must be fun at parties."
Really original and fresh take, bro.
Your response is just: "Yeah... well... I wouldn't want to be your friend in real life!"
Whatever will I do if some random stranger wouldn't want to be my friend based on a couple sentences I write on an online forum... oh well... anyway.
I made a mistake! I was thinking of locality as just the percentage above the “everywhere else” category. I wasn’t taking into account the minimum locality pay.
So, if Leslie hit the salary cap and lived in Pawnee (and assuming Pawnee was in the everywhere else category), her salary would be more like $213,000. Is that correct?
When she goes to Department of Interior, she goes to the federal pay scales. She says she has to go through Senior Executive Service (SES) and those are the pay scales for SES positions, granted those are gor this year so it's probably less when the show air but not significantly less, maybe 150k on the low end.
BTW federal worker pay scales are available on the OPM site.
I am dumber than a box o’ rocks as far as geography (I learned where Idaho was literally this year), but even I know Indiana is nearly Canadian, barring the Great Lakes and Michigan.
Couldn’t be LESS southern.
Can't see the post you're replying to, but I believe it's called the "middle finger of the south" for a reason. It's culturally very southern (especially in the lower reaches of the state).
The federal pay scale is federal and doesn't care what state you're in. And in fact, people in blue states get paid *more* because the cost of living is higher, and there's a location supplement.
So oops.
$180k-$250k is unlikely, but check your local government employee salaries, all of which are public record. There are multiple municipal and county employees in your area making six figures unless you live in a very rural area.
For most of the show, low salaries in a low COL area. Ben is probably making more because he is at a state job compared to a municipal job.
But they would have good benefits (especially Ben).
Ben also likely has zero expenses because he’s spent most of his career traveling for work, expensing literally everything. He only settled down once he met Leslie and left his government consultant roll.
My head canon also thinks Ben would have made a lot of money off the bitcoin he was mining in his spare time.
But remember, when this show came out, Bitcoin was nowhere near as big as it is today. It was still kind of a niche nerd thing at the time. I could totally see Ben getting in on it out of curiosity.
He'd have gotten into it for fun. Then forgotten about it. Then have an episode where he and Andy have to try and find his old external hard drive where he keeps his information.
Because as it stands he'd be worth a fortune. If he can find it.
That’s happening IRL with that guy searching a huge landfill since he accidentally threw away his hard drive or whatever. Not too well informed on the story, but found it fascinating what he’s been going through to try and get it back.
Yeah. They would have been firmly middle class, if not lower middle class, though their benefits would have been solid. But, in a low cost of living area like Pawnee, they would have done alright.
... at least before you factor in the waffles and binders and gifts Leslie buys. She probably had several years salary in credit card debt from all that. =p
The State does not generally pay better than Cities. It’s usually commensurate but often a well run city will have more funds and flexibility than the State, which is usually much more political in every way, including funding employee salaries.
POTUS makes $400k a year so Leslie is pulling that starting next January (?)
She blows her whole expense account on binders and banner printing, of course.
She would be the best president. Could you imagine her telling the top Republican in the house and senate to shut up because she has to use the whiz palace. 😭
I mean, it was most likely Leslie. Not only is she the main character of the show, but Ben stepped aside so she could be Governor, and you know he'd do the same for her as President.
From the Mouth of P&R God:
"To me, I think, I don’t think there’s a right answer [about Leslie being President],” Schur told the crowd. “If you want to believe that the security detail that’s standing behind Leslie and Ben standing as their at Jerry’s funeral and they say, it’s time to go, if you want to believe he’s talking to Leslie because she’s President, then great. If you believe that he’s actually talking to Ben because he’s the President, okay. If you believe that the two of them are just significant citizens in American culture who have hired their own private security, that’s the way you feel, and I feel like it’s a little bit of a Rorshack test.”
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/creator-parks-recreation-finally-addressed-202519619.html
My best guess:
Leslie as deputy director: $55K - $65K
Ben as auditor: $70K - $80K
Leslie as city counselor: Additional $30K (I think it was part time in the show, so this assumes she can still get normal parks salary)
Ben as City Manager: $90K - $120K
Leslie as regional National Parks director: $150K
Ben as Congressional campaign manager: $300K - $500K
This is probably the closest in the thread. I've worked both city and state government, right now am in a similar deputy director position in my first year in the job/field making $56k.
Agreed as I work a city job rn. My city is larger than the municipality this show takes place in (never actually seen it — thread got recommended to me)
I work in a city with several big stadiums and make around 52k as an entry code officer. Our director makes 150k. Scaled down — I think Parks would probably make around what the OC stated.
Gov jobs don’t always pay well/comparable to private sector, but the security and benefits are nice.
I wasn't saying that to say that he was just a part of it, I said that to try and get an idea of where you were pulling that number from. I work on federal congressional and senate races, the campaign manager on my last congressional race made $70k. There are only a handful of races I can think of that could afford to even spend $300k on any one thing let alone on one person. It is very very hard to raise that kind of money outside of hyper competitive swing seats.
It’s possible if you squint and don’t look too closely lol. Like the cost of living in Pawnee would probably be super low and also maybe she graduated college with no debt (full ride scholarship for grades and persistence) and then immediately got a job in government that had certain and exponential pay rises. She’s midish thirties when the show starts so she could’ve been there 10+ years, that’s probably at least 60k, and at the beginning of the show she’s renting so other than that no huge expenses. She doesn’t travel or own expensive stuff so it’s maybe believable that she spends the majority of her salary on gifts and waffles.
Compared to something like Friends where an often out of work chef and a coffee shop waitress shared a massive West Village two bedroom it’s totally believable lol.
I know, and I appreciate that the writers threw something in, but even so there is just no way the rent would be low enough that she could go months without a job and they could survive on Rachel’s salary (it’s not like she was at a high end restaurant and getting massive tips every night). Even split between the two of them it would be a stretch, controlled or not.
I always just assumed their rich parents had something to do with the stability of the situation. Rachel’s dad is rich, Ross and Monica’s parents are rich. Not a huge leap that they would have leaned on them a bit when things were tight.
Chandler has a proper job and lives in a much smaller apartment, Joey sporadically has money so their situation makes much more sense.
Are you trying to argue that their rent was realistic? I had no idea so many people would want to jump in to defend their living situation. I’m sorry, but without massive support from their parents they couldn’t have afforded their place.
In the grand scheme of things it doesn’t matter, rent is brought up as needed to move plots, so there’s no need to defend it.
As a former local govt worker, you are way overestimating govt salaries and “certain and exponential pay rises” - especially for a city that furloughed its employees early in the series.
I always assumed that Leslie inherited money from her father and the initial house she lives in as well. My head cannon is Marlene lives in a swinging senior apartment complex entertaining and chasing men Blanche Deveraux style so that would leave the house to Leslie.
Considering she spent enough on banners alone while just being the deputy director that the shop owner was able to afford a $10-20,000 Rolex, i would say she’s either in an enormous amount of debt or someone in payroll fudged the numbers and is adding an extra number on her checks
Leslie starts as a deputy director which is easily a six figure job but it seems like most of the characters have unrealistic spending habits or unrealistic stashes of gold.
There’s no way you’ve worked for local government, because a deputy director would NOT easily make 6 figures. Maybe in NYC but in a town like Pawnee? Maybe (MAYBE) $70K. Even then that’s probably too high, especially since she was deputy director of the Parks and Rec dep (no unionized and likely her salary came from federal grants rather than directly from the city budget).
I have worked for several cities, all with the parks department, all no bigger than a population of 100,00 and every deputy director is making well over 6 figures… I’m not going to argue with you over the budget of a fictional Indiana town.
I also worked for city governments (not a factional Indiana town) and our deputy was making $80K. How does a town of 100,000 afford that salary for their deputy director??? Must either be wealthy area. I worked in a rust belt city (which it seems a town like Pawnee resembles).
Anyway there’s no argument. It’s a discussion on what her salary would be, and since she worked in a factional town…No need to get so touchy.
How am I the one being touchy by providing context based on my career? These are not “wealthy areas” at all but they are growing rapidly and they all have a total budget of well over a billion dollars. If your experience is different that’s fine.
A budget of well over a billion dollars would be huge for Pawnee, I'd imagine. For reference, a current proposed budget for 2025 in Worcester, MA (pop 205k) is just shy of $900m.
One thing I don't see mentioned and is part of my head cannon is that Leslie received some money when her father passed away. Marlene and Leslie both being hard workers, sound investors, and savvy savers (outside of Leslie's random large purchases). Marlene probably put money away to help raise her daughter and school; then when she received a full scholarship, it grew more. Fast forward \~4 years, Leslie in her mid 20s has a nice nest egg and zero debt.
I can see Leslie getting sucked into some dumb pyramid scheme or putting all her money in one stock tbh. She’s smart, yes, but she was gullible in the beginning of the series
Nope. Other people are commenting on salaries, and I was just sharing a thought.
As far as I know reddit is a place where "people can dive into their interests, hobbies, and passions." I am very interested and passionate about PandR and consider viewing the show a hobby. Am I in the wrong place?
Ok chill, it's not that serious. You started off by saying 'something I don't see mentioned' and then proceeded to talk about stuff that has nothing to do with the question. So yeah, of course it wasn't mentioned lol
Other people were mentioning money. This is a discussion. You were discussing Bitcoin. What does that have to do with salary?
I am chill, but don't appreciate when people feel the need to chime in with a negative interaction for no reason.
Accounting pays well. Here in chicago people with a masters start at 75k. Ben is on a special team to manage distressed towns for the state with lots of traveling so id guess 100k in today's dollars at the start of the show. Assuming hes a cpa with a around 3 years experience in public accounting plus some time at the state.
The deputy parks director for the county I worked for made about $75K. Leslie probably made between $75-100K in Pawnee depending on how long she was there. The feds would have been a nice jump. As Deputy City Manager Ben would have probably been making around $150K.
MCOL Area. Deputy Director of the County Parks in my County is making $109k, but he’s an engineer as well. So it’s a bit better than most.
At the time this show was on she would have been making 60-80k at best. It’s a small town, salaries wouldn’t be huge.
Oh they’d be up ⬆️ there now $165k for Leslie and $175k for Ben I mean we’re talking 10 years. I’m taking a district manager position of national parks and senior congressmen.
*Would been w remain*
*A congressman when Leslie*
*Becomes Governor?*
\- Far-Programmer3189
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I really didn’t mind her in the first couple seasons, but the longer it goes on the less and less I can watch her. There’s nothing wrong with having unlikable characters in shows, it’s just the writers clearly want you to like her…
She also gets a lot of screen time, so making it harder to enjoy the parts I like about the show. Definitely rooting for Ron.
I hope some of the other characters like Ben, Ron and April get a good send off. Really having to power through some parts
Ben by that point is a congressmen, and their salary is about $174,000 per year. For Leslie, you'd have to find a reasonable replacement for Pawnee and the jobs listed with corresponding salaries.
Hi I actually work in the field. None of the positions anyone in the show holds really remotely reflect reality, but a second in command at a midsize park and rec dept in the Midwest is likely making between 60-80k. Ron could be anywhere north of $100k depending on how supportive Pawnee is of its parks dept and how well the City and Dept are doing.
Could you clarify what you mean when you say "none of the positions reflect reality?" - to me it seemed like the structure was fairly typical for a local government departments (Director, Associate Director, with several other lower-level positions and an assistant/intern)
I think they more meant their lifestyles don’t match the reality of their salaries at that position. Tom absolutely balls out on everything, Leslie spends enough on banners to pay for the shop guy to buy a Rolex Submariner, Ron has a board of gold plus several cabins, Donna gets in on the “treat yo self” game with Tom. Everyone’s far outspending a regular government salary.
It’s small town Indiana so It is dirt cheap to live there. I think many of them have side hustles as well.
That would be reflected in their pay though. I doubt small town Indiana is paying their parks department very much.
Primarily that they don’t do what anyone in those positions would actually do. To have that many administrative staff (the whole cast is admin), Pawnee would most likely be a larger department. Who is supervising aquatics? Sports? Who’s in charge of the mowing crew? Who is the park planner? Hiring lifeguards and officials? It’s not uncommon for a small department to have only a handful of staff, but Pawnee only has administrative staff. No one, day to day, is running the actual parks and programs. Obviously it’s a workplace sitcom so the goal is not reality. A Deputy Director is most often found in a larger parks and rec department. Generally a larger department would have a Recreation Supervisor or Superintendent. Same goes for Parks/Grounds/Maintenance Superintendent. Then you’d have staff that really put in the work in the parks. Grounds crew/maintenance, Sports Turf Maintenance, Recreation Specialists. Aquatics Supervisor, titles along those lines.
A city with a Parks Dept of 6+ people (not including maintenance) has to be pretty rare outside large cities, and Pawnee was supposedly pretty small. I think if anything the show creators don't understand what a small town actually is.
>how well the city and department are doing Considering there’s a pretty big plot line centered around a government shutdown due to lack of funding, I’m gonna guess Pawnee isn’t exactly doing great (though better than Eagleton, apparently). So I’d imagine the budget is a little hamstrung. Ron doesn’t really need a large salary with his large gold surplus anyway.
She's an SES position so that's anywhere between 180-250k
So….although the pay scale technically goes up to 250k for SES positions, they are subject to a salary cap of about $184,000 (base pay, locality pay in DC would make this higher, but Pawnee probably wouldn’t get a locality bump)
Pawnee would get a locality subtraction lol
Racoon management tax.
Paunchburger subsidy
I think a lot of SES’s get (sizable) bonuses, too.
Which she immediately spent on waffles and banners
Don't forget candy bracelets and extravagant birthday plans for all of her friends. <3
One of those bonuses 100% went to a down-payment on the replica Iron Throne for Ben just so she could see him make "that stupid :O face"
And the candy necklaces without a string for Andy lol. Not in mine:)
Don't talk about things you don't understand. No where has base pay only. Everywhere is base + locality. Lowest locality is still over 16%
Fuckin chill bro it’s not that deep
Fuckin chill on chillin bro. It's not your business.
You sound exhausting to be around
Ah yes... and there it is. The standard Reddit response when someone gets put in their place. Some variant of "you must be fun at parties." Really original and fresh take, bro. Your response is just: "Yeah... well... I wouldn't want to be your friend in real life!" Whatever will I do if some random stranger wouldn't want to be my friend based on a couple sentences I write on an online forum... oh well... anyway.
Nobody reading all that you boring ass bitch
LMAO. Sorry reading is so difficult for you.
I made a mistake! I was thinking of locality as just the percentage above the “everywhere else” category. I wasn’t taking into account the minimum locality pay. So, if Leslie hit the salary cap and lived in Pawnee (and assuming Pawnee was in the everywhere else category), her salary would be more like $213,000. Is that correct?
You think Pawnee or any town like it pays that much to anyone that works for the city?
When she goes to Department of Interior, she goes to the federal pay scales. She says she has to go through Senior Executive Service (SES) and those are the pay scales for SES positions, granted those are gor this year so it's probably less when the show air but not significantly less, maybe 150k on the low end. BTW federal worker pay scales are available on the OPM site.
[удалено]
Indiana is considered a southern state?
I am dumber than a box o’ rocks as far as geography (I learned where Idaho was literally this year), but even I know Indiana is nearly Canadian, barring the Great Lakes and Michigan. Couldn’t be LESS southern.
Southern in ideology I believe their point was
I’ve always referred to it as the south of the north, personally
As someone from Wisconsin, southern Indianins have southern accents. I realize that doesn't make it southern, just something I've noticed.
Can't see the post you're replying to, but I believe it's called the "middle finger of the south" for a reason. It's culturally very southern (especially in the lower reaches of the state).
I mean it’s further southern than some states if you really wanna split hairs 😂
It's redder than yer blood that's for damn sure.
Red and south are two very different things
How's it feel to just always be the dumbest person in a room?
States have zero say in who the department of the interior hires at any level.
The federal pay scale is federal and doesn't care what state you're in. And in fact, people in blue states get paid *more* because the cost of living is higher, and there's a location supplement. So oops.
Are you an idiot ?
What the hell are you talking about
No chanting.
She worked for national parks by that point I believe
Yes.
$180k-$250k is unlikely, but check your local government employee salaries, all of which are public record. There are multiple municipal and county employees in your area making six figures unless you live in a very rural area.
At this stage she’s not a municipal employee, she’s a relatively senior employee in the federal government
Don’t forget about all the insider trading he’ll have access to, so they’d be millionaires many times over on that $174k salary.
For most of the show, low salaries in a low COL area. Ben is probably making more because he is at a state job compared to a municipal job. But they would have good benefits (especially Ben).
Ben also likely has zero expenses because he’s spent most of his career traveling for work, expensing literally everything. He only settled down once he met Leslie and left his government consultant roll. My head canon also thinks Ben would have made a lot of money off the bitcoin he was mining in his spare time.
I wonder if Ben made anything from "the cones of dunshire"
His accounting buddies got him the patent
I love the accounting group. They make Ben seem so cool.
 Ben *is* so cool 😎 😅
Ben has the copyright and it was assigned to an S Corp, of which Ben is the owner.
And apparently it was successful enough to make a second game. Definitely a passion product but one that creates passive income through licensing.
By now its a mobile game with microtransactions
Damn Gryzzl!
I call Ledgerman!
Ted! Get in here!
T E E E E E A D D D
This has me loling at 6:45 am
That scares the shit out of Andy and transforms him into Johnny karate instantly when he screamed **TED!**
Excuse you, have some respect for “the ninth-highest-selling multi-player figurine-based strategy fantasy sequel game in history”
Considering what Warhammer is currently turning into financially, not the worst position in the world to be in.
He made a lot of investments into it. Where do you think is bitcoin money went?
Ben is way too financially responsible to mess with bitcoin. He would see that as something people like Tom do and have a low opinion of it.
But remember, when this show came out, Bitcoin was nowhere near as big as it is today. It was still kind of a niche nerd thing at the time. I could totally see Ben getting in on it out of curiosity.
He would have mined it purely for fun and without financial incentive
He was solving the problems himself.
He would have been into it while he was making his stop motion movie.
He'd have gotten into it for fun. Then forgotten about it. Then have an episode where he and Andy have to try and find his old external hard drive where he keeps his information. Because as it stands he'd be worth a fortune. If he can find it.
That’s happening IRL with that guy searching a huge landfill since he accidentally threw away his hard drive or whatever. Not too well informed on the story, but found it fascinating what he’s been going through to try and get it back.
Nah, he'd be even more sceptical of it.
He possible could see the financial utility in mining “a useless” currency and selling it to the masses
He also has too much of a conscience to do that.
Don’t forget that he likely owns part of a drying cleaning transactional holding company.
Yes, with the Fonz
It is a Dry cleaning transactional holding company which he co-owns with Dr. Saperstein.
Yeah. They would have been firmly middle class, if not lower middle class, though their benefits would have been solid. But, in a low cost of living area like Pawnee, they would have done alright. ... at least before you factor in the waffles and binders and gifts Leslie buys. She probably had several years salary in credit card debt from all that. =p
The State does not generally pay better than Cities. It’s usually commensurate but often a well run city will have more funds and flexibility than the State, which is usually much more political in every way, including funding employee salaries.
We know that Pawnee isn’t a well run city, that’s why Ben and Chris go to Pawnee.
My city pays attorneys more than the state. Significantly more
A lot of law enforcement involved shootings?
POTUS makes $400k a year so Leslie is pulling that starting next January (?) She blows her whole expense account on binders and banner printing, of course.
oof...knope 2024 is what this country deserves. wish we could have her on the ballot
I've never up voted faster or harder.
I wish there ws a hard up vote button
Call it the UpKnope button.
She would be the best president. Could you imagine her telling the top Republican in the house and senate to shut up because she has to use the whiz palace. 😭
The country needs her, but it doesn't deserve her.
Just say Knope
We never found out whether it was Leslie or Ben though, right? I thought it was purposely ambiguous.
I mean, it was most likely Leslie. Not only is she the main character of the show, but Ben stepped aside so she could be Governor, and you know he'd do the same for her as President.
From the Mouth of P&R God: "To me, I think, I don’t think there’s a right answer [about Leslie being President],” Schur told the crowd. “If you want to believe that the security detail that’s standing behind Leslie and Ben standing as their at Jerry’s funeral and they say, it’s time to go, if you want to believe he’s talking to Leslie because she’s President, then great. If you believe that he’s actually talking to Ben because he’s the President, okay. If you believe that the two of them are just significant citizens in American culture who have hired their own private security, that’s the way you feel, and I feel like it’s a little bit of a Rorshack test.” https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/creator-parks-recreation-finally-addressed-202519619.html
or the unmentioned scenario. At that point they have both been President and First Spouse so the Secret Service is speaking to them both.
Oh yeaaaah
First one, then the other!
We didn't in the show but I'm sure it was confirmed on one of the earlier episodes of the podcast
Can you *imagine* the Cabinet meetings? So many gifts
and waffles at JJ's
She would spend a quarter of that on waffles alone.
So JJ’s and printing companies and splitting that 400k
But im sure she will be so generous as to give one binder to her kids😅
My best guess: Leslie as deputy director: $55K - $65K Ben as auditor: $70K - $80K Leslie as city counselor: Additional $30K (I think it was part time in the show, so this assumes she can still get normal parks salary) Ben as City Manager: $90K - $120K Leslie as regional National Parks director: $150K Ben as Congressional campaign manager: $300K - $500K
to add to this accurate and comprehensive list, Ben as a congressman makes $174k.
This is probably the closest in the thread. I've worked both city and state government, right now am in a similar deputy director position in my first year in the job/field making $56k.
It depends entirely on the municipality you’re in though. I’m in a low level position in local government and make that much because of where I live
You must live in Eagleton then. All smug probably. (Pre bankruptcy of course lol)
Basically lol, my county is all rich old white people. Great for money, bad for diverse experiences
Agreed as I work a city job rn. My city is larger than the municipality this show takes place in (never actually seen it — thread got recommended to me) I work in a city with several big stadiums and make around 52k as an entry code officer. Our director makes 150k. Scaled down — I think Parks would probably make around what the OC stated. Gov jobs don’t always pay well/comparable to private sector, but the security and benefits are nice.
Don't forget about the trademark ™️ for cones of dunshire Ben probably has a lot more!
Do congressional campaign managers really make that much money? Because damn!
Absolutely not
I don't know what kind of congressional campaigns you've been a part of but 70-90ish is much, much more realistic
Ben wasn’t just part of it - he ran it.
I wasn't saying that to say that he was just a part of it, I said that to try and get an idea of where you were pulling that number from. I work on federal congressional and senate races, the campaign manager on my last congressional race made $70k. There are only a handful of races I can think of that could afford to even spend $300k on any one thing let alone on one person. It is very very hard to raise that kind of money outside of hyper competitive swing seats.
Campaign managers don’t make nearly that much
Not enough to realistically support Leslie’s spending habits, for most of the series
It’s possible if you squint and don’t look too closely lol. Like the cost of living in Pawnee would probably be super low and also maybe she graduated college with no debt (full ride scholarship for grades and persistence) and then immediately got a job in government that had certain and exponential pay rises. She’s midish thirties when the show starts so she could’ve been there 10+ years, that’s probably at least 60k, and at the beginning of the show she’s renting so other than that no huge expenses. She doesn’t travel or own expensive stuff so it’s maybe believable that she spends the majority of her salary on gifts and waffles. Compared to something like Friends where an often out of work chef and a coffee shop waitress shared a massive West Village two bedroom it’s totally believable lol.
Plus, admit or not, she reuses some of those binders.
She clearly doesn’t. Remember her house when she had the party for Justin?
Yeah, her whole “I’m an unorganized hoarder” phase was so out of character for her
She mentioned she had a scholarship in one episode. Something about a scholarship for pretty blonde women or something.
Pretty Blondes Who Can Read.
🤣
It's now called the Virginia Woolf Prize.
Different times
The explanation on the show was that Monica was in her grandmother’s rent controlled apartment illegally.
I know, and I appreciate that the writers threw something in, but even so there is just no way the rent would be low enough that she could go months without a job and they could survive on Rachel’s salary (it’s not like she was at a high end restaurant and getting massive tips every night). Even split between the two of them it would be a stretch, controlled or not.
I always just assumed their rich parents had something to do with the stability of the situation. Rachel’s dad is rich, Ross and Monica’s parents are rich. Not a huge leap that they would have leaned on them a bit when things were tight. Chandler has a proper job and lives in a much smaller apartment, Joey sporadically has money so their situation makes much more sense.
Totally agree. It’s the only way they would’ve been able to live there, rent controlled or not.
Also consider it would have been 90s-early 2000’s rent not today’s ludicrously high $2,000 for a one bedroom rent.
Are you trying to argue that their rent was realistic? I had no idea so many people would want to jump in to defend their living situation. I’m sorry, but without massive support from their parents they couldn’t have afforded their place. In the grand scheme of things it doesn’t matter, rent is brought up as needed to move plots, so there’s no need to defend it.
As a former local govt worker, you are way overestimating govt salaries and “certain and exponential pay rises” - especially for a city that furloughed its employees early in the series.
Yeah that’s part of the ‘squint and don’t look closely’ lol
In friends they did explain that. They stated that it was rent controlled and they were hiding the fact that they were living there.
I always assumed that Leslie inherited money from her father and the initial house she lives in as well. My head cannon is Marlene lives in a swinging senior apartment complex entertaining and chasing men Blanche Deveraux style so that would leave the house to Leslie.
This makes a lot of sense, thank you!
Considering she spent enough on banners alone while just being the deputy director that the shop owner was able to afford a $10-20,000 Rolex, i would say she’s either in an enormous amount of debt or someone in payroll fudged the numbers and is adding an extra number on her checks
Leslie starts as a deputy director which is easily a six figure job but it seems like most of the characters have unrealistic spending habits or unrealistic stashes of gold.
lol, trust me, as a former “deputy director” myself, no where near six figs.
My deputy director makes 170k. Superintendents make over 120k and even a few of our facility coordinators make 100k
Yeah, but the whole point is that Pawnee sucks
So does the city I work for lol
There’s no way you’ve worked for local government, because a deputy director would NOT easily make 6 figures. Maybe in NYC but in a town like Pawnee? Maybe (MAYBE) $70K. Even then that’s probably too high, especially since she was deputy director of the Parks and Rec dep (no unionized and likely her salary came from federal grants rather than directly from the city budget).
I have worked for several cities, all with the parks department, all no bigger than a population of 100,00 and every deputy director is making well over 6 figures… I’m not going to argue with you over the budget of a fictional Indiana town.
I also worked for city governments (not a factional Indiana town) and our deputy was making $80K. How does a town of 100,000 afford that salary for their deputy director??? Must either be wealthy area. I worked in a rust belt city (which it seems a town like Pawnee resembles). Anyway there’s no argument. It’s a discussion on what her salary would be, and since she worked in a factional town…No need to get so touchy.
How am I the one being touchy by providing context based on my career? These are not “wealthy areas” at all but they are growing rapidly and they all have a total budget of well over a billion dollars. If your experience is different that’s fine.
A budget of well over a billion dollars would be huge for Pawnee, I'd imagine. For reference, a current proposed budget for 2025 in Worcester, MA (pop 205k) is just shy of $900m.
Regional Directors at National Parks service apparently earn an average of $150,000 In 2017 it likely would have been closer to $125,00-$130,000
One thing I don't see mentioned and is part of my head cannon is that Leslie received some money when her father passed away. Marlene and Leslie both being hard workers, sound investors, and savvy savers (outside of Leslie's random large purchases). Marlene probably put money away to help raise her daughter and school; then when she received a full scholarship, it grew more. Fast forward \~4 years, Leslie in her mid 20s has a nice nest egg and zero debt.
I can see Leslie getting sucked into some dumb pyramid scheme or putting all her money in one stock tbh. She’s smart, yes, but she was gullible in the beginning of the series
That doesn't have anything to do with her income though.
Nope. Other people are commenting on salaries, and I was just sharing a thought. As far as I know reddit is a place where "people can dive into their interests, hobbies, and passions." I am very interested and passionate about PandR and consider viewing the show a hobby. Am I in the wrong place?
Ok chill, it's not that serious. You started off by saying 'something I don't see mentioned' and then proceeded to talk about stuff that has nothing to do with the question. So yeah, of course it wasn't mentioned lol
Other people were mentioning money. This is a discussion. You were discussing Bitcoin. What does that have to do with salary? I am chill, but don't appreciate when people feel the need to chime in with a negative interaction for no reason.
I can't wait to be at the point of wanting to rewatch this. the first watch felt so fast and like such a trip. I miss this world.
Here's your trigger. Rewatch it!!
A close friend is a deputy public works director in a city similar to Pawnee here in NC, she makes under $100k. But NC pays like absolute crap.
Is it under $100k like $95k or $40k?
Between $50-$65k for a deputy director for a small-medium size city.
I’m sure Indiana does too. Leslie may have made more than that due to seniority but not much more.
Accounting pays well. Here in chicago people with a masters start at 75k. Ben is on a special team to manage distressed towns for the state with lots of traveling so id guess 100k in today's dollars at the start of the show. Assuming hes a cpa with a around 3 years experience in public accounting plus some time at the state.
The deputy parks director for the county I worked for made about $75K. Leslie probably made between $75-100K in Pawnee depending on how long she was there. The feds would have been a nice jump. As Deputy City Manager Ben would have probably been making around $150K.
Low to mid 6 figures for each of them.
In a local government job?
This is after they both got national jobs
This is gauging from the ending of the series when they both worked in DC.
Ben congressman. Leslie if not in office is likely sec of the interior.
MCOL Area. Deputy Director of the County Parks in my County is making $109k, but he’s an engineer as well. So it’s a bit better than most. At the time this show was on she would have been making 60-80k at best. It’s a small town, salaries wouldn’t be huge.
Oh they’d be up ⬆️ there now $165k for Leslie and $175k for Ben I mean we’re talking 10 years. I’m taking a district manager position of national parks and senior congressmen.
Leslie would be Biden’s chief of staff. Ben would be Press secretary.
Would been w remain a congressman when Leslie becomes Governor?
*Would been w remain* *A congressman when Leslie* *Becomes Governor?* \- Far-Programmer3189 --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
No
Best MiB agents ever
I want to know how Ron has so much money.
Duke Silver makes all the money.
I know Ben's salary when he was a stop motion animator....
well you have to figure in legal salary and then add the kickbacks.
they're pulling in probably 250k+ as a HH honestly, they're killin it
Well in the last episode they have secret service, so one of them was president (aka 400k a year)
Wow Phoebe Bridgers and Bo Burnham look great.
Leslie would be making 70% of whatever Ben was making.
Well we know statistically Leslie would be 70% of Ben’s salary.
In reality there’s a lot more embezzlement
I haven’t finished the series yet, but are you supposed to hate Leslie by season 7? I can barely watch scenes with her in them
I know you’re getting downvoted but I also know exactly what you mean.
I really didn’t mind her in the first couple seasons, but the longer it goes on the less and less I can watch her. There’s nothing wrong with having unlikable characters in shows, it’s just the writers clearly want you to like her… She also gets a lot of screen time, so making it harder to enjoy the parts I like about the show. Definitely rooting for Ron. I hope some of the other characters like Ben, Ron and April get a good send off. Really having to power through some parts