<prompt> Human: In several threads on rpersonalfinance and rinvesting, I read about yearly salaries of 100K, 150K, 200K or more. Here in Belgium the average salary is only 25K and exactly how much I make as a machine operator in a beverage factory. Do Americans really earn so much more for normal jobs or are people with high salaries just better represented on Reddit?  <response>: Average US wage is about 45k So yes, thats higher than 25k, but reddit, especially rpersonalfinance, is not representative of the country as a whole.Edit: Sorry, the 45k is the SSA wage index, reading down on the page the actual average wage is about 43k. Doesnt really change my point, though. 