Earning in EI: Part Two

𝙀𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙣 𝙀𝙄: 𝙋𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙏𝙬𝙤. 𝙁𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙨 𝙄𝙢𝙥𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙋𝙖𝙮 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙃𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙡𝙮 𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙥𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙨

Happy #MoneyMonday 💰💚 I’m not feeling as sweaty typing this so maybe I’m finally getting comfortable talking about money?

Today I wanted to expand on my initial Earning in EI and talk about some factors that impact pay...resulting in that huge range you see. The pay can be wildly 𝘂𝗻𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘂𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 because of these factors. Some weeks I work 25-30 hours, some weeks I work 40-50 hours. This results in a drastically different paycheck every two weeks which initially made budgeting extremely difficult.

𝘚𝘸𝘪𝘱𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘱𝘢𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨!

During our last #MoneyMonday chat - I started talking about negotiation in my stories. Check out the “Money Chat” highlight if you haven’t already! This is one of the major reasons I would encourage you to negotiate. The hourly rate may sound high but you have to consider how difficult it is to get 40 hours a week in EI, just to be very honest. So, if you negotiate for a slightly higher hourly rate, you will feel much better for those weeks when you only hit 25-30 hours.

I’m finally at a comfortable place, financially in EI. My caseload is fairly stable, I work in 3 regions to maintain full-time hours, I attend all IFSP meetings, pick up evaluations on evenings and weekends, and attend developmental preschool meetings. So financial stability is possible!

But my first few months in EI? A struggle 😅 Like I couldn’t afford to splurge on my cliff bars struggle. I didn’t have a great understanding of all these factors prior to accepting the position. With many of you expressing interest in EI, I want this to be something you take into consideration especially when considering hourly vs salary positions.

𝑰𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝑬𝑰, 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝑰 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒂𝒄𝒕 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒂𝒚? 𝑰𝒇 𝒔𝒐, 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒑 𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒃𝒚 𝒅𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒘!