How much money will you make?

Hey guys, I worked at the park last year and I am seeing a lot of people asking how much money you make, so I thought I would do a breakdown. The truth is, you don't get paid as much as you think you will. Expenses can add up fast. My average work week was around 60 hours, sometimes more and sometimes less.

60 hours * 7.40 an hour = 444.00 multiplied by 2 because each pay period is 2 weeks = 888.00.

I did the math, about 18 percent of your pay gets taken out for federal, medicare, social security, and Sandusky tax. That left me with about 728. Around 70 gets taken out for housing which leaves you with $658 every 2 weeks.

Now comes the expensive part, food. Every day lunch will run you around $5-7 dollars in the employee cafeteria for a meal. (You can save a couple dollars by bringing a sandwich or soup or something.)I didn't include breakfast, but it is really important, it gives you that energy to make the mornings a little more tolerable. Dinner is what kills you, as you are basically forced to go out for dinner. (Nobody wants to eat nasty TV dinners in their room, especially when their friends/crew are going out.)

On average you will spend $10 a day on dinner (sometimes more, sometimes less.) You can count on spending about $16 dollars a day on food. That means $224 every two weeks.

This brings you down to $434 every two weeks. This doesn't include going on trips with your friends, going out at night, breakfast, and transportation expenses. I worked from May - October and left with about $1500 saved up. Not bad, but when you look at the hours you work for 15 straight weeks, it isn't much.

I'm not trying to discourage anyone from working here my any means, I did and I had an amazing summer. I would go back again in a heartbeat if I didn't have to get an internship related to my career field. Just know, it will be more expensive than you think. I hope this answers some of the questions first years had about money.

Minimum wage went up as well, we'll be making $7.70 at base pay, ie not leadership

^ That's right, but don't forget, they are raising housing by quite a bit to compensate :(

True dat lol but even with housing taken out last year, I left with $5000 saved out of $6000. If you manage it right, it's not that bad

Is there a bonus at the end of the season?

Last year there wasn't, but as far as I know, it's still up in the air because of the new CEO

I doubt that haha

DreamTeamKousin said:
True dat lol but even with housing taken out last year, I left with $5000 saved out of $6000. If you manage it right, it's not that bad

How on Earth did you manage to live all summer off of only $1000?? Did you never go out with your crew?
Teach me your ways! lol...I always leave with less than $1000,or completely broke.

cchamblee09 said:

DreamTeamKousin said:
True dat lol but even with housing taken out last year, I left with $5000 saved out of $6000. If you manage it right, it's not that bad

How on Earth did you manage to live all summer off of only $1000?? Did you never go out with your crew?
Teach me your ways! lol...I always leave with less than $1000,or completely broke.

I went out with my crew sometimes, but we didn't get crew shirts/hoodies so that saved me a bit. I saved a lot by getting ramen at the beginning of the season ($15 will get you over 50 instant noodles) and had those during the season. And since I was at stockade for breaks I would reuse my cup, that saved me about $100 over the corse of the season. My car has really good gas mileage so I didn't spend too much on gas.

Get extra hours if you want more in your paycheck

Stay on point if you dont want so much taken out for housing. This will also reduce your transportation as you wont need a car for anything.

Get to the grocery store in town and get cheaper meals for the week.

There are plenty of ways you can put yourself on a budget and set a side a set amount of "play" money for the month so that you can leave at the end of the summer with a decent bank account.