$21,000 doesn't go as far as it used to...

As many of you may remember, Temp X recently interviewed for an assistant gig that paid the slightly-just-above-minimum wage of $21,000 per year. The irony was not lost on me that it's the exact amount I got at my first job ever -- it just so happened it was during the Clinton administration. I guess inflation is a myth.

Anyway, that got me thinking. Perhaps Hollywood executives have lost perspective? (Mr. Obvious is here.) If they only knew that the wages they offer are so terribly out of whack, maybe they'd increase them a smidge. Clearly my previous posting about housing prices didn't help, but this one might.

Next time a Hollywood Exec offers you $21,000 to read all their scripts, answer their phones, schedule their meetings, get their groceries, lie to their clients and hit the "print" button for them, remind them that $21k isn't enough. If you remind them where they spend their money, this "salary" is only enough to buy...

43 ounces of cocaine based on current market price of $17,000/kilo. That's not even enough to buy an ounce a week.

1/12 of their Aston Martin DBS Coupe which retails for $269,000. Basically the equivalent of buying the car's front bumper.

261 massages from Carino Massage of Beverly Hills. Or one one after every work day. [Note: Happy endings not included.]

70 iPhones with 3G with 16 gig hard drives. Which is exactly the same amount your boss uses & loses every year.

1 year's of private school education (per court order) for their child at Harvard-Westlake. Books cost extra.

3 first-class tickets on Air France from LAX to Paris bought on less than two weeks notice ($8,988). Or the same as your boss paid last time he went on vacation with the 26-year old trophy wife and the 14-year old kid from his first marriage.

4 Panasonic 65" Plasma TVs. After installing one in the master bedroom, living room, kid's bedroom and guest room, your boss couldn't even have one out by the pool. Quelle terrible!

or better put...

It would take 63.3 years for them to make enough to buy their $1,329,856 house in Pacific Palisades.