Question for TW

After many convesation with Dominicans here in Toronto and in the DR if feel that I am being lied to.

Many of them tell me that their family members make $1000 CND a month working for example as Head of Security for a factory, ect.

This is about the equivalent of $ 10,000 pesos per month. However, most of them live either with: Mother, with an addition on the house. Packed together with some other family member, for example, 8-10 living in the same house.ect,ect.

However, when I question them as to why they are not doing better, they say that everything there is very expensive and the money is not enough. Personally I feel that they know that my salary is high and are either trying to downplay their poor economic performance(salary) to compete with mine or they just dont know how to manage their money. Please clarify if you can.

$1000 CND would only be $500 US. If that is what they make per month then they would be better off in the DR. Life in Canada can be very expensive especially compared to DR.

Yes, your friend in Canada is correct. I ounce work in an upper management company as a Security Director even know my salary was higher than 10,000 pesos do to other duties the Security manager depending in the company ranges here from 5,000 pesos approx 295.00 dollars. Yes the economic is slow. For example a expect to pay a maid 3,000 pesos, chofer 4 to 5 pesos. The economic sometimes forces profesionals like attorney's, accountants and other to take jobs as taxi drivers and other occupations. Never the less dominicans are a hard working individuals which take seriously their job.

Joachim: Trust them, they are right. $10,000 is not enough to survive here, specially in Santo Domingo or the expensive tourist towns. People who keep saying that they can make it with such little money have the ability to withstand great hardships, such as living in slum areas, sharing rooms with many people in unsanitary conditions, having toilet facilities outside of their rooms,entertaining themselves by just hanging out in colmadones playing dominoes in the sidewalks,and wearing inexpensive hand-me down clothing. But to have a quality life here takes money.
TW

Actually $640 US is $1000 Canadian. As public high school teachers only make between 7,000 and 10,000 pesos per month I suppose 10,000 for head of security sound reasonably close to the truth. And Brenda, he was talking about what they made working in the DR.

Brenda

To live in the Dr is a lot more expensive than Canada! Reason being is that in the DR the pay is a whole lot less than Canada,unless you are a white collar worker, but blue collar is a lot less in wages and benifits are nil. This is what I think and is what I am led to believe. Therefore if you are not a professional, but are a salesman, or nurse,retail store worker,ect,ect,your pay would be substantially less and your housing and general cost of living is higher. Of course this would be based on living the same life style as you are in Canada, with all your health care, and a house with all the ammenities. In Canada you can live reasonably well(not well off ...by any means) with 30,000.00 and in the DR,you can't get a job that pays that for these types of jobs. What do you think TW? do you think this is reasonably true?

Re: Brenda

My mistake guys.. sorry about that ...I did not read the original post close enough. ..Don't hang me now! :-D

When I lived in the DR I rented a house on calle Duarte in Andres, not a great area but not all that bad either. I paid roughly $200 CND per month. This did not include telephone, hydro food. For $1000 CND per month I could live fairly well.

In your previous post you said that you could live well on $20,000 per year. This is roughly $ 8,000 more than these people claim that they make.

Considering that in Canada, the US the $1000 dollars that you earn are after taxes. Therfore, you need to make roughly $ 1300-1400 to gross $ 1000.

If I could earn $ 1000CND per month in the DR I would pack up right now and more their.

Furthermore, by head of security(he calls himself ) really means a shift forman.

I know of many people who only make $ 1500-2000 per month here in Canada, and work hard to get it.

I read all the posts and sorry, but $10,000 pesos a month is a high salary in no matter what part of the country you're in. I would guess that about 80% of the work force make less than that...I lived in Sosua for 7 years and had all kinds of jobs (and wages). At my last job I was making $13,000 a month and lived quite well, but had to pay rent, private school for my son, had to eat well (read: NOT rice & beans every day) and my lifestyle was indeed pretty expensive. So if you live in a family residence, pay no rent, subsist on chicken, rice and viveres, I think you'd be very comfortable with $10,000 - if that's what he really makes...

I also live in Charamicos for 2 years. No one that I knew of made that kind of money. But we didnt care, just having the warm weather and the friendly people made up for alot.

Sousa is much more expensive than Andres, Boca Chica since it is one of the primary tourist destinations and everything is over priced.

I agree, I could not eat rice and beans and pollo, or beans and rice and pollo, or pollo beans and rice everyday either. Most do

Back to "it all depends".

The whole discussion about the 20K was about living in Santo Domingo. If I could sell my place and my car have the same income I have now and go live in a very small town I'd have a great life. I'd probably even be considered "rich" by the town people. ) Hmmm...

Let's not forget that it's cold in Canada, so we spend more on winter cloths and we have to heat our homes. You can live without air before you live without heat.

Re: Back to "it all depends".

If you read all the comments and stories in this thread, I would say you are all right! Like Pib says...it all depends. If living in a small town like Andres with bad streets, bad services, few things to do, no good theaters, no great places to visit except being near a beach, a million motorcycles driving around like crazy is what you consider a good life, then you could say you are right.

If living with a straight jacket budget, where every month you have to figure out where the next dollar ought to be spent is satisfactory to you, then fine.

But regardless, if all you earn is $10,880 pesos a month, no matter where you are, you are poor. Yes, of course, if you move to Dajabon or Loma de Cabrera near the border with Haiti, in one of their suburban farm areas and earn $10,000 you might be the rich person in town. But, who the hell wants to live there? Who with any aspirations, looking for a future and interested in the arts, fine education, fine entertainment and contact with the world would like to live in a farm town? It is no coincidence that farm people are swarming out big cities.

In Santo Domingo you would be hard pressed to make a decent living with $10,000. A great number of people would not live in Santo Domingo if it were the last place on earth, and would prefer a little shack in the countryside. Thats fine too. I cannot take the traffic jams anymore. I might become a zillionaire in Cutupu one of these days!!!hehehe.

TW