the constancy of take home pay

Despite a steadily earning salary, my take home pay remains remarkable constant. Hmmm. As time has gone on, there have been more and more taxes and more and more pre-tax subtractions. Here's a summary with numbers removed to protect the innocent.

Mainly though, I'm visual learner, I'm a stat nerd, and I'm really into making charts in excel. Again this is only for take-home pay, not salary.


A couple interesting observations:

• At the beginning of 2007 I got a raise. But after I upped my 401k contribution and added a dental plan, I was actually making less than before.
• You can see the jump from Associate Copywriter to Copywriter was a substantial one. And yet a Copywriter with a significant 401k and health and dental insurance makes about as much as an Assoc. Copywriter with none of those things.
  
• I'm not sure how my Fed. tax withholding got lowered, and I didn't noticed until I made this chart.
  
• Since my CTA pass only gets taken out of every other paycheck, it makes the chart look funny.
  
• I decreased my 401k only to the company match level because Roth IRAs are the way to go.