I'm 39, with 15 years of experience, and a Master's Degree. I'm still only earning $67,000 a year. I feel like a failure. How are you guys landing these six figure jobs? I can't figure out what I've been doing wrong to be earning so little this far into my career.

When was the last time you changed jobs? How big is the company you work at? Not sure what your role is but it might be worth taking a step back in title to work for a larger company that pays more and has better benefits and more room for growth.

Did you get a certification; SHRM-CP/SHRM-SCP (Society for Human Resource Management) and PHR/SPHR (HR Certification Institute? This is what brings the 6 digits now.

What industry are you in? Have you switched companies? What type of HR do you work in?

Like others said, it sounds a bit like you are hoping loyalty will eventually pay off. People get those 6 figure jobs by frequently job hopping to bump up their salary. Take a look at job ads in your area and see how the salary offered compares.

Make sure you are in a role that can command that type of money. Years and degrees don’t matter when the pay cap is there.

So many things can factor into this. Where are you located? Industry? Last time you changed companies? I would search the median annual income based on where you are and job title. Maybe it’s time for a shift??

It’s hard to answer your question without knowing much more, but I’d focus on 3 things: (1) industry - finance, tech, healthcare will pay the most, (2) you cannot stay at one company for more than 3-5 years or your pay will start to decline compared to the market, (3) sophistication - if you’re the worker bee who gets stuff done, you will always be paid less than the polished leader who talks strategy, transformation, and longer term thinking.

First off, where is your master's from? Not all masters are valued alike, is it a major university or more of an online degree mill? HR certifications are super easy to get, almost an 80% pass rate, those are becoming less useful. Experience is most important thing. Way too many people are in the HR field and running the salaries down. Companies get over 100 applications for positions in just a few hours. The industry needs a reset.

A lot of jobs are competitive and want the experience to not have to do much training. I work in a small business and trying to get into a bigger company and it’s so hard because everything I’m seeing is they found someone who has the expertise and experience they are looking for. It’s never about giving someone a try to gain the experience and mold that person. Time is money and people having short resignation time window in their policy makes hiring someone who knows what their doing necessary in their eyes.

Sometime having a masters can hinder you cus companies think they will need to pay you more. They will want to hire lower starting. Masters helps when you’re locked into a company and the promote growth.

I have roughly the same amount of experience, MS and an SHRM-SCP, HrBP certs, and what I've found was its largely based on the market/area. Its difficult in my area, but 2 hrs down or up the road I made upwards of 100k. So you may have to make a move to get more money