my Fresh Pasta Maker just made master at $285.

Not even all the $15 inventors, I have to check when I get home, but my Cocktail inventor started at $15 but mastered below $300.

No worries, Simsane. I'm still playing the first version because I bought mine from shockwave. heh
The only time I buy organics is when they are on sale and have had absolutely no problems with health unless an illness hits just after I shut down for the night and it is left untreated for a while. I always praise "healthy" behaviors (working out, quick workout, enjoying sounds of nature, relaxing, etc.) and health always raises quickly.
Work room upgrades DO seem to make a difference in promotion speed.(I play 8 families on two windows logins.) I always have at least one of the two adults at master, usually both.
My experiment with salaries beginning at $15 resulted in several different ending pay grades with only a few maxing at $690. Unfortunately, my daughter fell ill just as they were all maxing out and I was barely able to run in and feed everyone, so I didn't have the time to make notes of all the job titles and master salaries as I had hoped.
Hopefully I can post a list of some that I do remember later today. Just glancing over the posts above I can say that the Online Store Operator definitely maxes at 690.

BayouBlonde, I don't think it is the first version of VF. I'm pretty sure there were patches before it went to the game portals. It is easy to check to see what version you are running -- click on the main button -- look on the bottom left of your screen for the version number.

I think our theories have some flaws in them, or the game has some code we aren't taking into consideration.

I had a Day Trader level 1 at $105/day marry a Boardgame Designer level 2 at $105 a day. They were doing well, getting the same pay, and I made them have a baby. Dad got a promotion while mom was carrying the kid. As soon as she put the kid down, she went back to her job Day Trading. Her next promotion, to level 2? Now her salary is only $90. Either a bug, or we don't know enough about the jobs to see everything. To me, it looked like she got demoted for not working for two years.

Actually, I think that's just a feature for that particular job. In the chart I made, I actually explained that would happen with that particular job. I haven't actually ever played anyone with that job, but another member, Lewanda, kept great records and that's what happened to her as well.

It's possible that there may be other jobs that are like that too though. There are so many available that I really don't know for sure yet.

**eta -- My original post is on page three of this thread.

Day Traders Salary is market driven, just as in real life!

Makes total sense, swedane.

Yeah, version said .00 and I have always had the problems with tired / exhausted, which is how I found these forums and was my reason for using two windows logins (the other was set with reverse night/day. But... sad news... I just did a windows update and had to restart the pc (I rarely restart my pc.) When I did and started my game I found that ALL my families had been deleted... on BOTH windows users. Even my daughter's families are gone... all 3rd and 4th gens gone... all house upgrades and repairs gone.. collections gone... trophies gone... I'm disgusted and upset and at this point I don't even want to think about starting over. It was great fun while it lasted. Give me a few days to cool down and I'm sure I'll be back.
The way shockwave works is it uses my net connection to obtain a key each time I start the game (I have a monthly subscription.) I think what happened is they finally uploaded the updated version, it installed when I restarted the pc and poof, my families were gone - because now I have version .05

I agree about the day traders' pay scale. I think it was made specifically to reflect the recent "economic crisis."

Oh, BayouBlonde -- I'm so sorry to hear that. I hope that after a while you'll feel better about starting everything over again and then will be able to enjoy it without something like that ever happening again.