My $.02, take it or leave it. But with few exceptions this is reality.

Basing a career move on first year pay is kind of dumb. Look at career earnings instead and tighten your belt first year. I lived with a family of 5 in Vegas for 5 years so I know what it costs there, and I also did back to back first year, first with Spirit in Vegas at $38 and then with SWA in LA, which was actually worse. I made it because years earlier I used my crystal ball and started saving up a buffer pot of cash to get me through those years.

If you're not living foolishly you ought to be able to survive a year in Vegas on spirit first year pay no problem. Cost of living there is not high unless you've insisted on buying housing above your means. If you're in a $700k house you bought with zero down, living in an area with $400/month HOA fees, and sending your kids to a $30k/yr private school, then yea you're going to struggle based on your unrealistic lifestyle choices. Maybe the lifestyle is the issue keeping you from benefiting from a few million dollars in lifetime earning, not the first year pay rate. Paying on a car loan? Dumb. Ditch the expensive car and drive a hoopty for a couple of years.

Or take the plunge, do the full-up Dave Ramsey plan, and get rich without obsessing over juggling credit card interest rates or any other stupid gimmicks. This is the best way to survive first year pay but most people are too full of lifestyle and excuses to be able to do it, and that's why they have no money no matter how much they make. If you want to be a millionaire, do what they do. A family of 4 can certainly live just fine for a year in Vegas on $50k if they do the things that millionaires did to get there.

Also, I'm NOT KIDDING when I say deliver pizzas during first year to help with your cash flow. An extra $1000/month or more is very possible delivering pizzas. Failure to make ends meet in Vegas on Spirit first year pay is probably either the result of bad lifestyle choices or a reliance on excuses to not do what's necessary to secure very nice lifetime earnings for your family.