It makes perfect sense if you've ever had a salaried job: I was paid $20/hour, salary, but I was working at least 60 hours per week -- never just 40. Let's do the math: If I worked just 60 hours per week, that would come out to only $13.22 per hour. I often worked more than that.

Yes, the work was satisfying, but do you know what is NOT satisfying? Trying to support kids on something like $13 per hour. And let's not forget that a lot of that time was not spending writing. That was the least of it. I had all the management of a staff to take care of, plus editing and proofing and assigning things, plus making sure we met deadlines, plus overseeing routine matters like obits and community calendar stuff -- there were millions of tiny details to keep track of.