(FORTUNE Magazine) – Shawn Tully hasn't told me this, but I suspect he would like a raise. It's doubtful, in fact, that anyone working at Fortune, or at your company, doesn't feel he or she needs to be earning more money, just to support the lifestyle he's already living--much less the one to which he aspires.

Tully, a member of FORTUNE's board of editors who wrote the cover story for this issue--"Are You Paid Enough?"-- obviously wasn't surprised most people want more money. But he was amazed at how many graying baby-boomers feel stuck in their careers and strapped--despite six-figure incomes--by the burdens of coping with big mortgages, private-school fees, increased health insurance costs, and, of course, the ever-present bogeymen of taxes, inflation, and college tuition. (These worriers included most of the attendees at the 25th reunion of his Princeton graduating class.)

Obviously the very notion of scraping by on $125,000 a year is a politically incorrect concept and rightly offensive to someone struggling to survive at or below the poverty line. Still, most hardworking business people feel entitled to a certain lifestyle and are obsessed with keeping track of where they stand. In an accompanying story, we help you find how your income stacks up by laying out starting, average, and top salaries for 115 jobs, ranging from advertising to Wall Street.

In analyzing Everymanager's pay problems, Tully, who has an MBA from the University of Chicago, brings the same expert analysis that he has applied in the past to Fortune stories on such subjects as economic value added and international commodity trading. His most shocking conclusion: The new rule of thumb for being well paid is to earn four times your age. Says Tully: "A lot of us simply aren't going to get there."

As Shawn suggests, however, there are a few ways to increase your odds, among them finding work at fast-growing companies that offer lots of incentive pay. Or if that sounds too tough, you could just ask your boss for a raise. (Good luck.)

JOHN W. HUEY JR.

MANAGING EDITOR