Warning! This article contains spoilers for Severance season 2’s episode 1.
Severancehas not yet revealed how much Lumon’s MDR employees earn, raising questions about whether the severed workers are paid well.In season 2’s episode 1,Severancebegins on a high note by walking through Mark’s return to the Lumon office. Although he is initially disappointed by the fact that he has to work with a new MDR team, he requests the board to bring his old team members back. To his surprise, the board reconsiders his request. As a result, Dylan, Irving, and Helly return to the workplace.
Soon after Irving returns, Dylan, Helly, and Mark notice that he is still in the haze of his “outie experience,” struggling to accept what he witnessed in the world outside. His sadness concerns Dylan and he hilariously asks him if he is “poor out there.” Dylan’s statement is supposed to be a gag. However, it makes it hard not to wonder how much the severed employees are paid by Lumon.
Severance’s Lexington Letter Reveals Severed Employees Have A Six-Figure Salary
The Show’s Pilot Script Also Reveals The Exact Figures
The Lexington Letter, a book that expandsSeverance’s lore, walks through the experiences of a former severed Lumon employee, Peg Kincaid. In the book (page 9), Peg reveals she was a truck driver before she got the opportunity to work at Lumon. She also reveals thatLumon offered her four times more than she earned as a truck driver to join their Macrodata Refinement team as a severed employee. Although the book does not give away the precise amount of money she earns at Lumon, the fact that the salary is four times more than her previous one confirms it is easily six figures.
…An officer manager earns as much as half a million dollars a year…
While little seems to be known about what Mark did before he joined Lumon, even his outie seems to live a decent life, suggesting that Lumon pays well. Interestingly,Severance’s pilot scriptalso offers some insights into how much a Lumon employee earns. On page 44, it reveals that an officer manager earns as much as half a million dollars a year, proving that Lumon pays a hefty sum to its employees and offers a significant financial incentive to join and stay with the company as a severed employee.
Not A Lot Of People Would Agree To Get The Procedure
Image via Apple TV+
Given how Lumon is infamous in the outside world for its questionable practices and the controversial Severance procedure, not a lot of people would want to work there as severed employees. While some, like Mark and Peg, would find comfort in knowing they can spend a significant chunk of their day away from their real identities, many others would want to remember what happens in their workplace.
Severance: What Lumon’s Macrodata Refinement Department Does
Many aspects of the Macrodata Refinement Department’s job remain unclear in Severance, but the show drops many clues about what Lumon expects from it.
Lumon realizes that the controversialnature of the Severance procedurecould be a major deterrent for potential employees. Therefore, it pays the severed employees well,believing the financial compensation can outweigh their moral and ethical reservations. Given how the outies merely reap the benefits of their innies' hard work inSeverance, the salaries raise many intriguing questions about the moral implications of the nature of work and the power dynamics between the innies and outies.
Severance
Severance is a psychological thriller series featuring Adam Scott as Mark Scout, an employee at Lumon Industries who undergoes a “severance” procedure to separate his work and personal memories. However, as work and life personas mysteriously begin to collide, it quickly becomes clear that not all is as it seems. Created by Dan Erickson and directed by Ben Stiller and Aoife McArdle.
