40k might be average for everyone, but for skilled and educated technical folk (which most of us on HN are), 55k is low (at least if you're living in the US).
If you are living in an industrialized country and have real technical skills, just do a good job, cover your bases, then ask for 12% more every year. As is often said around here, often your salary is just a line item in the books. You can actually do stuff like look for a new job and say, "You know, I've never made 6 figures. How about you pay me $100k?" and a lot of places will just do it, even if this means they're jumping your income by 25% I know this for a fact, because years ago, that's exactly what I did.
Hint: if you want to do this, try working for companies with money. Energy and energy related companies are like this. Also be prepared for lots of politics and soul-grinding nonsense.
