Yes, but job responsibilities and the number of expected work hours each week (including overtime) should be taken into account.

You should consider cost of living and your own expenses. See http://bitly.com/Zd7rQO for the former.

Yes if your not doing a $100,000 worth of work to get that $53,000.

It's pretty good salary

yeah, you could almost pay someone to go around and rub it in other peoples faces for you.