Search:
Recent Posts
Categories
Archives
www.flickr.com
This is a Flickr badge showing public photos from ChrisKnudsen. Make your own badge here.
America’s best and worst paying jobs
Posted by Chris Knudsen on July 18th, 2007
From Forbes - occupation plus annual mean wage for America’s best paying jobs:
- Anesthesiologists - $184K
- Surgeons - $184k
- Obstetricians And Gynecologists - $178k
- Orthodontists - $177k
- Oral And Maxillofacial Surgeons - $165k
- Internists, General - $161k
- Prosthodontists - $159k
- Psychiatrists - $150k
- Family And General Practitioners - $150k
- CEO - $145k
- Physicians And Surgeons, All Other - $142k
- Pediatricians, General - $141k
- Dentists, General - $141k
- Airline Pilots, Copilots And Flight Engineers - $140k
- Podiatrists - $118k
- Lawyer - $114k
- Air Traffic Controllers - $110K
- Engineering Managers - $110k
- Dentists, All Other Specialists - $108k
- Natural Sciences Managers - $108k
- Marketing Managers - $108k
- Computer And Information Systems Managers - $107k
- Sales Manager - $103k
- Petroleum Engineers - $102k
- Financial Managers - $101k
The bottom 25 are basically what you would expect - food services, hotel workers, general laborers, maids, etc.
So what conclusions/observations can we draw from this?
- Education pays.
- The medical profession is still where its at.
- Being a air traffic controller must require more skill than I first thought.
- Being a pilot seems to be the best paying job with the lowest barrier to entry. They need no advanced degree. Pilots beat out lawyers who didn’t even make the top 15.
- If Forbes would have counted all compensation including bonuses and stock options the business professions would be ranked much higher than they are on this list.
- These are averages so take it for what its worth. People in all these profession are sure to make way more and way less than what is given here as the average.
- In my book, net worth is a better measure than income to define wealth. You could make a lot of money but have no net worth. Remember, 40% of all wealth in this country is held by first generation small business owners.
Check your figures! You wrote, “Being a pilot seems to be the best paying job with the lowest barrier to entry. They need no advanced degree.” Try finding a pilot job that doesn’t require a college degree. You can’t (other than flight instructors). Pilots only instruct to build hours of flight time. And that is because all the other jobs require somewhere in the neighborhood of 1500 hours of flight time (minimum!) and that is at $200/hr in a Cessna (factoring in insurance and instructors, etc.) and probably $800/hr of multi-engine time. No barriers to entry my foot!!!
Left by MetroGnome on 07/20/2007@MetroGnome:
I meant advanced degree like MBA, Law or medical, none of which a pilot needs to be a pilot. A BS or BA isn’t an advanced degree.
Also, I didn’t say there were no barriers to entry - I said they were low and they are compared to spending two years in MBA school, three years in law school and six+ years in medical school.
Left by Chris Knudsen on 07/20/2007RE: the pilot debate … just found this page & maybe the discussion is done, but for the record: Airline pilots flying requires an Airline Transport Pilot certificate which IS an advanced degree as far as flying is concerned. The barriers are not low financially, skillwise, or in terms of time. A committed individual can certainly make good progress, but competition is cutthroat, privileges are on the line every time you fly, a medical hiccup can nix a whole career, and the hours required don’t come without a significant cost to quality of life and possible risk of damage to life, limb, and property. The barriers are just different, not lower.
Left by aFlyer on 09/26/2007… and then you have the mugs trying to make money with “internet marketing”, SEO marketing,-wisen up - there is no easy money.
Left by The Baldchemist on 11/10/2007The Baldchemist
I had no idea these professions made so little. Whose bringing home the 300K salaries?
Left by Dave on 11/19/2007Obviously, you have not owned your own business. Most doctors are overloaded with insurance costs - malpractice, liability, litigation, personal health, worker’s comp, property - blah blah blah … Plus the hours - education and other crap is not worth it. If you consider all that one must put in, doctor is the worst paying job.
Best paying job must be something like, freelance consultant or life coach. Very little education, assets, responsibility or skill.
Left by Kmuzu on 11/20/2007Those numbers are averages, and the one’s for doctors are low. For instance, the starting salary for a Neurosurgeon is between 400 and 800k a year.
Left by Brian on 11/22/2007Education pays…eventually. When you figure in deferred earnings and deferred benefits, and college loans plus interest, a college degree doesn’t start paying off for 10-14 years, and that’s if you get a good job in an affordable area.
Left by Firstsai on 04/20/2008