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UPC Newsletters>
High-Paying Jobs in the U.S.
February 9, 2005
You are worth alot. If not UPC you could go back to school
and look below what you can earn.
What about FREEDOM??
High-Paying Jobs in the U.S.
"Do what you love and the money will follow" is great in
theory, but the truth of the matter is, certain jobs and
fields simply pay more. The Bureau of Labor Statistics
National Compensation Survey, published in August 2004,
showed that white-collar earnings -- which averaged $21.85
per hour -- were the highest among occupational groups.
Blue-collar pay averaged $15.03 per hour, while the hourly
pay of service occupations averaged just $10.40.
Though many of these occupations require an advanced
degree, there are jobs at every education level that pay
more than other jobs for workers with similar levels of
schooling. Here, courtesy of the Employment Policy
Foundation, is a look at the best-paying occupations at
varying education levels:
Top Paying Jobs Overall
The jobs that pay the most require at least a four-year
college degree. According to the Employment Policy
Foundation, the nation's 12 top-paying jobs -- and the mean
annual income reported in 2003 (the most recent year data
was available) for each -- were:
Physicians and surgeons $147,000
Aircraft pilots $133,500
Chief executives $116,000
Electrical and electronic engineers $112,000
Lawyers and judges $99,800
Dentists $90,000
Pharmacists $85,500
Management analysts $84,700
Computer and information system managers $83,000
Financial analysts, managers and advisers $84,000
Marketing and sales managers $80,000
Education administrators $80,000
Though many of these occupations require an advanced
degree, there are jobs at every education level that pay
more than other jobs for workers with similar levels of
schooling. Here, courtesy of the Employment Policy
Foundation, is a look at the best-paying occupations at
varying education levels:
Top Paying Jobs That Do Not Require a High School Degree
These jobs tend to require substantial on-the-job training
and work experience rather than formal education and
schooling:
Industrial production managers $36,000
Bailiffs, correctional officers and jailers $36,400
Paralegals and legal assistants $36,400
Drafters $36,000
Construction manager $33,600
Electricians $31,900
Top Paying Jobs for High School Graduates
These occupations emphasize work experience and on-the-job
training rather than formal education:
Computer software engineers $58,900
Computer/information systems managers $56,400
Computer programmers $55,000
Network systems and data communications analysts $49,000
General and operations managers $48,000
Database, network and computer systems administrators
$48,000
Top Paying Jobs for a Two-Year College Degree
The following jobs tend to be technical in nature,
emphasizing skills developed on the job as well as
job-specific training and certifications:
Healthcare practitioners $66,000
Business analysts $58,000
Electrical and electronic engineers $57,000
Mechanical engineers $56,800
General and operations managers $54,000
Computer and information systems managers $50,400
"A look at expected earnings over a lifetime shows the
economic benefit of higher education attainment," says Tony
Carnevale, who chaired President Clinton's National
Commission for Employment Policy and authored several
books, including America and the New Economy: How New
Competitive Standards are Radically Changing American
Workplaces.
A person with a doctoral or professional degree, for
example, is expected to earn about $3 million over the
course of his or her working life while a person without a
high school diploma is expected to earn less than $1
million.
"Despite an increasing supply of well-educated workers, the
college wage premium has nearly doubled since 1980, largely
because of the added value of a college education in the
new knowledge economy," adds Carnevale.
The Employment Policy Forum concurs, but stresses that
these numbers are only averages. Individual earnings depend
on many factors including geographic location, employer
size (average hourly earnings ranged from $15.06 in
organizations employing between one and 99 workers to
$24.09 in those with 2,500 workers or more), industry
(workers in goods-producing industries earned $18.46 an
hour vs. those in service-producing industries who earned
$16.44 an hour) and the worker's skills and
characteristics.
Kate Lorenz is the article and advice editor for
CareerBuilder.com. She researches and writes about job
search strategy, career management, hiring trends and
workplace issues. Other writers contributed to this article. 
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