Dirty Jobs that Pay Well

Yahoo has a list of dirty jobs that pay well including the following:

• Veterinarian -- Median annual salary*: $73,621
• Waste Management Engineer -- Median annual salary: $67,249
• Trauma Surgeon -- Median annual salary: $273,160
• Coroner -- Median annual salary: $52,072
• Certified Nurse Midwife -- Median annual salary: $81,015
• Podiatrist -- Median annual salary: $118,665
• Oil Drill Worker -- Median annual salary: $55,806
• Gastroenterologist -- Median annual salary: $239,622

BTW, you don't get these salaries overnight. Here's what the "*" above links to:

*Median annual salary numbers are for people with 10-19 years of work experience in the specified field.

Holy cow, with 10-19 years of work experience, you can make these salaries (or even more) in a lot of different fields. In other words, you don't have to go "dirty" if you don't want to.

That said, here are some thoughts I have on the list:

1. I'm surprised that veterinarians don't make more. I would have put them in the "over $100k" group easily.

2. Medical personnel make good coin, huh? Yeah, but are the hours, frustrations, and "mess" worth it? Not for me. Maybe being a podiatrist would be ok.

3. 10-19 years of experience and coroners and oil drill workers are still making in the $50's. Yikes! Sounds like those jobs don't "pay well" at all.

Comments

[Commish]

Those "oil drill worker" numbers are absolute baloney. For one thing, I have never heard anyone in the oil business referred to as "oil drill worker", that was the first red flag. Those guys are called roustabouts, roughnecks, pumpers, rig hands, etc.

There must be something really dragging those numbers down because a field/rig hand can easily top 50K with very few years of experience (they usually work a lot of overtime). A lot of the guys who work offshore/Alaska/overseas make six figures.

[cb]

A lot of vets work for farmers or worse yet factory farmers. The small animal vets who own businesses in cities are the ones making 100k+. But yeah, it is surprising considering it's 4 years of school and very competitive to get into those schools.

[Strick]

Wow, doesn't a podiatrist need a 4 year med school and then residency, like any other doc? So after a decade of no/little income, 6 figures of student loans, and 10-19 years of experience, they make $118K?

[texashaze]

They forgot plumber!! Trust me on this one... six figures easy.

[poor boomer]

Oil Drill Worker is new to me. I guess now I can say I was once a Fuel Pump Worker.

[Wye]

I work for the American Veterinary Medical Association and vets who work in private practice actually make quite a bit less on average than those who work in public and corporate practice averaging about 80k compared to about 100k.

[John from Concord]

Trauma surgeon is misleading too, in the sense of 10+ years of experience... from what I've heard (from a friend who is an ER doc), most acute trauma/ER-type docs get out of that business before accumulating 10 years of experience. The hours are awful, the pay, especially at more junior levels, isn't great compared to many other things you can do with an MD degree and a surgical specialty, and the stress and burnout and exposure-to-human-awfulness levels are very high. Bless 'em who do that work -- as you'd expect, it's one of those things people find themselves feeling called to, as my friend was -- but it's a tough tough awful job, even for those who work their way up to making $200k+ a year.

[John from Concord]

On the other hand... a very dirty job that pays very very well (and is incredibly rewarding for the right person) is to be a mechanic that specializes in collector-type cars. I know a few people in that business, guys who spend their days elbow-deep in old Mercedes transmissions or Ferrari V12s or whatever, and even after days filled dealing with the kinds of prima donnas who own those kinds of cars they go home with smiles on their faces. One starts by apprenticing at an established shop that does that kind of work, and the pay on that level isn't very good, but after 10 years you're fairly senior and established and should be making $100k or thereabouts at a busy shop, more if you have the right experience in the right place. There's a reason the labor rate in those shops is $130+ an hour...

[aaktx]

Agree with John from Concord. Being in an ER-type specialty favors a shortened career lifespan. Top surgeons in this field can still bring home half a million in the right area. It all depends on whether you enjoy doing it.

[MasterPo]

I sure hope after 20 years in field you're near the top of your pay level! So this applies to any job.

ps- Regarding the "oil driller", after Desert Storm I had read (too late for me to get in on it) that the famous Boots & Coots was offering $50k plus bonus plus housing, food, transport to/from Iraq, and some other bennies for people to take a 1 year contract with no experience necessary. Yea, it was super risky work. But had I known about it earlier I would have tried it! :-)

[Hayli Morrison]

Who would rather just have a really great desk job?