10 Jobs that Make $80k Per Year

CNN lists ten jobs that make $80k per year and I'll get to those in a minute, but let's start with this fact they list -- the national median annual income is $40,690. Wow. I thought it was higher -- somewhere in the $50k range. Maybe that's annual household income I'm thinking of.

Anyway, the piece then lists ten jobs where the annual mean income is at least twice as large as the national average. Here's their list:

1. Associate actuary -- $81,924
2. Attorney -- $88,235
3. Compensation and benefits manager -- $80,011
4. Economist -- $80,817
5. Floor broker -- $83,608
6. Marketing manager -- $86,283
7. Petroleum engineer -- $86,899
8. Pharmacist -- $88,786
9. Risk management supervisor -- $85,655
10. Veterinarian -- $80,069

They also tell what these positions do and their projected employment trends for the next eight years. Click on the link above for details.

Here's my quick take on some of these:

1. Too much math for me to become an actuary. Don't they have computers to do this anyway? I guess someone needs to operate the computers.

2. I wanted to be a lawyer once. Then I spent a semester as a legal intern and about lost my sanity. Best internship I ever had (for helping me decide what I DIDN'T want to do with the rest of my life.)

3. From personal experience I can tell you that marketing managers can make a lot more if they have the right education. For me, an MBA was a GREAT investment.

4. I wanted to be a vet when I was young because I loved animals. Still wouldn't mind being one today...

Comments

[Bill]

I laughed when I saw your comment on being a vet. Some days, this blog feels like the "pets are too expensive" blog. I guess being a vet would be reaping the paycheck for those dang expensive pets.

[MI GIRL]

im a "Marketing Manager" and I make $35k...im going to need to check this out...

[Miss M]

I thought I wanted to be a vet when I was a kid, in high school I went to a Magnet School for health sciences. One of our projects was to interview people in our chosen field, well all the vets I talked to said don't do it! I'd have a hard time being a vet, too many stupid owners.

[matt @ Thrive]

People are always shocked when I talk to them about the actual numbers of what people make in the US. We have the tendency to assume that everyone is rolling in it, but really, most of us are doing better than we think we are. Maybe that's the shame: we are doing better, but feeling like we aren't.

[Joe P]

Let's not forget that where you live plays an important role in how far the money you make goes. $80k in the Northeast or California is not the same as $80k in the middle of the country. Maybe that's why people don't feel like they're doing better. In saying that, we all need to be much more grateful for what we do have.

[Chris]

If you combine that list with the over/underrated career list you had a few days ago, that means the top 3 jobs (best + well paid) are...

- Engineer
- Pharmacist
- Veterinarian

[indi500fan]

The attorney number is questionable also.
That might be an average, but there are a lot of low paid attorneys. There is a wide variation in salaries in that field.

[Todd]

Not sure about the numbers for lawyers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has their annual median salary at $106,120 with a mean of $124,230 as of May 2007.

[Commish]

http://www.spe.org/spe-app/spe/career/salary_survey/index.htm

This is the 2008 salary survey for Petroleum Engineers. US median base pay of $127,700 and median total compensation of $158,103. Also, keep in mind that a large majority of the jobs in the U.S. are in Houston/Dallas, or in other low cost of living cities.

That being said, we'll see what happens if oil keeps falling.

[Compounding]

indi500fan: Statistically speaking, that is how it works. One direction is bounded by $0, and the other direction is unbounded. So, yeah, there are a lot of low paid attorneys... but there are a lot of high paid attorneys out there that make $80k/year look like chump change. That is how averages work.

[pharmboy]

I know dozens of pharmacists, and I don't know a single one who makes less than 100K working full time, and I live in the south where cost of living adjustments may make our salaries lower than the national average.

[indi500fan]

Actually compounding, it's not how it works.
You need to know the shape of the distribution.
I think you would find a relatively tight distribution for engineers and pharmacists (around the median), and a very wide one for lawyers and marketing managers.

IOW becoming an attorney gives a much lower probability of attaining the median salary than becoming a petroleum engineer or pharmacist.

indi500fan is right: I would peg the non-biglaw average salary for lawyers in the neighborhood of 50K. That's a guess, but I'd say that's a lot more accurate than the 80K number.