Salary ranges in the US...what are the high paying jobs?

**PrincessPerky** · 07-10-2007, 08:34 AM

I dunno what exactly in computers makes 100K, but most of the people my husband works with make close to it...database type stuff, and cysco or something....the same stuff my husband does only with a stack of papers to show you took a class or ten...though they can't do the work- thats why they hired my husband....(course I don't scoff at 45, we make less than that, and we are find, not great but fine)

**PrincessPerky** · 07-10-2007, 08:36 AM

Wanna guess how annoying it is to have a husband who can do the work get paid less than half of the people who only claim to do the work?

Mostly I try not to think about it....

**Scanner** · 07-10-2007, 09:02 AM

Lisa,

What part of the country do you live in?

I am actually going to author a book on health care careers and from my preliminary research so far, your links hit the nail on the head with as far as that goes.

I think salary is a balance of education and skill along with market demand. Most of the jobs you posted are "skill" dependent. . .but a few, like a loan officer could be considered "education" dependent.

I am not sure what exactly you mean by your question. The "coasts" tend to be higher cost of living and then reflect higher salaries with the rural areas having lower cost of living and lower salaries.

Also, I would be curious how much benefits factors into the equation. I think usually a decent health plan will cost $15,000-20,000/year. Teachers are a good example of this. They start around $35K/year here but I'd imagine their benefits put them up around 55K - full medical, vision, pension, disability, maternity, dental, chiropractic - they are some of the best around.

A good numbers guy can do "adjusted cost of living salaries" type of thing and determine a "hot area" to relocate to, if that's what you are interested in.

**DebbieL** · 07-10-2007, 09:28 AM

Hi Coleroo,

I sometimes feel the same way when I read these boards. Am I the only person with a wage in the mid to high 30Ks? You are lucky though. Here where I live is an incredibly high cost of living area with low wages! The average family income is somewhere around 60K, and the average house cost these days is over 570K. You do the math!!! I am in Canada (BC) and I cannot wait for this darned housing bubble to burst here (which it already happening in the US from what I understand). The price to live here is insane. I would love to be able to have what you do on the wages you are making - if I were a US citizen I would probably relocate to somewhere like you live. Here in Canada, we live on the West coast (I'm on Vancouver Island), and it is a mild climate. The only places that are kind of more affordable (and even some of them are getting caught up in this stupid real estate bubble) are horrible weather climates that I would never want to think about living in (Saskatchewan, etc). My whole family is here also, and I would hate to pull my daughter away from everyone who loves her. It's sure tough.

You are not alone. I sometimes feel like a bit of a loser when I read how well others on this board are doing. Compared to others where I live though, I'm not so bad. Not the best, but far from the worst either, KWIM?

**MonkeyMama** · 07-10-2007, 10:07 AM

Double post - oops

**MonkeyMama** · 07-10-2007, 10:09 AM

I am from the San Francisco area and basically the minimum wage jobs go to seniors and high school kids. No one else can afford to live out here on those wages.

Starting pay as an admin assistant is $40-$50k easy. Have a degree and you can make $60k easy. Doesn't really matter what the field is. Obviously the doctors and lawyers will make the most. Then the accountants and computer programmers and engineers. Interestingly I find accounting to be a bit on a lower tier. Historically anyway.

But just out of school dh and I both made $50k pretty quickly. IT was not that either of us was paid a particularly huge amount, but combined it was pretty sweet. We both had business degrees. The CPA track always earned me a token $5-$10k over him.

The downside is that you can't buy a home for less than $500k. & that would be a teeny-tiny fixxer-upper in the worst part of town. The money ain't all it is cracked up to be. You would not believe how many people they lured into my office from other parts of the country with promises of higher pay. No one ever lasted more than a few months. It was like a cruel joke to these people really. They always left saying, "I knew housing was expensive here, but I had no idea..." In my field it wasn't worth the raise since you can get paid just 10% less to live somewhere that costs 1/5 as much for housing.

Some people come for the high wages and make it. My parents originally put 75% of their income to their mortgage but today their house is paid off an worth $ 1mil (about 10 times what they paid) & my dad makes three times as much as he ever would have made back home in small town Kansas. IT can pay off. He is in the electronics field. Dh & I didn't have the will to go through that when our jobs were not dependent on the region. It seemed like a lot of effort for no reason. I have been SHOCKED moving to Sacramento where housing cost 1/3 at the time we moved. Wages overall were not that much lower. I keep meeting people with no college degrees who make $40k/year in management training programs and $100k/year in sales jobs. I know in the long-term my career will pay off but it has been shocking to me how well some of these people do in the short-term. I guess I just didn't know many people in sales back home.

Out here in Sacramento where it is somewhat cheaper I keep meeting (older) people who make $60k/year combined income who live absolutely upper-class lifestyles. It is amazing to me. Dollars just stretch so much further here.

Even the teachers out here make at least $40k. $40k-$60k easy.

You could find a $30k/year job easy here with no skills or college degree. IT wouldn't get you very far after rent/mortgage though. Even in Sacramento the average house price today is $300k or so (it was $100k just a few years back).

**disneysteve** · 07-10-2007, 10:15 AM

Originally posted by Coleroo View Post

my husband and I earn combined 45k per year - and we have our own house and 2 new cars almost paid for.

That's teriffic, but I certainly think it is very much a function of where you live.

My town has a median income of $76,593 and an average home price of $191,989. A couple earning 45K would really be struggling around here and I doubt you could find a house in your price range. I live in a pretty modest older home and my property taxes alone would consume about 20% of your take home income. In other parts of the country, 45K would go a lot farther, as it sounds like it does in your area. Family size matters, too. If you have no kids, it is a lot easier than if you had 1 or 2.

**MonkeyMama** · 07-10-2007, 10:19 AM

Oh yes - my field generally does not offer benefits. I am lucky to work for a small employer who gives me 10% retirement money (as it benefits him greatly as a sole proprietor). I worked at an international firm that had no benefits and I never had decent health or dental benefits offered. I think people lose sight of that. You don't know how many people I know who are impressed with my wage but I am jealous of their benefits. Of course given the choice, with time, I have concluded that I would take the cash, as too many friends are losing their pensions and healthcare and all that these days. It's a shock to them. To me it's not an issue, I have been footing the bill myself all along. & I know I wouldn't get paid so well if I was offered these wonderful benefits.

Supply and demand is huge. Starting salary has gone up 100% in my field (accounting) in the last 5-7 years alone. I get paid a few bucks more just so I make a little more than the new graduates. Their is a huge shortage of qualified people so all I know is 10-30% raises annually. First out of school I found people assumed I made way more than I did. These days it is more true because of the market.

Debbie - I have a friend in Canada who has experienced the same. IT is crazy up there right now. More like what I am used to - but like you said without the wages! Hopefully things will even out/settle down.

**Ima saver** · 07-10-2007, 01:06 PM

My husband has always been self employed, so we have no benefits at all. For most of our married life, we lived on under $20,000 a year. Lately, it is more like $50,000 a year.( I have given him a raise every 2-3 years) He is a builder.

**humandraydel** · 07-10-2007, 02:33 PM

Well, I'm 25 and live in a fairly low cost area and I make close to 70k a year as an engineer. If I lived in a high cost area I would probably make 80-90k. So, as an answer to your question, engineers in high cost areas will make close to 100k. Other high paying jobs include: lawyers, doctors, investment bankers, corporate finance....there are also some surprising 100k+ a year jobs such as airline pilot, construction management, oil rig work.

**Daylily** · 07-10-2007, 06:20 PM

I think the midwest is great for cost of living vs. salaries. Think places like Madison, Minneapolis, Kansas City, St. Louis, Omaha, Des Moines. In these areas I estimate that the average college educated engineer, nurse, IT professional, accountant (and others) can easily make in the $50-80k range without too much effort. The cost of living and the housing prices are low compared to the coasts. I have no hard statistics for this but I live in this general area and I also belong to one of the aforementioned career areas and have friends in the other areas.

Of course... you do have to put up with the winter weather!

**rob62521** · 07-11-2007, 07:06 AM

[QUOTE=Scanner;123555]Lisa,

Also, I would be curious how much benefits factors into the equation. I think usually a decent health plan will cost $15,000-20,000/year. Teachers are a good example of this. They start around $35K/year here but I'd imagine their benefits put them up around 55K - full medical, vision, pension, disability, maternity, dental, chiropractic - they are some of the best around.
QUOTE]

Wow, Scanner, I don't what part of the country you live in, but I'm a teacher and we don't have that great of a benefit package. We have medical, and the board of education pays for that, but they chip in on our pension -- teachers pay part of that as well. We don't have dental either. I guess every area is different. I know teachers in the Chicago area make a lot more than those of us downstate, but we figure it's because of the high cost of living and also the fact that some of the suburbs require a minimum of a master's degree.

**rob62521** · 07-11-2007, 07:09 AM

I heard pharmacists make good money, but not sure if that's just locally or nationally. Anyone know?

**Coleroo** · 07-11-2007, 07:23 AM

I pulled the salary ranges i posted from AOL's front page. I assumed they were a typical rate nationwide for those jobs.... anytime I've ever looked up salarys i can't seem to find jobs over 60k.

The higher salaries in the high housing markets (and of course, places like new york city) make sense to me.... what Im looking for are jobs that pay high in the low cost of living areas. Like, humandreydal who is only 25 and makes 70k in a lower cost of living area - WOW - as an engineer.

Oh and as for cost of living... here's a breakdown of what its like where i live.

I live in mid South Carolina and right now housing prices tend to go like this -

600k+ for lake homes
400k+ in the downtown capital
140k+ for nice 3 to 5 bedroom new homes, ave. 1500sf in subdivisions
80k+ for typical used starter homes (2-3 br, ave 1100sf)
28k + for more run down areas

Gas = 2.70 /gal
Milk = 3.39 /gal
Loaf bread = $1.49 (depends highly on your brand choice)

New midclass sedans / suv's = 15k-28k
Used cars = 5000k + (hard to find anything, even clunkers for less than 2k)

Salary ranges (starting) =
Police / Fireman - 28k
Entry level manager - 30k
Accounting / Payroll (3+ years experience) - 40k
Teacher (with bachelor) - 40k
Teacher (with masters) - 55k

Salary ranges in the US...what are the high paying jobs?