The 10 Highest-Paid Jobs in America
It's college acceptance letter season, and as students prep for four years of higher education, parents would do well to give them one piece of advice: go pre-med.
[ALSO: The 10 Lowest-Paid Jobs in America]
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released its latest rundown of occupational statistics, which dates to 2012,and of the 10 highest-paid positions, nine require medical training. Anesthesiologists lead the field, making slightly more money putting patients to sleep than the people cutting those patients open. The only non-medical workers that make it onto the list are chief executives, who come in at No. 10 with around $177,000 in annual wages, or around 24 percent less than the anesthesiologists.
Below, the 10 highest-paid occupations in America as of May 2012:
Occupation | Average Annual Wages |
---|---|
1. Anesthesiologists | $232,830 |
2. Surgeons | $230,540 |
3. Obstetricians and Gynecologists | $216,760 |
4. Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons | $216,440 |
5. Internists, General | $191,520 |
6. Orthodontists | $186,320 |
7. Physicians and Surgeons, All Other | $184,820 |
8. Family and General Practitioners | $180,850 |
9. Psychiatrists | $177,520 |
10. Chief Executives | $176,840 |
[SEE: The 10 Most Overpaid Jobs]
That's perhaps unsurprising--everyone knows doctors are handsomely compensated--but what is striking is the extent to which medical occupations dominate the top of the wage ladder. You can still make a decent living even if you are not a doctor, as the list below of 10 top-paying non-medical professions shows:
Occupation | Average Annual Wages |
---|---|
1. Chief Executives | $176,840 |
2. Petroleum Engineers | $147,470 |
3. Architectural and Engineering Managers | $133,240 |
4. Lawyers | $130,880 |
5. Natural Sciences Managers | $130,400 |
6. Marketing Managers | $129,870 |
7. Computer and Information Systems Managers | $129,130 |
8. Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers | $128,760 |
9. Financial Managers | $123,260 |
10. Sales Managers | $119,980 |