A common question people ask themselves when choosing a career path is What are the highest paying jobs in America? While there are many factors to consider when deciding on a career, including interest, personality type, and life goals, salary plays an important role as well. Career Cast has compiled a list of the top paying jobs in America based on overall salary, job outlook, environment, stress, and work-life balance. The following are the top five highest paying jobs in America with median annual wages in parenthesis.
Physicians
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that medical and health services will see a growth rate of 15% from 2012 to 2022, much faster than average for all occupations (7%).
As a result, according to Forbes, physician jobs top their list of best-paying careers with an average salary of $192,350. Specialties such as anesthesiology and orthopedic surgery also did well in terms of pay, while others like pathology could have more limited opportunities because they’re more dependent on reimbursement rates set by insurance companies.
But regardless of specialty or location, there are now more openings than ever before—for primary care physicians, specialists and surgeons alike—thanks to changes made to Medicare’s physician payment schedule under Obamacare.
Surgeons
Dentists
This may surprise you, but lawyers are one of the highest-paid professionals on Earth. Not only do they make around $100,000 a year straight out of law school. which is about as much as some doctors and architects earn after many years in their respective fields but when combined with bonuses and profit sharing some attorneys’ earnings hit six figures.
And that’s just an entry-level salary. According to Bloomberg Businessweek , some lawyers at top firms can expect to make up to $10 million annually!
That’s more than enough to cover rent, food and gas for your Volvo on Long Island…or even a Tesla. But don’t worry if you don’t know where Nassau County is or what net profits means; there are plenty of high-paying jobs out there for people who aren’t (or aren’t yet) members of the bar.
We’ll get to those soon. But first: Dentists . People who say money doesn’t buy happiness haven’t met a dentist yet. Dental hygienists can earn over $80,000 per year—about what someone fresh out of college might expect to be making after several years in a different field.
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Pharmacists
the part-time median annual wage for pharmacists was $120,420 in May 2015. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $77,990, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $161,610. Most pharmacists work full time.
In retail settings, hours may vary depending on business demands and individual employer policies. During off-peak times or evenings, some pharmacists work part time or help with pharmacy management tasks such as paperwork and billing.
In addition to their salaries, many pharmacists receive tips from grateful patients for filling their prescriptions ahead of schedule or for answering questions about medicine side effects and drug interactions. They also earn income by contracting out their services to physicians’ offices and hospitals. Some also open their own pharmacies.
Lawyers
$118,320 per year. This is no surprise to anyone who has seen an episode of Law & Order (although, yes, it’s actually a gross oversimplification of what lawyers do for a living). If you’re willing to put in long hours and work hard to get through law school, being a lawyer can be incredibly lucrative.
According to Indeed, if you have a JD degree from Yale and four years of legal experience your earning potential could be $285,000-plus per year. However, starting salaries for fresh graduates with similar education are closer to $80k/year.
On average: $118,320/year. But how does that compare to other careers? It pays better than business management ($94,030), computer programming ($91,970), and social work ($60,610) but not as well as accounting ($122,490) or computer engineering ($130,760).
Also interesting Many entry level jobs for people with law degrees require advanced degrees (PhD) or specialized training in patent law or estate planning.
