"High-Prestige but Low-Pay" jobs?

[puzzlegal]

@Thudlow_Boink

Anybody who teaches college (at least somewhere other than a highly selective college) expecting this to be true is likely to be disappointed. It’s truer for college than for high school, but…

• Just because they’re in college doesn’t mean it was their own choice (as opposed to their parent’s).
• Just because they chose to go to college doesn’t mean they’re there for the academics (as opposed to the parties or the athletics).
• Just because they’re there for the academics doesn’t mean they’re interested in learning (as opposed to just getting a degree or credential).
• Just because they’re interested in learning doesn’t mean they’ve taken your particular class by choice (it could be a required class).

This is all true. But college students who don’t want to be in a class ordinarily just skip it, they don’t actively disrupt the class.

I had a friend who taught high school history. He routinely asked students to go into the hallway to do their drug deals, and not do them in his classroom. A friend’s daughter did a year of “Teach for America” and had a young woman urinate in her classroom as some sort of protest. College lecturers don’t deal with that kind of issue.

[Loach]

@griffin1977

Yeah Military is the obvious one.

I actually thought Police Officers and Firefighters are pretty well paid nowadays.

More than half the firefighters in the country are volunteers. You can’t get much lower paying than zero. About a third are full time professionals. The remainder have some sort of pay per call arrangement.

As for salaries, that’s going to vary widely depending on region. Firefighter and cop salaries are relatively on par with each other depending on region. I make a good salary. Cops in my area tend to make good money (offset by extremely high housing costs). In other parts of the country they are making maybe 25% of what I make.

I think some are overstating the military pay. Unless you are a high ranking officer you can eventually do ok but not great. Yes it’s better than the $650 a month I got in the late 80s but if you are a married E5 with 3 kids you are struggling. And your hourly wage really sucks.

[Clark_Cello]

There were a few years that I wanted to work for that Cary, NC company. Thanks for manking me feel better than I never did.

[robby]

@Loach

I think some are overstating the military pay. Unless you are a high ranking officer you can eventually do ok but not great. Yes it’s better than the $650 a month I got in the late 80s but if you are a married E5 with 3 kids you are struggling. And your hourly wage really sucks.

I only spoke with respect to military officers, not enlisted personnel. In any event, I just ran the numbers. I included only basic pay, BAS (Basic Allowance for Subsistence), and BAH (Basic Allowance for Housing).

An O-3 (junior commissioned officer) with 4 years of service makes $9,075.98/month if he/she is stationed in Newport, Rhode Island and has dependents (spouse and/or children). That’s $108,911.76/year. Not bad for a junior officer only 4 years out of college. Note that an O-3 is certainly not a “high-ranking officer.”

FWIW, an E-5 with dependents in the same area with 4 years of service makes $5,524.60/month ($66,295.20/year).

Plus, as I mentioned previously, there are other incentives and allowances, such as sea pay and submarine duty pay, nuclear incentive bonuses, re-enlistment bonuses, etc. Plus all service members get comprehensive health care for themselves and their families at no cost.

But I agree that the hourly rate sucks. I think I once figured out once I was making less than minimum wage if you take into account that I was on a submarine at sea 24/7 for months on end.

Not to mention that anyone in a combat zone is definitely underpaid however you run the numbers.

Data sources:

https://www.dfas.mil/MilitaryMembers/payentitlements/Pay-Tables/Basic-Pay/EM/

https://www.defensetravel.dod.mil/site/bahCalc.cfm

https://www.dfas.mil/MilitaryMembers/payentitlements/Pay-Tables/bas/