# Would you rather be a janitor and earn $750,000 per year or dream career and earn $7.25 per hour? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 7, 2017, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-be-a-janitor-and-earn-750-000-per-year-or-dream-career-and-earn-7-25-per-hour/803764 "2017-12-07T05:03:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![R3d\_Anonymous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/aeb1de/32.png) [@R3d\_Anonymous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R3d_Anonymous)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2017, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-be-a-janitor-and-earn-750-000-per-year-or-dream-career-and-earn-7-25-per-hour/803764/1 "2017-12-07T05:03:09Z")
As a followup question, what would happen if all the best skilled jobs only paid at our near minimum wage, but all the unskilled labor jobs like fast food crew member, bagger, cashier, courtesy clerk, sales associate, waiter, etc paid six figures? ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2017, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-be-a-janitor-and-earn-750-000-per-year-or-dream-career-and-earn-7-25-per-hour/803764/2 "2017-12-07T05:07:06Z")
Do have to do this janitor job my whole working life - i,e., 30 more years? Am I allowed to retire early? Otherwise I’d cheat the hypothetical by being a janitor for a few years, save enough to retire around age 37, then live an easy life or do my minimum-wage dream job. BUT…if I must choose between the two, I’d do my dream job (movie scriptwriter), but boy would it be hard. I’d have to marry a woman who makes considerable money, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2017, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-be-a-janitor-and-earn-750-000-per-year-or-dream-career-and-earn-7-25-per-hour/803764/3 "2017-12-07T05:07:14Z")
My dream career is the one that pays $750,000 year. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2017, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-be-a-janitor-and-earn-750-000-per-year-or-dream-career-and-earn-7-25-per-hour/803764/4 "2017-12-07T05:10:15Z")
To answer the 2nd part of your question - there’d be runaway inflation. Because unskilled jobs comprise a huge part of the workforce. Paying fast-food workers $750,000 a year each would probably cause McDonald’s to have to sell $60 hamburgers or something like that. Either that, or there’d be extreme automation. Robots would soon do everything, and we’d have 70% unemployment in this country. ---
**Author:** ![R3d\_Anonymous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/aeb1de/32.png) [@R3d\_Anonymous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R3d_Anonymous)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2017, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-be-a-janitor-and-earn-750-000-per-year-or-dream-career-and-earn-7-25-per-hour/803764/5 "2017-12-07T05:18:05Z")
It’s kind of crazy too when you think about it. Working a crap job that almost anyone would hate pays like shit, but a job that actually feels good to go to pays well. One would think, intuitively, that salaries for working crap jobs should be higher to make up for that and to create an incentive for people to pick the crap job over their dream career. But the reason it’s not that way is obvious. The problem is that there are so many people who have no skills other than those required for unskilled labor. That and there are way more openings per capita in unskilled labor. Which is ultimately a stronger force on the economics of wages for different jobs, since the ability to do something obviously will outweigh the desire to do it. Imagine a hypothetical world now, where for each job, the amount of people qualified and skilled enough to do that job was about equal whether it’s janitor or neurosurgeon. How would wages be affected in that scenario? Would we then see a situation like I described in the OP, since ability and skillset would be an effecting factor, and only desire would? ---
**Author:** ![R3d\_Anonymous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/aeb1de/32.png) [@R3d\_Anonymous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R3d_Anonymous)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2017, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-be-a-janitor-and-earn-750-000-per-year-or-dream-career-and-earn-7-25-per-hour/803764/6 "2017-12-07T05:24:05Z")
\*no longer be an effecting factor ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2017, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-be-a-janitor-and-earn-750-000-per-year-or-dream-career-and-earn-7-25-per-hour/803764/7 "2017-12-07T05:35:11Z")
My dream job is not working at all…So, minimum wage to do nothing in particiular? Or $750k/yr doing a shitty job? I voted janitor since I could probably retire pretty quickly on investments to be able to do nothing for more than min. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2017, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-be-a-janitor-and-earn-750-000-per-year-or-dream-career-and-earn-7-25-per-hour/803764/8 "2017-12-07T05:36:21Z")
Well, there’s no way I could support my desired lifestyle at $7.50/hr, so janitor it is. I’ll enjoy myself in the evenings and weekends. ---
**Author:** ![mr\_horsepower](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@mr\_horsepower](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr_horsepower)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2017, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-be-a-janitor-and-earn-750-000-per-year-or-dream-career-and-earn-7-25-per-hour/803764/9 "2017-12-07T05:45:54Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > My dream career is the one that pays $750,000 year. if being a janitor paid $750k, it would officialy become my dream job too. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2017, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-be-a-janitor-and-earn-750-000-per-year-or-dream-career-and-earn-7-25-per-hour/803764/10 "2017-12-07T06:03:14Z")
Definitely the janitor job. Then I’d use some of the money to buy tools to automate the job. so that I can sit back and read a book while the robot does it for me. Second hack: does every janitor get $750K? If not, hire a few and profit! ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2017, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-be-a-janitor-and-earn-750-000-per-year-or-dream-career-and-earn-7-25-per-hour/803764/11 "2017-12-07T08:13:47Z")
I worked as a janitor in college and I quite liked the job, actually. Some rooms more than others. The day care center. When I got that one I loved it. You would go in, and when you left, it was obviously, visibly better. (No more jello on the wall, no more whole crackers on the floor, no more, well let’s just say, you could see that you had made a difference.) I love seeing a visible difference. But the other side was, there were some offices where you did not make a visible difference. So on those nights you could take it easy. Just empty the trash and hit any visible things like hole punches on the carpet. Although if it had paid $750K I probably would have been much more diligent. I got promoted into another job that came available. It paid the same, but I found myself missing the satisfaction. For the follow-up question: Good luck finding a doctor or a plumber. Doctors would probably be easier to find, because some people consider it a calling. As for plumbing, well, they’d probably have the janitor do that. ---
**Author:** ![Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b2d939/32.png) [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_Arachnid_Laser_1)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2017, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-be-a-janitor-and-earn-750-000-per-year-or-dream-career-and-earn-7-25-per-hour/803764/12 "2017-12-07T08:56:41Z")
Dream job. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2017, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-be-a-janitor-and-earn-750-000-per-year-or-dream-career-and-earn-7-25-per-hour/803764/13 "2017-12-07T09:23:13Z")
Is master of the custodial arts [(or janitor if you want to be a dick about it](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lxD8SLyOCHE)) supposed to be an especially bad job or something? I guess it would get tedious after awhile but it’s not really a terrible job. You get to be somewhat independent and it’s mostly not too difficult, with rare gross moments. Alternative is starving. Plus dream job is high money:effort ratio. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2017, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-be-a-janitor-and-earn-750-000-per-year-or-dream-career-and-earn-7-25-per-hour/803764/14 "2017-12-07T09:24:06Z")
Stupid question. I’d change adult diapers and snort asbestos for $750,000 a year. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2017, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-be-a-janitor-and-earn-750-000-per-year-or-dream-career-and-earn-7-25-per-hour/803764/15 "2017-12-07T10:08:24Z")
If I could be the janitor for maybe five years in my relative youth and set myself up for the rest of my life, sure. Wouldn’t be so enthusiastic now that I’m old and starting to break, though. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2017, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-be-a-janitor-and-earn-750-000-per-year-or-dream-career-and-earn-7-25-per-hour/803764/16 "2017-12-07T12:27:34Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Stupid question. > > I’d change adult diapers and snort asbestos for $750,000 a year. This, kind of. Couldn’t do the adult diaper thing, but how bad could an occasional asbestos bump be? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2017, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-be-a-janitor-and-earn-750-000-per-year-or-dream-career-and-earn-7-25-per-hour/803764/17 "2017-12-07T13:00:59Z")
I’ve been a janitor and **thelurkinghorror** pretty much covers it - it’s not very stimulating and there are gross moments, but I’d take it over some of the other blue collar jobs I’ve had (security guard, delivery driver, factory worker, warehouse worker) by a long shot. It’s quiet work where you’re left to your own devices for most of the time, and I rather enjoyed doing it. The reason I didn’t keep doing it was of course the money involved. ---
**Author:** ![BobBitchin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ea924/32.png) [@BobBitchin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobBitchin)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2017, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-be-a-janitor-and-earn-750-000-per-year-or-dream-career-and-earn-7-25-per-hour/803764/18 "2017-12-07T13:13:13Z")
I’ll take the janitor gig. I’ve had a few dream jobs.☹ Do what you love and you’ll never work again? Bull. Do what you love and lose your love is what I found. YMMV but monetizing my passions took all the joy from me. ---
**Author:** ![Clark\_Cello](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58f4c7/32.png) [@Clark\_Cello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clark_Cello)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2017, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-be-a-janitor-and-earn-750-000-per-year-or-dream-career-and-earn-7-25-per-hour/803764/19 "2017-12-07T13:19:52Z")
A couple of folks have already said this, but the worst part of a janitor’s job is usually the pay, so if the pay is actually $750K, sign me up. Obviously, if this janitor’s duties are to clean up nightclub restrooms all day, it isn’t enjoyable, but when I was young, I worked as a janitor at a university, and also at a small office building. Both of the jobs were rather enjoyable. You are working by yourself, you aren’t tied to a desk all day, you do different things, and there is a definite sense of accomplishment; you take a place that is dirty and make it clean. I am not saying it is my dream job, but I can easily think of a couple of dozen jobs (fast food, retail, telemarketing, etc.) that I would put far behind janitor ---
**Author:** ![justanothermike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c2a13f/32.png) [@justanothermike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justanothermike)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2017, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-be-a-janitor-and-earn-750-000-per-year-or-dream-career-and-earn-7-25-per-hour/803764/20 "2017-12-07T13:20:12Z")
Well, my wife and I have cleaned professionally for years in what seems to be viewed as the lowest form of employment by some. We’re “unskilled” while many can’t seem to do an adequate job of it, so I’ll take the raise to $750k and be even happier than at present. Pro-tip: Being a janitor isn’t about what you do as much as who you do it for. True, an eye for detail is required as well as knowledge of what to use and when so as to clean effectively without damaging surfaces, but as with most lowly service jobs, it’s about people. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-rather-be-a-janitor-and-earn-750-000-per-year-or-dream-career-and-earn-7-25-per-hour/803764.md?page=2)