There are quite decent odds that, right now, you’re sipping a cup of coffee or a mug of tea and taking a well-deserved break from work. Maybe you love your job and find what you do to be incredibly purposeful. Maybe things are quite the opposite and you absolutely loathe what you do, hoping to jump ship at the first opportunity. Whatever the case might be, you might feel underpaid…
…and that some people at your company or elsewhere in the job industry are incredibly overpaid. The skills that we think should be valued aren’t always what’s valued the most. And it shows! Artist Aaron, aka redditor u/Airsinner, asked the internet about the jobs that they believe are definitely overvalued and overpaid, and they delivered—with a bang! Scroll down to check out their opinions.
#1
Whatever it is the Kardashians do.
Influencer
#3
Hospital CEO’s… and actually almost all hospital upper management. There are so many layers of management that many of them barely step foot into a healthcare facility EVER, let alone EVER speak to a patient, yet all of them make 6, 7, 8 figure salaries plus mega bonuses. My hospital network CEO makes $11 million salary not including bonuses, which bothers me, but bothers me even more are all the board members and s**t directly under him making nearly as much. It’s hundreds of millions of wasted money paid to the people trying to screw staff out of good pay and screwing patients into paying big bills.
Artist Aaron’s thread went viral and it’s no wonder why. Topics about work, money, and justice are very popular. And there’s nothing quite like the injustice of being underpaid and exhausted and seeing someone putting in barely any effort and making bank to make you seriously mad at the world. The redditor found a topic that was bound to get others’ attention.
The fact of the matter is that life isn’t fair. Some job positions will inevitably be overpaid while others will be underpaid. The best that society can do is reduce that gap as much as possible. We’ve written before on We how society doesn’t necessarily value the people who contribute the most to everyone. Educators and social workers are vital to the health of our society, and yet, they’re often not who get prioritized. At least, not financially.
#4
I really hate how the brightest minds of a generation have been funneled into finance instead of science, engineering, politics, medicine and a ton of other critically useful professions because finance is where the money is.
A hedge fund is just a gambling house. It makes no net contribution to society. It just moves money from one pocket to another. We, as one the whole, are not better off for its existence. That can’t be said of many other professions. We don’t need hedge fund managers. We need doctors.
What a waste.
#5
TV preachers.
#6
CEOs of hospitals. (I say this as a nurse who continually sees them get bonuses, despite us being short-staffed & getting 3% raises)
The people who get paid the most tend to be those who generate the most profits. That’s why you see so many CEOs with morbidly obese paychecks. It’s a symptom of society valuing profits (ironically) more than tangible value.
Financial traders and software engineers get paid more than construction workers, artists, and farmers. They all bring something to the table, but the former work with something ephemeral while the latter work in ‘the real world.’
However, at the same time, some objectively valuable professions are rewarded very generously. For instance, in the United States, some of the best-paying jobs include anesthesiologists, oral and maxillofacial surgeons, obstetricians and gynecologists, surgeons, orthodontists, physicians, and psychiatrists.
These positions all earn a median salary of $208k, according to US News. Next in line are nurse anesthetists ($195.6k median wage), pediatricians ($170.5k), and pilots ($134.6k). In short, what humankind really does value are all types of medical and mental health professionals, as well as pilots.
#7
Ex-politicians on the lecture circuit who get paid insane speaking fees
#8
Anything in sports, honestly if they stopped playing what would change?
#9
CEO of Tesla. The guy stays 100% of his time on Twitter, clearly it not that important for the company.
If you feel undervalued and underpaid, you have three choices. First of all, you can (and should!) talk to your boss about a raise. Explain to them how much value you bring to the company and back it up with evidence. Have a couple of reviews like that every year to remind management that you’re an essential cog in their machine. Nobody else will fight for a better wage for you, so it really comes down to your own actions.
#10
Anything that could be reduced to “I make a lot of money because I move a lot of money”, like brokers, insurers, wall street stuff, real estate agents…
#11
President of FIFA
#12
Pharmaceutical or medical sales.
I’m a small scale clinician who deals with medical sales reps 5 days/week who are the [apparently] sweetest, bubbliest, most seemingly accommodating people on earth— if you buy their thing. Since your patients **need** theirs, except they’re usually not even medically qualified to make those determinations. They can’t answer medical questions relevant to their products. Every rep we deal with can be googled and earns >3x the combined salary of my office staff comprising 4 people.
Your second option is quitting… or rather, looking for another job while you’re still employed and negotiating a severance package at your old one. Many workers have power fantasies about how epically they’ll quit while burning every bridge and slamming every door, but you have to take the time to figure out what’s in it for you. Maybe being a bit more patient and tactical can put you in a better financial position down the line. Of course, that doesn’t mean that you should tolerate exhaustion, bullying, and unpaid overtime. Just be strategic about how you handle it.
#13
Religious Leader
#14
We paid a guy/company $10,000 to come and do a motivational speech at the school, which was supposed to improve kindness among the kids at school. It didn’t work.
#15
College football coaches. The highest-paid public employees in many states, and is even more egregious considering for decades the students were not allowed to make money from endorsement deals and whatever. Glad that has changed, but it’s still ludicrous for Alabama or Mississippi for example to sink so much money into their football programs when the rest of the two states struggle in almost every other metric.
Your third option is to work for yourself. Not everyone is built to be an entrepreneur (heck, not everyone wants the stress), but for some people, it is incredibly liberating to start their own business. Focus on a side hustle or two while still keeping your day job and see where things go from there. It’s likely that you’ll need to put in a lot more time and energy into turning your projects into full-time gigs than you thought. So be patient and keep at it.
#16
EMS is the opposite if this. Just like to point out how many ambulances are shut down EVERYDAY because of understaffing.
EMS is treated like s**t for how much work they do. As a paramedic I have more responsibility than an RN, get paid less, and I’m not in a controlled environment.
To answer the question though pro Athletes are probably the best example.
#17
Positions where the individual can’t (doesn’t know how to) perform the job of the persons beneath them yet are in charge of them.
#18
Any CEO with a golden parachute and/or a salary greater than 100% over the average of the company.
#19
I know a life coach who charges $300-500 per person for a ‘seminar’ that’s just four hours of her leading yoga and breathing exercises and telling everyone they’re doing great. She makes $2,400 per weekend. F***ing wild.
#20
Not sure the exact title but saw a video of smug looking woman bumble bragging she makes 250k a year at some Org in los Angelos that “helps” homeless.
Basically what I’m getting at is b******t made up foundations that are just milking the system under the guise of “social work” to make bank and fleece people.
#21
Politician.
#22
Most middle management at large corporations. What do you do.
#23
Life coach
#24
Member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). They’ve had a lengthy history of excessive demands ($4 million US spent on “entertainment” in Nagano, traffic lanes dedicated to IOC members during the games, etc.)
They make very few decisions, all of which are politically motivated. They travel extensively and are paid well for it:
[https://dailytrojan.com/2021/08/16/progress-without-profit-the-ioc-benefits-itself-at-the-expense-of-athletes/#:~:text=Although%20most%20IOC%20members%20are,meetings%20and%20at%20the%20Olympics](https://dailytrojan.com/2021/08/16/progress-without-profit-the-ioc-benefits-itself-at-the-expense-of-athletes/#:~:text=Although%20most%20IOC%20members%20are,meetings%20and%20at%20the%20Olympics).
From the article:
“Although technically a volunteer, the IOC President receives a yearly “allowance” of $251,000 and lives rent-free in a five-star hotel and spa in Switzerland. ”
#25
I’m bracing for impact here but ……Diversity and Inclusion officers are doing much of what HR has been doing for years.
#26
Professional Athlete
#27
Homeopathic practitioner.
#28
Anyone who makes a ton of money by inserting themselves into big transactions and charging fees as a percentage of the transaction (brokers, title companies, etc.).
#29
Stock broker. Parasitic middleman between oligarchs and other peoples money.
#30
Do car salesmen really do any work anymore?
Last time I bought a car I looked online, did my research, and knew exactly what I wanted and basically showed up ready to buy. The dealer just gave me the keys for a test drive, then did the paperwork for me.
#31
My mum from whom I am estranged works as the vice president of reward at an international company. She basically arranges contracts so millionaires can get more money and gets paid 189,000 pounds a year for it. Even she thinks it’s ridiculous.
#32
Knowing the CEO of one of the largest video game companies. CEO. He doesn’t know s**t about the industry.
#33
If someone else is “Regional VP” they are either drowning in responsibilities working 70 hrs a week; or they have absolutely nothing to do other than collecting a check.
#34
Gillette ‘engineers’ – they took 5 years to go from 3 blades to 4
#35
My uncle was a commercial airline pilot. He described his job as “vastly overpaid in normal circumstances and vastly underpaid in emergency situations.”