Ten most overpaid jobs in the U.S.
 

Ten most overpaid jobs in the U.S.
Commentary: If only such largesse flowed to all of us

By Chris Pummer, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 8:19 PM ET Nov. 6, 2003


SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- Almost no one in America would admit to being overpaid, but many of us take home bloated paychecks far beyond what we deserve.


"Fair compensation" is a relative term, yet HR consultants and executive headhunters agree some jobs command excessive pay that can't be explained by labor supply-and-demand imbalances.

And while it's easy to argue chief executives, lawyers and movie stars are overpaid, reality is not that cut and dried.

Corporate attorneys earn $500-plus an hour and plaintiffs lawyers pocket a third of big personal-injury settlements, but local prosecutors and public defenders get paid little in comparison. Specialty surgeons may earn $1 million or more, while some family-practice doctors are hard-pressed to pay off medical-school loans.

Hollywood stars making $20 million a movie or $10 million per TV-season qualify for many people's overpaid list. But for every one of those actors and actresses, there are a thousand waiting tables and taking bit movie parts or regional theater roles awaiting a big break that never comes. Join the "Shades of Green" discussion.

"A lot of people are overpaid because there are certain things consumers just don't want screwed up," said Bill Coleman, senior vice president of compensation for Salary.com. "You wouldn't want to board a plane flown by a second-rate pilot or hire a cheap wedding photographer to record an event you hope happens once in your lifetime.

"With pro athletes, one owner is willing to pay big money for a star player and then all the other players want to keep up with the Joneses," Coleman said. "The art with CEO pay is making sure your CEO is above the median -- and you see where that goes."

What follows is a list of the 10 most overpaid jobs in the U.S., in reverse order, drafted with input from compensation experts:

10) Wedding photographers

Photographers earn a national average of $1,900 for a wedding, though many charge $2,500 to $5,000 for a one-day shoot, client meeting and processing time that runs up to 20 hours or more, and the cost of materials.

The overpaid ones are the many who admit they only do weddings for the income, while quietly complaining about the hassle of dealing with hysterical brides and drunken reception guests. They mope through the job with the attitude: "I'm just doing this for the money until Time or National Geographic calls."

Much of their work is mediocre as a result. How often have you really been wowed flipping the pages of a wedding album handed you by recent newlyweds? Photographers who long for the day they can say "I don't do weddings" should leave the work to the dedicated ones who do.

9) Major airline pilots

While American and United pilots recently took pay cuts, senior captains earn as much as $250,000 a year at Delta, and their counterparts at other major airlines still earn about $150,000 to $215,000 - several times pilot pay at regional carriers - for a job that technology has made almost fully automated.

By comparison, senior pilots make up to 40 percent less at low-fare carriers like Jet Blue and Southwest, though some enjoy favorable perks like stock options. That helps explain why their employers are profitable while several of the majors are still teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.

The pilot's unions are the most powerful in the industry. They demand premium pay as if still in the glory days of long-gone Pan Am and TWA, rather than the cutthroat, deregulated market of under-$200 coast-to-coast roundtrips. In what amounts to a per-passenger commission, the larger the plane, the more they earn - even though it takes little more skill to pilot a jumbo jet. It's as much the airplane mechanics who hold our fate in their hands.

8) West Coast longshoremen

In early 2002, West Coast ports shut down as the longshoremen's union fought to preserve generous health-care benefits that would make most Americans drool. The union didn't demand much in wage hikes for good reason: Its members already were making a boatload of money.

Next year, West Coast dockworkers will earn an average of $112,000 for handling cargo, according to the Pacific Maritime Association, their employer. Office clerks who log shipping records into computers will earn $136,000. And unionized foremen who oversee the rank-and-file will pull down an average $177,000.

Unlike their East Coast union brethren who compete with non-union ports in the South and Gulf of Mexico, the West Coast stevedores have an ironfisted lock on Pacific ports. Given their rare monopoly, they can disrupt U.S. commerce -- as they did during the FDR years -- and command exorbitant wages, even though their work is more automated and less hazardous than in the days of "On the Waterfront."

7) Skycaps at major airports

Many of the uniformed baggage handlers who check in luggage at curbside at the busiest metro airports pull in $70,000 to $100,000 a year -- most of it in cash.

On top of their salaries, peak earners can take in $300 or more a day in tips. Sound implausible? That amounts to a $2 tip from 18 travelers an hour on average. Many tip more than that.

While most skycaps are cordial, a good many treat customers with blank indifference, knowing harried travelers don't want to brave counter check-ins, especially in the post 9/11 age.

6) Real estate agents selling high-end homes

Anyone who puts in a little effort can pass the test to get a real estate agent's license, which makes the vast sums that luxury-home agents earn stupefying.

While most agents hustle tail to earn $60,000 a year, those in affluent areas can pull down $200,000-plus for half the effort, courtesy of the fatter commissions on pricier listings.

Luxury home agents live off the economy's fat, yet many put on airs as if they're members of the class whose homes they're selling, and eye underdressed open-house visitors as if they're casing the joint.

5) Motivational speakers and ex-politicians on the lecture circuit

Whether it's for knighted ex-Mayor Rudy Guiliani or Tom "In Search of Excellence" Peters, corporate trade groups pay astronomical sums to celebrity-types and political has-beens to address their convention audiences.

Former President Reagan raised the bar back in 1989 when he took $2 million from Japanese business groups for making two speeches. Bill Clinton earned $9.5 million on 60 speeches last year, though most of those earnings went to charity and to fund his presidential library.

The national convention circuit's shame is that it blows trade-group members' money on orators whose speeches often have been warmed over a dozen times.

4) Orthodontists

For a 35-hour workweek, orthodontists earn a median $350,000 a year, according to the Journal of Clinical Orthodontics. General dentists, meanwhile, earn about half as much working 39 hours a week on average, in a much dirtier job.

The difference in their training isn't like that of a heart surgeon vs. a family-practice doctor. It's a mere two years, and a vastly rewarding investment if you're among the chosen: U.S. dental schools have long been criticized for keeping orthodontists in artificially low supply to keep their income up.

This isn't brain surgery: Orthodontists simply manipulate teeth in a growing child's mouth -- and often leave adjustment work to assistants whose handiwork they merely sign off on. What makes their windfall egregious is that they stick parents with most of the inflated bill, since orthodontia insurance benefits cover nowhere near as large a percentage as for general dentistry.

3) CEOs of poorly performing companies

Most U.S. chief executives are vastly overpaid, but if their company is rewarding shareholders and employees, producing quality products of good value and being a responsible corporate citizen, it's hard to take issue with their compensation.

CEOs at chronically unprofitable companies and those forever lagging industry peers stand as the most grossly overpaid. Most know they should resign -- in shareholders' and employees' interest -- but they survive because corporate boards that oversee them remain stacked with friends and family members.

The ultimate excess comes after they're finally forced out, usually by insiders tired of seeing their own stock holdings plummet. These long-time losers draw multimillion-dollar severance packages as a reward for their failed stewardship.

2) Washed-up pro athletes in long-term contracts

Pro athletes at the top of their game deserve what they earn for being the best in their business. It's those who sign whopping, long-term contracts after a few strong years, and then find their talents vanish, who reap unconscionable sums of money.

NBA player Shawn Kemp, for instance, earned $10 million in a year he averaged a pathetic 6.1 points and 3.8 rebounds a game. Atlanta Braves pitcher Mike Hampton earned $9.5 million -- in the second year of an eight-year, $121 million contract -- while compiling a 7-15 won-loss record for the Colorado Rockies with a pitiful earned-run average of 6.15.

Thank the players' unions for refusing to negotiate contracts based on performance -- and driving up the cost of tickets to levels unaffordable for a family of four, especially for football and basketball. They point to owners as the culprits, yet golf star Tiger Woods and tennis champ Serena Williams earn their keep based on their performance in each tournament.

1) Mutual-fund managers

Everyone on Wall Street makes far too much for the backbreaking work of moving money around, but mutual fund managers are emerging as among the most reprehensible.

This isn't kicking 'em when they're down, given the growing fund-industry scandal. They've been long overpaid. Stock-fund managers can easily earn $500,000 to $1 million a year including bonuses -- even though only 3 in 10 beat the market in the last 10 years.

Now we discover an untold number enriched themselves and favored clients with illegally timed trades of fund shares. That's a worse betrayal of trust than the corporate scandals of recent years, since they're supposed to be on the little person's side.

Put aside what fund managers earn and consider their bosses. Putnam's ex-CEO Lawrence J. Lasser's income rivals the bloated pay package that sparked New York Stock Exchange President Dick Grasso's ouster. Lasser's take: An estimated total of $163 million over the last five years.

If only we were all so fortunate.

Wow, 3 "news" threads in a row. Somebody is bored. :1orglaugh

Well, the fact that people here are educated by Fox News has frightened me into posting.

postcount++; although I didnt know pilots make that much. maybe a career change lol :1orglaugh

I'm thinking of becoming a longshoreman or an Orthadontist.

hmmm... good I'm studying law and becoming a lawyer :)

Interesting article, i knew about orthodontists and wedding photographers. Pilots I think are earning good money for what they do, but not overpaid

yeah man, a longshoreman sounds cool.

My wife's brother is a wedding photographer and she's shooting a wedding with him today to add to her portfolio. She's trying to get into the biz. I think she's better at it than her brother because while he enjoys photography, he's a guy and thinks weddings are boring. My wife LOVES weddings.

1) Mutual-fund managers

those people are making some serious cash in everywhere,
not only in the states.

Thanks for the info

What about porn webmasters?

Paid major bling for sitting around in their underwear slinging porn to the masses....

:glugglug

hmmm mutual fund manager you say, I will have to look into that :Graucho

#1 should be porn webmasters

some roll in more then any of those top 10 (excluding the big atheletes) and all we do is give porn away.

LOL

I prefer to sell porn rather than give it away.

300 a day for Sky cappers?

All day driving the golf carts picking up the elderly must be paying off

It's wild how some jobs make so much money. Like basketball players... why do THEY make as much or even more than football players?! I'd want alot more money to have a couple of thousand pounds knock me down compared to all the running back and forth in basketball. lol

CEO's??? That has always been a joke. Especially the ones in Non-Profit Oraganizations drawing millions upon millions per year. And everyone knows they don't do a whole lot. Their minions do all the harder work.

Seriously longshoremen are rolling in dough. And it's murder even trying to get a clerk job. And their hours are so flexible that they are always wondering around town shopping.

sounds like a jealous journalist didn't get the Christmas bonus he was hoping to get.

thats a lot of reading.

Damn I knew i should have become an airline pilot...

GFY sig whores.

I was going to say the striking grocery workers in CA who were making $15-17 an hour. :thumbsup

Bottom line, the market pays what the market will bear. When the market WON'T bear it, then you see the moving of jobs offshore, firing and hiring at lower salaries, strikes from the unions, etc. It happens all the time in every industry. :)

Re-reading it, it really doesn't sound like it was written by someone with sour grapes and without all the facts.

For example, I know several RE agents which sell high end homes and while the commission is high, they also don't sell as many per year. I have a friend who sells $150K-$500K homes and I can promise you she makes a LOT more than $200K a year and more than the $1mil+ RE I know. She also works 12 hour days, 365 days a year. And I bet the $1mil+ buyers are VERY demanding of time.

What kind of education/training is required to become a mutual funds manager? I looked up in Google but could not find anything. I'm guessing a business admin/finance degree? Please respond if you know. Thanks

interesting thread...

there are a lot more jobs that could be added to that list though...

congress they even vote themselves a raise..they salary alone is 100+ this is not including lobby(bribes) they get for corpoaration..then u gotta facotr their retirment..i say they say in dorm while in washinton and gt what the average joe gets..fuck them bastards

I wonder why adult webmasters aren't on there? Most of us have the option of working in our underwear, we attend conventions filled with open bars, large poker games and hot women, plus we don't have to clock in and out of a job!

I demand that we be added to this list!

i agree about the pilots, they have a huge responsibility on their hands.

good luck, it takes a long time to become a commercial pilot and they're saturated as it is

summary please list 1to 10

because sports teams need the best money can buy to turn a profit. branding.

the mutual fund industry is only there to weed out who's good enough to manage a hedge fund, only the idiots stay or they get paid 2+ million a year. typically those making 2+ are the only ones consistently outperforming the market over a 10+ year period.

to be a mutual fund manager you need years of experience, education means absolutely nothing.

I agree with the pilots too.


Politicians make 10x their salary from the under the table money. Those bastards should be hung.

and who's this idiot who says everyone on wall street makes too much money? especially when he's probably too stupid to even get his resume looked at by someone at an investment bank to clean their toilets.

people on the sell side work very hard and typically don't have a life. makes the list look pretty dumb, but mutual fund managers do make way too much money for fucking things up. you can't expect every single fund to beat the market, but the majority don't even beat their benchmark.

8) West Coast longshoremen

These guys deserve it. Without them, cargo is stuck at the docks


7) Skycaps at major airports

That's a PIMP job at those rates

6) Real estate agents selling high-end homes

Living of the bubble

5) Motivational speakers and ex-politicians on the lecture circuit

Nice

3) CEOs of poorly performing companies
Fuck These Dirt Bags

what about webmasters that work 4 hours a day, 5 days a week and make 7 figures? that's pretty lopsided if you ask me

wow, I want to work a union job doing nothing... sounds like a good thing to me :)

Sad.:(

Burtman