America's 10 Best-Paying Professions: Bureau Of Labor Statistics

More than one year after President Barack Obama signed health care reform into law, one thing hasn't changed: doctors are well paid.

The Bureau Of Labor Statistics has released its annual Occupational Employment and Wages report, and the top-paying industries are dominated by health care professionals. In fact, nine of the 10 highest-paid jobs in America are in the health care industry. The only other group that made the top 10 is corporate executives.

The report, which examines nearly 800 jobs across America, finds that the annual mean wages for all occupations is $44,410, only a slight increase from last year. Average hourly wages are $16.27, up from $15.95.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the most prevalent jobs are also the lowest paid. The 10 most populated occupations alone account for 20 percent of the country's employment, for example. These jobs, which include cashiers, restaurant workers and registered nurses, often pay less than $20 per hour.

Below are the highest-paid jobs in America according to the Bureau Of Labor Statistics.

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10. Psychiatrists

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Mean annual wages: $167,610 Median hourly wages: $80.58 Number of employees with occupation: 22,690

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Mean annual wages: $167,610
Median hourly wages: $80.58
Number of employees with occupation: 22,690

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Comments

[Ryan Mckeon]

03:03 PM on 06/21/2011

Number one should be a category for dropping out of college, saying 'F the system!', and creating your own business. That seems to have a median income of ten times what more deserving surgeons make.

[cultcrit]

12:48 PM on 06/01/2011

this is silly. The use of highly specific designations within medicine keeps the ER physicians from dragging down the mean from the surgeons. I expect that categories from law and banking are not represented because they are defined much more broadly than "litigator" or "finance banking analyst." Also, bonuses are probably not represented here. So what is this supposed to tell us, really?

[Susan Shaffer]

11:15 PM on 05/29/2011

didn't see if this was before or after tax
also does it take into consideration expenses for medical staff such as professional indemnity insurance

[Thomas Murphy]

11:22 AM on 05/25/2011

You notice, of course, that psychiatrists are number one? Welcome to the USA!

[jsgaetano]

01:52 PM on 05/25/2011

Number one, number ten, it's all the same.  There's a 1 in there, anyway.

[oommma4eva]

09:22 AM on 06/02/2011

LOL...nice.

[RDenning]

02:44 PM on 06/09/2011

What does that mean for you? Tell me more.

[Brian Salonga]

10:40 AM on 05/24/2011

This may sound horrible but it might be true. We have reach a point in human history where technology replaces too many of human jobs. Everyone wants to be a boss where nobody wants to be a worker nowadays. The only person i think that is overpaid is management. The reason being is that they don't really work along side the workers. They just oversee them.

[Ryan M Kealy]

04:14 AM on 05/24/2011

Physicians are very highly trained. It takes 11 years to become a physician, 13 to become a general surgeon, 13 to become a specialist, and 15 to become a specialized surgeon. Oral/Maxillofacial surgeons often complete both medical and dental school before residency and then specialty training. We're talking 18 years of training before become a fully qualified OMFS. Doctors are paid well because they are valuable. Many also work an exceedingly high number of hours. I never see anyone complain about the salaries of people who play children's games for a living.

[MurCal]

08:34 AM on 05/24/2011

I certainly have no problem with the averages given here as doctor's pay. Of course, many make much, much more than that.

The waste in health care goes to health insurance executives, hospital administrators, drug company executives, etc, none of whom are worth their pay in the broken system that skims profits from the suffering of others.

[Eris23Skidoo]

06:55 PM on 05/24/2011

Who plays children's games for a living? What are you talking about?

[oommma4eva]

09:25 AM on 06/02/2011

Uh...may professional athletes?

[Tim Moore]

10:45 PM on 05/23/2011

And we wonder why healthcare costs so much here. Free market capitalism. Healthcare for profit. Not inherently a bad thing, until it gets too costly for the average person to afford to pay.

[Vincent Van Der Hyde]

07:27 PM on 05/26/2011

capitalism, yes, but there ain't no such thing as a 'free market'.

[RDenning]

03:03 PM on 06/09/2011

Most physicians I know are very bright. They went to school for many years and then worked as a resident for a couple of years with fairly low pay. Most work very hard. Most are well worth what they are paid. The rising cost in health care comes from a variety of factors. Sometimes it is labor intensive. When you go into a hospital it isn't just a doctor caring for you. There are three or more nurses, at least a couple of nursing assistants, a registered dietician, a pharmacist, cooks and janitors, lab techs, respiratory therapists, physical therapists and on and on. Hospitals have a lot of very expensive equipment and large buildings which must be heated and cooled and powered. Theyu need attorneys and clerical personnel and administrators. A physician in private practice has an office and staff and supplies and malpractice insurance. Then there are drugs. Pharmaceutical companies get patents for developing drugs and they profit from that. Sometimes they get Congress to give them extensions on their patents and extend them for years at a time. The same goes for medical equipment manufacturers. Last, but not least is insurance companies. Their profits are generally way above inflation. They are supposed to be holding down all the other costs but sometimes it doesn't seem that way and the paperwork they require takes a lot of time from physicians and other staff. I'm sure I have left some things out.

[WindySailor]

02:13 PM on 05/23/2011

9 of the 10 are in the health care field. What this does is most convincingly make the argument that health care should be non-profit by law.

[spoonerrothbard]

03:31 PM on 05/23/2011

How do you determine how resources are allocated in such a system?

[DanoX]

09:53 PM on 05/23/2011

Every other country in the free world seems to have figured it out.

[Eris23Skidoo]

06:59 PM on 05/24/2011

It isn't that hard. The main concept is that those who've won life's lottery by being born with a silver spoon in their mouth, who get all the OTHER advantages in society shouldn't automatically be the only ones who get ANY health care treatment whatsoever. The current system is BROKEN. If it wasn't for the socialized medicine I get from the VA I would personally be dead. My out-of-state insurance company left me for dead and refused to pay my medical bills no matter the details of the contract I signed with them and the premiums I paid. In the current system your insurance company can abandon you, like mine did me, and pay absolutely ZERO legal penalties for having breached their contract.

[jsgaetano]

01:55 PM on 05/25/2011

Even non-profits need to pay their workers.
 
But the problem is that more than half the profits in the medical field are being gobbled up by the Insurance Fraud Industry.

[oommma4eva]

09:35 AM on 06/02/2011

The Insurance Fraud Industry would not make the money it does if people didn't buy into it and support it. It is a vicious economic circle. Without insurance people are more selective regarding treatment, demand is low, cost is low because only people that can afford it get it. People that can't afford the best treatment die, or suffer and generally are unhappy. Sad, but costs are controlled by market. With insurance people can get treatment they otherwise could not afford, more people get treated, demand is up, cost is up. More people are happy, but less can truly afford care. And oh btw part of the high cost is the insurance that raised cost in the first place. That's not even talking about the quality of care issue that develops when practioners are fed customers rather than earning them and pay to be protected from the consequences of poor practice then pass the cost of covering their shortcomings on to their customers.

[Stand Up for your Belief]

12:54 PM on 05/23/2011

Teachers need 2 make wayyyy more along with the military!

[spoonerrothbard]

03:32 PM on 05/23/2011

I certainly wouldn't get in the way of your right to send more of your money to them.

[Eris23Skidoo]

07:01 PM on 05/24/2011

I would love to raise my own taxes to help get the people in the military a bigger paycheck. The only thing that prevents me from doing so is that people like YOU are so goddamn greedy that you have no problem with soldiers dying for your freedoms while making minimum wage.

[Vincent Van Der Hyde]

07:31 PM on 05/26/2011

nope, not the military.
the military should be all draft people, with only a small professional officer corp and senior non-comms. every citizen should have to do a min of two years public service somehow.

[Susan Shaffer]

11:18 PM on 05/29/2011

or scale down the military
the reason usa got drawn into war was condi rice's comment "what is the point of having this enormous military if we don't use it?"

[RDenning]

03:47 PM on 06/09/2011

If there is a draft there should be very few reasons for a deferment.

[Stand Up for your Belief]

12:53 PM on 05/23/2011

Worth every penney!

[HaeJee]

09:22 AM on 05/23/2011

And people wonder why our health insurance costs so much. No other country pays doctors as much as the U.S.

[spoonerrothbard]

03:37 PM on 05/23/2011

The moral hazard of price fixing at the advent of the 1973 HMO Act. Price signals are distorted by mandates. Combine that with excess reserves and credit...well we end up with the complexes. The military industrial complex, the health care industrial complex, the financial industrial complex, the education industrial complex...

[DanoX]

10:02 PM on 05/23/2011

Sweden doesn't seem to have a problem with it.

[Eris23Skidoo]

07:02 PM on 05/24/2011

Moral hazard is allowing people like you to vote.

[rjhuntington]

04:07 AM on 05/23/2011

1 doctor
2 chief executive
3 doctor
4 doctor
5 doctor
6 doctor
7 doctor
8 doctor
9 medical professional
10 doctor

What, no stock broker? No hedge fund manager? C'mon, that's not believable.

[DanoX]

09:57 PM on 05/23/2011

Only because they are looking purely at base salary. Those other guys get tons of "pay" in stocks and options etc.

[Eris23Skidoo]

07:03 PM on 05/24/2011

Those guys make most of their money in capital gains and only pay 15% tax on their billions.

[spoonerrothbard]

10:59 AM on 05/25/2011

They don't pay that much. They stash it either offshore or in their own "charitable" organizations (buffet, gates, soros ect.).

[osofar]

03:29 AM on 05/23/2011

Another misleading post by HP. Everyone know the richest people are warmongers.

[DanoX]

09:58 PM on 05/23/2011

Yeah, #2 Chief Executive. DERP!

[blackranger]

09:51 PM on 05/22/2011

I don't have a problem with anyone making a lot of money EXCEPT CEO's of major corporations who never answer to the owners of the company (stockholders have little or no say in their pay). That is not fair to the company owners who may or may not think a CEO is worth millions of dollars a year whether they do a good job or not.

[blackranger]

09:45 PM on 05/22/2011

Most of those low paying jobs pay MUCH LESS than $20/hr. Minimum wage is a lot more common, less than that for many waitresses who have to make a living on their tips.

[Eris23Skidoo]

07:04 PM on 05/24/2011

Waitresses do better than cooks and NOBODY ever sticks up for them. What about the dishwasher? Nobody ever sticks up for the dishwasher, but without him you'd have food-encrusted dishes to eat on.

[spoonerrothbard]

11:01 AM on 05/25/2011

I'm the dishwasher in my house.