Salaries for The Various Professions Are All Messed Up

With all the controversy and negative news out there right now, it’s time to lighten up with my latest post. I’ve been thinking about this a long time and with all the talk about UAW salaries and the Detroit auto companies, my post is somewhat pertinent. The whole idea behind this post is that society is somewhat screwed up in terms of what we pay people to work in various professions. If you really think about who deserves higher salaries and who deserves lower salaries, we’re often backwards.

Why should somebody who plays a fun sport make millions of dollars while a person who cleans toilets makes minimum wage? Sure, the athlete has rare special skills and trains hard to stay fit, (except for most pro baseball players), but what about compensating for unpleasantness? Janitors should get extra money for having to deal with smelly, unsanitary conditions. Assembly line workers deserve some extra cash for the monotony of their jobs. I would argue that more people can do the supposedly difficult white collar jobs than we realize. But many of theses potential candidates, ones don’t get the opportunity to get an education, (or don’t make the effort), get stuck with low low salaries, (at places like Walmart). I suppose the influx of illegal aliens has allowed salaries to go lower in certain job areas, but then, without them, we wouldn’t have enough Americans willing to do the work at the going rates.

And yes, there’s stress on the job from high level white-collar positions, but what about the stress of not having enough money to live? One area that I think is extremely under-compensated is in the arts. Perhaps it’s because so many people like to do it, but it is difficult to do it well. For instance, can you draw or sculpt your friend in a way that would be recognizable? I especially feel sorry for the people in emerging market countries that are skilled artisans and only get paid pennies to make beautiful handcrafted pieces out of wood and stone. If they could emigrate here, they could make a thousand times more money than they make in their home countries.

I am biased, but I think some doctors (in specialties), have historically been paid too much. (Keep in mind that some of my best friends are doctors). Some have specialized skills at surgery or have rare knowledge from research, but many of the disciplines seem to just have to memorize a lot of stuff. So do history majors; and they hardly get paid anything. I know that medicine can be a life-or-death matter so it’s important enough to hire the best. But I would argue that high salaries often draw the most greedy, and not necessarily the most qualified. I would argue that a lot of the salaries we get are the product of the clout that people in certain professions have had. Think of the American Medical Association and the Teamsters as organizations that stood up for their workers to fetch them higher salaries and more benefits.

The other people that (used to) make out like bandits are the ones who control the money… such as investment bankers. But, recent events have confirmed that the insatiability and creativity of some of them led to their own undoing. (Unfortunately it also led to the economic undoing of the rest of us.) On the other hand, engineers and scientists study a discipline with abstract concepts that few people can handle and yet they allow companies to underpay them for their skill. In general, white collar workers don’t stand up for themselves. They become slaves to their desire to get promoted, working extra hours without extra pay. And then, when one person does it, then companies expect everybody to do it. For the highest salaries, that leaves the people in charge, like executives, who can basically give themselves big raises and golden parachutes since they are friends with the members of the Boards of Directors. I would really like to get to a point in my career where if I really screw up, I’ll make millions when I’m asked to leave. That would be truly undeserved.

Salaries are serious business. I know I’ve probably offended individuals from many professions, but these are my thoughts meant more in a humorous light than in a serious light.

+ Atul

Comments

[Elizabeth McQuern]

Very thought-provoking, Atul. I have thought about this as well from time to time. I've always thought that people who so dirty jobs should be paid more than they usually are. And some folks are definitely paid more than they're worth.

[Atul]

Elizabeth,

Glad you liked the post and I'm not surprised that you have also thought about it. We both know that bloggers and writers should get paid the most :-) I forgot to mention that.

[john]

Seriously? Your post was neither funny (at all) or logical.

[Atul]

John,

Your comment was neither intelligent or true.

Atul

[Aleksandar M. Velkoski]

Interesting perspective. A good question to ask is, "how do we determine the salaries of the various professions" and, "are we taking into consideration all factors when determining those figures?" Should janitors make $5 an hour? Probably not. Should professional athletes make tens of millions? Good question. Maybe an even better question is, "how do we determine value?"

[UH2L]

Aleks,

It is hard to determine what a job is worth. There are so many factors. Salary is an indicator of your ability to make money for your company's owners'. But there's often not a direct correlation. One way would be for all the people in a profession to stop working and see the impact of that work not getting done, but that would be impractical I forgot to write about entertainers along with athletes. I supposes we value entertainment much more highly than getting home safe in our cars because of the work an engineer or mechanic does.

[chancelucky]

Some people make huge amounts of money for what I do...I've just never been one of them.

[UH2L]

CL,

Are you talking about getting paid for blogging or for your real job.

[Aleksandar M. Velkoski]

If the value of a commodity is related to the amount of labor required to acquire it, then maybe the value of labor is related to the level of uniqueness of a given skill set required to acquire the commodity (all else equal). If the skill set for a position can be learned rather easily, or if the supply for that skill set is high, then maybe it will, rightfully so, be classified as less valuable (from a price-value perspective). If a neurosurgeon was in high supply, maybe they wouldn't be paid as high. However, since their supply is rather low, and since their demand is strong, they are compensated well. And, I strongly agree with that philosophy (I don't think you would disagree Atul).

I think your problem goes a bit deeper than "salaries" (not to psychologically analyze you LOL, but let's go with it for a minute). Since I've known you, you've had very strong (innate) stances for equality, fairness, and justice. You don't like to see your fellow man fail. You don't like to see your fellow man be degraded. And, you don't like to see your fellow man starve. That is what I think is driving this discussion. Maybe your next post should have something to do with those topics. I'd love to hear what you have to say! :-)