10 most overpaid jobs in America

[Darth Wong]

An article from netscape news:

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 personal-injury settlements, but local prosecutors and public defenders get paid a pittance in comparison. Specialty surgeons may earn $1 million or more, but some young 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.

"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 typically charge $2,000 to $5,000 to shoot a wedding, for what amounts to a one-day assignment plus initial client-meeting and processing time. Yet many mope through the job, bumping guests in their way without apology, with the attitude: "I'm just doing this for the money until Time or National Geographic calls."

They must cover equipment and film-development costs. Still, many in major metro areas who shoot two weddings each weekend in the May-to-October season can pull in $75,000 to $100,000 for six months' work.

Yet let's face it; much of their work is mediocre. Have you ever really been wowed flipping the pages of a wedding album handed you by recent newlyweds? Annie Leibovitz and Richard Avedon they're not, but some charge fees as if they're in the same league.

9) Pilots for major airlines (except for Wicked Pilot when he joins a major airline someday)

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. Because we entrust our lives to them, consumers accept the excessive sums paid them, when it's airplane mechanics who really 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) Airport skycaps

Many of the uniformed baggage handlers who check in luggage at curbside pull in more than $100,000 a year -- most of it in cash.

On top of their $30,000 to $40,000 salaries, peak earners 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. Their work is more mindless than that of a McDonald's counter clerk, who at least has to bag the order correctly.

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.

Chris Pummer is personal finance editor for CBS.MarketWatch.com in San Francisco.

Holy fucking shit. Clerks doing data entry getting six-figure salaries? Union stewards making $177,000/yr? How powerful is that fucking West Coast longshoreman's union anyway?

[RedImperator]

On the longshoremen: when your union can shut down trade across the entire Pacific Rim, you can command big money. The Federal government is pretty much the only entity that can break them, and it's not willing to do it.

[Howedar]

I agree with all but the professional pilots. They are paid a premium because their schedule is so nasty, and they spend so much time away from home. That is only natural; most all other jobs are 9-to-5, spend every night at home sort of deals. If they're not that way, its because of special circumstances. Piloting for airlines, however, is like that by nature.

I think its only fair that those people rake in a lot of money. Besides, they're forced by the FAA to retire at 60, and so much make up for it when they can still work.

[Gandalf]

I didn't see the Skycap one coming. Alas there are no places in Australia that tip.

[TrailerParkJawa]

The longshormen in Oakland are paid ridiculus salaries considering the work. Most of it is automated container work, they still act like its the old days of swinging heavy loads with ropes. However, since there are so few of them they dont bug me too much.

The ones that really bug me are the Real Estate agents. Fucking commisions are out of hand here cause even middle class homes pull down big commisions. Ive noticed lately though instead of the standard 5% commision, some are going as low as 0.5 - 1.0%. There are too many of them here and I think its cannibal time.

[The Kernel]

Pilots aren't all as overpaid as the pilots on long flights for big Airlines. The commuter planes are manned by pilots that earn a paltry $11,000 their first year (which makes them eligable for welfare) and only about $16,000-$18,000 the following year. Charter pilots aren't exactly highly paid either given their hectic schedules.

[Col. Crackpot]

don't even fucking get me started on wedding photographers!! Fuck it , it's too late. $4000 fucking dollars and the studio sends us an ingnorant, rude, foul-smelling man with only a cursory understanding of the English language. The pictures are mediocore and the guy put everyone through hell to get them. Just so everyone knows he was from Innovative Photography in Seekonk, Massachusetts. They suck! When we tried to complan to the studio they were arrogant and dismissive. As it stands now Melissa and I need to go to a studio and have a picture taken for the newspaper because none are suitable. We may end up cropping an image but the quality won't be as good. And the fucking cherry on top is, we had to buy the fucing copyright to our own wedding photos!

[Joe]

Don't find much to disagree with here.

[Joe]

On the longshoremen: when your union can shut down trade across the entire Pacific Rim, you can command big money. The Federal government is pretty much the only entity that can break them, and it's not willing to do it.

Bush did, last year, thanks to Taft-Hartley; of course he was painted a shill for big business because of it, but that's how things do.

[Joe]

go=do

[Wicked Pilot]

Hey now, let's not critize the airline pilots here. In ten years, I may be signing on with a major carrier, and I'd like my big fat bloated paycheck too.

[Col. Crackpot]

Hey now, let's not critize the airline pilots here. In ten years, I may be signing on with a major carrier, and I'd like my big fat bloated paycheck too.

which makes up for the shit the USAF made you put up with for lousy pay no doubt.

[Wicked Pilot]

which makes up for the shit the USAF made you put up with for lousy pay no doubt.

Right now, compared to my peers who went into the civilian aviation field out of college, I am raking it in big time. I'm making about 30k base pay to fly twin engine turbojets, while my former classmates are probably making less than 20k as flight instructors giving lessons in the Cessna 172. Some may still not have found work. But eventually, if the economy recovers, they will go on to charter, corporate, commuter, regional, and maybe even into the airlines. They should overpass me pay wise before the ten year mark.

[Darth Wong]

Hey now, let's not critize the airline pilots here. In ten years, I may be signing on with a major carrier, and I'd like my big fat bloated paycheck too.

OK, I fixed the original post

[Hamel]

One of my cousins in NYC makes a sh-sh-shitload of money in real estate. He might be working in Harlem now.

[Col. Crackpot]

One of my cousins in NYC makes a sh-sh-shitload of money in real estate. He might be working in Harlem now.

you can make a chunk of cash buying forclosures at auction, slapping on a quick coat of paint and selling for a profit. You have to pick wisely though...only bidding below market value, checking deed history etc. If youre careful and smart, you can make a killing. I have gone to a few autions, just to watch really. These guys are smart, bidding interest often tapers off when the bids reach 70% of market value....so there are some deals. I saw one where there were toys in the yard and eyes peeping out the window. it was sad...i lost interest. i just can't bring myself to make a quick buck by bidding on someone's shattered dreams.

[The Dude]

Pilots aren't all as overpaid as the pilots on long flights for big Airlines. The commuter planes are manned by pilots that earn a paltry $11,000 their first year (which makes them eligable for welfare) and only about $16,000-$18,000 the following year. Charter pilots aren't exactly highly paid either given their hectic schedules.

Indeed. My wife was a pilot; after four years in school (including an impressive amount of university-level math and physics) and after four years as a professional pilot, she was making about $17,000CDN, flying at all hours of the night to gravel shitholes all over Manitoba.

Pilots at the top levels make huge money but they pay their dues, big-time, to get there.

Wedding photographers and six-figure forklift monkeys can suck my balls, though.

[Wicked Pilot]

Pilots at the top levels make huge money but they pay their dues, big-time, to get there.

True. So very, very true.

[Admiral Valdemar]

I don't see Mad Scientist on there.

[phongn]

AFAIK, the way the pilots union contracts work is that when it's time to contract the rolls, the guys on the bottom get shafted. The guys on top get their pay cut down to the next level and so on until you hit a point where those on down are terminated. When it's time to expand the workforce it goes in the opposite direction, except that people are now rehired at the bottom (unless they were laid off, in which case they start from where they were).

Also, seniority apparently is only within an airline - you more or less start over if you get hired by another company.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, though.

[Wicked Pilot]

Also, seniority apparently is only within an airline - you more or less start over if you get hired by another company.

Seniority is everything in the airlines, and it is not transferable. When a new class is started, all the pilots are given rank by age, and given their numbers there. As top pilots hit 60 and retire, everyone moves up. Seniority determines everything, from how much you make, what you fly, where you fly, when you fly, and from what position you fly. Even within certain airframes, home bases, and routes, seniority matters. When it comes time for layoffs, it's those at the bottom that get the shaft. But they retain their seniority number, so when hiring starts again, they are the first to get their jobs back. If you leave an airline you seniority number does not go with you. Pilots of Eastern found that out the hard way.

[phongn]

But they retain their seniority number, so when hiring starts again, they are the first to get their jobs back. If you leave an airline you seniority number does not go with you. Pilots of Eastern found that out the hard way.

Yeah, I noted that when pilots are laid off they can get back on at the same level. What happens during an acquisition, though - like if the TWA brand was killed off and its assets completely folded into AA?

[Wicked Pilot]

Yeah, I noted that when pilots are laid off they can get back on at the same level. What happens during an acquisition, though - like if the TWA brand was killed off and its assets completely folded into AA?

The pilots lose their seniority and start from the bottom. To my knowledge, there are currently no former TWA pilots flying for AA anymore because of this.

[Raptor 597]

I don't see Mad Scientist on there.

They usally achieve some advancements in physics and mass destruction research. Besides, most of their salaries go into research(by their choice). It's no wonder they can't find a house. I'm awed at their ability to underwrite the work though: "Mop Fell Over.....$5000". And also the job kicks ass. And I'm sure Mike didn't want to criticize his Dad's career.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Don't pilots who make the long flights in the higher atmosphere get exposed to more harmful levels of radiation which can take a few years off their life?

I don't have the stats with me.