Wages vary greatly from one country to another, and even within the same country, but for some jobs they pay so much that it’s enough for a comfortable life and a good old age.
To find the highest paid professions in the world, we compared average wages in the US, UK, Germany and Canada using PayScale.com statistics, Career Profiles and other sources.
The list did not include the highest paid athletes or the highest paid actors in Hollywood, since their incredibly high salaries are the result of not only skill and long training, but also active PR and huge popularity, which is unattainable for representatives of most professions.
10. Air traffic controller
Highest salary: $ 155,000
Employment issues for such experts in the United States are dealt with by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Air traffic controllers are responsible for the safe operation of private and commercial airlines.
First of all, the responsibility is to coordinate the movement of aircraft in mid-air (all aircraft must be at a safe distance from each other). As a rule, a team of air traffic controllers works together and coordinates the take-off and landing of aircraft, supplying buses to the exits at the airport, and communicating with pilots and warning of bad weather conditions.
To become an air traffic controller, you must enroll in a special program approved by the FAA and go through all the checks. Exceptions can be made only for those who already have experience in the aviation or military fields. As a rule, you need 4 years of study, three years of experience and your application for passing the exam.
If you were chosen and you successfully passed the exam, a 12-week training course will follow, the results of which will give you the specialty of a route developer. And only after 2-4 years of work in this specialty, you will receive the profession of air traffic controller.
However, as information technology develops, the demand for air traffic controllers falls. Therefore, it would be wiser to consider one of the professions that will be in demand after 2020. Or choose one of the most unusual professions in the world, if you like originality and creativity.
9. Chief engineer
Highest salary: $ 190,000
The chief engineers have a wide range of responsibilities, and a great responsibility, which explains the high pay for their work. People with higher education, whose work experience is 5 years or more, are taken to this position.
The highest salaries are from the chief engineers from Canada. There they are paid about 190 thousand dollars. In the US, the labor of representatives of this profession is estimated at 156 thousand dollars annually, and in Germany and England - at 176 thousand and 136 thousand dollars, respectively.
8. Corporate lawyer
Highest annual salary: $ 195,000
Corporate lawyers work as full-time lawyers for a company. They coordinate relationships with contract law firms, advise business leaders on the legal implications of business practices, review commercial agreements and contracts, and monitor industry compliance.
In the USA, a good corporate lawyer can achieve an annual salary of 195 thousand dollars, in Germany he will receive up to 190 thousand dollars, and in the UK about 160 thousand dollars.
The highest paid corporate lawyers from Canada can boast an annual salary of $ 130 thousand.
7. Psychiatrist
Highest salary: $ 216,000
Foreign psychiatrists are paid very well to keep people in their “sound mind and sober memory”. This is the best and highest paid hourly job. An average psychiatrist in the United States receives $ 85.35 per hour.
According to forecasts of the American publication Career Profiles, the demand for psychiatrists will remain very high in the near future. Psychiatrists specializing in geriatrics, children, and other sub-specialists will be more in demand than generalists.
And we completely agree with this, because although the science that studies mental disorders arose much later than the disorders themselves, it will disappear only with humanity.
6. Orthodontist
Highest salary: 327,000 dollars
It is possible that being an orthodontist in Europe and the USA is a little less prestigious than a neurosurgeon or anesthetist, but representatives of this profession do not complain about low salaries.
However, the training time for performing such complex work is 7 years or more,
5. Neurosurgeons and general surgeons
Highest salary: $ 396,000
Working with the complications of the human brain is not so easy, so neurosurgeons are worth every cent they receive. Their colleagues, general surgeons, also do not complain about low salaries.
But together with respect and big money, they deal daily with the stress associated with saving a life, because if a neurosurgeon or surgeon makes at least a small mistake, he can kill the patient or leave him disabled for life.
This is the path that a person who has chosen medicine in the USA as his path will have to go:
- four years of study at a university with a pre-med bias;
- 3 years of study at a medical school;
- from 3 to 7 years of study in residency, depending on the chosen specialization.
There is also MD / PhD - that is, additional postgraduate study for up to 5 years, but it is chosen by few doctors who want to thoroughly understand all the intricacies of the profession.
Even for general surgery and small operations, additional formal training and many years of experience are required. Naturally, to start a long and thorny path up, the bachelor's degree is enough for you, although it is preferable to choose biology or another science, since it is possible to get general knowledge for entering a medical school.
Despite the fact that the profession of a surgeon is one of the highest paid professions in the world, everything is not so simple and not cheap. More than 80 percent of medical school graduates have money in arrears for training.
4. Anesthetist
Highest annual salary: $ 410,000
Doctors who administer anesthetics before, during or after surgery or other medical procedures earn more than their aesculapian counterparts. Thanks to anesthetists, people do not experience pain during surgery and safely get out of anesthesia. By the way, anesthetists also know about pain relief during childbirth.
In the United States, an anesthetist can earn over $ 410,000 a year. In the UK, the salary of an anesthetist can be up to $ 275,000, and in Germany, up to $ 300,000. The pay for the work of an anesthetist in Canada reaches $ 300,000 per year.
It is curious that doctors in the United States are often granted privileges such as a parking place near work, free meals, and various insurance policies, including protection against lawsuits from patients.
In Russia, anesthetists are paid an average of 540 thousand rubles a year, or 45 thousand a month. And they can only dream of such salaries and privileges as those of foreign colleagues.
3. Captain of the aircraft
Highest salary: $ 452,000
If you like to travel, then becoming a pilot, and in the long term a captain of an airplane, is the best job in the world. It will allow you to move from one place to another and get a high fee for this. Not to mention that piloting an aircraft is a prestigious and highly respected occupation.
Such high salaries are a consequence of the highest qualifications and a very large physical and moral burden that falls on the shoulders of air liner commanders. After all, they are responsible for the lives of hundreds of people during each flight. And many flights take place at night and last five hours or more.
In addition to high salaries, American pilots have a number of privileges. For example, free flights on planes of any airlines in the USA and with big discounts - on planes of many foreign airlines. The same discounts, reaching 90% of the ticket price, are given to the pilots family (wives, children, parents).
2. Director General
Highest Salary: From $ 430,000 and Above
The people who are responsible for defining or formulating company policies are called the chief officials of the public or private sector organization.
It is they who coordinate, plan and direct the activities of the company at the highest level. And given the severity of the work they do to keep their company afloat, CEOs deserve the salary they get.
Of course, their income can vary greatly, depending on the business, but overall are quite generous.
1. Director of the Bank
Highest salary: $ 20 million
Here is the answer to the question of which profession is the highest paid. Being a director is good, but a banker is better. And it’s best to be the director of a bank in the United States, because in this position you can earn an average of 2.1 times more than they pay in comparable financial companies in Europe.
According to a study by the Financial Times and the consulting company Equilar, four directors of a bank in the United States received $ 20 million each in 2016. And the maximum salary of the head of a European bank amounted to 14 million dollars.
One possible explanation for such a large pay gap is the higher profitability of US banks.
