What professions do you feel are underpaid? (Inspired by luvmarypoppins)

[oogieboogie]

The ones I see on a day to day basis that I truly believe are underpaid are bank tellers.

 

[lulubelle]

I have to say child care workers for sure. They barely make minimum wage and are so full of love and care for our little ones. My sister is an RN and she is paid very fairly for her services. And fuzzylogic, you are right about teachers. All those benefits add up to a lot, along with a good wage. But, I can also make the statement that a good teacher who makes a lifelong positive impression on my child is quite frankly - priceless.

 

[Mad4Mickey]

I would say public servants ( Firefighters and Police ect..) and Teachers .

I hate when someone finds out that my DH is a Firefighter ( I'm proud of his job dont get me wrong ) and they say " Must be nice to get paid to sleep"

I would like to say " Do you really think they sleep through the night ?" The DDept he works for pays well for a Fire Dept. but I still make more then he does and I dont take a chance on never seeing my kids again when I go to work .

 

[SalandJeff]

On the other hand, I do think most lawyers get paid too much, but that's just based on what I hear, not what I know.

I have to chime in on this. My sister is an attorney, works at a small law firm, and works her butt off. She takes her job and her clients to heart and you would be shocked to know how little she makes....and she has years of school loans to pay off. So you can't always make assumptions based on a person's profession.


That being said, I think police officers, firefighters and military personnel are the most underpaid professions there are...these people risk their lives for us every day.

 

[LScot]

FF. Our city's department pays well for FF around here but in Knoxville? Shoot. I could have went on food stamps! It sickens me to think of what a starting FF makes there. And if you are new there, you start at the bottom no matter what you were before.
DH now works for a power plant's FF dept and the money is better than he could make anywhere else around as a FF.

Your friendly neighborhood hairdresser is underpaid also. But I set my prices and don't charge enough so that is my own darn fault. But, it is an important job because if your hair looks bad...

 

[JVL1018]

I don't know what jobs are underpaid because it varies so widely. For instance policemen here just signed a new contract making $106,000/year after 5 years, plus OT. This is for patrolmen.
BTW-I'm not saying they don't deserve it(my brother is in law enforcement), but they certainly get paid well here.
Firefighters here get $62,000 after 5 years.
My girlfriend is a teacher and started at $41,000 right out of college 7 or 8 yeras ago. Not sure what she makes now.

 

[LScot]

62,000? When dh went to Knoxville his pay was less than 20,000.
COL is higher in NJ but dang...

 

[JVL1018]

Originally posted by tinkerbeth


It bugs me that doctors, nurses, cops, teachers, etc. have to justify making 60 or 70 grand, and we take for granted that actors and baseball players and stock market people should be making hundreds of thousands or millions. I think we have our priorities all messed up when it comes to that.

Nurses, teachers, cops etc do not have people paying to see them, don't have people buying merchandise with their name/face on them. Actors/sports people bring in the revenue so I see no problem with how much money they make, because they generate it.

 

[Tigger1]

As a teacher, officially, I work 180 days a year from 7:40 am to 3:15 pm.

The last day of school we must totally pack everything in the room so they can do the once a year waxing.

The beginning of the school year starts before the 180 official days. We unpack our rooms on our unofficial time before school starts. Also during the summer I like to get my lesson plans started. This year we have new books so many things will be different this year.

During the school year there is no time to grade papers, make lesson plans, ect during 7:40 am to 3:15 pm. Oh we do get a planning period but occasionally we watch someones class if a substitute is not there. When we do get the planning period it is never long enough to call parents, make copies ect. That results to working after hours.

I also work night school and tutor after school to earn extra $$$.

During this summer I am working full time for a oil company.

I still make under $33,000 a year with all the extra jobs I find. At least twice a week I work from 7:40 am to 9 pm. Oh, that does not include grading papers once I get home.

So I vote that teachers are under paid in the state I am in.
Police are underpaid.

Tigger

 

[JVL1018]

Originally posted by LScot
62,000? When dh went to Knoxville his pay was less than 20,000.
COL is higher in NJ but dang...

Yes, $62,000 after 5 years. The dept is partially paid(6 guys in 3 firehouses working 8-5 M-F, holidays off) and the rest is volunteer(about another 75-100 FF), though 4 out of the 6 paid FF also volunteer.
DH volunteers, he took the test to get on the job, but the starting salary($29,000) is way below his salary as an accountant and there is no way we could survive on that until he got to the 5 year mark.

 

[aprilgail2]

Originally posted by barbeml
Sorry to buck the trend, but teachers in my area are paid very well. They have every benefit you can imagine and work 10 months a year, before we subtract all those holidays, vacation days and the ludicrous teacher's convention. The lady next door teaches, gets home early every day and lives it up all summer (by her own admission). When they want a raise or even more benefits, our already insane property taxes jump ever higher.

Wow, I agree with you there....I was going to say Police here are underpaid and teachers overpaid for the amount of days they actually work! I have friends and my brother that are teachers and they are definitely NOT underpaid...they make more than cops who work full time!

 

[Bobbles]

This has been a very interesting thread.

With the exception of the "experienced carpenters" and perhaps "nurses", all of the carreers listed have been tax-dollar supported jobs.

And what do we usually complain about the most? Taxes!
So let's have a tax cut.

Retail sales people get routinely screwed to the benefit of managers and upper-level coporate management who are out to make a quick buck for the shareholders.

So let's outsource because it's cheaper and the short-term advantage to the shareholder is worth it.

Geeze do I sound like a liberal?

 

[Bella the Ball 360]

Originally posted by barbeml
Sorry to buck the trend, but teachers in my area are paid very well. They have every benefit you can imagine and work 10 months a year, before we subtract all those holidays, vacation days and the ludicrous teacher's convention. The lady next door teaches, gets home early every day and lives it up all summer (by her own admission). When they want a raise or even more benefits, our already insane property taxes jump ever higher.


Let me just clarify.
1. Teachers get paid only for the days that they work. They are paid for 180 days in my area. WE do not get holiday pay but rather our yearly salary is divided up over the weeks we are working including school vacation. We are not really getting PAID for vacation but rather dividing up our salary so we can have money flow on an even basis.

2. I do not even know one teacher who gets home at 3:45 and does not work until at least 6pm but often till 11pm or midnight getting ready or correcting papers OR if you teach special needs writing I EP's.

3. WE need to either work over the summer OR take courses to keep up our certification which needs to be re upped every 5 years. This costs 150.00 but in order to qualify we need to take courses that often cost upwards of 500-700 dollars each. So in effect our re-cert can cost an additonal five or six thousand dollars depending on what is needed to remain active.

4. School supplies. I bet you think that the school provides all those little niceities that your child brings home such as prizes, stickers, books, markers, erasers, pencils, etc. Nope it is all out of pocket not to mention teaching aids such as posters and trade books for the classroom and paint etc. I spend well over $1500 on my class every year. NO, it is not a tax write off!

5. "Live it up over the summer". I guess we do between working and taking classes that leaves LOTS of time and money to live it up. OH and did I forget to mention that we need to go in over the summer and set up our rooms. At the end of the year we need to move all our furniture into the halls (after we have either stored or wrapped or hidden anything we do not want stolen) so they can wax the floors. Who do you think does the heavy lifting and pushing to get the room magically back together before the children arrive? When do you think it happens?? In the summer on OUR time. Yep we do live it up over the summer.

6. I guess I do not need to even mention all the respect we get from people who have never even walked a mile in our shoes. Of course you will need to have a minimum of a Masters Degree if you want to even try them on.

 

[disneyjunkie]

I'm surprised by the number of people that think teachers only work 180 days, 9:00-3:00.

If this is the only time they work, when do you think they get their lesson plans done? What about grading papers? What about talking to parents, meetings, workshops?

My son attends a small public school here in Brooklyn. It's not uncommon to see teachers there working as early as 7:30 or as late as 6:00. Teachers at his school also work on Saturdays. The last day of school here was June 25. The last day for teachers was June 28. I've been to his school twice since the 28th and teachers were there working.

There are teachers that do just enough to get by. But I believe most teachers love what they do and go above and beyond what is required.

 

[gometros]

Originally posted by 6_Time_Momma
Ooooo!!! Oooooo!!! I know!!! Nurses!!!

Amen to that. They do all the work, yet the doctors get all the money.

Teachers are also underpaid. I'll throw in computer professionals, only cause I need a raise

 

[meandtheguys2]

BTB

FYI, I think the reason folks compare to teachers is that they are an easy group to target. When I was a case-manager, I had the same degree as the local teachers, worked at least 50 hrs a week, and we made $15,000 less than the teacher starting pay in our area. I know this becasues I originally was a starter teach in this area! Then, you add on the summer thing, and it does appear unfair.

 

[jrydberg]

Whatever profession I'm in

 

[minniepumpernickel]

I think that Museum Technicians are underpaid. National Park Service workers are too. Gov GS workers.

 

[Dizkneenurse]

I gotta say that as a nurse, I feel I am paid fairly well. However, I earn every single dime .

You wouldn't believe some of the things we have to do and you wouldn't want to....

Teachers in my area are underpaid... sad because they have such an important job.

Any customer service job has to be underpaid. Anytime you have to deal with the public, you should get combat pay!


heidi

 

[gometros]

Originally posted by Dizkneenurse
I gotta say that as a nurse, I feel I am paid fairly well. However, I earn every single dime .

I'd be curious if you were per diem or full-time. Either way, from my recent expereince you can't be paid enough.