The desire for fairness is a huge motivator for change. To put it simply, people can’t stand it if someone’s being mistreated or if they see someone being rewarded more than they are. And when talk turns to money, things can get really heated. Many people believe that they’re not paid enough for their efforts, meanwhile, they watch others get rich by—seemingly—doing ‘nothing’ at all.
The r/AskReddit community went all-out and shared their thoughts about the professions that they personally believe are greatly overpaid, from influencers to preachers. Scroll down to read their opinions and upvote the posts that you agree with, dear Pandas.
Personal finance expert Rick Orford, the author of ‘The Financially Independent Millennial,’ shed some light as to why some professions get paid more than others. You’ll find Bored Panda’s interview with him below.
This post may include affiliate links.
Big time preachers (think Joel Osteen, Kenneth Copeland)
Matthew 19:24 "I'll say it again-it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!"
Executives of most companies. They supposedly get paid massive amounts because they will be held responsible for the performance of the company and... Are never held responsible for the performance of the company...
Yes. It's aways difficult when performance pay isn't linked to..... performance.
Being a Kardashian
I'll never understand this one. I literally quit watching TV about the time they showed up.
The basic idea behind all of the frustration in this list is simple. Many internet users believe that some folks get unfairly rewarded for the amount of value that they bring to their customers, company, or society as a whole. Or, to put it more bluntly, they see some professions as being inherently more valuable than others.
In an ideal world, the professions that are most useful to society would be paid the most. But we don’t live in an ideal world. People get paid what they do based on the market conditions, the demand for their work, their reputation, and sometimes the perceived—not actual—value of their services.
Sure, social media influencers might not cure diseases or educate future generations, but they provide entertainment for thousands, sometimes even millions of people around the globe. There’s a huge demand for their services, like it or not. And it's not like their jobs are stress-free either. Often, influencers have to be incredibly disciplined and emotionally resilient to do what they do. Their career path isn't for everyone.
CEOs
I dare anyone here to tell me they think its fine that a CEO earns 200x that of a regular employee.
Politicians. Way overpaid and corrupt.
Only IF THEY ARE CORRUPT. Honest politicians don't make that much. That's the problem.
“Generally, we are paid based on the value we give back to humanity. Someone who grows vegetables might earn $1,000 a month, while a lawyer might earn $1,000 an hour,” personal finance expert Orford told Bored Panda via email.
“The person who grows vegetables provides sustenance, but the lawyer's fee allows them to argue on behalf of their client and potentially keep them out of jail. Which one provides more value? And that's what I mean by value.”
According to the expert, CEOs tend to get a bad rap. “Someone like Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, reportedly earned $226 million last year, much to employees' chagrin.” However, Orford pointed out that the situation isn’t all bad.
“Others, like Tim Cook, who actually requested a decrease and Elon Musk works for free,” the author of ‘The Financially Independent Millennial’ said.
I thought it was funny that a lot of social media influencers make enough to wear a different designer outfit each day. I feel like I missed a real-life cheat code
All the 'designer' outfits in the world wouldn't make me want to become a shallow, self-infatuated 'influencer'. :)
Here in Quebec, Canada, we have something called “the language Police”. They go around and make sure fonts on signs are more pronounced in French than English.
They make 80k a year. 😑
Like the morality police and wannabee morality police in too many countries.
Orford stressed the fact that salary ranges tend to be a hot topic in the workplace. “Suppose we have two people with the same background, job, and seniority. It would be natural for these people to expect to be paid the same. However, that's often not the case. Other factors like quality of work, negotiating skills, and charisma make all the difference.”
The personal finance expert revealed to Bored Panda that, in his experience, the people earning an above-average salary are able to do things better than others.
“They make themselves indispensable. For instance, a secretary in a law firm who's the only one in the office who can manage the photocopier, well, she might get a higher rate for that skill alone,” he said.
“Or, suppose you're a programmer, and you're the only one who can write a specific routine to do X Y, and Z. As long as your product is in-demand, you'll earn a higher income.”
Celebrities, of most any fashion. I do not see any reason why an actor needs to be paid multi-million dollars for one project that likely takes them less than a year to do.
I get being a celeb comes with normally needing security and stuff, but I'm pretty sure even someone who makes like $1m a year can afford that stuff...
Though I agree that a million is a lot, why should an actor who ostensibly draws in the paying customers be limited in what they earn, while the studio's shareholders, who decide that the actor is worth it, aren't?
Professional stock portfolio managers. 99% of them do not outperform indexes and they contribute no real goods or services.
Once a research team made an experiment: They made a control group of experienced stock managers and had them invest according to their knowledge. The other portfolio was made up by a chimpanzee that threw darts on a board with stock market numbers while blindfolded. To their great horror the monkey outperformed the experts... (see e.g. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB991681622136214659 for details).
School admin spots. Growing up, the class sizes grew while the amount of teachers, and what they were paid, continually shrunk. But they kept adding extra superintendents and giving them pay raises left and right.
Though there will often be people who earn more than you, it doesn’t mean that you have to be a pauper while making the world a better place. Medical professionals, for example, are incredibly generously compensated for their skills in the United States.
According to Investopedia, among the 25 highest-paying occupations in the country, a jaw-dropping 22 of them are healthcare positions. For example, the mean annual salary for cardiologists in 2023 was $353,970.
Meanwhile, anesthesiologists made an average of $331,190 per year. The mean salary for oral and maxillofacial surgeons stood at $311,460, emergency medicine physicians made $310,640, and orthopedic surgeons earned $306,220 per year.
Hospital CEOs
And you wonder why health care in the USA is so obscenely expensive. Too many football players from Kansas City, not enough baseball players from Atlanta.
The chancellor at my small <10k student university got paid 400k a year and a house on campus.
That’s as much as the president. The guy who runs a f*****g country.
(I used past tense but only because I left uni a year ago. I imagine he’s paid more now)
Professional athletes
I disagree. If we will pay millions of dollars to see them, they deserve their fair share of that.
Taking these numbers into account, it would be naive to say that the job market is entirely ‘unfair.’ Sure, there will always be professions where the value to society that’s provided is outpaced by their earnings, but this doesn’t mean that the entire system is ‘unfair.’ Wages often show what society values. So if stockbrokers, real estate agents, preachers, and influencers take the cake, it’s best to take a good long look at what a culture prioritizes, instead of grumbling about unfairness.
Workplace expert Lynn Talyor explained to Bored Panda during a previous interview that envying those who have more than us is a very human instinct. However, it can be a very destructive trait, too.
“It’s okay to envy people in a healthy way and learn from their successes. But it’s another to become bitter and destroy your precious hours or days. Time is not a renewable resource,” Taylor explained.
Talking heads on cable and network news.
I've always thought the entire structure of what pays is odd. I sit here moving some letters around as a screen as a software engineer, while people are outside, doing hard labor, saving lives, and building skyscrapers for less money than I make doing this work. I feel like they should get paid much more than my "white collar" work.
As a pharmacy student, medical administration has an INSANE amount of overhead costs and take about 90% of the cut, with the last 10% actually being given to the doctors, nurses, and pharmacists involved, etc.
Also PBMs. PBMs suck.
Welcome to the US healthcare system! We make money even when you die!
The expert argued that if someone’s envious of others, it’s vital to understand exactly where those feelings come from. For instance, they might not actually want to be rich but want to travel more. “Maybe you can achieve that in your life or even incorporate it into your career—without sacrificing your soul for ‘the mighty dollar,’” she said
“You can’t dissect someone’s wealth from the rest of their life. Do you envy every aspect of that person’s life? You’re likely much happier with many facets of your own. People will always have more and less: money, skill sets, looks, corporate status, and so on. It’s the grass is greener fallacy. So try to put things in perspective and become grateful for what do you have. This will keep you in a more grounded space,” the workplace expert shared.
“Realize that happiness doesn’t always come in the form of money. Very often wealthy people constantly worry about how to preserve their assets. Many must also cope with the burden of jealousy and alienation among friends, and even family.”
Amazon CEOs.
Music executives. They don't have an ounce of talent, but will make money off of the talent of someone else. It's a disgusting thing to see.
College football coaches. Literally the highest paid government workers (at state schools)
Management consultants. I was one, and there is no way I add $650/hr in value to the company who is paying for my services.
Note that I get paid <10% of this, my firm takes the rest. And yes, I know it's a pyramid scheme.
Well a good consultant can add that much value imho. A friend of mine is a consultant and I have seen many many cases where he saved whole companies, and this way jobs of multiple people.
Corporate Executives. I work with some dumb fkrs that ride the coattails of their talented teams
Pharmaceutical reps
They've done a dynamite job of pushing Oxycodone (hillbilly heroin) on an unsuspecting public.
Hollywood Actors & Actresses....Yes I said it 😆
No. They are the reason people watch TV shows & movies. The actors & actresses are only asking for a fair share according to the role & their ability to draw an audience. Otherwise all that money goes to the television & movie studios. Also, only the really successful actors/actresses earn the eye-popping money, the rest work other jobs to make ends meet.
Owner of Tesla.
University Presidents. Found out today my university press makes $360,000 annually.
That's quite little, compared to UK university vice chancellors... They're often found wrecking second-rank universities while eyeing the same position at a first-tier one, just to have a big 'transformation' on their CV.
Realtors (in Canada)
Called estate agents in the UK I think. Horrible whatever they are called!
College administrators.
Note: this post originally had 39 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Hmm. Interesting. Yet someone is willing to pay these people those ridiculous sums without being legally required so they must be worth it in their minds. Strange how no one mentioned politicians who vote for their own salaries. You'd think that would be at the top of the list.
If you want to complain about how much (a) actors (b) sportspersons (c) influencers earn, then please stop (a) watching movies/tv, (b) watching sports, and (c) looking at attractive people on instragram. The reason they are paid so much is to draw eyeballs, and hence media ratings, and hence advertising spend of corporates. YOU are the ones paying them overmuch.
I do not disagree with this list, but I am sure that if you were offered these jobs you would accept them and ask for even more money. Don't complain about what someone else has, make the most of what you have.
Hmm. Interesting. Yet someone is willing to pay these people those ridiculous sums without being legally required so they must be worth it in their minds. Strange how no one mentioned politicians who vote for their own salaries. You'd think that would be at the top of the list.
If you want to complain about how much (a) actors (b) sportspersons (c) influencers earn, then please stop (a) watching movies/tv, (b) watching sports, and (c) looking at attractive people on instragram. The reason they are paid so much is to draw eyeballs, and hence media ratings, and hence advertising spend of corporates. YOU are the ones paying them overmuch.
I do not disagree with this list, but I am sure that if you were offered these jobs you would accept them and ask for even more money. Don't complain about what someone else has, make the most of what you have.
