Someone Asks “What Job Is 100% Overpaid?” And 30 People Don’t Hold Back With Their Answers
Equitable pay changes over time and companies need to be continuously reviewing what they're paying their employees. However, according to a Gartner survey of roughly 3,500 workers conducted in 2022, only 32% of them felt like they were fairly compensated.
Interested in the other side of the spectrum, Reddit user Designer-Meeting-123 made a post on the platform, asking everyone to list the jobs that they believe are grossly overpaid.
From realtors to management consultants, we've compiled the most popular submissions and are eager to learn your opinion on the matter. So continue scrolling and upvote the professions that you think are earning too much.
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Influencers.
This! This needs to be first!!! A bunch of entitled people, that always complain about how "hard work" it is being an influencer, but never ACTUALLY worked a day in their lives and expect everyone to treat them like royalty!!! I hate influencers with a fierce passion!!!!
A failed CEO. "Bob, you've done a terrible job. Here's 60 million dollars. Hit the road.".
I'd say it depends what sector, but my sorta-answer is that its f****d to see CEO's CFO's, COO's, etc, getting literally tens of millions in **BONUSES** when the company is also laying off thousands of workers, selling off assets, losing value, or whatever.
I always figured a bonus was something you earned when you did a good job...
College football coach. “Fisher was fired Sunday morning late in his sixth season at Texas A&M with more than $76 million remaining on his fully guaranteed contract.”.
College sports in the USA are absolutely wild to me. The highest paid 'educator' at most colleges is probably not the Dean - it's the football coach. They get huge crowds though, so the coach arguably generates the most income too.
Politicians, state level and up. Part time thumb twiddling with great full time benefits for life.
I don't think so. Compared to any big company politicians are paid way less. Our Chancelor in Germany has a monthly salary of around 30K€. Which is much less than any "big CEO", actor or sports star. And that guy's running our country. Similar to the US president.
Anything connected with the funeral or wedding industries.
I take issue with the funeral industry part of this. No one needs to get married, but everyone will die. And most people don't want to deal with bodies themselves. Therefore, we have funeral homes and burial societies. It's also important to ensure that diseases don't spread. Very important work that not everyone could do.
NBA player.
Literally any F500 CEO. 1200% overpaid.
I initially read that as "120% overpaid" and was about to fire off a rude response when a second glance corrected me. Then again, is 1200% high enough?
Fired college football coaches.
The whole college sports scene in the US is absolutely bizarre. It's more like sports teams that have a school attached then the other way round.
D**g company reps. And on the flip side, pharmacists are incredibly underpaid.
I still know what that word is. Putting stars on it didn't protect anybody from any kind of harm from knowing what the word is. Stop being asinine.
Education admin. I'm sorry, you don't need almost 400k a year for being the head of a school district.
During a recession, years ago, the teachers were being told there was no money in the district to raise pay. We got like a 2% raise over a three year contract. Meanwhile, the administrators got like a 14% pay raise. Totally absurd!
Realtors. They serve zero purpose in today’s market and are overpaid for their “services” by a criminal margin. They email documents and turn locks, that’s it.
I dunno; our estate agent has been working hard to help us get a property to the market. I have been impressed with her work. Is it 10s of thousands of dollars worth? It is if she gets top price for the house...
My realtor found me houses that I would have never seen on my own and then saved me over $5k by negotiating things that were found during inspection. They provide a service and good ones are worth every penny.
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Try to buy or sell a property without a realtor and you will quickly find out just how much you don't know.
I did buy and sell a house privately- it was a pain. Doable but not a great experience.
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Laws just changed in the US... no more guaranteed 6% of sale price to the realtors
It's never been a guarantee. The last 2 houses I've sold it's been 4% 2% for each realtor. I agree these days they do little. You and The escrow people do all of the work. My sister bought a for sale by owner. It was easy, she had to do the same amount of work. In the old days, before computers, the realtor did a lot of leg work. They would usually drive you around and preview the house first. Now you find the houses you want to see and just hand them a list and meet them at the house. So they do a little negotiating and have you sign a bunch of papers and their job is done. Then you enter into escrow, that's the hard part. Sellers realtor does very little too.
Load More Replies... Maybe in the US? Here in the UK when I bought a couple of years ago the estate agent (paid of course by the vendor through the sale, not directly by me) worked hard over several months to keep everyone on track and moving forward, including chasing the vendor's solicitor when I got impatient.
Actually not in the US either. It's definitely worth having a realtor here. This post is full of BS.
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Depends on the realtor. I've had great ones and bad ones. The great ones can steer you away from money pits and towards houses with good value. I've also had them do a lot of leg work to find the buyers for me and negotiate top dollar for me
The recently decided antitrust lawsuit against Realtors in the US (Realtors being only those working for the trade mark)...says this posting is correct. At least in the US. Rates are double that in other Countries and it was due to conspiracy to make them so, and they've just been ordered to pay back like $700million, a billion, something like that. Watch closely for instructions on how you should go about claiming your refund...
I disagree with this. If you really believe this, you don’t have a good realtor. There are super lazy Realestate agents that don’t do anything. But my realtor is extremely helpful and informative. He has made several negotiations on my behalf that has helped me with the buying process of my house.
This is really misinformed. When we sold one of our homes, the realtor was a god-send. It's more than "sending emails & turning locks." Our realtor did all the work, set up showings, talked to prospective buyers, landed a buyer in 3 weeks, and had the sale complete in about 2.5 months. That woman was amazing and deserved every $ she earned.
Ours has organised all the contractors to as we aren't in the city anymore
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I can't wait to see all the bitching and moaning in the year or two to come when more and more people who, like OP, think they can get through a real estate transaction unscathed without a realtor who knows the laws and requirements for their given area of practice.
They will blame the lender and inspector for not doing the realtor job.
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One of my realtors pointed out a depression in the back yard of a house I was interested in buying. Turns out they had a septic tank and had not volunteered that info. This was in Santa Monica. Some realtors can help you find the right house, thanks to their expertise.
"we can live beside the ocean/leave the septic tank behind..."
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100% incorrect. This is pure nonsense. Go buy a house without one and tell me how easy it is. I'll wait.
hmm it depends on whether they get you your price or bring feet in the door. Otherwise I'd agree. We have online house sales sites now where people can sell their own house, but you don't have the benefit of someone vetting the buyer before he or she (or they) shows up.
Average commission on a sold property was 6%. 3-3.5% for sellers agent and the rest for buyers agent (this is the part that changed). Of that percentage, most brokerages take 25% or more from the Realtors commission(you must belong to a brokerage in most states). The realtor also pays advertising, membership dues, etc. At least in the state I live in, realtors are considered independent contractors so they have to pay self employment tax, which is high, on top of income yax and social security. 90% of realtors leave the profession without selling 10 houses. That's not to say there aren't bad ones, but they are the minority. I am related to multiple realtors.
Some, but not all. Most agents work their tails off to help people buy or sell their houses and get the best deals possible.
Yes, omg and so pushy! Remember Marge Simpson trying to sell the house that was quote literally on fire??
I had one realtor that was very pushy. When a house was too expensive she said can't you ask your parents for money? And I wanted a 3 bedroom, she wanted me to buy a 2 bedroom and said my guests could stay at a hotel
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HR department. Cancer of any org I've ever been in.
Actors. You don't deserve millions for acting goofy. Not even as a privacy compensation.
But in the end it's just supply and demand so what are ya going to do about it.
Management consultants.
They serve their purpose. I once worked for a telecommunications company subsidiary that had to lay off people and slim down. And as none of the CEO, CFO, CTO and board of directors wanted to be blamed, they hired consultants. Because then they were able to say: "Look, not what we want, but the experts have a clear professional opinion. so we are doing that." I know, because I worked closely for the CEO. And yeah, I know what that expert opinion did cost us. Redicilous.
School district superintendents. While I will admit, I cannot honestly articulate exactly what they do, that may very well be part of the problem.
And anytime I see a scandal or their pay is otherwise mentioned, it seems staggeringly high for a government position.
Mine. Healthcare marketing. Being paid 6 figures [with only a Bachelor's Degree] to tell people [who are already medical school educated] how to treat their patients is actually hilarious! But if you're gonna pay me for it...
Real estate agents. Maybe if it's your first home and you need everything done for you, or this was the 1990s before online listings - a buyer's agent and a seller's agent on each respective side, the two agents splitting a 6% to 7% commission made some sense. But for your average transaction, or experienced buyers / sellers, this just doesn't make sense anymore and it's a huge expense on already expensive home sale.
I bought a For Sale Buy Owner home, no realtor on either side. Hired an attorney to handle paperwork and we split the expense. Super easy. Also sold a home, without no realtor, and the buyer's did have an agent. The agent was awful at communicating and being responsive, and she wanted her 3% "commision" to come out of the sale price. It's like sis, you literally made everything more difficult, we still had to pay an attorney to oversee the paperwork and title company, what exactly are you being paid for here? I don't give a s**t how many houses you showed to your clients before they decided to buy a FSBO and tried to keep you involved.
so you had a bad agent and then blamed her for wanting to get paid. meh. We have a wonderful agent and are happy to give her the commission that she earned repeatedly through multiple home sales and purchases.
Almost every C-Suite position.
Reddit moderator.
Every billionaire.
Omg customer success managers. I was one. I was paid a ridiculous amount to basically say “I don’t have the answer to a single question you asked but I can see if I can find someone… who can maybe answer it but they probably can’t”. It’s a JOKE.
A lot of those jobs where your job is to basically talk to people and pass information around and your biggest problem is people not reading emails thoroughly enough.
Hey, someone has to do it. ;) It's actually WAY more complicated than that, but I like to joke that my job mostly consists of writing and sending email.
HR at the hospital I worked at.
Real Estate Agents. Especially buyer side agents. Earning a percentage of the cost of the property is ridiculous. You do the same job for a $200k home vs a $10 million home.
This list could be a lot shorter, if the duplicates were weeded out.
Note: this post originally had 40 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
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One of my favorite musicians of all time is a man named W***y Nelson. Whoever is in charge of censoring his name has a completely pointless job, and is VASTLY overpaid for it. EDIT: His name is Willie, shame on me.
This list seems to be compiled by people who don't actually know what these roles do. Some have valid points, but most are either repetitive and/or don't understand what work gets done.
Some valid as you said. They don’t understand what goes into the work, as is natural when you don’t do it. And they don’t understand revenue for sports.
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“Writers”. Scroll other sites and copy&paste what they have already written.
Load More Replies... Real estate agents are on this list at least three times. Not too much hate for the amounts of money made in banking/finance. Interesting.
People are mad because they perceive it as "their money." It's a lot harder to let go when you sign a million papers showing the breakdown of the money coming from the sale. All the money the bank takes from you is in harder to understand math in the background without paperwork. Thus, we hate the real estate agent more but the bank we're fine with.
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I've been a law enforcement officer, a politician, a business person, and a doctor - and I can tell you absolutely that the higher you get in these career paths the less you work and the more you're overpaid. It's ridiculous. Almost made me want to stop playing The Sims.
The might be a UK specific one, but Vice Chancellors of universities are grossly overpaid. Some are getting close to a million a year. Even the ones at underperforming universities are getting in the region of 500k. I don't know what they actually do and I'm willing to bet most university students have never even met the VC of their university.
I stopped reading at #6. Gosh damn f*****g non caring pieces of s**t a*****e's!!
This all depends on how you define "overpaid". Some of these people are paid relative to their standings/output in their industries (NBA players, actors). It just so happens that there's a lot more money in those industries for salaries than there are in other industries. If your idea of being overpaid is simply "more than $X", then sure, a lot of people in those industries are overpaid. For me, the ones that are overpaid are not those in the above industries, but the people in this list who are paid a disproportionate amount to their actual value, like who lead failing companies but still get millions in bonuses. Also, billionaires. I do not think there is any justification in having that much money.
Why isn't homeless shelter and homeless organization executive Management on the list? The salary for every single one of those A$$🕳️s is over $100,000 while shelter staff and social workers get paid a minimum wage and are one mishap from being a client. Over 600,000 homeless people and we're going to have a million by the end of the year 😡
I get being resentful of people who play pretend or bounce a ball for a living that make millions but that’s how capitalism works: you get paid for the revenue you generate. It may not be “fair” but it’s the system we have and I’m glad the players and actors are getting at least some of the money rather than most of it going to owners, like it used to. Like it or not, entertainment is big business so that isn’t going away.
One of my favorite musicians of all time is a man named W***y Nelson. Whoever is in charge of censoring his name has a completely pointless job, and is VASTLY overpaid for it. EDIT: His name is Willie, shame on me.
This list seems to be compiled by people who don't actually know what these roles do. Some have valid points, but most are either repetitive and/or don't understand what work gets done.
Some valid as you said. They don’t understand what goes into the work, as is natural when you don’t do it. And they don’t understand revenue for sports.
Load More Replies... “Writers”. Scroll other sites and copy&paste what they have already written.
Load More Replies... Real estate agents are on this list at least three times. Not too much hate for the amounts of money made in banking/finance. Interesting.
People are mad because they perceive it as "their money." It's a lot harder to let go when you sign a million papers showing the breakdown of the money coming from the sale. All the money the bank takes from you is in harder to understand math in the background without paperwork. Thus, we hate the real estate agent more but the bank we're fine with.
Load More Replies... I've been a law enforcement officer, a politician, a business person, and a doctor - and I can tell you absolutely that the higher you get in these career paths the less you work and the more you're overpaid. It's ridiculous. Almost made me want to stop playing The Sims.
The might be a UK specific one, but Vice Chancellors of universities are grossly overpaid. Some are getting close to a million a year. Even the ones at underperforming universities are getting in the region of 500k. I don't know what they actually do and I'm willing to bet most university students have never even met the VC of their university.
I stopped reading at #6. Gosh damn f*****g non caring pieces of s**t a*****e's!!
This all depends on how you define "overpaid". Some of these people are paid relative to their standings/output in their industries (NBA players, actors). It just so happens that there's a lot more money in those industries for salaries than there are in other industries. If your idea of being overpaid is simply "more than $X", then sure, a lot of people in those industries are overpaid. For me, the ones that are overpaid are not those in the above industries, but the people in this list who are paid a disproportionate amount to their actual value, like who lead failing companies but still get millions in bonuses. Also, billionaires. I do not think there is any justification in having that much money.
Why isn't homeless shelter and homeless organization executive Management on the list? The salary for every single one of those A$$🕳️s is over $100,000 while shelter staff and social workers get paid a minimum wage and are one mishap from being a client. Over 600,000 homeless people and we're going to have a million by the end of the year 😡
I get being resentful of people who play pretend or bounce a ball for a living that make millions but that’s how capitalism works: you get paid for the revenue you generate. It may not be “fair” but it’s the system we have and I’m glad the players and actors are getting at least some of the money rather than most of it going to owners, like it used to. Like it or not, entertainment is big business so that isn’t going away.
