Posted on 11/29/2012 8:48:03 AM PST by Kaslin
Payscale.com analyzed the data in its online salary database and has revealed the college degrees that go along with the jobs that have the lowest median pay for their respective career professionals in its 2012-13 College Salary Report. Note - these figures represent the typical annual combination of pay, bonuses, commissions and profit sharing earned by people who have been successful in working in these fields for at least 10 years and were willing to participate in Payscale.com's survey, which means the reported median incomes will likely be inflated above each field's actual median incomes....
|
College Degree |
|
Median Annual Salary |
|---|---|---|
|
|
Child and Family Studies |
$37,700 |
|
|
Social Work |
$45,300 |
|
|
Elementary Education |
$46,000 |
|
|
Human Development |
$47,800 |
|
|
Special Education |
$48,900 |
|
|
Culinary Arts |
$49,700 |
|
|
Athletic Training |
$49,800 |
So what possesses people to take out big student loans to go into professions like these that offer such little compensation? Payscale.com offers the following insight:
"According to our research, people in these majors typically believe their work makes the world a better place," says PayScale’s lead analyst Katie Bardaro.
To translate, the people in these majors are perhaps so disconnected from reality that they do not recognize that the reason their trades provide so little return on their educational investment is because they really do not require unique ability, which is why society does not reward them with greater compensation.
These people are then exploited by the higher education establishment, which really does know better, but can't help noticing that these same people are willing to pay nearly the same amount of money for their college degrees as do people in careers that society values a lot more.
And let's not forget the role of the U.S. federal government in guaranteeing and issuing student loans, which has its own ulterior motives for pushing higher education that offers little real benefit to society.
Say what you will about the careers that go with the degrees above, but at least many of the people who pursue these degrees might actually get jobs in their fields of study, if only low paying ones. Kiplinger's Caitlin Dewey takes things several steps further and identifies the college degrees in Payscale.com's database that combine low pay with high rates of unemployment for their graduates!
Also, this isn't just an American phenomenon. Don't miss this perspective by a recent PhD graduate in Britain who complains that the "real world" doesn't understand or appreciate their skills.
Image Source: Global Elites.
When I was in college every student I knew in the School of Education had been on the verge of flunking out. It and the School of Social Services were the dumping grounds for dum dums.
How much do underwater basket weavers make these days?
I should say flunking out in some other discipline...
I’m done with my MBA, can I sell it?
Hey, I bet those degrees in Womyn’s, Queer, and various minority studies pay exceptionally well. (snicker)
I would call those rates of pay “not a bad living,” if you don’t have a lot of debt, and especially if you’re in a two-earner marriage. As the article points out, many of these can at least find jobs, either because they’re at low levels of the leviathan state (school teacher, social worker) or because they’re useful skills (cooking) or part of the leisure/entertainment blob (athletic trainer).
“Hey, I bet those degrees in Womyn’s, Queer, and various minority studies pay exceptionally well. (snicker)”
funny how those don’t seem to be mentioned, eh?
The first 5 of those college degrees listed lead to government jobs. A 40k/yr median income salary at full time employment with benefits funded by taxpayers is pretty attractive to a jobless liberal arts graduate in a nation with a real world unemployment rate of 20%.
My son studied astronomy . . . well, he took up space.
Medieval Plumbing degrees aren’t too well received either.
In the early 70s when I went back to college the School of Education was where the non-hackers in the real disciplines went. Second to that was the School of Journalism.
I call those the general victimhood studies, you know,
“I don’t want to conform to societal norms and I’m being marginalized for it so I’m a victim” studies.
Maybe it's something that gets one employed as a daycare director or government-sector pre-K teacher.
2012 Worst Paying College Degrees...?
Federal Government Ethics...
These education majors may not be as dumb as you think. Sure, they may not make a fortune as teachers but they certainly retire well. We have a friend who taught 6th grade for about thirty years. He and his wife lived quite modestly in a tiny little house in a very wealthy town. He’s now retired and living in Florida in a gorgeous home,drives a Lexus and travels constantly. They also spend their summers in a condo, on the water, in MA.
The five on the lowest end of that scale usually wind up in government jobs, so salary is misleading as they rack up tons of benefits not accounted for in salary.
My daughter’s boyfriend’s son who is in high school takes a class called Teen Living. That will prepare you for college!
Keep your child out of college for two years starting next September. Why are you working two jobs and missing vacations to saddle your beloved child with tens of thousands of dollars of debt? Keep them home. The universities will laugh like Snuffleupagus did over the Hostess workers, but you decrease the student population by 50% for a couple of years and the universities have to lower tuition.
They do.
They are a ticket to high-paying non-job jobs, like employment consulting, sensitivity consulting, curriculum design, corporate community relations etc.
There are probably 25,000+ jobs in the DC area that pay people $150K+ per year to do almost nothing.
If you are sued by the EEOC over perceived discrimination by a protected class, you can point to your employees or outside consultants who have one of these degrees to highlight how progressive and compliant you are.
It is insurance against rent-seeking.
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