"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. I can believe that for the Special Education category. If they are going to devote their lives helping children with various disabilities, then God Bless them. Tough work, and appreciated work.
The wifey has her masters in ed & spec ed; enjoys her career, tells me she'd do it all over again, thanks me for pushing her into spec ed, and almost doubles the $$$ the study claims. I enjoy her summers off too. Other relatives with engineering degrees have suffered periods of unemployment during their careers, moved all over the country, ended up working away from their family leading to breakups of their marriage; on and on.
Money is important, but it doesn't lead to happiness in life.