Worldwide Salaries Comparison

[Independent]

Originally Posted by barbarus

Depending on their field, many professors can find no other w*rk than teaching. It's a very hard pursuit to break in to. Most will never find a permanent full-time position.

Salaries are a particular interest of mine and I have yet to find a decent blog that covers the topic. I have to gather data in bits and pieces. Most employment figures are bovine feces. They are generated by government hacks to supply a demand that is none to critical. BoL statistcs have all the validity of a fairy tail and none of the charm.

Better to actually obtain the documentation on public salaries directly. Since this type of w*rk is funded by taxes, it should be available to ordinary citizens.

Most of the salary levels quoted by politicians or journalists have no basis in reality and are no more than self-serving drivel.

Not long ago, the Des Moines Register had a handy look-up application on their website that seemed to have all the State of Iowa employees. It may still be there.

[Spanky]

Originally Posted by Independent

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has a different set of numbers.
They have civil engineers (for example) at $72,120 and elementary school teachers at $48,700. Those numbers are before tax.

http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm#b21-0000

Thanks for the link. It seems that Petroleum and computer Engineers have relatively high salary.

[barbarus]

Guess what the "b" in bls.gov stands for.

[Buku]

Originally Posted by dmpi

I'm supprised that the USA Teacher makes so much. And don't they get the whole summer off?

Yes. Teachers have a powerful union. High on compensation, low on accountability...you know..for the children.

[summer2007]

When I was in HS our gym teachers would just take roll and tell us to go play. They would then smoke and drink coffee and talk to each other. Some of the guys would just leave after they would take roll....the gym teachers never even knew they were gone!

You have to admit though that is a lot of work to do for only 100k a year!

Jim

[dmpi]

Originally Posted by Buku

Yes. Teachers have a powerful union. High on compensation, low on accountability...you know..for the children.

In our school district it cost $12,000/year per kid for K-12 grade. Judging by how smart some of the kids are, I question if we are really getting out what we put in. But I guess there is no real metric to measure school performance.

[barbarus]

To be fair to post-secondary educators, part of their salary is hazardous duty pay.
As long as psychos are mainstreamed, we will see an increasing occurrence of tragedies like the latest in Illinois.

[summer2007]

I hear on the local radio shows people calling in saying about teaching being dangerous.

But you know what I used to deliver pizzas for 5 bucks an hour and there is a lot of drivers being shot over 30 bucks but no one ever suggests paying them 100 grand. Most never even make the news!

I guess what I'm saying is there are a TON of minimum wage jobs out there that are way riskier than being a teacher.


Jim

[dmpi]

Originally Posted by summer2007

I hear on the local radio shows people calling in saying about teaching being dangerous.

But you know what I used to deliver pizzas for 5 bucks an hour and there is a lot of drivers being shot over 30 bucks but no one ever suggests paying them 100 grand. Most never even make the news!

I guess what I'm saying is there are a TON of minimum wage jobs out there that are way riskier than being a teacher.


Jim

From Forbes; 10 Most Dangerous Jobs & Death rate per 100K:

Fishermen 124/100K
Pilots & Flight Engr 88/100K
Loggers 82/100K
Iron and Steel Workers 61/100K
Refuse & Recyclable Material Collectors 42/100K
Farmer & Rancher 38/100K
Electical Power Line Worker 35/100K
Roofer 34/100K
Trucker and Mobile Sales People 27/100K
Agricultural Workers 22/100K

[chinaco]

Interesting.

Look at the difference in earnings for physicians.

[lazygood4nothinbum]

interesting to see which society places more value on which career. giving it all just a quick glance it seems either physician or airline pilot rise to the top of what that society considers most important.

in places like thailand & romania, pilots earn more than physicians & flight attendants make more than nurses while in others like australia and the u.s.a. physicians make more than pilots though in austalia flight attendants still make more than nurses.

though on second thought, i don't know if that strictly shows what a society thinks is important in itself or if it reflects the international character of an industry.

edit: in canada a wood grinder makes more than either a teacher, a nurse, a computer programer or a car mechanic. i have no idea what to make of that.

[ladelfina]

In Canada wood grinding is very important.


What's a wood grinder?

[StJohnsWood]

I guess things in the good ole US of A ain't as bad as some trying to get elected would make you believe.

[lazygood4nothinbum]

YouTube - Wood waste grinder

[haha]

Originally Posted by Want2retire

Perhaps you end up with the same dilemma facing the public when trying to figure out what to pay politicians. If the pay is too low, the wealthy or those with other income sources may be more inclined to stay, than the person who is not wealthy but could be the best representative of his constituency.

Perhaps true. But the Clintons have certainly prospered as public servants. Many others too. If you can't get rich in politics you aren't trying.

Ha

[Want2retire]

Originally Posted by haha

Perhaps true. But the Clintons have certainly prospered as public servants. Many others too. If you can't get rich in politics you aren't trying.

Ha

Especially in Louisiana.

[haha]

Originally Posted by dmpi

In our school district it cost $12,000/year per kid for K-12 grade. Judging by how smart some of the kids are, I question if we are really getting out what we put in. But I guess there is no real metric to measure school performance.

How about reading, writing, and arithmetic?

Ha

[FinanceDude]

Originally Posted by haha

How about reading, writing, and arithmetic?Ha

Those areas have been "dumbed down" to the point of ridiculous...........

Of course, the teacher's union in WI is doing very important things, like lobbying to shut down virtual high schools that are taught my fellow union member teachers...........for fear that kids could get a good education without having to attend the school.........

[ziggy29]

Originally Posted by haha

How about reading, writing, and arithmetic?

That would work.

The real problem is that the default assumption is always that poor student performance means we aren't spending enough. Virtually every year the U.S. sets a record in inflation-adjusted education spending per student. The educrat lobby has us convinced that voting to tax ourselves more is "investing in our children" or some such, despite the fact that we've seen again and again that more money isn't helping.

At some point it would be nice to push back and say you don't get more money unless you can demonstrate that more money means better performance.

[ERD50]

Originally Posted by lazygood4nothinbum

interesting to see which society places more value on which career.

...

edit: in canada a wood grinder makes more than either a teacher, a nurse, a computer programer or a car mechanic. i have no idea what to make of that.

I don't think salaries are any indication of what 'value' society places on a job. It simply reflects the free market (with some exceptions where things interfere with that free market). If a wood grinder makes more than a nurse, it must be because companies need to pay more to attract wood grinders (unless there is some strong WG Union or something, I don't know).

I can't imagine how we would set salaries based on 'value'. Who is going to decide whether a fireman is more 'valuable' than a nurse? Does the fireman get a vote in that? I'd rather leave it to the free market.

-ERD50