Flight attendants didn't make the list?! Surprising!!! I'm making less now than I did 10 years ago!

The world needs ditch diggers too

The world needs ditch diggers too.

That was his money.

Puke covered as it may be...

What about part time retail slaves?

Im surprised Grocery Store Bagger isnt on the list

@SaveMeJeebus: Check the chart: [photos1.blogger.com]

I think it's fascinating that most of those jobs revolve around what you would consider the second most holy of professions (that would be looking after children) -- food prep and serving.

We'll pay $100 an hour to a doctor (or more) to look at our throat when it hurts, but give the guy sneezing and bleeding in our salad only $5 an hour. Makes sense.

I'm only 23 and, no joke, I have already held two of the jobs on this list: Early Childhood Teacher's Assistants and food prep [wasn't my primary duty but was a part of my tasks].

Although I definitely consider the fun of being an Early Childhood Teacher's Assistant to outweigh the low pay [esp. since I was volunteering.]

@Gorky: Supermarket employees are unionized in many places and can make a decent living.

The averages may be misleading as well: many retail slaves make low wages, but some don't, and this categorization may not distinguish them ("retail salesperson" could include car salespeople as well as clerks at the Gap). In that case, the average would be a well-nigh meaningless number.

@SaveMeJeebus:
I work part-time as a retail slave...err bagger. Or as Safeway calls them, "Courtesy Clerks". I started at $7.15 when a year ago when I was 14. Not bad pay for my age... Im suprised how low they pay these people!

...and this is why i'm going to college, Hooray

No retail employees? Convenience store clerk? The guy who bags your groceries? The guy who prices and stocks your local Walmart's merchandise? The young woman at your local Target that helps you find school supplies for your children? The man at Staples who found you the perfect printer for your home office?

Teachers aids, and early childhood teacher's assistants are jobs that function as internships and are essentially mandatory for those entering the education field.

Bartenders and waitresses can make a very livable wage depending on how well they perform their jobs, what country/state/city they live in, and of course the actual business itself. (high end restaurant versus Denny's)

I can imagine a large amount of the non management/supervisor positions with the title "Amusement and Recreation Facility Attendants" are summer jobs performed by college students while not in classes.

I completely agree with food preparation but the absence of retail and sales peoples is insulting.

@Gorky:
Actually, I've been working at Safeway in Arizona for a year since I was 14 and I started at $7.15 an hour. I think it largely depends where you live. Arizona's minimum wage is higher than alot of those, its $6.90

Heck, the IN-N-OUT burger down the street HIRES at $9.50. Age 16 and above.

The whole concept of this study is sorta baffling. I mean, a great many jobs are minimum wage or nearly so, aren't they? It's strange to say that some minimum-wage jobs are more minimum than others.

@nursetim: Ditch diggers are notably absent from this list.

rad! finally something i know about. i know they used BLS data, but this list seems a little strange. i am in local economic development and we use this data to track the occupations we want to invest in and try to attract to our region to provide high paying, lasting jobs for local residents.

if youre curious about your locality's average wages you can find all of the data here:
[www.bls.gov]

it's organized by state and then by MSA or metro district. have fun, data nerds.

@barfoo:

Back when I was in high school, I worked for Kroger as a bagger (or 'utility clerk', they liked to call us). We were unionized (joining the union was mandatory for employment, in fact), as you said, but we made *terrible* pay and almost no benefits. The union was corrupt and cow-towed to the corporation. Our pay was awful and the union contract locked it, making raises impossible, even for merit. I was told by a woman who had worked there longer than anyone else that the last time the workes voted to strike, the union said no and wouldn't let them. I hated that job.

Fortunately, I have a good-paying union job with great benefits where the union isn't corrupt, and all the top men in the union (who are voted on each year by the workers) work side-by-side with us in the company.

That Kroger job almost ruined me on unions, though. I'm sure those corrupt jerks were pocketing our union dues and laughing their way to the bank.

oh, btw, the most recent data is may 2006 - but this is normal, the government is notoriously slow in putting out this data.

Food Preparation Kitchen Worker - Check
Teacher's Aide - Check
Amusement and Recreation Facility Attendant - Double Check (one on both counts).

I also worked retail. I worked up the food chain while in high school and college and am now sitting comfortably in a cube for 40 hours a week.

@ChuckECheese: Yeah, I'm guessing that some jobs didn't make the list because the averages were skewed by having a few employees that make a lote more. This is possibly why retail didn't cut it: if commission, high-end retail, etc. resulted in a minority of workers in that field making a significant sum more and affecting the average.

for everyone wondering about retail - BayStateDarren: is absolutely right. this is based on the mean, which for the nation is over $11.51/hr for retail sales persons. while those folks running the ferris wheel show a mean wage of only $8.43. the median wage for retail is only $9.50/hr (the ride operators' median is only $7.83!!)... but most look to the mean - which is why it's not included on this list.

I am a retail slave and I can say I should definitely be on that list. Most definitely.

No offense, but that list is CRAP! I know waitresses and bartenders that clear well above fourty grand a year. By the way WTF IS A WAITRESS ASSISTANT????? DOES THE WAITRESS NEED A SECRETARY???? Do people actually sink this low and say, "I'm gonna be some single mom's bitch!"

@nursetim: Iromically, I would make an educated guess that ditchdiggers probably make 15-20 bucks an hour, maybe more They probably work for the state DPW, and are probably Unionized. I recently saw an ad for a tolltaker in boston, and that position made 62,000 a year!!! It's all relative.

Yep, retail has a select few who make insane amounts of money for their job descriptions. Plus, retail is a pretty broad topic. Toss a few higher-end people working for commission, like car salesmen, and the mean salary shoots up.

There are also different standards for different geographic areas. I live in Northern Virginia and anyone making much under $100k annually is in the poor house. I am not exaggerating. People here tend to make more money in every profession. (Not that us retail employees make enough to live on even with the inflated wages, but that's for another blog.)

@badgeman46: I recently saw an ad for a tolltaker in boston, and that position made 62,000 a year!!!
Tolltaker is seriously considered one of the most lucrative jobs in the Commonwealth. You need to save a Kennedy's life or be otherwise exceptionally connected to land the position. Don't ask me to explain why this is.

@yesteryear: You know, I wondered if these were BLS numbers. That data is teh sux. A couple years ago, they started reporting that social workers average about $40K/year. On what planet? I think they pulled that one out by separating clinical social workers (shrinks) from all the rest, which they lumped into the newly created category of "social service assistants ('we take your babies')." You should just do what El Paso has done and open a bunch of bilingual call centers--that way you get business from both sides of the border.

@badgeman46: a "waitress assistant" is more likely what is generally known as a "server assistant" or "S.A.". You know, the people who aren't your server who bring you water and clear plates throughout many restaurants?

@homeskillet81: Hate to break it to you, but in some states, you have to have at LEAST a associates degree to hold two of those jobs (IE Early Childhood and Teachers Aides)

The difference between a aide and a teacher is as little as a piece of paper saying they passed a test in some states. Many teachers begin their careers as aides. Heck one of my IT staff members began their career as a aide before a position in my department opened up.

@badgeman46:

That would be the busboy/busser.

Nursetim - I am a glorified ditch digger (utilities/underground construction), and thanks to my union I make a living wage with benefits.

Has anyone bothered to point out yet that bartenders, waiters & waitresses can sometimes clear six figures if they work at the right place ? Yes, I know that's the rule but I really don't think those jobs belong on the list. Most people in those positions, if they aren't making decent tip income, quit and move onto something else.

for Canadian wages this site should help
[www.labourmarketinformation.ca]

or

[srv116.services.gc.ca]

Most jobs on the list rely on tips for the lions-share of income. The real winner should be "Illegal Immigrant". Those guys don't make any more than a waiter.

@ChuckECheese: interesting about el paso. that tactic wouldn't work too well here. i'm in the bay area, which is one of the highest wage areas in the country (highest housing costs too, before anyone gets too envious) so we try to attract higher wage jobs than those found in call centers. a major concern is also retaining jobs that pay well but don't require multiple degrees - you know, what we used to know as blue collar jobs before they all started disappearing.

in terms of the phantoms running the tollbooths, those are great jobs if you can get one! government is usually the largest sector in a metro area because it not only includes all of the city, county, state and federal employees, it includes the public schools as well... but as someone mentioned, it's often hard to get in.

@yesteryear:
Not too mention it is California, a state that prides itself on having way too much government. :)

I know that a local community college down here in Cupertino pays early childhood teacher's aides $10.00/hr as a starting wage, but they couldn't be full-time. As many have suggested it is rather difficult to get a full-time job as a aide since generally in most programs aides are expected to be continuing their education.

The "full-time" teachers earned up to $110K/year due union oddities and longevity. Most made $50-$80K, that said community colleges generally have very generous pay for early childhood education. Some programs in San Jose proper pay less than $30K/yr for a 12 month contract (<$15/hr) while requiring a bachelors degree.

Let's all be thankful we live in a country that has plenty of work available compared to many other countries. Frankly, I'm more concerned with all the people out there who don't work and still want to collect aid from the government without a legit excuse (ie. disability). However, even disability is a nebulous term that gets abused much too often.

Try setting up a google alert for your favorite job and sit back and watch opportunities for new positions to come to your inbox daily. If your job pays too little, get out and do something about it by tapping into the abundance of employers out there seeking employees.

So... what they really found was that no one reports their tips to the government?

It's absolutely disgusting the way people portray wait staff as slaves by not including the massive amount of money they make in tips. It's just to guilt us into giving some arbitrarily high percentage for every meal, merit be damned.

Yeah, where in god's name are the retail workers on this list? Food prep at McDonald's and Burger King and Wendy's and all those other fast food joints make more than the average retail worker! Let's think for a second:

My first job I worked at McDonald's and would get a raise two months after working there, followed by another raise 6 months later. They started me well above minimum wage, and if it weren't for the racist idiots who I worked for I wouldn't have quit.

My current job is at Dollar Tree which, of course, is a retail business. They offered to pay me more than McDonald's, but at the same time I get smaller raises and they are more spaced out in time. Ie I just got my first raise after working there a year and a month or two. Now the sad part is, when Federal Minimum Wage increased, I didn't get a raise. So now idiots who work for me (I say me because it feels that way when I worked with some people) end up making more than me. I can't complain either because the store is in a poor neighborhood so upon quitting they'd get another employee instantly.

And they say retail isn't one of the lowest paying jobs?

We "waiters and waitresses" in TN only make 2.13 as an hourly wage before tip income, and when we get people who stiff us or leave us shitty tips like Young Buck does, it makes our income even lower. Lorddave, not many waitstaff make a "massive amount of money" from their tips. Many of us make just enough to survive. The ones that do make the massive money are in high end restaurants, not in the normal everyday ones that the common folk regularly dine at.

RagingServer.com

I have never had a bartending job that paid that much hourly excluding tips.

You CAN make good money bartending but the chances of finding a place that will pay more than 3-4 bucks hourly and is constantly busy is slim to none.

Thank god I quit and finally work for a lawyer.

don't investment bankers make next to nothing based on their ridiculous hours?

@lorddave: You dont actually thing they all make "massive amounts" do you? The few odd waiters aside most make barely 20k a year if that WITH tips.

@nursetim: and don't forget "The world needs plenty of bartenders"

There are frequently retail and food service jobs advertised at $6.50 an hour here in SD. The same wage I was paid at my summer job in 1984.