In a world where money often talks louder than social impact, it’s important to take a step back and examine the professions that are most overpaid. While some of these professions may be necessary, they may not be as valuable to society as we think. Here are the top 10 most overpaid professions that raise questions about their actual contributions to society.
Luxury Real Estate Agent
Balancing the core responsibilities of identifying attractive high-end homes, administrative duties, and negotiating on behalf of their wealthy client is a challenging task. Regardless of the outlined, luxury real estate agent is quite one-dimensional that doesn’t go beyond helping the rich get the better deal irrespective of the happenings in the society. Averagely, luxury real estate agent makes $92,000 per annum to satisfy the demand of a small section of the society. The shallow approach of this profession places it among the most overpaid profession that offers little or no value to society’s advancement.
Marketing Manager
Marketing managers cover a wide variety of activities, such as designing, managing, and evaluating marketing campaigns in print and digital media to generate demand and drive profits for businesses. This lucrative profession mainly promotes products and services already created by others with little concern for consumer interest. Marketing managers are estimated to earn an annual salary of $135,000 for a role that is not significant for any innovation and societal progress.
Trading Advisor
A trading advisor focuses on generating more profits for businesses and individuals portfolios, without regards for how it’s carried out. Trading advisors utilize technical and fundamental analysis to determine market conditions and their overall decision-making process. Experts in this field earn $59,520 per year to do the bidding for wealthy people in their hunt for a more juicy approach and strategy to make more money for themselves with no regard for the status of society and its advancement. This profession have no innovations or technological breakthroughs and they still make more money than many other highly essential professions.
Social Media Influencer
Social media influencers are categorized by their reach, engagement level and influence on others through their knowledge and authenticity. This low-skilled profession does not require any high-level engineering or revolutionary scientific discovery. Thus, social media influencers are great for spreading discoveries that are geared towards society’s advancement. However, most of them are more inclined towards showoffs and lifestyle content with zero importance to society’s advancement. Experts in this field earn between $57,000 to $80,000 annually, depending on their number of followers and connections.
Office Administrator
These professionals oversee the smooth running of operations across the organization, including administrative project management, welcoming visitors, coordinating meetings, document fillings, and others. All these activities are mere administrative tasks that are less important to the well being and creative need of the society advancement compared to healthcare and technological professions. Yet, a professional office administrator earns an estimated pay of $43,000 per year to contribute little to societal progress and development.
Pharmaceutical Sales Rep
Pharmaceutical sales rep professionals are the bridge that connects healthcare providers to the latest pharmaceutical products. This is another profession that requires more of your compassion and communication skills, among other soft skills, to pitch and sell their employer products to healthcare professionals for use. There are some opinion that regards pharmaceutical sales reps as one of the core components of society’s development and advancement due to their role in providing doctors and other healthcare professionals with the latest information about new treatments and drugs, but this assertion is not enough basis to justify the societal importance of a mere information sharing profession that gives $180,270 annual salary to link pharmaceutical companies with healthcare professionals.
Politicians
Have you ever witnessed individuals who contribute very little to society yet earn exorbitant amounts? Many believe that politicians are the drivers of societal progress and transformation as they draft new laws and policies, govern the nation, and influence bureaucratic processes. However, beneath these responsibilities lie the pitfalls of greed and corrupt practices that overshadow their contributions and significance in advancing society. In the United States, members of Congress earn an annual salary of $174,000 for serving in the House of Representatives or the Senate, while medical professionals, who save lives and maintain the well-being of society, earn an average of $208,000 per year.
School Superintendent
Superintendents are just figureheads who supervise public school principals, hire and manage office staff, maximize and enhance student achievement, liaise and communicate important information with all stakeholders, and oversee all other district capacity-building activities. In a study conducted in 2018 by the national school board, the average salary of a school superintendent was $167,500, which is not in any way tied to student achievement or based on the efficiency of their job compared to a $61,700 annual salary for teachers and principals that do the actual work in schools and society at large.
Lobbyist
Lobbyists are professional advocates whose primary role is influencing government decisions in favor of individuals and specific organizations. This is a broad profession that goes deeply into understanding client needs, communicating their client stands and their overall objectives with no regard for the societal stand or how it benefits society. Lobbyists are well-compensated professionals with a median salary of $150,000 per annum to frame issues in favor of who pays them.
Hedge Fund Managers
This highly lucrative profession oversees the management of their client portfolio, including the development of fund investment strategies through analytical and financial knowledge. Hedge fund managers track investors’ liquidity and make investment decisions in real estate stocks and bonds. The professionals in this field make between $70,000-$261,000 per annum to carry out these processes that align with the goal of their clients by capitalizing on societal inefficiency to extract money from the market with their high-level financial and trading strategies.