Fascinating and highly informative:
U.S. college grads feel their grip on middle
class loosening, student loan strains rising
“Gimbel found that
the most unequal incomes now exist among financial services sales agents, medical
doctors and real estate agents. Education, race, gender and age were relatively
minor factors in the worsening wage equality within occupations. Among the more
influential factors were the likelihood that workers are paid with bonuses, a
concentration of high pay among superstar performers and unequal profits among
employers. A computer programmer at Apple, for example, would be paid
substantially more than a programmer for a much smaller or less profitable
employer.
The top 10 percent
of America’s lawyers earned more than $208,000 last year, which makes the
profession look extremely lucrative. But the bottom 10 percent earned less than
$58,200, an income that could make it difficult to repay law school debt
“People might seek
to become a lawyer, doctor or financial adviser because they see big salaries,”
Gimbel said. “But there is a lot of range in what those workers make. They need
to remember that they could be one of the unsuccessful lawyers or real estate
brokers.””
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For people without a college degree, finding work that offers decent pay can be a challenge. The solution may require a change in scenery.
“There may be good reasons for hospitals in Raleigh to require registered nurses to have a bachelor’s degree. The positions might involve more complex care requiring a higher level of skill. But the large disparity in educational requirements suggests that many employers are demanding more education than needed just because they can be more selective when they have a larger pool of workers to choose from.”