The head of school at the nearby private K-12 makes over $300k.
^^^ Forgot about our public HS superintendent who also makes around $300K base
“Very few people make $300K+ as a basic salary. A lot more make this as total all-in income with stock options, bonuses, commissions, incentives etc”
This is certainly consistent with my experience. I am not sure if I have ever known anyone who had a base salary this high (other than perhaps a few CEOs of reasonably large companies, and probably not even them). Some but not all of the specialty doctors that I have seen from time to time as a patient probably make this much. Many, many years ago I dated a doctor who made quite a bit less than this. According to Google the normal salary range for her specialty is still quite a bit less than $300,000.
I know lots of people who have made this much or more occasionally due to cashing in stock options. Usually this involved going to a startup, guessing correctly which startup to go to, and working very long hours for a few years, and being both very good and very lucky.
I started a small Internet company and have known many Internet entrepreneurs who make $300k+ each year. However, it’s not a base salary. It’s often not stock options. Instead it’s more that when you are not limited by a fixed salary, income can be far larger than whatever the going salary rate is for your field. For example, affiliate payments for a small website in my industry might start out near $1k/month, then later increase to $10k/month after becoming more popular, or even $100k/month for the most popular websites. Depending on the type of website, expenses can be quite low. When I started out, my only expense was $8/month in hosting fees.
When you differentiate between base salary and total pay, the highest base salary will tend to be more common amongst those people with less equity and bonus-based upside. Hence (very top) public employees like school district superintendents or college presidents. In the private sector, attorneys, management consultants, airline captains, etc. where year to year outcomes are less variable and there’s not much equity upside to be had (though what you deem to be “base salary” for a law firm partner is an interesting question). Of course those people are also less likely to make millions of dollars from an IPO or selling their company.
@Data10 - I am talking about people who actually DO things. Like developing a drug to cure cancer or a test to diagnose a disease.
You have to look at total compensation. Even vice chairs at my company who make 10mm plus a year have 750k base. My group with the average managing director earns 800k to 1.5mm - year in and year out will have a base of 180 to 250. Quarterly distributions based on revenue that’s too complex to discuss here and annual discretionary bonus. And then restricted stock awards or stock unit plans. Not counting retirement match and benefits.
Having seen countless balance sheets. The higher the base for a non c suite executive, the lower the total compensation. I’ve seen many more professors and doctors make the 250 to 350k salaries than much higher average annual compensation careers. But that’s all-in unless they have side consultancies or write books.
The privately held business owner also makes very high total compensation. This is generally excellent base but lower than expected followed by year- end distributions or special dividends from retained earnings. But it’s also about covered expenses for this group. Health care cars insurance clubs travel. Expenses back to company. Also paying family members.
If you want to make a lot of money. You don’t want to start the risk of starting a business or the skills to be a plastic surgeon. Create revenue for some company. Be a rainmaker in law. Be the top institutional rep at sales force or intuit. Become a wealth manager at Merrill ubs or Goldman. Revenue is king. “No margin, no mission”
Yes ib and mbb consultants can make a lot of money. None like private equity FYI.
@BunsenBurner, @Data10 was talking about entrepreneurs that do things. Websites don’t write themselves (yet).
Oh yes, biotech is not worth investing in it. All the world needs is another website or app.
Just wait until - god forbid - you get diagnosed with cancer…
Anyhoo… back to our little discussion.
I’m shocked at how many people here know the salary of that many of their friends and family?? I have no real idea how much my friends make. I mean, I have an idea, but I also don’t. They could be living on credit with a hefty mortgage, or sitting pretty with their house paid off. I truly don’t know. How do so many of you know the income of all these friends. We have a pretty high income, large savings, affluent friends, but we don’t discuss this in any way shape or form.
I thought my post was clear. The quote I listed in my post and was replying to said “Internet entrepreneurs”. BunsenBuner appeared to be replying to that post as well. I also believe that many people who develop websites “actually DO things” and provide a service valued by many that can be potentially as world changing as a test to diagnose a disease, even if they are not selling/creating a physical product.
No, not really. What is the value in lol cat photos? Can it really be 10x more valuable than a drug that cures 10% of previously incurable cancers or a concert hall sound quality speaker that allows you to ditch wires (not talking about crap Alexa)?
Coding =/= DOing things. Without restaurant owners, there would be no Grubhub. Without drivers and their Priuses (hello, Toyota!), there would be no Lyft. Credit needs to be given to those who earned it. I have no issues with a plumber or a lawyer or a biotech scientist or an engineer making $300k. With this, I bow out of this discussion.
There are many websites besides those that offer lol cat photos. In terms of financial value, there are websites that are worth billions, more valuable than wireless speakers. In terms of influence on the world, there are also websites like Amazon, Google, eBay, Facebook and numerous others, that have been more world changing than wireless speakers.
Today websites connect people throughout the world in ways that would not have been possible a generation ago. Many people meet their spouse, communicate with family, obtain their jobs, etc. Websites have created a world of unlimited and often important information that is easily accessible. People learn about the wireless speakers you mentioned online, figure out which one to buy, and generally buy them online. People can learn about colleges on sites like this one, apply to colleges online, take classes online, etc. Or learn about almost any other topic, which can be an invaluable reference for many types of work or aspects of life. I’d be surprised if anyone on this site has not had their world drastically changed by websites.
This is not the right question. It’s rarely a straight line from college major to career. And it’s not necessary for a major and career to match. It’s the rare philosophy major who is gunning to be a philosopher. But many philosophy majors go into investment banking or private equity or journalism or e-commerce or management consulting.
As for high-paying jobs/careers … many careers reach the potential for $300k, either as base or total comp. To reach that number early career or early-mid career, a few options are:
data scientist
cyber-security
artificial intelligence
any kind of sales, especially pharmaceutical sales. I know someone in furniture sales who made more than this.
MBA from a T10 school then take any job through campus recruiting
JD from a T15 school, then take a job in biglaw
medical specialty that does procedures (dermatology, gastroenterology, ENT, general surgery, cardiac surgery, obgyn, interventional radiology, ophthalmology, orthopedic surgery, et al.)
A psychiatrist in Manhattan probably makes about $300k. A child psychiatrist in any U.S. metro area probably makes about that because they are in such short supply.
But plenty of fields can reach that level of compensation at mid-career or late-mid career:
In a Fortune 500 company – VP/SVP of HR, marketing, communications, facilities/security, corporate finance, IT
In a knowledge supplier or creative company like public relations, advertising, or market research you can reach that and more at the highest levels.
A top hospital administrator
General counsel at a large corporation
A top editor at a national newspaper (New York Times, WSJ, WaPo)
Television network executive
As you can see, there’s no short answer.
Oh right. Majors.
It’s not really about that.* It’s really some combination of drive, working long hours, being a team player, people skills, being able to see several steps ahead (strategic thinking), focus, constant learning and improvement, decency and humility, character and courage; doing the right thing even if it is the hard thing, deep industry knowledge, risk taking and risk management. Also the asterisk:
- The two things related to book-learning I would say are
- As I mentioned before, pretty much the only folks I see who make good money but don’t work long hours or are risk-taking entrepreneurs (who put in a lot of hours/blood/sweat/tears to build their business) or have risen/fought/lucked their way high up the corporate ranks are those with very strong quantitative/technical skills. Many with a PhD.
- Being able to communicate powerfully and persuasively is a good tool too. So much of the business world is sales.
One of our former neighbors makes > $300k/yr and his salary is public record because he’s a top exec in a publicly traded local company. It is in our local paper from time to time as well. He’s a very nice guy—Harvard MBA. He does work very long hours and had a slow and difficult climb to get where he is.
Except when salaries are printed in the local paper, I don’t know what friends and relatives make and I don’t think they know what our annual household income is either. Heck, I don’t know what our S has as an annual household income either!
I see a lot of salaries because I have to review my staff’s salaries and to discuss with HR about what’s market rate.
D1 does market research (by calling her friends in the similar business and speaking with head hunters) before her firm’s bonus period so she could tell her boss of her expectations.
I do not think higher education (PhD) gets you higher pay. Many people with PhD go into research and research does not usually pay. I do not like to hire PhDs because I think they are too theoretical/academic for my business. I prefer people with practical experiences.
Most employers do not hand out 300k+ jobs like candies. You either have to have very specific skill set, able to take risk or able to bring in revenue. You would usually need to work very long hours and put your job first - not something many people are willing to do. People who make that kind of money also have higher chance of getting fired than others - higher risk/high return. My friend’s son (28) was just fired from such job. He was told last summer by his employer how valuable he was, got a big raise and bonus. D1’s boss was also let go early this year after 15 years at the bank. He is having a hard time finding a job at his level/pay. I tell D1 to do it while it is good, but always be prepared she may be next.
Just curious. Why do you want to know this? Are you hoping for a lucrative college major/job for your kid…or what?
I don’t spend much time counting other people’s money.
Full article behind paywall, but WSJ analyzed median pharma company salaries–Celgene’s is the highest at $263K. That’s the median across all employees…around 7,500-8,000 total. Clearly lots of Celgene employees making >$300K base salary.
https://www.biospace.com/article/biotech-companies-provide-high-median-salaries-analysis-shows/