Salaries Of The Five Most Traditional Professions

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The following traditional professions are so integral to our society we can hardly imagine them ceasing to exist. Each serves an integral role, and demands a great deal from those that pursue them. In other regards, they are high dissimilar. They all have widely varying salaries, work environments and amounts of respect and prestige associated with them.

Salaries Of The Five Most Traditional Professions

1. Doctor

The profession of doctor has always been one that carries a certain level of respect. The profession is one that is difficult and expensive to obtain but usually comes with one of the highest payoffs of any of the five traditional professions discussed.

A doctor’s salary can vary widely depending on his place of employment and his specialty within medicine. The median annual salary for those considered “physicians and surgeons” in 2010 was $166,400 a year, or approximately $80 per hour.

2. Lawyer

The lawyer profession is one built heavily around prestige. The type of law an attorney specializes in can have a great effect on their potential income due to the types of clients and cases it attracts. Generally, those in corporate or personal injury law earn the most, but the salary is healthy regardless of law type. The legal system is constructed in such a way that an attorney is required for most legal matters, regardless of their scope.

The median pay for lawyers in 2010 was $112,760, or about $55 per hour. A lawyer may be hired by a large firm, or they may pursue private practice. Experience as a lawyer also opens up other legal professions, such as judge, that may come with higher salaries.

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