U.S.News & World Report gives us a list of the most overpaid jobs -which aren't necessarily jobs that pay the most. It's a subjective list in which a person is well-paid for work that's not all that difficult, involves little stress, and provides little benefit in the end. Even some of the people in these occupations agree. Here's a sampling:
Consulting software engineer (median mid-career salary: $123,000). These high-end programmers design and maintain sophisticated computer networks for big companies and other large organizations. But the work can be dry and many such engineers question the value of what they do. Other types of programmers and software engineers rank high on the overpaid list as well.
Brand strategist ($90,700). These advertising or marketing specialists work to improve the image and reputation of companies and their offerings--whether deserved or not. Brand strategists rate the importance of their own work poorly compared with other professionals.
Patent attorney ($170,000). We tend to think of patents as the breakthrough insights of revolutionary inventors, but they're increasingly a form of warfare among corporations seeking to prevent each other from gaining a technology edge. The lawyers who fight those battles are among the highest-paid professionals PayScale surveys.
Read the rest of the list, which is ranked in no particular order. Link -via BroBible
meh
Last time I checked, consulting software engineers, design, and make SOFTWARE because they're PROGRAMMERS. They develop custom programs for clients based on the clients' needs. They DO NOT "maintain sophisticated computer networks" because then they would be called NETWORK engineers.
It's sort of like saying an actor reads scripts, and then makes movies by operating the camera.
No, the whole world is not populated with IT nerds, but this is another example of how professional journalism is becoming a thing of the past.
Baseball, football and basketball players aren't overpaid. The work in an extremely competitive field organized around companies that value the financial return of their services so highly that they're willing to fork over sums of money sufficiently high to secure those services. If a team could replace a $5 million player with a $100,000 player, it would. It doesn't because another team is willing to pay that player $5 million for his services.
Occasionally I hear librarians say that our profession is underpaid considering the skills that we have to offer. I respond, "Then go into the private sector and offer your skills to the highest bidder. See what kind of price you can command." They don't.