3 ms·

Lawyers earn a median amount of $120,000 a year - https://www.bls.gov/ooh/legal/lawyers.htm#tab-5 https://www.bls.gov/ooh/legal/lawyers.htm#tab-5 Chefs and hea

by willbw 8y ago

Lawyers earn a median amount of $120,000 a year - https://www.bls.gov/ooh/legal/lawyers.htm#tab-5 https://www.bls.gov/ooh/legal/lawyers.htm#tab-5 Chefs and head cooks earn a median amount of around $50,000 a year https://www.bls.gov/ooh/food-preparation-and-serving/chefs-and-head-cooks.htm#tab-5 https://www.bls.gov/ooh/food-preparation-and-serving/chefs-a... So I'm not so sure about your point.

ztjio 8y ago
The point is that there is a pretty big disparity between the big paying law jobs and the normal jobs on a frequency basis, the median earning value doesn't demonstrate this reality. I did the research on this when I thought I wanted to go into law myself.
- ves 8y ago
  Wait that’s why you use the median
  - weinzierl 8y ago
    Lawyer salaries follow a bimodal distribution[1], that's why the median isn't very helpful. Besides showing the distribution (what the article does) the more interesting figures would be the two modes. What might be relevant for the discussion here is that lawyer salaries have been unimodal 25 years ago but have changed over the course of time. It has been argued here on HN [2][3] and elsewhere [4] that developer salaries are bound to suffer the same fate. [1] https://www.biglawinvestor.com/bimodal-salary-distribution-curve/ https://www.biglawinvestor.com/bimodal-salary-distribution-c... [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16337434 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16337434 [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12588202 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12588202 [4] https://danluu.com/bimodal-compensation/ https://danluu.com/bimodal-compensation/
thaumasiotes 8y ago
There are plenty of lawyers who are basically scraping by. Advocacy lawyers (e.g. someone working for the ACLU) generally don't make that much, as far as I'm aware. They take their pay in policy victories. (Or, I guess, in the satisfaction of struggling.) But that's less than 50% of lawyers, and it's voluntary.
debaserab2 8y ago
Lawyers also rarely graduate with anything less than six figure debts and many are forced to live within the lifestyle/means of someone with half their salary for a decade plus because of it.

by willbw 8y ago

ztjio 8y ago

The point is that there is a pretty big disparity between the big paying law jobs and the normal jobs on a frequency basis, the median earning value doesn't demonstrate this reality. I did the research on this when I thought I wanted to go into law myself.

ves 8y ago
Wait that’s why you use the median
- weinzierl 8y ago
  Lawyer salaries follow a bimodal distribution[1], that's why the median isn't very helpful. Besides showing the distribution (what the article does) the more interesting figures would be the two modes. What might be relevant for the discussion here is that lawyer salaries have been unimodal 25 years ago but have changed over the course of time. It has been argued here on HN [2][3] and elsewhere [4] that developer salaries are bound to suffer the same fate. [1] https://www.biglawinvestor.com/bimodal-salary-distribution-curve/ https://www.biglawinvestor.com/bimodal-salary-distribution-c... [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16337434 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16337434 [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12588202 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12588202 [4] https://danluu.com/bimodal-compensation/ https://danluu.com/bimodal-compensation/

thaumasiotes 8y ago

There are plenty of lawyers who are basically scraping by. Advocacy lawyers (e.g. someone working for the ACLU) generally don't make that much, as far as I'm aware. They take their pay in policy victories. (Or, I guess, in the satisfaction of struggling.) But that's less than 50% of lawyers, and it's voluntary.

debaserab2 8y ago

Lawyers also rarely graduate with anything less than six figure debts and many are forced to live within the lifestyle/means of someone with half their salary for a decade plus because of it.