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Does the average plumber make as much as the average doctor? Some quick googling gives the average plumber salary as about 40K. [1] The same site will give you

by hristov 14y ago

Does the average plumber make as much as the average doctor? Some quick googling gives the average plumber salary as about 40K. [1] The same site will give you a bunch of doctor's salaries by specialty the lowest one of which seems to be about 170K for a general practitioner. [1] http://www1.salary.com/Plumber-I-Salary.html http://www1.salary.com/Plumber-I-Salary.html

barrkel 14y ago
Most plumbers I've come into contact with were self-employed. They don't meet the description under "Plumber I" at all. Assuming 50K GBP in 2002[1] (I live in London), that's about 100K USD today. There's no doubt that there's bigger upside in becoming a doctor, and the median doctor almost certainly earns more than the median plumber. But there's also a lot of downside; most doctors I know are stressed and overworked. [1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2002/nov/03/wageslaves.careers http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2002/nov/03/wageslaves.caree...
jandrewrogers 14y ago
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics collects this data regularly. They are pretty interesting in that they expose many surprising things about relative wages. Annual mean wages (from http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm) - Plumbers: $51,830 - General Practitioner: $177,330 - Chief Executives: $176,550 (added for entertainment value) Medical specialists can make even more.
rodglez 14y ago
He was probably talking about lifetime earnings and not yearly income. If you factor in the 11-19 years of additional training and lost income that doctors go through and make a plumber work the same amount of hours as a doctor, then I bet their lifetime earnings will be close. Heres a post comparing doctors to UPS drivers, which shows what i'm talking about http://www.er-doctor.com/doctor_income.html http://www.er-doctor.com/doctor_income.html

by hristov 14y ago

barrkel 14y ago

Most plumbers I've come into contact with were self-employed. They don't meet the description under "Plumber I" at all. Assuming 50K GBP in 2002[1] (I live in London), that's about 100K USD today. There's no doubt that there's bigger upside in becoming a doctor, and the median doctor almost certainly earns more than the median plumber. But there's also a lot of downside; most doctors I know are stressed and overworked. [1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2002/nov/03/wageslaves.careers http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2002/nov/03/wageslaves.caree...

jandrewrogers 14y ago

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics collects this data regularly. They are pretty interesting in that they expose many surprising things about relative wages. Annual mean wages (from http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm) - Plumbers: $51,830 - General Practitioner: $177,330 - Chief Executives: $176,550 (added for entertainment value) Medical specialists can make even more.

rodglez 14y ago

He was probably talking about lifetime earnings and not yearly income. If you factor in the 11-19 years of additional training and lost income that doctors go through and make a plumber work the same amount of hours as a doctor, then I bet their lifetime earnings will be close. Heres a post comparing doctors to UPS drivers, which shows what i'm talking about http://www.er-doctor.com/doctor_income.html http://www.er-doctor.com/doctor_income.html