LinkedIn recently examined data from 2 million of its members and compiled a report on how salaries vary by job, education level and field of study, location, company size, and industry.
Where's the money? The 2017 U.S. State of Salary Report found that the highest paying job title in the United States is orthopedic surgeon, with an average salary of $450,000. The highest paying field of study? Computer science, with an average salary of $92,300. The highest paying region to work is the San Francisco Bay area, at $112,400 — a good thing, since it's also the most expensive place to rent an apartment in the country.
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Perhaps unsurprisingly, medicine pays the most and doctors account for eight of the top 20 jobs on the list. "Leadership roles in finance, sales, tax, human resources, strategy, supply chain, research and development, marketing, and legal are all alternate routes to a high salary," notes the report. The annual bonuses for the top 20 can range from $20,000 to $100,000.
If you're just starting out, the highest paying mid- and entry-level jobs are in finance, sales, marketing, and engineering. Investment banking analysts top this list, making an average of $105,000 a year, with a bonus of $40,000.
The report notes that while generally there's a positive correlation between education and salary — high school graduates earn an average of $52,000 a year, while those with medical degrees make $161,000 — there's a "wide payoff range" for graduate school; 3 to 13%. MDs make more than JDs and MBAs, while those with MAs and PhDs make more than BAs but under $100,000 on average. (Yep, liberal arts degrees don't always pay off — shocker, we know.)
Unfortunately, men are still overrepresented in the most lucrative industries, like tech, where twice as many men work as women. Manufacturing is the third highest paid industry and employs over three times as many men as women.
"Healthcare is the only top-five paying industry with a greater proportion of females," notes the report. "Consumer goods, legal, media, retail, real estate, and education have a higher female ratio, too, but the imbalances are less compared to those in the male-dominated industries."