Please excuse my crudeness but my ire is a bit up right now. A reader posted a link on a comment about yesterday's post which has ticked me off. She already had her say, but I felt the need to put in my two cents' worth. Hey, it's my blog. Deal with it.
Over on Salary.com there is an article about the "8 Most Overpaid & Underpaid Jobs". And what a bunch of hogwash! The author introduces the topic as follows:
In this article I’ll compare eight overpaid jobs with eight underpaid jobs. My methodology? None. I realize that some jobs require a certain level of training and education, while others are merely the victims of supply and demand. While I feel that all the jobs on this list have merit, they simply represent -- in my humble opinion -- jobs that are paid more or less than they are worth given day-to-day responsibilities and duties. (Emphasis mine)
So this article on a supposedly respectable site is making an analysis based only on opinion without a shred of facts? And that's supposed to be GOOD writing? Here's what she says about veterinarians:
Becoming a veterinarian takes years of education and training, and ensuring the health of man’s best friend is a noble profession. Believe me, no one was more willing than I to fork over $450 when my dog, Sunny, ate 3 lbs of coffee grounds and had to be hospitalized. Yet veterinarians, for the most part, work in clean, well-lit environments with domesticated animals. While they may be on call for emergencies, their hours are relatively predictable and the pay is above average as well.
I call 100% BS on that one. She obviously has no clue whatsoever about what goes on in a veterinary practice. "Clean, well-lit environments"? What about all of the vets who work in the large animal industry that are out in the fields, chicken houses, barns, and pig pens? None of those are clean or well-lit. "Relatively predictable" hours? Yeah, tell that to us vets who have to stay late unexpectedly because a last-minute emergency comes it. "While they may be on call for emergencies"? She says this in passing like it's not a big deal. Tell that to those of us who have had to wake up at 2am, throw on some clothes, rush to the clinic, treat the emergency, and then be back to work by 9am. "Pay is above average."? WHAT?!?!?! Where in Hades is she getting that rationale? We have a salary crisis in veterinary medicine where the debt burden is becoming so high that new vets are going to have a hard time just surviving and paying back their loans. Vets have the highest debt-to-income ratio of any medical profession in the US. On paper a $95k salary may seem great to most people, but a large chunk if that is merely repaying for the training used to get to that point.
The rest of the article is in a similar vein, and judging by the comments the author is equally off the mark on other professions. No profession just says "I want to make $X per year" and then charges that. Salaries are based off of many factors, including the cost of doing business, the cost of education, the rarity and demand of the job and so on. This is one of the worst-written articles I think I've ever read and filled with so many false assumptions and lack of real knowledge. It's sad that someone approved this going up as other than a personal blog.
Overpaid my lily-white tushy!
