Australia's Top 10 Highest Paying Careers

profchoongtoong on 24/04/2019 - 20:29
Last edited 24/04/2019 - 20:34 by 1 other user

2018 ATO statistics show the following to be the top 10 highest paying careers in the nation:

  1. Surgeons $393,467
  2. Anaesthetists $359,056
  3. Internal Medicine Specialists $291,140
  4. Financial Dealers $263,309
  5. Psychiatrists $211,024
  6. Other Medical Practitioners $199,590
  7. Judicial and Other Legal Professionals $198,219
  8. Mining Engineers $166,557
  9. Chief Executives and Managing Directors $158,249
  10. Engineering Managers $148,852

Reference: Australia's top 10 highest-earning occupations

Does anyone here work in any of these professions? What are your thoughts?

Education & Work

Comments

        • salmon123 on 25/04/2019 - 09:54

          Yes, but it's not 200k/year

          • esosite on 25/04/2019 - 10:48
            +2

            @salmon123: its not far off.
            This guy pays $100k/year https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-12/out-of-pocket-costs-f…

            There are articles from 2000 where indemnity costs were ~$60k/year

            • salmon123 on 25/04/2019 - 11:04

              @esosite: So 1.3 patients/week to make the mean wage and pay for indentify insurance?

              • esosite on 25/04/2019 - 11:32
                +4

                @salmon123: super simple hey, you should do it.

                • salmon123 on 25/04/2019 - 14:53

                  @esosite: Done.

                  You planning on having a baby or do you need help with that too? I offer both services.

            • Ti-au on 26/04/2019 - 11:56
              +1

              @esosite: Lets say you see = 8 patients per week * $5k = $40k PER WEEK
              $40kx52 = $2,080,000

              Oh F###! 4% of your earnings are taken by insurance! Criminal! (which is actually paying for the f### ups?)

              Isn't it based off number of patients? So the more patients the higher the premium?

              • ranap on 27/04/2019 - 17:31

                @Ti-au: I don't think that Obs/Gyn get 5K for every patient visit. Its probably 5K per delivery.
                According to Health.gov there are ~1800 OBS/GYN in Australia. and if each of they get to an average of 8 deliveries per week it would need ~750,000 deliveries. But as per ABS Statistics we only manage ~310,000 births in australia. So not many of them are making anywhere close to this $ 2 Million per year.

                You should provide your financial services to the Obs/Gyns on how to improve their income, they surely seem to be missing out a lot of their potential income. You could probably make atleast $ 19 Million with just 0.5% fees of their total income.

            • fenric on 27/04/2019 - 21:30

              @esosite: Add to that the fact that you need to continue paying it for around 21 years after your last delivery to cover yourself for the statute of limitations for birth injuries.
              And that is the same (80k to 100k per year) rate the whole time.

      • JIMB0 on 25/04/2019 - 09:32

        The trust funds are also there so that if you sue them you can't get at their money.

        • salmon123 on 25/04/2019 - 09:52
          +1

          That statement makes no sense. Doctors would have insurance for negligence/malpractice claims, so no personal liability.

          Further the burden of proof for malpractice/negligence claims is so high (at least in NSW) that you'd need a pretty big stuff up to win any money, from the doctors insurer.

          But, yes, trusts can be used for asset protection, more likely from ex-wives and ex-business partners

      • MessyG on 26/04/2019 - 20:57
        +4

        Hold on there mate - that $5k doesn't go into their pocket. They're running a practice, so that's got to cover their receptionist and midwife wages and super, office rental, ultrasound equipment, and all the other business expenses. They also can't take on too many patients otherwise they wont be available for delivery - AND they have be on-call 24 hours a day for which they're not getting paid. And their insurance is sky high. I don't blame them for charging that much at ALL.

        • salmon123 on 26/04/2019 - 21:06

          Hold on there mate - that $5k doesn't go into their pocket

          Yeah - I understood that. My example was just to demonstrate how a ObGyn with a patient load of around 5 patients a week, might finish up with an income much higher than the 291k mean reported on the survey.

          • mactos on 27/04/2019 - 10:42
            +1

            @salmon123: But you did ignore their costs. Hospital charges, clinic space rent, staff, indemnity, college fees, CPD fees, equipment, medical software, website etc etc. I get your point though. The stats are skewed by public hospital specialists, junior consultants, part timers. Most private surgeons make 500k minimum. Plenty of private sub specialists make 7 figures.

  • owli on 25/04/2019 - 06:37
    +4

    4.Financial Dealers

    Psst, hey kid. Want some low doc home loans?

    • Ti-au on 26/04/2019 - 11:58

      Ugh….

      It means stockbrokers and commodity traders, etc (proprietary traders). Who get the millions in bonuses like from the banks that caused the 2008 crises - deutsche bank, Goldman, Chase, JPMorgan, BOA or hedge funds.

      A good mortgage broker would be earning $70k-$100k per year (many more less than that).

      • owli on 26/04/2019 - 16:04
        +3

        It means stockbrokers and commodity traders, etc (proprietary traders)

        Psst, hey kid. Want some methylderivative?

  • mikekiwimike on 25/04/2019 - 07:40

    Channel Sales…. Top 3 … I don't have a student loan either :-)

  • Nicky6 on 25/04/2019 - 08:16

    What about the politicians? They have a base salary of $207k

    • salmon123 on 25/04/2019 - 11:07
      +4

      Probably get lumped into another occupation code or the local councillors are bringing down the average.

      It would look pretty bad, if the "politician" made the list.

      • Ti-au on 26/04/2019 - 12:03
        +1

        Perhaps its actually not that high….

  • salmon123 on 25/04/2019 - 11:05
    +1

    I'm surprised that drug lord/pimp/mafioso isn't on the list … Guess it's not as easy as they make it look in the movies.

  • crashloaded on 26/04/2019 - 09:09
    +4

    Would love to know the average hours worked per week though. Living to work just ain't for me.

  • Bystander on 26/04/2019 - 09:27
    +10

    I've got no problem at all with people earning high salaries.

    What I do have a problem with is that some industries artificially restrict the number of people who can become qualified or registered. Having a shortage of people in that profession ensures that they are able to charge more for their services. Take surgeons for example.

    • Ti-au on 26/04/2019 - 12:03
      +2

      Bingo.

    • netjock on 26/04/2019 - 13:57

      Still doesn't stop surgeons leaving surgical devices in people's bodies. You think with lower intake they'd sort that out.

    • Mokr on 26/04/2019 - 14:09

      I agree but once you do open the flood gates like in teaching it does ruin the profession for a lot of the new workers.

      Our current system is training more doctors then ever but lot of grads (international) won't even get a residency.

      • Vallani on 26/04/2019 - 22:01
        +2

        “Our current system is training more doctors then ever but lot of grads (international) won't even get a residency.“

        And why should they? International students are buying a degree, nothing more. Residency positions should be given to citizens/ permanent residents first.

    • raging on 26/04/2019 - 19:13
      +3

      From what I've been told the surgical placements are low because it's hard to expose them to the the necessary experience.

      • [Deactivated] on 25/07/2020 - 19:11

        when they've got waitlist for surgeries stretching up to a year if not more?

    • Shiny Mew on 26/04/2019 - 22:08
      +1

      The medical profession is an extreme example. The legal profession is another extreme example, but on the opposite side.

    • Monoploy on 27/04/2019 - 11:55

      You will find almost every profession looks after their own. If you've trained for 13 years to be qualified, wouldn't you want to a fair return on all the hard work?

      Would you want the very best and most capable operating on you when you need surgery? A high salary is one way of attracting the very best candidates for the job.

      • Shiny Mew on 27/04/2019 - 12:28
        +1

        The legal profession certainly doesn't, and realistically requires 5-7 years of education and training.

      • Bystander on 27/04/2019 - 19:27
        +2

        It doesn't matter how long they have trained for, they are entitled to whatever the market rate is. The point I'm making is that there should be adequate provision for more people to enter the profession if they choose to.

        Restricting the number of people who can become qualified or registered has little bearing on whether or not we get "the very best and most capable".

  • DBBROS on 26/04/2019 - 11:37
    +13

    More money = more responsibility = more problems

    • mousie on 26/04/2019 - 18:28
      +6

      Thanks Notorious B.I.G.

    • superValue on 27/04/2019 - 16:27

      Yes,I know surgeons that have too many assets giving them too much passive income and increasing their tax bill so they must actively negatively gear to reduce their tax bill. Even worse they must attend conferences overseas to keep up their CPD.

      I agree best not to have more problems.

  • meowmeowmeow on 26/04/2019 - 13:37
    +9

    It would probably help the ATO's credibility if they had a decent list of occupations to choose from in our tax returns. There's never anything that matches what I do, and I don't do anything out of the ordinary (risk management for financial services), so I have to pick something that is loosely linked to what I do every year.

  • netjock on 26/04/2019 - 13:57

    Pointless unless it includes: "No experience necessary" fact is most of these jobs take many years of experience.

  • aurotaro on 26/04/2019 - 14:35

    Would love to know the hourly rate/hours those professions put in. Surgeons and Anesthetics may earn $300k plus… but 60-70 hours a week? and annual leave? are those numbers packaged?

    • [Deactivated] on 26/04/2019 - 17:28
      +5

      You’d struggle to find a surgeon who only takes home $400k. That might be the avg earning reported to the ATO, but it doesn’t take into account the creative way surgeons mask their income, whether it’s through splitting, trusts, super or other means. I don’t think you’d find a single experienced ortho in private practice on under 7 figures, and most would double that.

      • [Deactivated] on 25/07/2020 - 19:14
        -1

        Tax loopholes are BS but still, if I ever earn that much I wouldn't try to hide it.

        • Zachary on 30/07/2020 - 16:53

          Depends if you have a gold digger nearby that you don't wanna splurge on…

  • tomleonhart on 26/04/2019 - 15:42

    Surprised Commercial Pilot didn't make the list.

    • smartazz104 on 26/04/2019 - 15:51

      Autopilot means high pay isn’t necessary… /s

    • mauricem on 27/04/2019 - 15:25

      Too much variation. Senior qantas long haul captains might make 400k with loadings but jstar domestic make a fraction of that, then you have all the guys flying for the smaller and remote operators who’d be lucky to make teachers wages

  • fatboyslim on 26/04/2019 - 16:02
    +2

    People here need to understand your income earned is different to your taxable income (which we want want to be as low as possible as who likes to pay tax?)

  • MessyG on 26/04/2019 - 20:59

    I wish they'd delineate between public and private surgeons/anaesthetists/int. med specialists. The difference is staggering.

    • Save Medicare on 27/04/2019 - 08:30

      I think it's absolutely obscene that the 50 year old private surgeon who may do a day in public a week makes 2m a year while the public emergency physician or psychiatrist makes 300k.

      You will have a better idea of this than I do by but even in private land psychiatry isn't as well paying due to the socioeconomic factors common in the mental health patient population

      • TheCutter on 28/04/2019 - 09:20

        Maybe a plastic or eye surgeon will be on 2m a year but not anyone doing cancer surgery.
        But you are right that the slant to proceduralists in the country is too much

        See my comment above to explain that these big salaries will become even rarer

  • gezza90 on 26/04/2019 - 23:26
    +1

    Do Actuaries fall under 'Financial Dealers'? I'd expect them to be top 5…

    • jzx100 on 27/04/2019 - 17:37

      I googled Financial Dealers and Actuaries didn't come up in that category.

  • khomeini on 27/04/2019 - 07:50

    Does anyone here work in any of these professions? What are your thoughts?

    You have asked at OzB… ofcourse everyone here works in those professions and areearning double those averages. Pfft goes back to his masquerade ball

  • DiscoJango on 27/04/2019 - 08:36

    these figures are very average. construction site managers can easily make $160k +

    maybe its a way for the regular folk to feel better about themselves by giving low figures. that $393k figure gets laughed at in some circles.

  • dmcneice on 27/04/2019 - 11:35
    +3

    I work in "other medical professionals". The reason you see so many medical professionals on the list is we have very little legitimate ways to minimise tax, which means we have to declare basically everything to the Ato.

    Lots of other professions use deductions, cash in hand etc. That way the ato doesn't know how much they truly earn

  • AussieDolphin on 27/04/2019 - 13:27
    +2

    My job (teacher) doesn't even feature on the list. Obviously poorly paid :(.

    • Zachary on 28/04/2019 - 23:34

      …no wonder why we have shit teachers……who don't teach us anything good…..

  • Wystri Warrick on 27/04/2019 - 15:35
    +1

    I honestly think that people in the medical sector, fire department, police/security etc deserve to be paid more. These are the people who protect life, can't think of anything more important than life, certainly not our mobile phones or gold etc.
    And then there's the teachers, the engineers, the scientist, the builders and the labourers etc that build our civilization, these people deserve a pay rise too.
    All these people build and maintain our society, our civilization, they really do deserve more praise than they get and deserve a pay rise, not some stupid politician.

  • paloverde88 on 27/04/2019 - 16:08
    +2

    Here is 2 of 5 of those mistakes that smart people make. Remember that you don’t have to make these mistakes yourself. It’s better to learn from other people’s mistakes. They have made them, so we don’t have to.

    1. Chasing money

    I recently read How To Get Rich by Felix Dennis, who owned one of the biggest magazine publishers in the UK. Contrary to the title, the book actually tries to discourage you to chase money.

    Many rich people will tell you the same. The funny thing is that we all know there is more to life than money. And yet, we make it our sole purpose. Dennis writes:

    “People who get trapped in the tunnel vision of making money think that is all there is to life.”
    There’s nothing wrong with wanting to get rich. We just have to remind ourselves that making money beyond a certain amount has little impact on our happiness. But somehow, we get tunnel vision. Again, trying to get rich is not a mistake. However, it is a mistake if you expect that it’s the answer to all your problems.

    1. Being overconfident

    One cognitive bias that affects smart people the most is overconfidence. When you are good at something, it’s easy to overestimate yourself.

    That doesn’t happen in a cocky or brazen way. Overconfidence can happen to everyone. From many soft-spoken and gentle individuals to the most outgoing extroverts.

    Researchers have established three ways that overconfidence happens:

    Overestimation — thinking that you are better than you are.
    Overplacement — exaggerated belief that you are better than others.
    Overprecision — excessive conviction that you know the truth.
    Let’s be honest. How often do we think we can take on a challenge and later find out it was too much? Or that we can do a better job than our co-workers or competitors? And when we have conversations, how often do we think we know it better?

    It’s the classic pitfall of smart people. But as you and I both know, the wisest people in history stated they knew nothing. So why are we still overconfident?

    I think one of the reasons is that you stop questioning yourself after you achieve some small success. It’s very appealing to think you’re better. Maybe that’s the case. But it doesn’t matter.

    The moment you start thinking you’re better, you’re already losing. When you stop questioning yourself, you stop learning. And only losers don’t learn.

    Instead, rely on the things that brought you to where you are: curiosity, passion, excitement, and most importantly; hard work.

    • from 5 Common Mistakes Smart People Make by Darius Foroux
  • StalkingIbis on 27/04/2019 - 18:43

    that first page of comments is possibly the angriest thread i've read on here :s

  • ribze1 on 27/04/2019 - 22:56

    These figures aren't worth sht

  • nurbsenvi on 28/04/2019 - 16:28
    +1

    Look at the number of health professional on the list
    Someone might think the whole country is fully sick

  • [Deactivated] on 28/04/2019 - 22:53

    There's no way that I earn more than my psychiatrist🤔

    /jk

    I definitely earn more than her.

    • Zachary on 28/04/2019 - 23:36

      OH what do you work as and how much?

      • [Deactivated] on 29/04/2019 - 00:08

        R&D director. The starting salary in my department is $148k + perks.

        The psychiatrist comment was an in-joke. I don't have or need one :)

        • Zachary on 29/04/2019 - 00:52

          A bargainer working for less than 300k a year?! :O

          • [Deactivated] on 29/04/2019 - 22:03

            @Zachary: $148k is the starting salary. I started a long time ago :) …but yeah , not 300k, which is why I only buy stuff that have been posted on ozbargain. Can't afford to pay RRP! :b

            • Zachary on 29/04/2019 - 22:20

              @[Deactivated]: a long time ago? You must be on 300k now……………hmmmmmmmmmm….

  • Laizay on 28/04/2019 - 23:52

    not sure how good the measure of average salaries, especially with the vast differences in number of people in the field. Curious to see what this list would look like if you ranked them in the top or lower quartiles.

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