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Lazy father like lazy son

I was reading the headlines earlier this week and came across this story:
Here are 20 jobs we found that let you work less and earn more. These jobs require less than 40 hours of labor in a work week, but exceed the median annual income level in pay:

1. Aircraft pilots, copilots and flight engineers
Hours/week: 23.5
Hours/year: 1,215
Annual earnings: $119,658

2. Biological scientist

Hours/week: 38.4
Hours/year: 1,992
Annual earnings: $65,329

This was funny because the top two jobs listed are the ones chosen by my father (1) and myself (2).

Something is not quite right about the statistics, though. I think academic biologists work an average of 50 hours a week, and that goes up for those trying to get tenure. I suppose some people treat tenure like a sinecure once they achieve it, but that's rare in my experience. And who knows what those slacker biologists in the biotech industry are up to.

As for pilots, they count their hours in a funny way. When my Dad was working for Northwest Airlines, pilots worked 80 hours a month. Those "hours" though, only count the time spent in the cockpit. They do not factor in that you need to arrive at the airport well in advance of actual takeoff, for example, for various inspection checklists. Nor does it factor that pilots spend lots of time on layovers in other cities. With seniority, a pilot can get good schedules that involve over-and-back routes that return home at night, but new pilots get stuck with undesirable schedules that spend many nights (sometimes even a week or more) in hotels away from home. Even the over-and-back schedules involve many hours loitering in other airports. So it's not quite as cushy as the 23.5 hours per week seems to indicate.

The photo is from a bridge tournament my dad and I played in a couple of years ago. It's funny because we asked someone to take a picture of us, and she was very short. That's why our heads are partially cut off.

Comments

  1. Short people don't necessarily cut off heads (on photos), I think maybe she was just a bad photographer.
    -short liz

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think that job list is a bit silly. Most of those jobs allow working long or short hours, and of course pay is proportional. Maybe it reflects more the people who choose them. I suspect fitness trainers count hours like airline pilots too. And average salaries mean nothing, since they just reflect the average of those in the field. Starting salaries reflect the current reality.

    And I know pilots and biologists aren't lazy!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous5:38 PM

    50 hours a week! Sign me up!

    ReplyDelete

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