30 Surprisingly High-Paying Jobs People Didn’t Realize Exist

1. Wastewater Treatment Plant Operator

“I worked as a wastewater treatment plant operator for 30 years. Holidays and overtime paid ridiculous money.

We would have tours with school children and one boy after smelling the place said to me ‘you should make a million dollars’… lol .. the mouths of babes.”

2. Dog Waste Cleaning

“I know someone who cleans up dog poop in yards. He charges a lot and has a set list of clients and works a few days a week.

Apparently some people would rather pay someone to clean up after their dog than do it themselves.”

3. Growing Flowers For Florists

“A niche, but if you grow flowers for florists you can make bank. It’s my first year but we sold a bunch of zinnias on-demand and to florists this year, along with a few 1000 speciality sunflowers.

The sunflowers are pretty much hands off once they are planted with drip line (they shelter out weeds pretty fast). We’re selling them to florists at $1.50 per stem and have made a few thousand only a few weeks into the blooms.

The rest are all spoken for before they have even bloomed and were set to pull in about $30k in flowers sales this year, and it was just a test year.

Our local competitors (who we will compete with next year) make a few hundred thousand a year via florist sales, direct sales, and u-pick.”

4. Piano Tuner

So this is more per hour than gross, but still, every piano tuner I’ve ever heard or spoken with has discussed how good the work/life balance is, how if they need more money they just accept more jobs. How they’re beating away jobs with a stick because there just aren’t enough hours in the day.

A first year tuner makes around $150/hour, $40k/year on average in an average COL area and goes up to $80k/year as you wrangle your own regulars or go to higher COL areas.

Every time you look up a piano tuner they’re talking about how badly needed they are. There was a post awhile back about an orchestra literally offering scholarships to people wanting to become tuners because there just wasn’t enough availability in the area.

You’d think that there wouldn’t be that many people who want their pianos tuned, but even if you leave out the lackadaisical hobbyist who “forgets” for 15 years, churches, schools, music professionals, concert halls, theaters, airports, hotels, and nursing homes all often have pianos that require tuning.

5. Ditch Digger

“I make $46/hr, almost unlimited overtime, $65/day bonus for being on-call. Minimum of 3 hours pay if on-call phone rings, 1.5x pay after 8 hours in a day, 2x pay after 12, get sent home at 13.5 hours in a day if it goes that long.

Pretty easy to make 150-200k per year if you are reliable”

9. Garbage Man

“Everybody underestimates that ol’ garbage man. I had always heard that the compensation was trash, but that isn’t true.

I was told that my job would be a “waste” of time, I’m glad I didn’t listen to them. I make over $70,000 a year without overtime.

You get treated like garbage and that stinks, but it’s worth it for the paycheck.”

13. Biomedical Equipment Technician

“Biomedical Equipment Technician. Fix medical equipment in hospitals, typically only requires a two year degree. I started slightly above 30/hr and now make over 40/hr working on radiology equipment. Kinda like IT but with only a relatively small part of the job being computers.

There’s a two year degree specific for the industry but with the manpower shortage it’s not a requirement. I know a lot of people who’ve moved into this field with a regular 2yr technical degree of some kind. If you grew up taking stuff apart and figuring out how it works then this is a perfect job to continue that kind of skill set.

Like many other trades, not a lot of people know about it so there’s good job security. Lots of people retiring out and not a lot of people coming in. You need to be comfortable working around patients at times or working in the O.R. and that can make it stressful at times. The money is pretty good for a job that mostly has you inside in the air conditioning working normal business hours (except for on-call).”

15. Dental Service Technician

“A lot of these threads are about how plumbers and welders and linemen and machine operators make great money, and they do, but I’m going to throw a little contrast in there:

I’m a dental service technician. Essentially a mechanic for dentists. You need to be personable. You need to be able to work independent. You need to have a basic mechanical proficiency. No other requirements. Henry Schein will hire an utterly green tech, give them basic training, $45k, and that person will now have a 40-hour-a-week job working in clean (kind of) indoor environments with good benefits and an annual 3% raise. After three years they can jump to Benco or Midwest for a 10% raise and be sitting $55~60k, then do it again in a few years. After the third jump or so you’ll be sitting between $80k and $100k for, again, mostly easy indoor work.

Plumbers with my time in their field will be making more money than I do. But they’re also working harder and…and this is a huge point…you don’t actually have to be good at being a dental service tech. It helps but over the years I’ve had dozens of examples of coworkers proving that competence isn’t a requirement.”

19. Firefighter

“I’m a firefighter in a mid sized city. We start around 64k a year but get a bump at 3 years and then 5 years. Once you hit your 5 year mark you’re making 96k a year, union benefits, amazing healthcare, pension, and about a month and a half vacation time with how our schedule works. If you like doing overtime you can easily make 120k. Some overtime studs make up to 170k a year (i don’t do that because you’d basically have to live at work). And on top of it all, I’m sitting on a couch watching tv 90% of the time and people actually like you unlike being cops. Pretty great gig if you can get hired

Oh and without overtime I only work two 24 hours shifts a week so I have a lot of free time if I choose to stay home”

21. Janitor

“I make 100k a year cleaning apartment/loft hallways and entrances.

Work about 25 hours a week. My biggest stress is running out of podcasts to listen to.”

23. Warehouse Manager

“Warehouse Manager making 210k per year.

Never thought a career in warehousing/distribution would amount to that”

25. Bartender

“I cleared 90k on what was recorded (credit card tips) and literally saved every cash dollar I made, almost 35k.

I work 2 nights and 2 days a week. I’ve made so many acquaintances that whenever I want to come out from behind the bar – I’ve options for what I do next.”

28. Pool Cleaner

“My dad cleans pools, leaves the house around 6:30am and gets back home around 11:00am, makes around $125k. Obviously could work longer hours, but he doesn’t want to chance skin cancer.

Getting easy houses near each other is the key, my dad works primarily in 3 giant gated communities the whole week, you could do ~8 in an hour easily if they are near each other, whereas if you are just starting out and you have to drive a ways in-between you may only be able to do 3 in an hour.”