The Highest Paying Jobs that Don’t Require a College Degree or Significant Training

There are plenty of lists identifying the top 10 high-paying jobs that don’t require a college degree, but it is misleading to suggest a recent high school graduate can easily step into most of those occupations. Many of the jobs that top these lists are supervisory roles that require years of experience in the industry, while others such as elevator installer and repairer may require a lengthy apprenticeship.

The graphic below (based on data from the BLS) shows that lower education requirements for an occupation are often offset by on-the-job training. Seventy-seven percent of occupations that typically need an associate’s degree or higher don’t require on-the-job training, and the same is true for 55% of those that require some college but not a 2-year degree. Only 8% of occupations that typically need a high school diploma or less also don’t require on-the-job training. Instead, 37% require some short-term training, and 41% require moderate-term training.

There are high-paying jobs for workers without a college degree, but most of them require experience or other training. Postal service mail carriers top the list of occupations requiring short-term on the job training along with a high school diploma or less.  First-line supervisors of police and detectives is the highest paid occupation with moderate-term on-the-job training.

When it comes to jobs that require no college degree and no on-the-job training, BLS has identified only 35 jobs (out of 820 detailed occupations) that fall in that category. However, recent high school graduates cannot easily step into most of those jobs, as they typically require a few years of related work experience in a different occupation. The list is even smaller for occupations that require no college degree, no on-the-job training, and no related work experience—only eight occupations fit those criteria. Of those eight, five fall under an “all other” title, a bucket for occupations that don’t easily fit into one of the Standard Occupational Classification codes.  The highest paid of those occupations, business operations specialists, all other, earned a median annual wage of $65,120 in 2012—much higher than the $34,750 national median wage in 2012.

Research support provided by Patrick Clapp.