There is a conventional wisdom which suggests that to earn significant sums of money in America, one needs a college degree or more. While it is absolutely true that the greater one’s formal educational attainment, the more likely one is to be employed and to earn handsomely, America still offers jobs that pay well even for those who ended their formal education at high school graduation.
For instance, according to the Labor Department’s 2016/17 Occupational Outlook Handbook, elevator installers and repairers, with median annual pay approaching eighty thousand per annum, represents the best paying job one can find with a high school education. Less dramatic are the earnings of drywall and ceiling tile installers.
Median pay in these categories is in the range of forty thousand dollars per annum, but these positions require no formal education credential. In New Jersey, drywall and ceiling tile installers make nearly fifty nine thousand dollars per year. An associates’ degree helps.
With one of those degrees, one could quality to become an air traffic controller, a job that boasts a median annual salary of more than one hundred and twenty two thousand dollars according to the Wall Street Journal.
