Dive Brief:
- Several of the highest-paid jobs in the country that don't require a college degree are related to the construction industry, according to a new report from Advisor Smith. Construction managers earn the second-highest salary on the list of jobs that don't require a degree, which is based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- The analysis found that even though 58% of construction managers do not have a college or associate degree, the median salary for the job is $95,260 a year, well above the national median salary of $39,810.
- Fifty-four percent of adults in the U.S. workforce over age 25 do not have a college degree. The high salary earned by construction managers shows the value a long career in construction can have without higher education, according to the report’s author, Advisor Smith CEO Adrian Mak.
Dive Insight:
There are nearly 300,000 construction managers in the U.S., but the most common job that doesn't require a college degree was first-line supervisors of construction trades and extraction workers, with over 626,000 workers. Over 81% of those workers don’t have college degrees, according to BLS.
The highest-paid job in the country without a college degree, the study found, is nuclear power reactor operators, who earn an annual median salary of $100,530. Several other construction-related jobs are in the top 25 highest-earning jobs without a degree.
Here are the highest-paying construction-related jobs that don’t require a college degree:
| Job | Median Salary | % of workers without a degree |
|---|---|---|
| Construction managers | $95,260 | 58% |
| First-line supervisors of construction trades and extraction workers | $66,210 | 81% |
| Construction and building inspectors | $60,710 | 55% |
| Crane and tower operators | $56,690 | 90% |
| Civil engineering technologists and technicians | $53,410 | 57% |
| Brickmasons and blockmasons | $53,100 | 92% |
In construction and engineering, associate’s degrees and certificates can lead to careers with wages as high or higher than many bachelor’s degrees, a study from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce found earlier this year.
Certificate holders in engineering technologies have a median salary between $70,000 and $150,000, the center found, and certificate holders in construction trades have a median salary between $40,000 and $50,000, higher than certificate holders in computer science, business management, accounting, healthcare or education.
