Person Asks: "Which Profession Is Criminally Underpaid?" And 30 People Online Deliver

Janitors.

They clean up all our s**t, get no respect, and are sometimes some of the chillest people I've ever met. We should pay them more.

Any caretaking position. From personal experience, I can loudly say that mental health and behavioral techs are VERY underpaid. Working in a job that regularly sends people to the hospital due to assault by clients, has a very high burnout rate, and very high secondary trauma is HARD. Not to mention, people in these roles are caring for individuals that their family/parents cannot handle and they are supervising 4-10 of these individuals at once. It takes a HUGE toll on your mental health, and it barely pays the bills. Being in charge of safety for those that do not have an interest in keeping themselves safe is rough. I’m sorry, but $15-$17/hour is not enough.

Also, these jobs don’t require a college degree most of the time. From what I’ve found, however, you are not paid enough nor do you have the mental energy or time to finish your degree due to working very hectic (often short staffed) hours. This keeps people stuck in the same workplace forever. HR (who is meant to be your advocate) has often never been on the floor and has no idea what the job often entails.

People who grow and harvest your food

Basically any profession that requires you to work with vulnerable people

Social Workers. They see abused/neglected kids all day, awful living conditions, desperation and poverty.
Hands are tied with the ridic amount of red tape, etc.

Soul sucking job that makes one lose faith in humanity very quickly.
No amount of money is worth the nightmares they must have at bedtime.

Every one who is govermentally decleared "essential" when covid hit.

Extra eddit: this counts double for People who are on or near the minimum wage when covid hit, had to do dangerous work and got a pat on the back, a pin, or a "thank you email" while company's profits soared.
And People in healthcare and emergency services!

I made 9.50 an hour as an EMT.

Never ask “why is there an EMS shortage” around me I will go OFF

Vet techs. $15-22 an hour for doing everything a nurse does, just on furry patients.

Childcare at any level -- especially preschool and early childhood educators. Being able to adequately manage and empower children is an artform.

Librarians.

A Librarian requires a masters degree so that they can start at a salary that barely competes with Target these days. I see social worker on this list, and want to point out that libraries are often the place the city/town sends people when they do not have the funding or facilities to deal with them otherwise. It's also the place that many people come who are in need of social workers and social services, and librarians are the ones that connect them. Government wants people to fill out taxes online? Great - where do you think the less fortunate are accessing computers? Who do you think is helping them figure out how to fill out these forms? Is your country still fighting a war on drugs, instead of providing safe access and care for the addicted? Guess where they are shooting up. Is some billionaire funding 'grass roots' campaigns to get on boards and generally complain about any information that jostles their world view? Guess who is operating on the front lines of that culture war? The list goes on, but there are a good number of librarians on reddit, and I'm probably already triggering them, if they haven't hit their breaking point already and started filling out that Target app.

Teaching.

Going into a violent inner-city place, trying to get people to even care about the subject never mind doing the work with half your caseload people whose parents have ankle bracelets and the other half are Karens upset you don't automatically give out A+ because they want little Tanner to go to Harvard and you're standing in the way.

Having to buy your own supplies because schools are criminally underfunded, and expected to have an expensive master's degree. AND be underpaid and expected to work free overtime to do things like clubs and sports.

And then oni top of that, some near-illiterate Yalie fake Texan thinking your job needs to be scored like salespeople hitting quotas, as if teaching people is on par with manufacturing or some other endeavor that can be judged entirely on its own merit.

And you realize the only people who make it are people who teach TO THE TEST. e.g "the answer to the upcoming test is A for question 1. Remember that. 1 - A. And then question 2, that will be B. 1 - A, 2 - B. Remember that. And then going in after hours under the cover of darkness to use an eraser and a pencil to change the scores so you can actually get enough of a merit bonus to afford food.

Public Defenders. I have a private law practice. The public defenders make a fraction of what guys like me make, know criminal law inside and out, and carry obscene caseloads. The system would break down immediately if they went on strike. Which honestly they should.

Firefighters in some places, you'd be very surprised

People in wildlife/conservation

Hotel housekeepers

Nurses and the whole care sector in the UK.

These are the people who look after you when you need it most. They clean up your poop, clean your open wounds, are someone you can talk too and for some people, the only human contact people have all day.

I'm sure most wouldnt agree but grocery store employees. It's their job to make sure you can get a multitude of foods and drinks and supplies for living, all with a smile on your face because evil corporate demands it, while also being expected to know where everything is at all times no matter what you actually work there, all the sales and how to use them, while sick people who gives ZERO f**ks about anyone in the world continue to go outside and get these minimum wage people sick. While also being berated by some of the rudest people who take their anger out on these people

Grave shift fast food and food service in general. Anything grave shift. Almost no one does that shift because they have better options and it is always an adult doing it, not some kid working for fun money due to labor laws.

Any care that requires wiping human butts.

Teacher's aid. I get headbutt, kicked, scratched, bitten, spit, kick, thrown up on, and peed on for less than 700 every 15 days. The parents are worse.

Paramedic.