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The Most And Least Meaningful Jobs In 2016

This article is more than 7 years old.

Money can't buy happiness. It also can't bring a sense of purpose to work that isn't inspiring on its own.

Each year, Forbes reports on PayScale's list of the most meaningful jobs that also pay well. But when the caveat of income is removed, medical professionals, criminal justice workers, and youth ministers still find their way to the top of the list, while some highly-paid jobs are found to provide little meaning to those that hold them.

To create this list, PayScale asked workers in more than 400 jobs from the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) to provide compensation data and respond to questions about whether they feel their work makes the world a better place.

Compensation, as listed here, factors in salary or hourly wages, bonuses, and additional compensation such as profit sharing, tips, or commission, but does not include the value of stock awards, retirement plans, or benefits such as healthcare. “Median pay” is defined as the 50th percentile of national earnings for a particular occupation–half of all people in that job earn above the median while half earn below.

At the top of the list this year are several professions are a group of occupations wherein professionals will frequently interact with individuals in crisis or otherwise vulnerable.

Nursing Home Director, a role that is not only meaningful but well compensated, tops the list. Professionals in this occupation, 64% of whom are female, can expect to earn $82,500 each year, and an overwhelming 98% felt their work made the world a better place.

In pictures: The 10 Most And Least Meaningful Jobs In 2016

In second place is Pastor, a field which is more than 90% male (the only field in the top five with majority male occupants) and where average pay rings in just above $45,000 per year. Still, 97% of Pastors found their work meaningful. Ninety-six percent of Volunteer Coordinators, a group whose annual compensation comes in just above $34,000, report a sense of meaning derived from their work.

Clinical Supervisors and Hospice Nurses, two overwhelmingly female occupations in which average annual compensation ranges from about $55,000 to $60,000, round out the top five, with 94 and 95%, respectively, of workers in those roles reporting strong meaning derived from their work.

The average salary among the 10 most meaningful occupations this year is $56,610, just $12,550 more than the average salary among the least meaningful occupations, $44,060. And while the lowest-paying occupations all appear on the least meaningful list, so does the highest paying role.

Just 18% of those holding the role of Assistant Manager, Fast Food, report the sense that their work makes the world a better place--the lowest of any occupation on this list. The job pays average annual wages of $25,200.

It's not just low-paying occupations, however, that strike their workers as less meaningful. Account Directors rank second on this list, with just 19% of workers finding purpose in a role that pays nearly $100,000 per year--the highest-paying role on either of these lists.

The remainder of the list is similarly diverse, with Fast Food Cooks, Senior Underwriters, Waiters and Waitresses, and Senior Demand Planners all reporting low levels of meaning derived from their work.

To view the full list of The 10 Most And Least Meaningful Jobs In 2016, click here

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