Careers With The Largest Salary Growth Potential

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Careers with the Largest Salary Growth Potential by Nick Selbe, CareerTrends

As the old adage goes, “It’s not how you start, but how you finish.” For anyone not fully satisfied with their current salary, this saying can inspire hope.

Many young job-seekers are eager to earn money, but the promise of a high starting salary shouldn’t be prioritized over future earning potential. Many occupations have uninspiring entry level salaries, but the more important factor is the ability for employees to increase their wages.

With this in mind, CareerTrends looked at 21 different career fields and found the occupation with the highest difference between entry level and well experienced salaries in each field. To do this, we used the most recent employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (May 2014) and salary data from the Foreign Labor Certification Data Center (June 2015) to find each occupation’s average starting salary. We then took the job’s average well experienced salary and subtracted the average starting salary to get the salary difference.

All of the 21 jobs we selected had salary differences of at least $20,000. We ranked them from lowest to highest, including two occupations with six-figure differences between entry level and well experienced salaries.

Largest salary growth careers – #21. Chefs and Head Cooks

Career field: Food
Employment: 118,130
Entry level salary: $28,407
Well experienced salary: $49,315

Salary difference: $20,908

Largest salary growth careers – #20. Massage Therapists

Career field: Healthcare Support
Employment: 87,670
Entry level salary: $24,095
Well experienced salary: $46,186

Salary difference: $22,091

Largest salary growth careers – #19. Animal Care Supervisors

Career field: Farming, Fishing & Forestry
Employment: 18,530
Entry level salary: $33,283
Well experienced salary: $56,343

Salary difference: $23,060

Largest salary growth careers – #18. Morticians

Career field: Personal Care & Service
Employment: 25,160
Entry level salary: $33,311
Well experienced salary: $58,602

Salary difference: $25,291

Largest salary growth careers – #17. Office Supervisors

Career field: Office & Administrative Support
Employment: 1,404,070
Entry level salary: $31,583
Well experienced salary: $56,983

Salary difference: $25,400

Largest salary growth careers – #16. Religious Education Directors

Career field: Social Service
Employment: 18,850
Entry level salary: $28,470
Well experienced salary: $58,124

Salary difference: $29,654

Largest salary growth careers – #15. Mechanics Supervisors

Career field: Installation, Maintenance & Repair
Employment: 434,810
Entry level salary: $40,982
Well experienced salary: $71,285

Salary difference: $30,303

Largest salary growth careers – #14. Production Supervisors

Career field: Production
Employment: 592,830
Entry level salary: $37,033
Well experienced salary: $67,509

Salary difference: $30,476

Largest salary growth careers – #13. Customs Inspectors

Career field: Protective Services
Employment: 108,720
Entry level salary: $48,020
Well experienced salary: $78,811

Salary difference: $30,791

Largest salary growth careers – #12. Elevator Installers

Career field: Construction
Employment: 20,590
Entry level salary: $52,276
Well experienced salary: $85,308

Salary difference: $33,032

Largest salary growth careers – #11. Art Directors

Career field: Arts & Entertainment
Employment: 33,140
Entry level salary: $46,637
Well experienced salary: $91,589

Salary difference: $44,951

Largest salary growth careers – #10. Airline Pilots

Career field: Transportation
Employment: 75,760
Entry level salary: $68,679
Well experienced salary: $128,786

Salary difference: $60,107

Largest salary growth careers – #9. Actuaries

Career field: Computers & Mathematics
Employment: 21,490
Entry level salary: $61,401
Well experienced salary: $122,397

Salary difference: $60,996

Largest salary growth careers – #8. Commodities Traders

Career field: Sales
Employment: 316,340
Entry level salary: $35,112
Well experienced salary: $103,184

Salary difference: $68,072

Largest salary growth careers – #7. Lawyers

Career field: Law
Employment: 603,310
Entry level salary: $55,505
Well experienced salary: $125,103

Salary difference: $69,598

Largest salary growth careers – #6. Physicists

Career field: Life, Physical & Social Sciences
Employment: 16,790
Entry level salary: $71,046
Well experienced salary: $145,918

Salary difference: $74,872

Largest salary growth careers – #5. Personal Financial Advisors

Career field: Business & Finance
Employment: 196,490
Entry level salary: $41,222
Well experienced salary: $119,349

Salary difference: $78,127

 #4. Petroleum Engineers

Career field: Architecture & Engineering
Employment: 33,740
Entry level salary: $78,605
Well experienced salary: $157,520

Salary difference: $78,915

#3. Law Professors

Career field: Education
Employment: 15,990
Entry level salary: $54,262
Well experienced salary: $154,079

Salary difference: $99,817

#2. Chief Executives

Career field: Management
Employment: 246,240
Entry level salary: $75,917
Well experienced salary: $193,496

Salary difference: $117,579

 #1. Dermatologists

Career field: Medicine & Healthcare Technology
Employment: 349,000
Entry level salary: $98,544
Well experienced salary: $224,916

Salary difference: $126,372

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