Take-Home Pay

Salaries around the world

Worth is relative, but the value of some jobs is universal. That is the message in the new book World Paychecks: Who Makes What, Where, and Why (Facts on File; $12.95). Written by David Harrop, a freelance author, the study shows how salaries vary from country to country. Among the three great professions, medicine is the highest paid. Lawyers usually rank second and educators last, causing Harrop to conclude that most societies place health ahead of justice or the pursuit of knowledge.

Workers in the U.S. earn more than those doing the same job elsewhere, but there are some exceptions. The U.S. trails several European countries in some fields, especially white-collar ones. A receptionist in the U.S. earns $10,900, but his or her counterpart draws $17,920 in Switzerland, $11,439 in The Netherlands and $13,650 in Belgium. An army general in Australia gets $58,160, in West Germany $51,609, in Britain $64,018, but only $45,528 in the U.S.

Airline pilots in India earn only about $18,300, far less than the $80,000 to $110,000 paid to U.S. jet captains. But the Indian pilot's perks, such as excellent away-from-home living accommodations, make his job the highest paying in India and bestow enormous social prestige. In other ways, India's pay scales show that money does not totally determine quality. A recruit in the Indian army receives only $259 a year (vs. about $5,500 for a U.S. Army private), yet that army is recognized as one of the best trained, most highly motivated in the world.

The gap between the lowest paid and the highest paid around the world is naturally huge. At $40 a year, agricultural workers in Cameroon are among the worst-paid people anywhere. On the other hand, Marlon Brando got $2.75 million for just eleven days' work in the movie The Formula.

Multinational companies offer some of the best jobs in less-developed countries because they can pay two to three times more than the going local wage. They therefore attract the brightest workers, and that can determine the direction of economic development. Another prestige job in the Third World is that of bus driver. Reason: poor people in a carless society depend on them for transportation.

The single largest paycheck anomaly between the U.S. and other countries is in the salaries of television journalists. CBS's Dan Rather gets $800,000 a year, Tom Brokaw at NBC close to $1 million and Co-Worker Jessica Savitch $600,000. Their counterparts in West Germany earn no more than $45,000, or $38,000 in Britain. And that's the way it was. . .

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