For some, a bad day at the office means getting shouted at by their bosses or arguing with a colleague. For others, it’s missing a deadline or accidentally spilling coffee on a 100-page report you printed the whole morning. Those are bad workdays, but others actually put their lives on the line to earn $18 per hour. Can you believe that?
Interestingly, there are a number of jobs that are risky and dangerous without you realizing that they are. Who would’ve thought, for example, that operating a lawnmower is risky work? Or that garbage collectors face risks in their line of duty?
Private Investigators
Detectives make around $45,700 to $80,000 per year. They command an above-the-average fee because they can get into pretty sticky situations because of their clients. They are often involved in car accidents and physical altercations. If a husband, for example, notices a private investigator following him and a mistress, he can confront the detective and swing a fist at him.
Private investigators don’t need to finish college. They learn their skills on the job. It’s not just about investigating philandering husbands. Companies hire investigators for insurance claims and fraud, too.
Process Servers
Courts license process servers to serve legal papers such as subpoenas, summons, and court orders to a litigant. You wouldn’t think that process servers face danger in their jobs because they are, after all, just acting as couriers or messengers. You’re wrong. People attack process servers out of annoyance, stress, and psychotic tendencies. There’s also a popular case of a process server who was killed by a dog when she entered the property of the litigant.
Process servers can make around $40,000 a year, but that also depends on their hourly wage and the fee they charge for every document they serve. Some get $35 for every serve while others get $80 for every document. You can check out companies such as Serve Index LLC if you want to enter this industry. The company employs and trains process servers.
Garbage Collectors
They are not only putting their health at risk by collecting, segregating, and handling the trash you generate in your household, but their lives are at risk, too. There are at least 44.3 injuries per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers. In 2017, some 37 garbage collectors died in the United States. That’s still a high number for a job that only pays you $36,190 to pick up garbage.
Registered Nurses
You know that nurses put their lives on the line when they attend to you in the emergency room, right? This is true especially now when there’s a deadly virus going around. But under normal circumstances, registered nurses often find themselves falling, tripping, or slipping because of overexertion and exhaustion. That’s aside from the fact that nurses also have to deal with stress and anxiety in the workplace.
Registered nurses get paid a lot. They have a median annual salary of around $70,000, and that does not include overtime work. Some nurses get as much as $95,000 to $100,000 annually. Not bad, but you also have to look after your well-being.
Commercial and Professional Divers
People would think that it’s so cool to dive and get paid. Professional and commercial divers, however, see more than rare species of fish and corals. They have to do work underwater such as repair an oil rig. Yes, they get paid around $52,000 on average and the top pay is $95,000, but they get injured a lot. How often? According to the latest data, there are 429.6 injuries/illnesses per 10,000 workers.
Fishermen
Fishermen spend hours at sea. Sometimes, they have to spend days there. This makes it a lot harder for them to ask for help and for help to come to them on time. When they do have accidents, they have to rely on their own skills or ask nearby boats for help. Most likely, they’ll have to wait for hours before getting attended to by a medical worker. This puts their lives at risk. At a median wage of $29,300, that’s too risky a job to do.
And yet, can people survive without fishermen who catch fish from the sea to bring to markets and your local stores? People can’t ride a boat and expect to do the job of a fisherman. It takes years of experience to learn how to catch fish.
People do a lot of complicated work to earn a living. They deserve respect and protection. So, the next time you forgot to segregate your trash, remember that someone out there will have to do this job for you. And do you know how much they get paid for it? Just a couple of dollars above the minimum wage.
