Prestige Paradox: High Pay Doesn’t Necessarily Equal High Prestige

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – August 5, 2008 – Results of the annual Harris Poll measuring public perceptions of 23 professions and occupations, conducted by telephone between July 8 and 13, 2008, by Harris Interactive^® among a nationwide sample of 1,010 U.S. adults, indicate that firefighters, scientists, doctors, nurses and teachers are seen as the most prestigious of a list of 23 occupations. Real estate agents, stockbrokers, bankers, accountants and entertainers come at the bottom of the list.

The occupations at the top of the list are:

• Firefighter (57% say "very great prestige");
• Scientist (56%);
• Doctor (53%);
• Nurse (52%);
• Teacher (52%)

When the numbers for "very great" and "considerable prestige" are added, all of these occupations are very favorably regarded by 74 percent or more of all adults.

Only 15 percent or fewer adults regard the following occupations as having very great prestige:

• Real estate agent/broker (6%);
• Stock broker (10%);
• Banker (15%);
• Accountant (15%);
• Entertainer (15%)

Substantial majorities of adults (from 61% to 83%) believe that these occupations have "hardly any" or only "some" prestige.

Additionally, several occupations are regarded as "very prestigious" by more people this year than they were last year:

• Engineer, up ten points to 40 percent from last year
• Actor, up seven points to 16 percent
• Architect, up five points to 28 percent
• Journalist, up five points to 18 percent
• Union leaders, also up five points to 18 percent
• Banker, up five points to 15 percent.

However, even with these improvements, bankers, actors, union leaders and journalists land near the bottom of the list with "very prestigious" ratings below 20 percent.

Two occupations, which still have relatively high prestige scores, lost more than five points since last year:

• Military officer, down six points to 46 percent
• Doctor, down six points to 53 percent.

The Harris Poll first asked this question, but with a shorter list of occupations, in 1977. The biggest change since then has been a 23 point increase from 29 percent to 52 percent in those who believe teachers have very great prestige.

Three occupations have lost substantial ground since 1977:

• Scientist, down ten points to 56 percent
• Doctor, down 15 points to 53 percent
• Lawyer, down 12 points to 24 percent.

It appears that while many Americas are celebrity obsessed, with gossip magazines and websites as must reads, they do not hold these celebrities in high regard. Actors and entertainers occupy two of the bottom six positions in the list of prestigious occupations.

One other finding is important. Some of the occupations that are widely seen as prestigious (firefighters, teachers, nurses and police officers) are not particularly highly paid, while some of the least prestigious occupations tend to be very highly paid (actors, bankers, entertainers and stockbrokers). Prestige is clearly not just a question of money or celebrity.

"I am going to read off a number of different occupations. For each, would you tell me if you feel it is an occupation of very great prestige, considerable prestige, some prestige or hardly any prestige at all?"

Base: All Adults

*Less Than 0.5%

"I am going to read off a number of different occupations. For each, would you tell me if you feel it is an occupation of very great prestige, considerable prestige, some prestige or hardly any prestige at all?"

Base: All Adults

* No trend; NA not asked

** In surveys prior to 2001 we used the words "policeman" (now changed to "police officer") and businessman (now changed to "business executive") which may account for the changes from 2001 to 2002.

***In surveys prior to 2006, we used the word "fireman" (now changed to firefighter) which may account for some of the changes from 2005 to 2006.

****In surveys prior to 2007, we used the word "clergyman" now changed to clergy which many account for some of the changes from 2006 to 2007.

"I am going to read off a number of different occupations. For each, would you tell me if you feel it is an occupation of very great prestige, considerable prestige, some prestige or hardly any prestige at all?"

Base: All Adults

Note: N/A indicates occupation wasn’t asked about in 1977

The Harris Poll^® was conducted by telephone within the United States between July 8 and 13, 2008 among a nationwide cross section of 1,010 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race, education, number of adults, number of voice/telephone lines in the household, region and size of place were weighted where necessary to align them with their actual proportions in the population. However, only approximately 500 people were asked about each occupation.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words "margin of error" as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.

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