{"id":49128,"date":"2025-07-08T16:27:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T16:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/49128\/"},"modified":"2025-07-08T16:27:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T16:27:10","slug":"high-paying-chicago-jobs-without-a-degree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/49128\/","title":{"rendered":"High-Paying Chicago Jobs Without a Degree"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>More high school graduates are choosing to bypass college \u2014 and still securing well-paying careers. In 2023, nearly 39% opted out of higher education, up from about 34% in 2019. As more baby boomers retire and companies ease degree requirements, the need for skilled workers continues to grow.Today, some high school grads are earning six-figure salaries \u2014 without the burden of student loans. Using recent data from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bls.gov\/oes\/tables.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external noreferrer nofollow\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>, Stacker identified the 50 best-paying jobs in Chicago that don\u2019t require a four-year degree, spanning industries from trades to tech.<br \/>\n<strong>High-paying Detroit jobs without a degree<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>10. Electrical and electronics repairers, powerhouse, substation and relay<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Median annual wage:<\/strong> $108,650<\/li>\n<li><strong>Median hourly wage:<\/strong> $52.24<\/li>\n<li><strong>Total employment:<\/strong> 410 people (0.09 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>9. Police and sheriff\u2019s patrol officers<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Median annual wage:<\/strong> $108,890<\/li>\n<li><strong>Median hourly wage:<\/strong> $52.35<\/li>\n<li><strong>Total employment:<\/strong> 23,340 people (5.22 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>8. Tapers<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Median annual wage:<\/strong> $109,870<\/li>\n<li><strong>Median hourly wage:<\/strong> $52.82<\/li>\n<li><strong>Total employment:<\/strong> 320 people (0.07 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>7. Stationary engineers and boiler operators<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Median annual wage:<\/strong> $112,230<\/li>\n<li><strong>Median hourly wage:<\/strong> $53.96<\/li>\n<li><strong>Total employment:<\/strong> 1,170 people (0.26 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>6. Electrical power-line installers and repairers<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Median annual wage:<\/strong> $114,030<\/li>\n<li><strong>Median hourly wage:<\/strong> $54.82<\/li>\n<li><strong>Total employment:<\/strong> 2,140 people (0.48 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>5. Hoist and winch operators<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Median annual wage:<\/strong> $116,120<\/li>\n<li><strong>Median hourly wage:<\/strong> $55.83<\/li>\n<li><strong>Total employment:<\/strong> 290 people (0.07 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>4. First-line supervisors of firefighting and prevention workers<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Median annual wage:<\/strong> $129,360<\/li>\n<li><strong>Median hourly wage:<\/strong> $62.19<\/li>\n<li><strong>Total employment:<\/strong> 1,470 people (0.33 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>3. First-line supervisors of police and detectives<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Median annual wage:<\/strong> $136,440<\/li>\n<li><strong>Median hourly wage:<\/strong> $65.60<\/li>\n<li><strong>Total employment:<\/strong> 4,190 people (0.94 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>2. Elevator and escalator installers and repairers<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Median annual wage:<\/strong> $141,380<\/li>\n<li><strong>Median hourly wage:<\/strong> $67.97<\/li>\n<li><strong>Total employment:<\/strong> 720 people (0.16 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>1. Commercial pilots<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u2013 Median annual wage: $160,780<br \/>\u2013 Median hourly wage: Not available<br \/>\u2013 Total employment: 640 people (0.14 of every 1,000 jobs in the area)<\/p>\n<p>This story features data reporting by Wade Zhou, writing by Jill Jaracz, and is part of a series utilizing data automation across 364 metros.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Follow Chicago Parent on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/chicagoparent\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external noreferrer nofollow\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">Instagram<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More high school graduates are choosing to bypass college \u2014 and still securing well-paying careers. In 2023, nearly&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":49129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[64,420,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-49128","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-jobs","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114818557095886169","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}