10 Most Dangerous Jobs in America — Are They Worth the Paycheck?
Written by
J. Arky
Edited by
Angela Corry
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Work can break your back — in some cases, literally and figuratively. Resume Genius ranked the 10 most hazardous U.S. jobs in 2025 by fatality rates and salaries, and GOBankingRates analyzed whether the reward outweighs the danger.
Here’s a look at whether or not the high paychecks for these dangerous jobs are worth the risk.
1. Garbage Collector
- Median salary: $48,350
Picking up trash is a dirty job, but someone has to do it — for a salary that kind of stinks.
Garbage collectors “have one of the highest fatality rates at 41.4, but have the lowest median salary on the list at $48,350,” said Paul DeMott, chief technology officer at Helium SEO. “This pay scale does not seem to take into account the continual danger posed by traffic and high-powered hydraulic crushers.”
2. Logging Worker
- Median salary: $49,540
Cutting down trees might be an old-fashioned way to make a living, but it also comes with inherent danger — and a salary that’s not even $50K annually.
“Gigs like logging and commercial fishing only pay [off] with top-tier operators who follow safety and weather rules,” said Jan Hendrik von Ahlen, managing director at JobLeads. “With cheap outfits and no appropriate benefits, it’s not worth it.”
3. Roofer
- Median salary: $50,970
Jobs keep the roofs over our heads — and for some people, those jobs include installing, maintaining and fixing those very same roofs. The heights are high, so does the pay match?
DeMott said that roofers often suffer significant fatalities on the job and “the reward their work gives them financially simply does not compensate for the continuous risk of life-threatening falls and possibly serious career-ending injury.”
4. Truck Driver
- Median salary: $57,440
From the gas we use to drive our cars to the groceries on our shelves, none of it could happen without truck drivers. While it might seem like a fairly straightforward job, it comes with a few dangers and not as much pay as you might think.
“The work is a grind and the injuries are common, but the pay may or may not make sense depending on whether you are an owner or worker,” said Guillermo Triana, founder and CEO of PEO-Marketplace.com. “A single trucker working 70-hour weeks hauling for a gross pay of $57,000 has no time, no freedom and very high accident risk.”
5. Firefighter
- Median salary: $59,530
It’s a noble and heroic profession to fight fires, save lives and give back to the community. The only question is: are you willing to put yourself in danger for less than $60K per year?
“Firefighters show a high mortality rate of 27 per 100,000, but the most alarming rate is the non-fatal injury rate — a whopping 9,800 per 100,000 workers,” said Danilo Coviello, founding partner at Espresso Translations. “The trauma, smoke inhalation, exposure to collapsing structures and chemical exposure are a very heavy physical and emotional burden that is just not reflected in that meager income.”
6. Iron and Steel Workers
- Median salary: $61,940
An essential part of the construction and building industry is iron and steel workers, who forge the foundational parts for numerous projects. They make a fairly middle-of-the-road salary, depending on the cost of living where they are located.
Jason Vaught, director of content and marketing at SmashBrand, believes this job is worth the money because these workers “are tied to a professional skill set that is not easily replaced.”
“These people need specialized training and certification in order to perform tasks such as putting up structural frameworks hundreds of feet in the air,” he said.
7. Police and Detectives
- Median salary: $77,270
Anyone in law enforcement is bound to face dangerous circumstances that will put them in harm’s way. Does the salary stack up for police officers and detectives?
Coviello said this profession “is well worth the money when looking at the financial result together with long-term applications.”
“While officers deal with high-stress, high-risk situations daily, the combination of good, middle-class pay and good retirement security helps compensate for law enforcement’s inherent dangers,” he said.
8. Farm Manager
- Median salary: $87,980
Farmers feed the world. Managing an entire agricultural operation takes a lot of skill, know-how and energy. It pays a salary just shy of $90K annually.
Vaught believes the work-to-pay ratio for this job is worth it because the managerial position is “more supervisory and operational than hands-on, physically risky labor.”
“This is a level of compensation that reflects the value of management expertise, long-term planning and responsibility to manage a large agricultural operation,” he said. “In this case, the pay is commensurate with the differential amount of oversight and accountability that must be exercised.”
9. Electrical Power Line Technician
- Median salary: $92,560
Anyone working with the electrical grid to keep the power flowing to homes, businesses and public spaces should be paid pretty well. An electrical power line technician makes just under six figures, though the risk factors are pretty high.
However, DeMott believes the salary is worth the relatively low fatality rate of 18.4 per 100,000 workers.
“The high salary is a sufficiently large reward for the inevitable risk of being near high-voltage power systems and at great heights,” he said.
10. Pilot
- Median salary: $198,100
Flying high in the sky would hopefully mean that your salary reflects the skills and dangers that come with being a pilot. And in most cases, captains of the air are paid handsomely for their work amongst the clouds.
A pilot’s salary “supports the enormous responsibility and expertise demanded of the role, making it well worth the value,” DeMott said. “The 31.3 fatality rate is strongly influenced by non-commercial aviation, meaning that the day-to-day risk of most professional commercial pilots is much lower than the overall data would indicate, which does improve the reward profile.”
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