It’s something to contemplate in the anxious minutes before surgery — your anesthesiologist makes six times more than your clergyman and 12 times more than your bartender. At $307,629 a year for an average salary in the Chicago area, anesthesiologists were among the best paid of Chicago workers, according to a sample of Chicago area jobs and pay conducted by ERI Economic Research Institute, based in Redmond, Wash.

ERI provides geographic-specific salary survey data to thousands of annual subscribers worldwide.

In contrast, the average clergyman makes $49,810, and the average bartender $24,079.

Other top-salary winners are commercial pilots, surgeons and pharmacists. Like anesthesiology, those jobs are likely to see pay increases in the next year of 5 percent or more. The survey didn’t look at the very highest-paid jobs, such as CEOs and investment bankers.
Read more…