Weathermen get paid to much?

Question

ok me and my friends are having a fight, why should weathermen get paid what they do. if they are wrong why should they get paid? i think they should and others think they should not. what does everyone think?

Answer 1

I think weathermen are awesome, of course, I am one...

Answer 2

Alex Rodriguez fails to get a hit about 70% of the time he comes to bat, but he's considered a great hitter and gets paid $28 million/year.  Real meteorologists (the ones that work for the National Weather Service) are not that highly paid and they have tremendous responsibility in their jobs.  Just imagine what Hurricane Katrina would have done if it had not been forecast correctly--the death toll would have been in the tens of thousands.  Short term forecasting (out to about 3 days) has greatly improved in the last 15 years.  Some situations are more difficult to forecast than others.  It's hard to determine where the line will be between rain/sleet/snow but that can make a tremendous difference in the forecast.  Also, forecasting the amount of snow is difficult because the same amount of water can make a couple of inches of snow or over a foot.

I definitely don't think they get paid too much.  Just compare their rate of success to those guys that planned the Iraq War, and got paid much much more for it.

Answer 3

Actually, the fact of the matter is meteorologists do NOT get paid that much in general.  

Broadcast (TV) weather pays c**p in smaller markets and decent in bigger markets... although the top TV weather personalities gets 6 digits a year.. a couple maybe 7.

The government pays decent...  especially after a few years... but I'm not talking big money, I mean 40-60K a year until you have good experience.

Other industries, i.e. aviation/marine/forensic, only pay about 30-35K entrance level (which is actually below the median salary for a first year degreed professional).

Answer 4

Pegminer explained it very well. Professional athletes, actors/actresses, and CEO's are the ones being paid too much. No job is worth more than six or seven digits. People who don't get college degrees shouldn't be making more than people who do get a college degree.

BaseballStud_8 is correct as well.