Comparing a cop to an engineering student is ridiculous. People are not choosing between those two careers. But you are underestimating how much police officers can make and over estimating how much engineers make after ten years.

Cops work 4 day weeks so working overtime could be equivalent to a five day work week. They are paid generously for overtime.

Everyone on this site complains about working extra hours for white collar jobs, cops can work those same hours and get paid.

You don’t need a college degree to be a cop.

You can retire after 25 years. I don’t know any engineers or white collar workers unless they are really wealthy who can retire at 47.

Anonymous wrote:Police deserve to be paid well.

- a public school teacher

Anonymous wrote:I agree. They also work hard just to be stereotyped and insulted, like in the post above yours.

Anonymous wrote:+1. Far more likely to be killed in a car accident than shot actually.

You rarely see 3 posts in a row here that are on topic, succinct and intelligent.

Thank you!

Anonymous wrote:This is not much money given the extreme risk factor of the job.

While I agree ☝️ they are underpaid, they make significantly more than many college graduates both to start, and throughout their career.

I wouldn’t want to be a STEM major right now. Basically every white collar job is going to experience pain from AI integration over the next decade. Forget CS degrees. The educational cliff is already coming for colleges and universities and the shrinking economy is going to create a bottleneck for the next four graduating classes.

At this point graduates should look at healthcare, teaching, law enforcement, and other professions unlikely to be upended by AI.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean becoming disabled. Are you hoping to be shot?

You understand that 62% of police officers aren’t shot, right?

Let’s take a deep breath. There are roughly 750k police officers and patrol deputies in the U.S. Between 2014-2019 there were 1,467 state and local law enforcement officers shot. That’s equals 0.2%. It is reasonable to project that +/- 1% of all state and local law enforcement will be shot during their career.

Anonymous wrote:It’s a good enough start similar to other early grads. By 5 years though everyone is speeding past you as they are making 6 figures easy. At 10 years they’re at minimum 150-200k in corporate america

Your salary projections for corporate America employees seem very optimistic.

Bankrate's projected starting salary for 2025 graduates with a business degree is $65,276.

CNBC's take on the top 16 majors that pay the most show only finance and business analytics in that cohort, and the mid-career(35-45) median salaries are $100,000 - $104,000.

Even with COL adjustments your assertion that everyone makes $150,000+ when they're 10 years out of college doesn't hold water.

In this area the Class of 2025 and 2026 will be competing with adults that have experience in their field, but have recently been laid off. Corporate America is also restructuring. There are very few rainbows and puppy dogs ahead for business majors.

No, because ACABs

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is that good or bad? Seems like a whole lot of nothing.

It’s a better package than most engineering majors get fresh out of college. When you factor in overtime it’s not even close.

Except those engineers don’t need to worry about getting killed or disabled at work.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean becoming disabled. Are you hoping to be shot?

You understand that 62% of police officers aren’t shot, right?

Wait, what? That number seems really low.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean becoming disabled. Are you hoping to be shot?

You understand that 62% of police officers aren’t shot, right?

+1. Far more likely to be killed in a car accident than shot actually.

Anonymous wrote:Police deserve to be paid well.

- a public school teacher

I agree. They also work hard just to be stereotyped and insulted, like in the post above yours.

Police deserve to be paid well.

- a public school teacher

I would not encourage my children to become police officers. It's a dangerous job, you might be asked to cover your face and kidnap American citizens with ICE, and you're in a community that I would not want them to be a part of (power hungry MAGA with guns),

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean becoming disabled. Are you hoping to be shot?

You understand that 62% of police officers aren’t shot, right?

This is not much money given the extreme risk factor of the job.

Anonymous wrote:It’s a good enough start similar to other early grads. By 5 years though everyone is speeding past you as they are making 6 figures easy. At 10 years they’re at minimum 150-200k in corporate america

People typically aren't deciding between corporate america vs. becoming a police officer. Also, corporate america doesn't typically have 4-day workweeks; you're often working 5 to 7 days per week instead and are chained to a work mobile device.