I agree with the above posters when they say any profession can get you heaps if you do well in it.
But be careful of newspapers and gov stats though. The problem with what newspapers publish is that they use questionable profession groupings and also often use medians instead of weighted means. For instance if you're gonna group say Solicitors with Barristers who are self employed you're gonna get weird figures.
(Before reading on, I realise people will probably protest the accuracy of my comments...if people do I will post supporting evidence but seriously I cbfed. Additionally I'm not an IBanker wannabe so hopefully I wont appear biased.)
Heres the low down on what professions earn the most:
1. Investment Banker earn the most out of any profession, both upper range and mean wise, both at graduation, and at 1,2,5,10,20 years time.
Upon Graduation: Base: $80,000+ and also a bonus of another $40-120,000. Potentially you can get $240,000 first year out as a 21 year old.
up to - If you are a hardworker in the U.S.: >$350 Million USD. Yes. $350 Million. in U.S. Dollars.
(I stress I am not an IB wannabe and I'm not flogging it as a career, this is simply to answer the posters question)
2. and then in no order:
Some Surgeons, some Trial Attorneys in the U.S., some Mining/Tech Engineers, some Accountants who are CFOs/Partners, some Management Consultants....basically the moral is if you go high in your chosen profession you will earn lots. There is no profession that you will not earn absurdly high amounts in.
Generally, at graduation (in Australia):
Investment Banker>Mining/Geo Engineer>Dentist>Doctor>Lawyer>all the rest of em
- with the lowest paid jobs being in Accounting, Pharmacy and Architecture.
-note: In the U.S.A, grad Lawyers get paid shitloads more with about USD$140,000 on graduation for some top law firms. But then they have to do about 7 years of schooling there.
At high ranks (again, in Australia):
Investment Banker>Management Consultant>Accountant(C&I)>Lawyer (Solicitor)>Actuary>Accountant(public practice)>Engineer>Dentist>Doctor>the rest of them
However I would be guessing for this ^ as the spread is very thin at upper levels...they all get about the same at the top levevls, with the exception of the Investment Banker who gets about $10million+