What Jobs Pay $100 an hour? 27 Highest Paying Jobs (In 2020)

One of the fastest ways to build wealth is a high-paying salary.

That’s why today we’re going to uncover what jobs pay 100 an hour.

If you’re just starting to look into what career path you want to follow here’s a great resource to find jobs that pay $200k a year or more

Or if you’re considering switching to a higher paying job this post is for you too.

We’ve even included a bonus section for those that want to earn $100 an hour being their own boss.

It’s time to take control of your #1 wealth-building tool: your income!

Let’s get started.

What Jobs Pay $100 an hour:

Copywriter

Copywriting: Writing persuasively, and usually geared towards sales or getting customers to take action can be a very lucrative career.

Copywriting is also one of the few jobs that pay $100 an hour without a degree.

The best copywriters can earn thousands an hour, and often just work on flat-rate fees or even negotiate a percentage of the sales that their copy generates.

I’ve hired Neville Medhora to consult and write copy on a big sales email series in one of my previously sold businesses. At the time he charged $600 an hour, and he’s since raised his rates— he’s that good.

And that might sound crazy to some. But when you dig into the numbers, he helped us produce well over 10x profit vs what we paid him.

If you want to succeed as a copywriter you’ll need to focus on generating disproportionate returns for your company or clients. 

Think 10x— your goal is to produce 10 times what you’re being paid. 

Do this, and watch your hourly rate skyrocket.

Executive Coach

I noticed a lot of other lists online talked about Life Coaches. Sure, some of the top life coaches do earn over $100 an hour. And if that’s interesting to you, look into it. 

But today we’re going to look at executive coaching to earn over $200,000 a year.

When you can produce highly specific and tangible results you can often charge many times more than $100 an hour.

In fact, I’ve paid several times more than that to receive top-notch executive coaching from a company called Building Champions.

Almost every single career earning over $100 an hour produces specific results for their company or clients. 

You’re catering to a company’s biggest investment: their highly skilled, highly paid executives. 

So if you can help them grow and keep them performing like rockstars, you’re likely to get paid like one.

Consultant

Similar to executive coaches, consultants go into business to fix problems, help businesses get un-stuck and breakthrough to new levels of success.

If you’re a consultant who can help people or businesses hit those new levels of success, you can easily earn or charge over $100 an hour.

As always, your goal is to create a clear ROI (return on investment) that exceeds what your clients are paying you or the company you work for.

Underwater welder

I do a little bit of welding in my full-time job of Special Effects in the film industry, and while the pay is great, I only earn roughly half of what we’re shooting for in this article.

And that goes for the average underwater welder too, who also only earns half of our target rate of $100 an hour. It’s a specific subset called Saturation Divers who can earn $200 an hour or more. The key difference… they go DEEP underwater.

It’s an incredibly dangerous job, requires training, certifications, and lots of diving experience— thus the high pay.

Here’s a great blogpost explaining how to earn top pay in the underwater welding industry.

Freelance Photographer & Videographer

Like most jobs, you don’t start out making top dollars and you may have to build your portfolio doing low-priced or free photos for friends and family.

But I remember hiring an ex-employee of mine to film at my wedding. He didn’t make $100 an hour that day, it was his first major gig. 

But just 2 years later he built up a name and reputation.

He now makes over $150 an hour doing photography and videography… and he gets paid to travel all over the US.

Once you’ve built up a name for yourself, it’s not unrealistic to charge thousands of dollars to do wedding photography or other special events in people’s lives.

Public Speakers Can Earn over $100 an Hour

The best resource to learn how to turn your passion for teaching and speaking into a full-fledged, high-paying business is Grant Baldwin’s The Speaker Lab.

One thing I love about this line of work is the flexibility. You can start with low experience, low commitment, and only a few days, and scale up as you progress.

You can play around with his speaker fee calculator to get an idea of what your earning potential can become as you grow in this career.

Tattoo Artist

It’s been almost 12 years since I got a tattoo, but I very clearly remember paying $125 an hour to work with one of the preferred artists in my midsized hometown. 

That was 12 years ago! Rates have gone up significantly since then. 

Unless you’re working with a brand new artist, or your crazy cousin Carl, you won’t find many decent artists under $100 an hour. 

In fact, rates are often getting closer to the $200 an hour range— with the top artists charging $300 an hour or more.

Massage Therapist

We all love a good massage. And that’s why the best hands earn a great hourly wage.

At higher-end hotels like Four Seasons, it’s normal to see rates of $80-$100 for a 40-minute massage (that works out to $120-150 an hour). 

Sure, many places may require you to pay rent for your space, but when you start to become a private masseuse that goes to their clients, more of that money stays in your pocket. 

Interior Designer

A great interior designer can do magic for a home, restaurant, or business.

If you’ve ever walked into a model-home and been blown away, well that’s because of great interior designers.

I have friends who work in this space— the wife is the interior designer and the husband is the head of remodeling. Think Fixer Upper’s Chip and Joanna Gaines, but on a not-so-nationally known level.

Now, my friends own their own business and make a kingly sum making people’s dreams come true. 

But as an interior designer, you can make that $100 an hour without having to handle the construction side of things if you’re not into that.

Commercial pilot

A pilot’s life can be both exciting and draining. But for those who stick it out and earn seniority, you get a lot more flexibility in choosing your routes. 

While the salary doesn’t always work out to $200,000 a year, the hourly can make it to $100+ because there are hard limits on how many hours you can work per week and per year.

If you’re flexible and willing to put in the work, this can be a great career to become a high earner.

TV & Film Department Heads

While job roles vary greatly from doing camera work, to grip work, special effects (my day job!) to being a 1st AD (assistant director), the pay can easily hit $100 an hour for department heads and those with rental packages (think trailers of equipment or even a make-up kit).

Hourly rates are typically in the $45-60 an hour range (plus tons of overtime, pension, and medical benefits). That sounds a little shy of our target…

But when you add in a weekly or monthly rental package of your equipment for $7,000-$10,000 that pushes most easily above the desired $100 an hour rate.

It can be an absolutely thrilling industry— but due travel and long hours (I’ve clocked some 17 hour days) often 6 or 7 days a week— it can also be brutal. But that’s why they pay and feed you so well.

What Jobs Make $100 an Hour in The Medical Industry?

The jobs below all have the potential to earn you hundreds of thousands of dollars of year. 

But the “catch” is that you’ll need to do extensive schooling, that can cost $60,000 a year, and then do a residency for several years while earning much less than our $100 dollars an hour target.

Keep that in mind. Yes, the payoff can be excellent in the long run, especially if you’re wise with your finances, but these paths are not “get rich quick” ones.

Anesthesiologist

If you’ve ever had to be “put out” for surgery, then you’re familiar with anesthesiology. This first one makes the list because it’s a little surprising— at least it was for me! 

We all expect traditional doctors to be hitting a large salary, but an anesthesiologist has a mean salary of just over $100 dollars an hour. From the research we gathered, those working in medical offices have a higher chance of earning in the triple digits versus those working in hospitals or other outpatient facilities.

Physician

The median salary in 2018 for physicians was $194,500 which puts us right into the triple digits in earnings per hour. According to U.S. News being a physician is ranked #7 in the top 100 best jobs list.

This makes Physicians one of the highest paying jobs on the list.

Surgeon 

If you still haven’t found your answer to what jobs make $100 an hour check this out.

This is one of the few jobs that pays $100 dollars an hour in every state. In fact, over 75% of surgeons make over $100/hr according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. So if this specific area of the medical industry appeals to you, your odds of making over $200,000 a year as a surgeon are the best yet on our list.

Politician

While many of the top-paying political jobs are salary and not strictly hourly, there are a few that equal out close to or above paying $100 an hour.

First up: 

The President. Sure, there’s only 1 position available and it only opens up every 4 years, but it technically meets our requirement because it pays $400,000 per year. The Vice President meets our mark too by pulling in a salary of $230,000.

Here are a few other positions that you can go after if you’re interested in politics but may not be shooting for the top position in the U.S.:

Speaker of the House: $223,500

House Majority And Minority Leaders: $193,400

Chief Justice of Supreme Court: $258,100

Associate Justices of Supreme Court: $246,800

Psychiatrist

Psychiatrists have a median income of over $208,000. Their primary role is as the medical health professional of the mind. They have similarly long and expensive schooling as a traditional M.D., and like an Doctor, they’re able to prescribe some medications alongside their therapeutic plans.

If you’re interested in helping evaluate, prevent, and treat mental conditions and disorders, this is a great career choice to look into.

Orthodontist

Show me your grill! Not only will you make your clients have a beautiful smile, but you’ll be smiling all the way to the bank. “Orthodontist” is one of our answers to “what jobs pay 100 an hour” with a median salary of over $208,000!

We all may hate wearing braces, but we love the results! And that’s why orthodontists make excellent wages and have one of the lowest unemployment rates around at under 1%.

General dentist

A typical dentist’s salary comes in a bit lower than most of our jobs paying $100 dollars an hour, but we were able to find plenty of job offers over this rate when looking online. 

While initially, dentist jobs are jobs that pay $80 an hour, depending on the size of the practice, you can find jobs upwards of $250,000. Usually, the key to making maximum money is owning your own practice and being financially shrewd.

If helping people in a variety of oral issues sounds interesting to you, take a look. It’s another career you can’t switch to overnight— if you’re going to fix cavities, perform oral surgeries, and help alleviate other diseases of the mouth— you’re going to need substantial schooling to get your Doctorate.

Arbitrator

The top 10% of arbitrators can make over $125 an hour helping people and businesses resolve their issues outside of court.

While most requirements vary state by state unlike other professions, if you want to be an arbitrator, most have either law backgrounds, masters in public policy, or specialized business backgrounds.

As we become a more litigious society, job prospects are looking to increase in this area because more companies and people want to settle outside of costly court.

Model – Hand, Foot, Photographic etc.

Not everyone can pull this one off… I sure can’t. But for those who were blessed with the features fashion and marketing companies are looking for, you can earn quite a nice sum of money every hour. 

If you’ve got it, you can get paid 100 dollars an hour or more in this line of work. For those who do, you have to take great care to keep your body parts in tip-top shape— that could mean near-constant lotion and gloves for hands or hardcore workouts.

If you’ve ever heard rumors or read news stories about celebrities insuring body parts (Heidi Klum’s $4 million dollar legs!), now you can imagine why.

Sales Jobs Can Pay $100 an Hour

Sometimes salespeople get a bad rap. We’ve all met the overly annoying salesperson who pounces on you like a flock of vultures. 

But can you remember a time where you had a great experience, were educated about a product (and it’s competing options), and walked away more informed and ended up purchasing something you loved?

The right salesperson can make all the difference and the best play at an entirely different level than amateurs. And there pay easily reflects their experience gap.

What sales jobs pay $100 an hour? Not your entry-level position and usually not small ticket items.

If you want a sales job that earns $100 dollars an hour or more, you’ll need to look into either a very high volume of sales in a business to business or sell big-ticket, expensive items. 

Things like heavy equipment, medical devices, digital media, or even high-end houses in real estate can earn you great commissions bringing your hourly rate over $100.

Lawyer Jobs Make $100 an Hour (or more)

A great attorney often starts at $300 an hour and goes up from there. Like most jobs that make $100 an hour, you start at much less, but your upward potential is substantial. 

To earn that great pay, you’ll go through some tough upper-level  schooling as well as passing things like the Bar Examination. On the other side of that, you’re helping advise and counsel business, people, and other organizations through legal matters. 

Not all attorneys spend their time in big trials in the courtroom— plenty are working in the areas of protecting assets in things like wills and trusts, while others help draft and counsel through business contracts.

In almost any of these different specializations, the upper level of pay for lawyer jobs easily gets into the multiple hundreds of dollars an hour.

So if you want a job paying $100 an hour or more, becoming a lawyer is definitely a career path to look into.

CPAs (Certified Public Accountant)

You may not hit $100 an hour your first year, but a seasoned CPA can bill at $200 an hour, or more. 

And it’s not unheard of to hit a $200k salary working for a mid-sized company as their CFO. Like many of the other white-collar jobs above, you’ll need a certain level of schooling and a CPA exam that varies by state, but the rewards can be well worth it.

Upper-level Management at a Mid-sized Company

Although the path usually takes years to get over the $200,000 per year pay range at these jobs, they are out there.

If you have the skill, networking abilities, and work ethic, you can take the path of “climbing the corporate later”. Jobs like marketing managers, sales managers, Chief Operations Officer and others can earn over $100 dollars an hour

What jobs make $100 an hour? Below is a quick list from Network World of tech-based jobs that pay $100 an hour up to $140 an hour on their high end:

• iOS developer: $90,000 – $200,000
• Android developer: $90,000 – $200,000
• Project manager: $90,000 – $200,000
• Solutions architect: $140,000 – $200,000
• Application security engineer: $125,000 – $210,000
• Data architect: $130,000 – $210,000
• Data scientist: $130,000 – $210,000
• Director PMO: $125,000 – $225,000
• Chief data officer: $162,000 – $228,000
• DevOps lead/engineer: $115,000 – $250,000
• Chief information security officer: $145,000 – $250,000
• Demandware developer: $150,000 – $250,000
• CIO/CTO: $170,000 – $285,000

Still not seeing anything that excites you? Then maybe it’s time to create your own “job” in the form of starting a business.

Start a Business or Freelance to make $100 an Hour

My first few businesses either failed or never got passed the “idea phase”, but eventually I found one that stuck and turned into something great.

In 2011 I started a retail supplement store, and fairly quickly added a second and then third location.

Initially, I only paid myself enough to handle my bare-bones expenses while living at my parents’ house. That was around $1,200-$1,500 a month for a ton of hours, and everything else went right back into growing the business. I probably made less than minimum wage at the time.

But after a few years, I was able to steadily give myself raises and other perks as the business grew. I still didn’t break $100 an hour in my first 3 years, but I did reach around $40 an hour.

Then at one point, I realized I didn’t want to be in this specific business for the long-haul so I started looking into how to sell it. I read this great book called Built To Sell by John Warrillow among others and decided to work myself out of the business.

After focusing on empowering other team members to take on more responsibility, I eventually got the business to the point where It required only minimal time on my part and yet paid me more than ever.

For the last 18-24 months, I got into the $100 an hour territory (actually closer to the $200 an hour mark near the end)… and then [spoiler alert] I sold the business.

If you’re interested in starting your own business, there can be big risks, but also big rewards for those who make it to profitability and beyond.

A more low-cost approach to starting a business is to get into freelancing. 

At first, you’ll likely charge rates that equate to $15-30 per hour, but you can quickly scale to $50 an hour, $100 an hour, and then much further. Check out our post on How to Make Money Fast under the freelancing section for a more in-depth look.

Conclusion

It’s never too late to look at ways to increase your money now, and over the longterm. Sure, some jobs are going to take extensive schooling and years of preparation, others, like starting your own business don’t, but do have other risks.

But the fact is, there are jobs that pay $100 an hour if you’re willing to put in the work and go after them. So take a look at the list, and research more on the ones that interest you most.

And while you’re preparing for your job, here are ways you can often make $100 an hour on the short term in the form of quick, but powerful savings and earning techniques to put an extra $1,000 or more back in your pocket. 

If your goal is to become Independently Wealthy then maximizing your earning potential is one of the first things you want to work on.

What Jobs Paying $100 an hour Are You Most Interested In?

Or are there other jobs that pay $100 dollars an hour or more that you know about?

Let me know in the comments below!