Why do dream jobs pay so little?
Companies in high-demand fields like sports and entertainment deliberately underpay staff because they know high worker interest guarantees a large applicant pool. This exploitation leaves skilled professionals — such as software engineers and senior accountants — earning a fraction of market rate, preventing them from sustaining a living wage in major cities.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Use work to fund your passion rather than turning your passion into your career
- 2Work in a tangentially related industry that offers better pay and culture while still maintaining personal interest
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“sports companies deliberately underpay because they know people want to work there. I've seen MLB teams offer $20/hr for a software engineer.”source ↗
“when i first moved to LA, the clippers were hiring an accounting manager to oversee a team of 8 and it was listed at like $60k, i was genuinely shocked at how little they think they can get away with paying”source ↗
“Yep, I saw a posting for a senior accountant at the NFL in NYC at $75k recently”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2Why do job listings hide the salary?
- 6Should I take a very low-paying entry-level job out of desperation?
- 2How to compete with clients hiring cheap unverified contractors
- 9Why can't you pay rent on an entry-level IT salary?
- 4Why are corporate accounting manager salaries so low?
- 6How to change careers when you are stuck in a niche