Which professions offer the best pay for the least amount of effort? Anna Harrison, Bosham
Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com.
Readers reply
Being, briefly, prime minister. HenriettaMaria
Being a member of parliament. I speak from experience, having had the misfortune to be an MP’s caseworker! DavidB
Surely it has to be a Northern Ireland MLA. Anonymous
An NFL kicker (just for field goals) in the worst NFL team ie one that is so bad it doesn’t score any touchdowns. The minimum NFL salary is $750,000; if your team doesn’t score any touchdowns, you never have to kick. Melvyn
Veteran backup quarterback is the much cushier gig – better paid, hardly ever play, and when they do no-one expects much. Having a long career seems to be a matter of being easygoing and satisfied with helping, but not competing with, the first-choice QB. Chase Daniel has made about $40m from playing about 100 games in 14 years – so far as I can tell, for being likable, happy to take licks from the first-choice defence in practice sessions and helping the first-choice QB learn the playbook. bigfriendlymoose
Astronomer, no question. According to the national careers service, an average salary of up to £60,000, depending on experience; so the more time you’ve spent staring into space, the more you earn. ThereisnoOwl
It depends on how you define “effort”. Regardless of the profession, if you’re lucky enough to have a job that you love, the psychological effort involved will obviously be less than if you find the work utterly soul-destroying. On the other hand, if you want to determine the easiest way to make a fortune without ever getting off your arse, I’d refer you to my landlord. EddieChorepost
Mainframe operations shift work – I’ve managed for decades to sit and watch TV or read. Freelance in Europe makes £100k-plus a year; much more difficult due to Brexit. I’m now at home, working for a US company; £85k including benefits. In Belgium, on nights, I used to drink good wine and snack on cheese watching a film before a good nap for six hours. firstjobdenial
Royal family member. You get paid £1.8 billion to eat at banquets, wave at the public, shake hands with a few peasants and give the occasional speech. It is mind-numbingly boring, though, so there some effort required to stay awake through those endless ceremonies. duroi
I am a London Underground driver and I can tell you it is very simple, easy work that requires basically no effort, no qualifications and pays 65k with great benefits. It is, however, very, very boring and solitary, as well as probably being quite bad health-wise. StevenSalmon
Proofreader for the “Brexit benefits” website. Jimmee
Management consultant – thousands a day, you go in, hang around for a while, write a short report stating the bleeding obvious, then depart before the suckers implement your recommendations and things get worse. LeosJanacek
Write a column for the Telegraph, followed by a bit of public faffing about at City Hall and No 10, then the after-dinner circuit. Watch the £££ roll in … Mizenhead1
Coronation flag-seller. One day’s work and up to 70 years off. Although probably not that long this time. LostInTransit
I’m a software engineer, which is a strong candidate for the list. Some people in this line of work work very hard, some work office hours, and some do a lot less than that and can still get by for years on mid-six-figure salaries. The companies coined money for decades so there was never really any reason to fire anybody, there’s always a shortage of tech workers so it’s relatively easy to get raises and promotions, and most managers don’t really understand the work (and know they don’t) so they’re not in much of a position to identify people not pulling their weight.
And then there was the guy who outsourced his own job to China, taking a US tech job salary and paying some company to do all the work for Chinese tech wages, then pocketing the difference. AdamWilliamson
I’m a commercial gardener. I work five hours a day, four days a week for six months; four hours a day, eight days a month for the other six months. I’m self employed and earn more than £70,000. KieranG
Professional snooker players spend half their time at work sitting in an armchair watching the snooker. roughtrade
Get into programming. With five years’ good experience, you could go freelance and make north of £100k a year. Plus, you don’t feel trapped, as you know you have only a few months to go if you don’t like the place you’re working. PeteTheBeat
Tom Cruise’s stunt double. Sagarmatha1953
Santa Claus … one day a year and all that fame and adulation. BogusJohnson
According to the ads the YouTube algorithms keep showing me, it’s a young white man stood in front of a sports car or a big house. He says he’s earning thousands a week for a few hours of work a day from his mobile phone. He says I could do the same, too, if I sign up and follow his instructions and copy his trades … Haironmyback
I used to do voice work for advertisements when I lived in Brussels and an English voice was needed. For example, I had to say, with a little laugh in my voice: “Mars ice-cream, a pleasure you can’t measure,” and for about 15 minutes work I would get €350. And this was 20 years ago. Felt like pretty good work to me. maryartlett
Whoever runs the Guardian Notes & Queries section. Figured out how to crowdsource journalism and now we can’t escape. Daniel Hesk
My cat’s got it pretty cushy. upyerbum
