16 Jobs That Pay Up To $100,000+ With Just An Associate Degree In 2024

What determines if your salary is six figures or not?

For many people 10 or 20 years ago, it was the common notion that you needed a four-year degree to be financially successful and to have the highest chances of securing a lucrative career.

But now, employers are realizing this idea is neither realistic or true, with Google, Tesla, and IBM joining the ranks of high-profile companies who have dropped the degree requirement for most or some of their roles, where applicable.

Instead, they are acknowledging that talent comes from unique places, and that candidates build skills from a wide range of backgrounds, not solely from a four-year college course or from the completion of a postgraduate degree.

Associate degrees tend to fill the gap between traditional bachelor’s degrees and the completion of a high school diploma or GED. This is because they offer a viable alternative to further education, often within a strictly vocationally-focused sense, that enables you to become a specialist within a specific field without needing to spend significant money, go into debt, or waste four years only to discover that you wouldn’t enjoy that career after all.

Therefore, reverting back to the original question: What determines if your salary is six figures or not? The answer lies in soft skills, strong technical competency, one’s ability to sell themselves effectively, your attitude to growth and learning, a strong work ethic, and yes, an associate degree can certainly help with at least some of that.

Other than these factors which are largely controlled by you, there are some external factors that have an influence on your salary as well.

These can include location (your city and state), hiring demand, and unfortunately, even discrimination.

Although you may not be able to directly control how much an employer pays you for your role if the pay gap is due to discriminatory practices, you can choose to move to a new location where demand for the role is greatest, and where it is more likely that salaries will be higher for your associate-level job.

For example, a job taken in New York or California will tend to pay significantly more than one in Oklahoma, as the cost of living is greater in these areas and these cities tend to host Big Tech and multi-billion-dollar employers.

Here are some high-paying jobs (meaning the pay more than the U.S. median salary of $59,228 according to BLS analysis of salaries from the first quarter of 2024), that you probably didn’t realize you could land with just an associate degree (salaries from Salary.com):

1. Radiation therapist: average salary $93,700, top 10% of earners male $104,800
2. ICU (intensive care unit) nurse: average salary $85,400, top 10% of earners make $99,346
3. Master plumber: average salary: $74,215, top 10% of earners make $94,569
4. Civil/architectural drafter: average salary $65,207, top 10% of earners make $71,816
5. Cardiovascular technician: average salary $51,703, top 10% of earners make $83,561
6. Dental hygienist: average salary $83,502, top 10% of earners make $102,601
7. Radiologic technologist: average salary $66,901, top 10% of earners make $80,083
8. Occupational therapy assistant: average salary $66,834, top 10% of earners make $73,478
9. Computer network support specialist: average salary $122,584, top 10 of earners make $143,488
10. Avionics technician: average salary $73,900, top 10% of earners make $87,846
11. Aerospace engineering technician: average salary $85,182, top 10% of earners make $96,953
12. Funeral home manager: average salary $72,690, top 10% of earners make $82,185
13. Air traffic controller: average salary $63,707, top 10% of earners make $72,579
14. Court reporter: average salary $63,026, top 10% of earners make $100,215
15. Construction manager: average salary $133,887, top 10% of earners make $168,900
16. Executive pastry chef: average salary $67,470, top 10% of earners make $85,409

With the roles that fall a few thousand dollars shy off the $100,000 mark, you have the opportunity to increase your earnings as you gain years of experience and boost your knowledge with extra certifications.

These 16 high-paying jobs prove that even with just an associate degree, you can work in a wide variety of industries and roles. From healthcare, to technology, to engineering, there’s no shortage of demand for skilled associate degree graduates in 2024.