Court reporting cited as top paying career

 The court reporting profession was recently showcased as a top paying career that requires no college degree in an online article posted by the internet career site Monster.com, according to the National Court Reporters Association, the country’s leading organization representing stenographic court reporters and broadcast captioners.

 The article, “$100K Jobs That Don’t Require a Bachelor’s Degree,” appeared on the company’s career resources site and noted that as college tuitions continue to climb, salaries in many professions that require a college degree are failing to keep up, causing many students to question the value of a degree that requires a large upfront investment.

Based on information provided to Monster.com by compensation experts at PayScale, which provides compensation information to individuals and companies, court reporting is one of five professions noted for potential lucrative pay without the requirement of an expensive education. PayScale reported that salaries in the top 10 percent of the court reporting profession can earn salaries as high as $104,000 annually, while the annual median pay rate is $59,700, depending on where in the country and in what segment of the industry an individual works.

“It’s always great to see third-party verification of what we already knew, which is that court reporting is a great profession and a great career path,” said Jim Cudahy, NCRA executive director and CEO.

Stenographic skills translate to a multitude of career options — including court reporting, live-event captioning for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, captioning for broadcast and specialized videography — and strong marketplace demand means court reporting offers an abundance of long-term career opportunities.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), employment prospects for court reporters are expected to grow by 14 percent during the next several years. The BLS also reports that court reporters who are certified and those trained in realtime captioning and Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) will find the most lucrative positions.

“Court reporting is consistently ranked as one of the top career options as it offers both flexibility and significant income potential. Court reporters and captioners are able to begin a career without a traditional four-year college degree, and these highly trained professionals experience the continuous professional growth associated with an in-demand career,” Cudahy added.

For more information, visit NCRA.org. Career information about the court reporting profession can be found at CareersInCourtReporting.com.