What jobs have the best and worst pay?

The country's 2.7 million food service workers make an average of $17,400 a year.

In 2008, surgeons brought home an average of $206,770 a year, just a bit more than anesthesiologists.

The average American worker brings home about $42,000 a year.

For some reason, surgeons in Gary, Ind., are by far the best-paid in the country.

Counter attendants at cafeterias and concession stands in Owensboro, Ky., bring home just $13,810 a year.

People in the nation's capital make about $25,000 more than the national average.

South Dakota and Mississippi -- with an average annual salary of $33,000.

Locomotive engineers saw their salaries dip 15.4 percent in 2008 -- but they still make more than the national average.

Orthodontists bring home about $197,000 a year, $7,000 more than the runner-up, oral and maxillofacial surgeon.

Coming in at No. 10 are the country's 300,000 CEOs, who pull down an average of $160,440. Move to New Jersey for the highest salaries.

Fast food preparers/servers come in at rock bottom.

The nonprofit world encompasses a huge variety of jobs -- from hospital workers to college professors to charity CEOs -- but hospital internists take the cake. They earn an average of $141,939, a few hundred more than a nonprofit CEO.

Washington, D.C., tops the list again, and high-paying, regulated government jobs are to thank here.

Women in Mississippi, largely because of their low education levels, are at the bottom of the totem pole as far as pay.

Mississippian women could, in theory, make $19,000 more per year if they moved to D.C.

Women make about 80 percent of what men make. But in high-paying places like Washington, D.C., that percentage goes up to 92.

You'll make about $1,000 more a year -- roughly $20,120 -- as a parking lot attendant.

We don't know why, but you might want to move to Vermont if you're looking for a career as a parking lot attendant.

About a third of all hospital jobs are nonmedical, the worst-paying of which is child-care worker. They take home around $21,800 a year.