Translator / Interpreter
Also known as: Linguist, Interpreter
Bridge language barriers by converting text or speech between languages for business, legal, and medical contexts.
Salary Range
The highest-paid specialization or seniority level for translator / interpreters.
About 1 in 2,000 reaches this level
The UN employs maybe 100-150 staff interpreters globally; out of ~75K US translators, senior UN P-5 roles top out around $140K base with post adjustments reaching ~$175K.
Salary data based on 2025 BLS, Glassdoor, and industry reports. Actual compensation varies by location, experience, and employer.
How to Become One
This career typically requires a bachelor's degree. Here are the top colleges for it:
AI Risk Assessment
Among the clearest 'actively contracting' careers in the dataset, which is exactly the rubric's bar for a 5. BLS itself notes in the 2024 Occupational Outlook that translators 'have become more productive as AI translation capabilities continue to improve, reducing their employment demand' — government acknowledgement of headcount pressure, not a forecast. Specific examples back it up: CNN reported the IMF cut translator/interpreter headcount from roughly 200 to 50 as it adopted machine translation, and a 2024 ProZ-affiliated industry survey (covered by The Next Web in early 2026) found ~36% of translators have already lost work to AI and 75%+ expect further income decline. A 2026 freelance rate database shows post-editing pay at 50–70% of human-only rates — direct wage compression on the work that survives.
Sources
Ratings reflect a 10-year outlook based on 2025-2026 research, weighted toward entry-level impact. Individual outcomes will vary.
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