We Figured Out The Salaries Of 20 Famous TV Characters

Television is where our dreams go to come alive. Or is it die? At any rate, as Americans, we spend up to 34 hours a week with our favorite TV characters—for some of us, this is more than we see our own families. Therefore, we have a right to know just how much bacon people like Homer Simpson and Don Draper are bringing to the table.

Here are the estimated salaries of 20 notable (fictional) television personalities, adjusted for 2015's economy. We wanted to include someone from Game of Thrones, but "Average annual wages for Mother of Dragons" came up blank, unfortunately. Go figure.

Al Bundy 

Show: Married With Children
Job: Shoe salesman
Approx. annual salary: $23,797
It looks like the low-earning Bundy probably hated his job as much as he hated having sex with his wife. Too bad that football career never panned out...

Rachel Green

Show: Friends
Job: Waitress
Approx. annual salary: $26,000
She got as many breaks as she wanted working at Central Perk, but anyone who watched friends knows how Rachel feels about breaks. 

Rocko

Show: Rocko's Modern Life
Job: Phone hotline operator
Approx. annual salary: $34,270
I'm pretty sure Rocko worked for a phone sex hotline. Which just made me like this show 200% more, and my childhood 40% less.

Leslie Knope

Show: Parks and Recreation
Job: Recreation director
Approx. annual salary: $42,000
Her annual salary is *literally* half the worth of Lil' Sebastian.

Hank Hill

Show: King of the Hill
Job: Seller of propane (and propane accessories)
Approx. annual salary: $43,000
He might not be making bank, but Hank is doing what he loves. She don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie: propane.

Hannah Horvath 

Show: Girls
Job: Staff writer for GQ (Conde Nast)
Approx. annual salary: $43,000
Although it's a decent salary, Lena Dunham's character only held this position briefly. Sending her back to her regular annual salary, which was nothing.

Homer Simpson

Show: The Simpsons
Job: Nuclear safety inspector
Approx. annual salary: $51,000
Apparently, the residents of Springfield don't care that their nuclear safety inspector has a crayon lodged in his brain. 

Walter White

Show: Breaking Bad
Job: Chemistry teacher
Approx. annual salary: $51,965
Shouldn't America's educators be compensated more fairly? This is the kind of thing that makes me want to throw a pizza on the roof. 

Bob Belcher

Show: Bob's Burgers
Job: Restauranteur
Approx. annual salary: $56,587
And he gets his name on a sign.

Rust Cohle and Marty Hart

Show: True Detective
Jobs: True detectives
Approx. annual salary: $65,000
Time may be a flat circle, but these guys' bottom lines are right on point to buy 5,162.8 twelve-packs of Lone Star per year. Yes, I did the math. 

Jerry Seinfeld

Show: Seinfeld
Job: Moderately successful stand-up comedian
Approx. annual salary: $75,000
Because the jobs fluctuate so much, this was a hard one to determine. We figured, based on the data provided by the New York Times, that a moderately successful, primarily non-touring stand-up comic like Jerry would be making around $75K a year. This data is making me thirsty. 

Michael Scott

Show: The Office
Job: Regional sales manager
Approx. annual salary: $76,346
Not a bad salary for a paper man from Scranton—it's definitely large enough to be comfortable. That's what she said

Tony Soprano

Show: The Sopranos
Job: Solid waste management consultant
Approx. Annual Salary: $84,000
It's a nice salary, but I'm thinking it's not enough to afford that luxe NJ McMansion. He must have a second job, or something.

Coach Taylor

Show: Friday Night Lights
Job: High school football coach
Approx. annual salary: $88,420
I don't know much about this show, but I do know that this guy shouldn't be making $30K more than teachers. Welcome to Texas! 

Ross Geller 

Show: Friends
Job: Paleontologist 
Approx. annual salary: $91,920
The answer to why so many amazing women date this dude: his sweet, sweet dino bone money.

Rick Grimes

Show: The Walking Dead
Job: Sheriff/police chief
Approx. annual salary: $100,706
How pissed would you be if you just got promoted, then the zombie apocalypse happened?

Fraiser Crane

Show: Frasier
Job: Psychiatrist and radio show host
Approx. annual salary(Psychiatrist): $187,032
Approx. annual salary (Radio Host): $40,000+
Because of the drastically varying salaries of radio personalities, this was a difficult one to figure out. We can assume that he was getting paid more than your standard psychiatrist (which would pry him away from private practice) and is likely on the top-tier of radio personalities at his station. Combining the average salaries for each of his careers tops out at $227,032, which is probably a conservative estimate.

Don Draper

Show: Mad Men
Job: Creative director
Approx. annual salary: $250,000+
On top of being the Creative Director for several iterations of his Agency, he also became a partner. That means he would top out at the highest end of the spectrum for Creative Directors—and is probably getting more, with everything taken into account. After all, his second (or third, depending on how you look at it) wife Megan told him, "You were a millionaire when I met you," just before he gave her a check for a cool $1M.

Frank Underwood

Show: House of Cards
Job: President of the United States
Approx. annual salary: $550,000 (including fringe benefits)
The POTUS is one of the most deadly jobs in the world, all things considered, so it makes sense that they rake in the cash. The uber-manipulative, unscrupulous President of Netflix is probably doing some dirty stuff under the table for some extra scratch, too. Like selling bones, or something else totally weird and surprisingly lucrative. 

Uncle Phil

Show: Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Job: Senior partner at law firm
Approx. annual salary: $734,000
Based on his age, gender, location, and stern-but-fair gaze, we estimate U.P.'s salary to be a bountiful $734k. It seriously makes you question who the true Prince of Bel-Air really is. Yo poverty, smell ya lata!


Wil Fulton is a staff writer for Supercompressor. He makes more than some of these people. Which is nice. Follow him @WilFulton.

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