I don’t really follow football but someone tweeted earlier today that with his new contract (5 year $90 million) Colts QB Peyton Manning will make $26,510 per pass attempt. Every time he tries a pass in a game, he’ll make what a graduate student makes in a year*. That got me thinking- what does it take to make/earn/rake in what a graduate student slaves away for each year?

*Let's say a graduate student makes $25,000 a year- for many people it is less, and for some in high demand areas it may be higher. But for the sake of argument (and ease of calculation) let’s say a graduate student makes $25,000 a year.

Last year President Clinton came to my campus and his speaking fee was a $200,000 donation to his foundation. That is, after speaking for 5-10 minutes he raised what a graduate student makes in a year.

In 2010 the head of my college had an annual salary of $793,000, making his biweekly paycheck just over $30,000. So, every two weeks he got a paycheck that was more than a graduate student gets in all of their paychecks for a year.

Sir Elton John made $100 million over the course of 102 shows recently. That’s something like $980,000 a show. If a show is 26 songs long that’s $37,000 and change per song. So every song Elton sang brought in more money than a graduate student makes in a year.

Google made $28,236,000 in advertising revenue in 2010 (keep in mind- how often have you clicked on an ad on a Google search page?) That means every 4 hours, Google made enough money of advertising alone to pay for a graduate student stipend.

The “Greatest Two Minutes in Sports” (the Kentucky Derby) netted $2.1 million for the winner “Animal Kingdom”. That’s a graduate student stipend every 1.5 seconds.

Which comparison riles you up the most?

Have any other good comparisons?

Thanks to flickr user AMagill for the money photo.