For territorial legislators, who have some of the highest-paying jobs in the Arctic, the problem may stem from alcohol mixed with domineering attitudes about women.

He also did not want to alienate people in those other places by giving the impression that New York gets only the highest-paying jobs.

Some of the big online job boards have also tried to aim at the highest-paying jobs.

According to conventional economic theory, workers settle in those cities that offer them the highest-paying jobs in their fields.

"Whatever Costco's reputation is for dealing with lower-level employees, there's a black hole involving promotions to its most important and highest-paying jobs," he said.

These are, after all, the highest-paying blue-collar jobs left in America.

For decades, the West Coast longshoremen's union could boast that its members had some of the highest-paying blue-collar jobs in the nation.

But they add that the highest-paying jobs in government tend to pay less than the equivalent on the private side.

Critics say that while the new class may be mostly minority, whites still occupy a disproportionately high percentage of the highest-paying jobs.

Some workshop participants suggested there was equal - if not greater - value in not seeking the most competitive and highest-paying jobs.