Posted by Katie Bardaro

The Thanksgiving Holiday is a time to give thanks and recognize the people who contribute to our wellbeing. These people include the teachers who impart wisdom on our children, the doctors who ensure our health, and volunteers who are vital to the success of our social programs.

In fact, there are many jobs that help to make our world a better place; some of which might not come to mind immediately.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we at PayScale decided to create a list of "Jobs that Make the World a Better Place." In this post, I will look at those jobs whose workers deserve our thanks, and how they are monetarily rewarded for their efforts.

Are you curious if you're paid what you're worth? Find out with a free PayScale Salary Report.

In a recent project with Catherine Rampell at the New York Times Economix Blog, we examine the pay differential between men and women across a set of 90 jobs.

Numerous studies have looked at the gender wage gap, including the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the New York Times, and the Census. However, the question remains, why does the gap exist?

Examining national pay differences across men and women, even by job title, can be misleading. Men and women in a sample may be different in ways that employers could legitimately pay differently.

Using our unique dataset here at PayScale, we are able to control for many outside compensable factors (experience, education, specialty, company size, etc.) in order to provide a more apples-to-apples comparison.

This allows us to give one of the strongest answers to date to the question, "If a man and woman are doing the exact same job with the exact same qualifications, responsibilities, and employer type, is the man still paid more than the woman?"

In this post, I will look at what our data says, and address some of the questions and misconceptions Economix readers have.

Are you curious if you're paid what you're worth, no matter your gender? Find out with a free PayScale Salary Report.

Name: Rossy White
Job Title: Human Resurces Consultant
Where: Fort Myers, FL
Years of Experience: 10 years
Education: Marketing Degree; Master's Degree in Human Resources Administration
Salary: See the PayScale Research Center for the average salary of a human resources consultant.

Human Resources Consultant

Rossy White is a highly trained HR superstar. She has worked in human resources, public management and consulting for a decade. Her human resources career has involved international work, employment in the public and private sectors and success in starting her own HR business. In this Salary Story, read about the core role of human resources professionals and get Rossy's advice on how to succeed in the HR field.

Name: Bill Bevan
Job Title: President of Remodeling Services Company
Where: Lynwood, WA - Greater Seattle Area
Employer: Bevan's, Inc. - Seattle, WA Remodeling Services
Years of Experience: 20 years of general contracting and remodeling
Education: Ballard High School
Salary: Use the PayScale Research Center to find the average general contractor salary.

Career Profile: President of Remodeling Services Company

As the president of a Seattle remodeling services company, Bill Bevan has his work cut out for him. His company, Bevan's Inc. handles numerous remodeling jobs in the Seattle area, from small repairs to extensive home expansions. In this interview, Bill shares his experience working in the construction industry. He describes the responsibilities involved in operating a remodeling services company and explains both the challenges and benefits of running a business. For those just entering the field, Bill offers advice on how to get started on a successful career path. 

Name: Henry Cubillan
Job Title: Sales Operations Program Manager
Where: Round Rock, TX
Employer: Dell, Inc.
Years of Experience: 3
Education: Goucher College, BA; Thunderbird School of Global Management, MBA; Project Management Institute, PMP Certification
Salary: Use the PayScale Research Center to find the median Sales Manager Salary.

Sales Operations Program Manager Role and Responsibilities 

Henry Cubillan is one of the best inspirations for customer service we’ve interviewed. He has gotten to the top levels of a global company like Dell by working hard and utilizing effective customer service. In a chief role of operations program manager, Henry has been able to help customers from all over the world. In this interview, he discusses the functions of the operations manager and offers some sage advice for anyone pursuing a career in sales management.

What are the functions of an operations manager?

Henry: My main responsibility is to support fulfillment programs for some of our largest public and Fortune 500 customers. It's my job to craft a response plan that meets the customer's expectations in terms of procurement, SLA levels, product fulfillment and delivery. I am the face of operations in front of our customers and I ensure that all support teams throughout the organization work to meet the customer's requirements. For example, we may have a customer that needs 20,000 notebooks delivered to 550 locations around the world within a very short time frame. It's my job to work with the customer to understand their capabilities/limitations at each location, craft a delivery schedule that meets their needs, work with our fulfillment teams to ensure that (once a purchase order is received) we are building the product in a timely manner, comply with all of the customer's specific requirements, and deliver within the agreed-upon time frame at each and every location.