Professionalization is a status to which a complex process is attached. There is no clear definition of a profession and no widely recognized single definition. This paper aims to see if there is a relationship between an occupation trying to reach the status of a profession and the salary development for the profession. The paper examines the processes of professionalization of nurses, teachers and electricians in Sweden between 1880-2015 to see if any of the occupations have reached the status of a profession in terms of Thomas Brantes theory. Analysis shows that nurses have come the furthest in the development towards becoming recognized as a profession as they have asserted themselves a particular field of research and science, gained respect from society and have a system for licenses. Teachers have had the respect from society since the beginning of the 20th century, a license was created during the 21st century and they have had a scientific base for their occupation since middle of 20th century. Electricians have not connected their occupation to a higher education or tried to create a license in the same form as teachers or nurses and can not be considered a profession. The occupations examined here have gone through multiple processes to try to reach the status of a profession but none of these processes have shown any impact on the salary development. Reaching a professional status must therefore give an occupation other benefits than a higher salary why motivation surrounding professional status should be examined further in the future.