Operations is a labor love. It may not propel MBAs into the highest tax brackets, but it delivers a steady paycheck nonetheless. Let’s face it: You’ll always need someone to oversee the production and transportation of goods. Among Poets & Quants’ Top 50 MBA programs, 33 assembled 2016 classes that earned $100,000 in base to start. The list is capped off by Stanford, where 13 graduates averaged $127,692 to start, down $4,000 from the previous year. While pay often fell among the top schools, that difference was made up in the middle to an extent. U.C. Irvine’s Merage School of Business saw operations pay skyrocket by $24,000 over the previous year, with a similar increase found at New York University’s Stern School of Business. Stanford also claimed the highest individual pay in this space at $225,000, higher than either Harvard ($170,000) or MIT Sloan ($157,200).