The 20 highest-paying jobs you can do from home

Thanks to technology, our overwhelming desire for better work-life balance, or a need for extra cash, freelancing is becoming the new norm in America.

As of 2014, more than 53 million Americans were doing freelance work, according to a survey conducted by the independent research firm Edelman Berland and commissioned by Freelancers Union and Elance-oDesk, which recently relaunched with the name Upwork.

That's about 34% of the entire workforce."We've entered into a new chapter of work, in which technology has made it much easier for people to find work faster and reach beyond Industrial Era boundaries in order to create a more flexible work-life balance," says Upwork CEO Stephane Kasriel.

Upwork - which serves as a broker between companies that need skills and freelancers eager to supply them - recently sifted through data to find which freelance skills yield the highest hourly wages.

Turns out freelancers with the right skills can earn a great living from the comfort of their homes.

---

The wage numbers come from the combined databases of Elance and Upwork, and are based on the average hourly rate for each skill between January 1 and May 31, 2015.