Average Salaries by Age Group for College Graduates in Selected Majors, 2016-18

Average salaries for college graduates in various majors tended to be highest among workers in the 41- to 45-year-old age group, except for those in business and in the social sciences or cultural or area studies. Peak salaries for business majors were found among 46- to 50-year-olds, and for people who majored in the social sciences or cultural or area studies among 56- to 60-year-olds. People who majored in business had the highest average starting salaries, and people in STEM fields had the highest peak salaries. Although majors in the liberal arts (language or philosophy, and social sciences or cultural or area studies) were the lowest-paid among 18- to 25-year-olds, their salaries increased at the highest rate, and those in the social sciences or cultural or area studies caught up well enough that their salaries surpassed those of health-care majors during much of the latter part of their careers.

Note: “STEM” refers to majors in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. “Language” majors include English as well as foreign-language majors. Personal annual income of college graduates was collected in telephone surveys conducted from 2016 to 2018 that included 75,000 respondents with bachelor’s degrees. Of those bachelor’s-degree recipients, 18,000 were liberal-arts majors (defined as majors in social sciences or cultural or area studies, or language or philosophy). Data were weighted to be nationally representative. Salaries used to calculate averages are current for the year each survey was conducted. More data on jobs can be found here. Questions or comments on the Almanac should be sent to Ruth Hammond.

Source: Source: Emsi/Strada Institute for the Future of Work analysis of data from the Strada-Gallup Education Consumer Pulse, 2016-18

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