Average Starting Salary For Class Of 2019 Up 5.8 Percent From 2018’s

Overall average starting salary for the Class of 2019 is $53,889, up 5.8 percent from $50,944 for 2018, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, NACE, Summer 2020 Salary Survey report. (See Figure 1.)

Math And Computer Science Grads Top Starting Salary

For the fourth consecutive year, the average starting salary for computer and information sciences top all other college degrees.

This year’s increase was impressive. At $76,986, the overall average starting salary for Class of 2019 computer and information sciences majors leaped 7.8 percent from last year’s $71,411 for 2018.

The average starting salary is also higher for Class of 2019 engineering graduates. Their overall average of $70,219 is up 5.4 percent from last year’s average of $66,638.

Average starting salaries for computer, information sciences and engineering are higher, but mathematics and statistics majors saw the largest gain. The overall average starting salary for Class of 2019 mathematics and statistics majors rose 8.5 percent from $61,709 for 2018 to $66,942.

Starting Salaries For Business Majors Up

The reported average starting salary for Class of 2018 business majors was essentially flat in 2018.

That was then. This year the starting salary for Class of 2019 business graduates jumped 4.5 percent from $52,040 in last year’s report to $54,399 in this year’s.

Graduates earning health sciences degrees in the Class of 2019 saw a small bump in their average starting salaries. Their overall average rose 2.6 percent from $52,076 to $53,425.

The overall average starting salary to social sciences graduates is up 7.1 percent to $50,099 from the average of $46,797 for 2018.

Data were gathered from Class of 2019 graduates through December 31, 2019, and reported to NACE through June 30, 2020.

The salary data were reported to NACE through its national Class of 2019 First-Destination Survey by approximately 356 colleges and universities nationwide. The survey represents data for almost 729,756 graduates at the associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree levels. The analysis focuses on the data for more than 94,740 bachelor’s degree graduates. The Summer 2020 Salary Survey report is available NACE members.

Figure 1: Starting Salaries by Discipline for Class of 2019 Bachelor’s Degree Graduates

Source: Summer 2020 Salary Survey, National Association of Colleges and Employers