College Graduates Starting Salaries Class Of 2020 Up Despite The Pandemic

Filed under: Benefits & Compensation,News |

BETHLEHEM, PA — College graduate starting salaries for the Class of 2020 college graduates rose 2.5 percent to $55,260 compared with the Class of 2019, despite the pandemic, according to a new report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).

College Graduates Starting Salaries Job Outlook: Tomorrow's workers will need more education. College Graduates Starting Salaries
Job Outlook: Tomorrow’s workers will need more education.

NACE’s Summer 2021 Salary Survey shows a gain of 8.5% percent from the Class of 2018’s average starting salary of $50,944.

Not surprisingly, technical majors were the highest paid among Class of 2020 graduates earning bachelor’s degrees. Engineering and computer science majors have dominated the top of the NACE college graduate starting salaries survey for several years.

In fact, the list of the 10 majors with the highest average starting salary is dominated by those in technical areas, led by petroleum engineering, computer programming, and computer engineering. (See Figure 1.)

“In some cases, salary increases most likely reflect these unique times,” says Shawn VanDerziel, NACE executive director. “For example, the increased demand for nurses as frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic may have fueled the 2.1% increase in the average starting salary for registered nursing majors, from $57,416 for these graduates from the Class of 2019 to $58,626 for Class of 2020 registered nursing graduates.”

Figure 1: Top-Paid Majors Among Class of 2020 Graduates Earning Bachelor’s Degrees

MAJORAVERAGE STARTING SALARY
Petroleum engineering$87,989
Computer programming$86,098
Computer engineering$85,996
Computer science$85,766
Electrical, electronics, and communications engineering$80,819
Operations research$80,166
Computer and information science$78,603
Statistics$75,916
Applied mathematics$73,558
Chemical engineering$72,713

Source: Summer 2021 Salary Survey, National Association of Colleges and Employers

About NACE’s Summer 2021 Salary Survey report: The Summer 2021 Salary Survey report provides actual starting salaries and serves as the final salary report for the college Class of 2020.

The figures reported are for base salaries only and do not include bonuses, commissions, fringe benefits, or overtime rates. Data were gathered from Class of 2020 graduates through December 31, 2020, and reported to NACE through May 15, 2021. The salary data presented here were reported to NACE through its national Class of 2020 First-Destination Survey and are based on the 249 schools that provided salary data by specific program or major. An executive summary of NACE’s Summer 2021 Salary Survey report is available on NACEWeb.

About NACE: Since 1956, the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) has been the leading source of information about the employment of college graduates. For more information, visit www.naceweb.org. NACE maintains a virtual press room for the media.

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