College
graduates in the class of 2015 with bachelor’s degrees in
electrical
engineering can expect an average starting salary of $57,000. Computer
engineering graduates are close behind, with average salaries of
$56,600. come mechanical engineering graduates with starting salaries of $56,000.
For
the last 20 years, Phil Gardner, who runs Michigan State Univesity's
employment office, has been in charge of a broad-based survey that
gathers starting salary information from thousands of employers
across the country. Gardner works through Michigan State’s Collegiate
Employment Research Institute, where he is the director. This year CERI
collected data from mid-August to mid-September, tapping the employment
offices at 200 schools, which gathered starting salary data from 3,300
employers. Gardner says that engineering degrees have come out on top
since he first took charge at CERI. “Students with these majors are
highly technical and deeply trained so they have a more immediate value
to employers,” he says. “They can apply their knowledge quickly to the
workplace, so they can command a higher salary.”
After the top two engineering degrees, employers are paying the most
for grads with degrees in software design and computer programming.
“Everybody is looking for graduates with expertise in computer science,”
says Gardner. “There’s just a huge demand.” While engineering and computer science graduates will command strong
starting salaries next year, CERI’s research also shows a sobering
statistic: The majority of employers, 62%, plan to keep salaries at the
same level as last year, which means a slight decline in wages, given
inflation. Only 37% of employers are planning to increase salaries, and
then only by 3%-5%. A smaller group, 18% of employers, plan to hike
salaries by more than 10%. Those increases will come in the following
sectors: manufacturing, finance and insurance services, and
professional, business and scientific services. As for company size,
small- and fast-growth companies will have the greatest increases, with
23% of those firms offering compensation that is 10% higher than last
year.
If engineering and
computer science are at the top of the list,
what’s at the bottom? Advertising, social work and psychology all pay
below $37,000. A major the table lists as “Humanities and Liberal Art"
fares a bit better, with a starting salary of $39,000. (The salaries in
the table include only base salaries and not commissions, stipends,
bonuses, housing and moving allowances or other incentives.)
Hers is CERI’s chart of 25 degrees and expected starting salaries for the class of 2015:
