Average Wages for Individuals with a Bachelor’s Degree
Career News March 30, 2015Average Wages for Individuals with a Bachelor’s Degree
It is difficult to predict a bachelor degree graduate’s salary. Salaries will depend on the job position, employee’s years of experience, and discipline of the bachelor’s degree.
Varying with the degree, holders of bachelor’s degrees can expect to earn an average annual wage ranging between $34,000 and about $100,000.
PayScale.com has devised a salary chart for April 2014 listing the average wages for various careers available to holders of bachelor’s degrees:
| Profession | Average Annual Wage |
| Software Engineer | $72,721 |
| Staff Accountant | $44,192 |
| Operations Manager | $58,873 |
| Mechanical Engineer | $63,144 |
| Financial Analyst | $54,051 |
Best Bachelor’s Degrees Based on Salary
In 2013 – 2014, a survey was conducted by PayScale.com to establish the best bachelor’s degree programs based on potential earnings; the results covered 129 different bachelor’s degrees. Those surveyed included individuals with just a bachelor’s degree, those in full-time occupations in the United States, and graduates from educational institutions in the United States.
The survey included starting employees with two years or less of work experience and mid-career employees with fifteen years or more of work experience. The following list shows the ten highest earning degrees and their respective average wage levels:
| Degree Program | Starting Average Wage | Mid-Career Average Wage |
| Petroleum Engineering | $103,000 | $160,000 |
| Actuarial Mathematics | $58,700 | $120,000 |
| Nuclear Engineering | $67,600 | $117,000 |
| Chemical Engineering | $68,200 | $115,000 |
| Aerospace Engineering | $62,800 | $109,000 |
| Electrical Engineering | $64,300 | $106,000 |
| Computer Engineering | $65,300 | $106,000 |
| Computer Science | $59,800 | $102,000 |
| Physics | $53,100 | $101,000 |
| Mechanical Engineering | $60,900 | $99,700 |
