Compare Your Salary Growth - by Major.

**Go2Guy** · 12-07-2008, 08:23 PM

Salary Increase By Major

WSJ.com

Your parents might have worried when you chose Philosophy or International Relations as a major.

But a year-long survey of 1.2 million people with only a bachelor's degree by PayScale Inc. shows that graduates in these subjects earned 103.5% and 97.8% more, respectively, about 10 years post-commencement.

Majors that didn't show as much salary growth include Nursing and Information Technology

**MNclone** · 12-07-2008, 08:34 PM

Yes, they have good growth, but look at where they started.
Can't really say that this study makes me regret a major in Engineering.

**BigBake** · 12-08-2008, 09:44 AM

true but when ur salary is high like IT u don't get much of a % raise but it's still a large raise because it's x% of a big number.

Someone with more time could probably show that a 5% raise on a 100,000 yr salary is equal to a 25% raise on a 25,000 salary.

"Son....go into IT"
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**Go2Guy** · 12-08-2008, 09:49 AM

Originally Posted by MNclone

Can't really say that this study makes me regret a major in Engineering.

........Starting Salary.....Mid-Career Salary......%change.

Chemical Engineering $63,200.00 $107,000.00 69.3

**iowast8fan** · 12-08-2008, 09:56 AM

Well, I've been out of school and working for about 10 years and I am almost exactly at the mid-career salary that the site gave. So seems accurate to me.

**dmclone** · 12-08-2008, 10:28 AM

A lot of generalizations with this type of chart. For example, where do you live, public/private, etc.

**The_Architect** · 12-08-2008, 10:30 AM

IT ftw!

**ISUFan22** · 12-08-2008, 10:35 AM

Yeah, IT has been kinda good to me.

**bos** · 12-08-2008, 10:43 AM

Yay, Im undervalued!! I love the Sioux City IT market. It rules.

I will say I do love my job at the moment, so it I guess it does even out.

**Wesley** · 12-08-2008, 11:03 AM

Guess you would not want to graduate from Morehead State under Colleges. Lowest of the low.

Being an Economist is not bad, especially this year.

**ericlambi** · 12-08-2008, 06:23 PM

I think the more important question is simply who makes more money 10 years out of college? Engineers are certainly making more than Philosophy majors on average. Unfortunately, I think engineers lose out long-term to business-related majors, particularly finance. I spent five years as an engineer with almost zero wage growth. I went and got my MBA and experienced >300% wage growth in two years. Looking forward, my long-term wage growth is probably still higher in percent terms than it would be if I were an engineer. As long as I don't get fired for sucking.

The moral of the story is that engineers really get screwed compared to the skill needed to do their jobs.

**BryceC** · 12-08-2008, 06:48 PM

Where is the "English majors working in the banking or finance industry" section?

**syclones** · 12-08-2008, 06:59 PM

I'm surprised architecture is that low compared to some others

**mplscyclone** · 12-08-2008, 06:59 PM

A couple of things:

1) There's more to a career than your salary. Getting paid is nice, but getting paid for something that you don't enjoy doing sucks
2) I'm really happy with where I'm at and the opportunities presented to me. Having an Econ background is definitley helping (so is having an math background as well)
3) IT is a great career and I have many friends who are in IT. One thing I will say is that you will see more and more IT people getting laid off in the next 6 months or so. You'll also see some accounting, finance, and probably a little of everything. The thing is that a lot of companies are still run "old school" where they view IT as a liability more than an asset.... I do not feel that way, but I'm not running the company either.
4) Bottom line is just do what you love doing. Job security is pretty low in a lot of fields these days
5)If you do what you love, you will figure everything out. Doing everything for money will catch up with yourself and you will be unhappy.

**CYdTracked** · 12-08-2008, 07:01 PM

So what exactly is the mid-career number in years? I think they are using 10 post-graduation? at 5+ I'm already around 48% growth of what I started and 67.3% is their mid career number so not too bad of pace so far I guess. Although last year and likely this year the pay increases I have seen or will likely see will slow that pace down due to the economy.

Last year several of us in my group got some of our highest evaluation ratings but our lowest pay increases which in hindsight was probably preparing them for what happened this year with the economy as cost "savings" was a big theme company wide last year. Probably a good thing considering how this year played out.