STARTING SALARIES OUTSIDE CAPITAL JUST £15-18,000
Graduates whose first job is outside London are likely to earn up to £10,000 less than their peers who move to London, according to new figures.
The survey, carried out by the Graduates Yorkshire and West Midlands-based Graduate Advantage, questioned a range of regional employers on their recruitment habits.
The results found that a majority (86%) of the firms questioned paid graduates a starting salary between £15,000-£18,000 – that’s up to 40% less than the ‘nationwide’ average.
These numbers are at odds with the findings of the Associate of Graduate Recruiters (AGR), which earlier this year reported that the average graduate starting salary was £25,000 across the UK.
While £25,000 may be the ‘nationwide’ average starting salary, these latest figures show the true extent of the pay gap between graduates in the capital and outside London. It seems that ‘London weighting’ – whereby companies pay workers in the capital slightly more than elsewhere to reflect the higher cost of living – has an enormous impact on graduate salaries.
Despite the lower regional salaries, there was some good news for graduates living outside London. Nearly two-thirds of the firms surveyed had recruited a grad in the last year and more than half (56%) said that they would recruit a graduate in the next 12 months.
But worrying it seems that graduate recruiters value your degree class less than you might hope. Despite all your hard work at university, only 1.5% of the firms questioned said that academic results were most important when recruiting. The majority of the firms questioned (74%) said that ‘a positive attitude’ and ’employability skills’ were the most important attributes for graduates.
Graduate Fog hopes that this need for ’employability skills’ doesn’t mean graduate employers expect applicants to have completed lengthy (unpaid?) internships before they will consider your application for a graduate role…
*Is it fair that London graduates are paid so much more?
Would you consider moving to the capital to find better-paid work? And, if you live in London, does your experience confirm that the average starting salary there is £25,000?
I work in St Pauls, Central London and my basic is £17k. It is not a graduate role, but you need a degree… ha. Even the marketing girls are only on £22k basic and they do not have a great commission structure. So in my experience it is not true. Then again I have friends who work for Accenture and Credit Swiss on starting salaries of £30k & £40k respectively, they both did lengthy (paid) internships as part of their courses though.
@Jamie B
I agree – these average graduate salaries always sound a bit iffy to me. Of the employed grads i know, not many of them are earning anywhere close to 25k – and they’re all in London! I suspect that either the sample of employers is disproportionately weighted towards big City firms, which we all know pay the a LOT better than everywhere else – so much so that I think they skew the average. I think the Median graduate salary would be a better test, and the sample of employers should be broader.
I also suspect that the ‘average graduate salary’ only takes into account paid permanent jobs. If unpaid / low paid internships and contract / temp work were taken into account, I think this number would be far, far lower. And what about all those unemployed graduates who are earning zero? Okay, they don’t have a ‘salary’ so you could argue they shouldn’t be included. But think about this:
If you had 20 graduates
and only 5 had jobs
but those 5 were earning £25,000…
…would it really be reflective of the real situation to say that the average graduate salary is £25,000?
I wish journalists would stop using averages! They often don’t mean very much. Remember the ‘2.5 children’ families used to be having, on average? Did you actually know anyone with 2.5 children? ;P I think median wages might be more helpful here.
I agree that the ‘averages’ make everything very misleading. I’d like to know the mode myself, and also as you say the average including those who cannot find employment or who are employed in low-paid or temporary jobs.
There are much fewer jobs outside London, they are fewer and farther apart. There are lot more small companies outside London, which pay less and do not always value graduates.
I live in Middlesbrough and am more than willing to move to London. I have had 5 job interviews in London and the highest starting salary has been 22k.
I have just started a job in Teesside and it pays £250 per week which is 12k per year. I guess you could say I am underemployed because it doesn’t require a degree. The best way to describe my occupation is street fundraiser. I get paid for chugging away in the street for hours at a time for a company raising money for well known charity. Doesn’t take a genius and it definately doesn’t need a graduate but atleast it is better than the job centre…
It is interesting news that employers value skills so highly over degree type/mark. I think it goes to show that one of the hidden values of an arts degree is that it gives you a lot of time to pursue extra-curricular activities than a science student with 3x as many lectures and essays has.
Thankfully my family home is within commuting distance of London so I can be one of the ‘boomerang generation’ and save money. However I hope that London jobs do pay more as a season rail ticket is nearly £3000!
@Nick
Sorry that is pretty offensive to Art’s grads, I am sure it was not meant to be. Just because the contact timein uni is very small does not mean the time you spend on the work is any less. When I was rehearsing for my plays we would meet up 40-50 hours a week in order to go over lines, get staging and costumes done, as well as lighting, sound etc…
To say we have more time is ridiculous if you are serious about your degree!! After spending so long during the week rehearsing, I had essays to write and doing English 2 books a week to read. I also had a part time job 3-4 days a week.
To top that off I had student council duties and was the president of a university society (these two I admit are additional, but still).
I hate it when science grads comment or look down on arts grads! Our degrees I would say are even harder due to the fact that it is always subjective and not objective like Science subjects!