MIND THE GRADUATE PAY GAP! VAST RANGE IN STARTING WAGES DEPENDS ON THE INDUSTRY YOU PICK
There is an enormous gap between the highest and lowest graduate starting salaries, according to new research seen by Graduate Fog.
While some lucky graduates walk straight into jobs paying £80,000 per year, others take positions which pay just £11,000 per year. The news follows a stinging Guardian article by Laurie Penny questioning the true value of a university degree in today’s job market.
Researchers at the Graduate Recruitment Bureau (GRB) uncovered the shocking wage gap as part of the recruitment agency’s new quarterly Transitions assessment of the current graduate job market. The £80,000 figure was from a graduate working in the software industry, while the graduate earning £11,000 was working at a not-for-profit organisation.
Dan Hawes – co-founder of GRB – told Graduate Fog that the difference in salaries across industries was down to “supply and demand, historical reasons, new fast growing sectors and competition in the job market generally.”
Although a few lucky graduates land themselves top-paying jobs, it seems that salaries towards the lower end of the spectrum are more typical. GRB’s survey – of 562 graduates, mostly aged 21-26 – found the average (mean) graduate salary was £24,000. And these were smart cookies – 84% had a 1st or 2:1 degree.
The research also found that graduates are increasingly well-prepared for the job market. Six in 10 (61%) said they’d done at least one internship and 67% had undertaken voluntary work. Nearly six in 10 (57%) said they’d started their job search in their final year of uni – less than a third (31%) said they’d left it until after they graduated.
There was more good news. Nearly eight in 10 (78%) of graduates felt they were in a ‘graduate’ job, seven in 10 (69%) felt they were using the skills and knowledge they acquired at university and eight in 10 (78%) said they expected to gain promotion within a year.
And some of the most startling data was in graduates’ attitudes to their salaries. As GRB’s Dan Hawes told us: “We’ve find that high salaries are very attractive but graduates are much more interested in the whole package — especially training offered, location, perks and career progression.”
Laurie Penny is unlikely to be impressed – fearing that the supposed graduate premium (that those with a degree earn £100,000 more over a lifetime than those without) may be a myth.
She even apologised to those she had persuaded to to go university, during her time working for Aimhigher. As she put it:
“I’d like to say sorry for trying to persuade those kids that higher education was meant to be about reading lots, meeting new people, and getting excited about ideas. Because it turned out that it’s actually just about making yourself more ’employable’. It’s about fashioning yourself into a walking CV to compete for a stagnant pool of graduate jobs that are paid less in real terms every year, and taking on a rotten amount of debt in the process.”
Graduate Fog has been concerned for many years that too many young people are being allowed (encouraged?) to enrol for expensive degree courses without truly understanding the financial commitment they are making. We hope research like GRB’s will begin to provide them with a clearer picture of what they are signing up to, so can make more informed choices in the future.
* ARE YOU EARNING MORE OR LESS THAN THE AVERAGE GRADUATE SALARY?
Is it fair that there’s such a huge difference between graduate starting salaries in different industries – when most degrees costs the same, whatever subject you study? Were you aware of the difference in starting salaries when you enrolled at uni? Might you have studied a different subject if you’d realised some jobs were so much better paid than others? Have your say below…
I was unemployed for over 2 years after graduating. It’s probably my own fault for not having got a job during college or uni, but I wholeheartedly believe that if I had, I wouldn’t have been able to put in the studying needed to get the results I did. The Job Centre were utterly useless and frankly offensive at times (see: all articles in the Guardian about workfare, sanctioning targets etc.), and they don’t know how to deal with unemployed graduates, only unskilled workshy people with no GCSEs. Avanta, my welfare to work provider, were not much better.
I undertook some work experience last year and someone in the company was impressed enough with me that she fought tooth and nail to get me into an apprenticeship with the company. (It is something of a myth that graduates can’t do apprenticeships – it’s just to do with the way they are funded for different ages/abilities etc., so I’m told).
I’m currently training in a level 2 customer service qualification which hopefully will prove useful in applying for jobs after my apprenticeship finishes.
I’m deeply grateful that someone cared enough to give me this opportunity, which is why I’m taking everything that’s thrown at me with it (including having to sit function skills qualifications in maths and English because my GCSE certificates have ‘expired’), but I can’t help feeling that being a 2:1 qualified graduate, living at home, and earning £2.68/hr at age 24, is not exactly what I had in mind when I was a wide-eyed dreamer applying to university before the recession hit.
If the average graduate salary is £24k then I’m earning the average 🙂
Mind you, I graduated ten (almost eleven) years ago so it’s about time really.
I started in Bristol on 11K in late 1999 doing Back-Office work for a broker (which a 16 year-old could do)! Average A’Levels, a 2.1 from a traditional university (not RG but not an ex-poly either) and an MA from a top 10 RG institution (Warwick) in political economy. I moved to London in 2003 on 26K and now on 47.5K after having changed twice, although still renting (never been able to afford a flat) and the cost of living increasing all the time with no pay rise in the last 3 years. I have had to swallow my pride working with school leavers, some earning more (final salary pension schemes, already in a managerial function and ahead career-wise etc.)! If you cannot get a place on a graduate management programme, you’ve had it, all career hopes ended. You have to share the meagre leftovers. My recommendation: University is an ABSOLUTE CON! A Debt trap. And so is the graduate premium! DON’T DO IT! For your sake! Higher Education is an industry, nothing more, nothing less, whose aim is to return a profit. And the world of work seeks cheap labour (educated a bonus) or will threaten offshoring staff in India. I know, I work in banking! The cheaper, the better. They don’t care whether you start off with debt. DON’T DO IT!
I’ve heard of that before – qualifications ‘expiring’. What on Earth. I don’t see a best before date on any of my certificates. The best advice to any graduates – get out of this country.
Expiring degree certificates, lol. I have never heard that one before! What about the the £27K tuition fees and huge student loan, is that expiring too? Hilarious!
In certain industries, your degrees do “expire” in a sense. The two I can think of are accountancy and law. You have a three-year window to obtain professional qualifications, or your exemptions will expire and you’ll have to start from the beginning.
By the time I come to do professional qualifications (when I can afford them!!) I will have no exemptions permissable.
Then what was the point of university?
I have only had the misfortune of dealing with the Jobcentre briefly on 2 occasions, and my experience was very similar to that of Ladymary, lack of professionalism, and rudeness verging on bullying from the “advisors”.
As she points out, they are not equipped to help graduates, and treated me like one of those “unskilled workshy’s”
My experience dealing with the Jobcentre disgusted me, and this was back in 2007 under the previous Labor government. I hate to imagine what is is like to go there now and get bullied by ignorant biggots, when you are serious about getting work.
With regards to my degree, I’ve learned from experience that what I am doing now, mostly freelance work in my creative field, I could have gotten into without my degree. Sometimes people notice it, but most of the time it is a very expensive piece of paper framed in my office. I have since discovered There are other alternative routes into my profession that are probably more effective and less costly.
Really, if you want to be a doctor, vet, dentist, engineer or economist it is probably worth getting a degree. Otherwise, there are lots of other ways of getting into the profession you want, i.e. before or after your A-levels, etc.
You used to be able to become an engineer, accountant or solicitor without a degree and I think things are starting to turn back to more vocational, on-the-job training.
You are much better getting a degree (if you need one)later on.
I deeply regret going to University. I wasted 3 years of my life thinking I would get a good job after I obtained that all important degree.
After leaving I was unemployed for just over a year, then I volunteered for a charity to gain experience in anything and I’ve now been working in a dead-end retail job for the past 4 years!
When I worked hard for a degree that has probably ‘expired’ What was the point?
I’ve been very lucky and started working in a lab as soon as I graduated on £18,500 on a fixed-term contract. Now that it’s at an end, I’ve had a company that wants my skills so much they’ve actually created a job role for me on £20,000!
However, I’ve worked various jobs related to my industry since I was 16, all the way through uni and did several industry placements during my time at uni. And I still got a 2:1. A degree can help, but experience and good references are the key to getting a job, and if you don’t have that, someone else will come along who does. You just need to put yourself out there and not expect to walk into your ideal job straight away.
I did not complete A Levels or go to university. I worked hard, several jobs at once on occasion, from the age of 16 and have never regretted for a second not going to university at 18.
I now work for a global company, travel internationally and earn £50k + excellent benefits, travel and bonus. I work with many graduates that earn a lower salary and have higher outgoings due to student loans. My employer is currently paying for me to complete further education and I feel so much more capable than I ever would have at 18. There is a purpose and it will supplement the wealth of experience I have gained over the last 12 years.
I am incredibly lucky and truly believe that you create your own destiny – anyone that believes a degree alone provides enough evidence to achieve a higher salary needs to step back and think again. There are so many other aspects to employability – experience being the most important, but your drive, determination and ambition are what will make you stand out. If you are driven and have ambition but no degree that will get you further than a degree alone. Some of the highest earners I know have the gift of the gab, work in sales and pay double my salary in tax alone! What they have in common is not a degree. Its their ambition and drive to succeed.