The university degrees that earn the biggest pay rises

Sydney Morning Herald – Thu, 22 Jun 2023 07:00:00 GMT – 0

University graduate pay rises over the first three years of working can vary by up to $30,000 depending on their choice of career, leading to warnings for high school-leavers to be realistic about their prospects of being able to afford to live in a major capital city.

Pharmacists have one of the lowest graduate salaries but pocket the biggest pay rise of $37,000 just three years after leaving university.

Doctors, bankers and lawyers get a $25,000 pay rise on average a few years into their chosen careers bringing their pay packets rise to more than $90,000 a year, while teachers receive among the lowest salary increases of anyone with a bachelor’s degree, according to the Graduate Outcomes Survey.

The disparity in pay rises has prompted demographers to warn high school-leavers that if they follow a career as a nurse or teacher because it will make it difficult to service a mortgage on a house in a major capital city.

Primary and secondary school teachers across the country received one of the smallest pay bumps of any graduate three years into their job, with their total pay packet jumping from $68,000 to $78,800 over that time

The biggest earners three years after graduation are dentists who take home $108,000, medicine graduates who are paid $103,000 and those who studied building and construction at university take home $100,000.

Demographer Simon Kuestenmacher said school-leavers were often simply told to follow their passion – but also needed to know that their choice of degree could lock them into a lifetime of low earnings.

The median cost of a house in Sydney is well beyond the reach of nurses and teachers on a single salary.Credit: Janie Barrett

“I want young people to have a reality check, to have an honest understanding of what jobs are out there and what they pay,” he said.

Once those people found themselves in a full-time job they were typically given menial work in the early stages of their career which failed to live up to their expectations that work would be meaningful.

“It is a recipe for unhappiness, it is creating mental health problems – how can every young person get a job that aligns with their personal preferences?

“We have millions of young people who are sitting in a miserable job thinking there must be more to life than doing spreadsheets for NAB or some other similar business.”

For those who did choose a career with a comparably low salary such as teaching, Kuestenmacher said they should “get the hell out of Melbourne and Sydney” so they could afford to buy a home.

A young person in Sydney would need to earn at least $250,000 a year to buy a median-priced house, or $137,000 to afford a median-priced unit.

While HECS debt indexation is seven per cent this year, Kuestenmacher said the investment was almost always worth it because educated workers attracted bigger salaries on average – but there were exceptions to the rule.

“The best job where you earn the most money without any formal education is a real estate agent because essentially, the basics are very simple. It is just a matter of people skills, speaking skills and closing skills.”

Real estate agents who work for Ray White across Australia earn $169,000 on average.

Some of the group’s top performers earn more than $4 million a year.

NSW and ACT chief executive Tim Snell said in the real estate business there was no nexus whatsoever between education and earning potential.

“In actual fact, the vast majority of our top performers would tell a similar story of dropping out of high school or university,” he said.

Ray White conducts psychometric tests for prospective employees which can outline if someone will be a low or high-performing agent if they possess the desired personality qualities including assertiveness, energy, and competitiveness.

“People that are too logical, or they have too much education, it holds them back from being ultra-successful ... They overthink things, they think this isn’t going to work,” he said.

“The best agents, they don’t let their mind do too much thinking, they make the phone calls.”

When it comes to getting a postgraduate degree, veterinary science students get the biggest return on investment, with their salary rising by 57 per cent or $33,000.

Vet Jason Hawkins said he did not get into veterinary medicine for the money.Credit: James Brickwood

Willoughby Veterinary Hospital’s Jason Hawkins, 29, graduated with a postgraduate degree in veterinary science at the University of Sydney in 2021, but he said he certainly didn’t get into it for the money.

“In the first two weeks of the course, they made it pretty clear that vets didn’t make a lot of money,” he said.

Vets might charge high fees, but it is not government-subsidised like in the health system. Hawkins’ friends who studied medicine and specialised might steadily progress to earn mega salaries.

He has high job satisfaction, stimulated by the intellectual challenge of working with different types of animals performing surgeries, administering anaesthetics and seeing he made a difference in his clients’ lives.

“I am absolutely in love with my profession, I wouldn’t change it for anyone in the world,” he said.

“I have spoken to a lot of my friends, who have quit jobs and started other jobs – they have good perks but don’t care about what they’re doing.”

The university degrees that earn the biggest pay rises

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