Salary Survey: Starting Salary for Class of 2013 Up 2.6 Percent

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January 8, 2014

The final overall average starting salary for Class of 2013 bachelor’s degree graduates increased 2.6 percent to $45,633 from the final overall average of $44,482 for the Class of 2012, according to results of NACE’s January 2014 Salary Survey, the final report on starting salaries for the Class of 2013.

The current overall average starting salary is buoyed by the 2.9 percent increase to humanities and social sciences majors' average salary and the 2.3 percent bump to the average salary of business majors. (See Figure 1.)

Average salaries within the other broad categories of disciplines remain essentially flat, with some groups even slipping a little from last year—albeit by decreases of less than 1 percent.

Data for the January 2014 Salary Survey report were retrieved in November 2013. An executive summary of the January 2014 Salary Survey report is available at www.naceweb.org/salary-resources/salary-survey.aspx or through the MyNACE area of NACEWeb.

Figure 1: Average Salaries by Discipline

Source: January 2014 Salary Survey, National Association of Colleges and Employers