Graduate salaries – what should you be offering?
Posted on Friday, September 7, 2018 by Gradsouthwest Team — No comments
Average earnings data for graduates is available to prospective students on the Government’s Unistats website. We believe the data suggests a sweet spot salary of £19-25K for graduates entering the workplace.
The Unistats site draws on new data from the Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) dataset which links student data with data from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and the Department of Work and Pensions, to provide subject-level earnings data for almost 500,000 graduates from English universities and colleges up to three years after graduating.
The tool is rather clunky, and designed for students to help them in selecting courses, rather than for employers, but a quick look at some of the data can reveal interesting salary data for employers.
A few headlines of interest:
Average salaries for all courses in the subject across the UK 6 months after graduation are:
- Accountancy & Finance £22,000
- Building Surveying £27,000
- Business £22,000
- Computing £25,000
- Design £19,000
- Engineering £26,000
- English £19,000
- French £21,000
- Graphic Design £18,000
- Law £19,000
- Marketing £21,000
Data after 3 years is given only by provider, but here are some typical average earnings (and typical range):
- Accountancy & Finance £19,500 (£25,000 - £38,500)
- Building Surveying £29,500 (£24,500 - £38,500)
- Business £30,000 (£24,000 - £39,500)
- Computing £30,500 (£24,000 - £38,000)
- Design £22,500 (£17,500 - £26,000)
- Engineering £29,500 (£25,000 - £34,000)
- English £26,500 (£22,000 - £31,500)
- French £28,000 (£23,000 - £37,000)
- Graphic Design £20,500 (£15,500 - £25,000)
- Law £34,500 (£26,500 - £42,500)
- Marketing £28,000 (£24,000 - £33,500)
Data from Unistats - August 2018
So if you don’t mind which degree your employee studied, then starting salaries of around £19K will bring you applicants. However, if you need a particular degree, especially one in science, engineering or technology then you are looking at a much higher starting point - £25K plus.
If you are not offering competitive starting salaries, then unless your ‘other benefits’ are really enticing then you are going to struggle to recruit. Our experience supports this.
Dr Deborah Watson
Director, Gradsouthwest