Compensation

With a projected overall average salary of $94,212, computer sciences graduates are expected to be the top earners among Class of 2026 master’s degree grads.

Starting salary projections show promise for the upcoming Class of 2026. Nearly all categories of reported majors are showing healthy increases that range from 3.1% for engineering majors to 6.9% for computer sciences majors.

The overall average salary for new college graduates has experienced a slight uptick as the final overall average salary is up 2.2% over the Class of 2023’s average.

The average hourly wage for bachelor’s degree level interns has increased each year over the past 10 years and now stands at $23.04, according to NACE’s 2025 Guide to Compensation for Interns & Co-ops.

Class of 2025 engineering and business graduates at the master’s degree level are expected to see salaries climb 12.5% and 3.1%, respectively, according to results of NACE’s Winter 2025 Salary Survey.

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 and pay transparency laws enacted by a number of states are helping to advance equal pay for equal or similar work.

Overall, starting salary projections for the Class of 2025 are something of a mixed bag as projected movement in salaries ranges from a gain of 2.8% for agriculture and natural resources to a decrease of 3.6% for the social sciences.

Salaries for college graduates overall continue to climb as, for the second straight year, the increase in average salary for a graduating class has surpassed 7%.

Hourly wages for interns have kept pace with inflation, signaling the value of these programs to employers.

There is good news for the Class of 2024: Salary projections for all reported groups of majors are higher than the projections reported for the Class of 2023

Slightly more than 43% of employers plan to increase starting salaries to Class of 2024 bachelor’s degree graduates, and nearly all remaining employers anticipate keeping salaries at last year’s levels.

Using NACE’s Salary Survey report, Andrea Koncz offers a historical perspective on starting salaries to new college graduates from 1960 through 2015. The overall economy, corporate scandals, new legal requirements, the dot-com bubble and burst—a variety of factors have affected the rise and fall of starting salaries for new college graduates over the past half century. Overall, in real terms, bachelor’s degree level salaries have risen 5.9 percent since 1960.

Average starting salary projections for the Class of 2022 range from an increase of 5.4% to a decrease of 14.8%.