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The final overall average starting salary for the Class of 2019 is $53,889, which is up 5.8 percent over the final average starting salary of $50,944 for the Class of 2018, according to NACE’s Summer 2020 Salary Survey report.

The report—which provides actual starting salaries for the college Class of 2019 and serves as the final salary report for this class—reveals that, for the fourth consecutive year, the average starting salary for computer and information sciences tops those of all other disciplines. (See Figure 1.)

At $76,986, the overall average starting salary for Class of 2019 computer and information sciences majors is 7.8 percent higher than last year’s average of $71,411 for these graduates from the Class of 2018.

The average starting salary is also higher for Class of 2019 engineering graduates. Their overall average of $70,219 is up 5.4 percent from last year’s average of $66,638.

While the average starting salaries for computer and information sciences and engineering graduates are higher, no discipline saw as large an increase as mathematics and statistics majors. The overall average starting salary for Class of 2019 mathematics and statistics majors rose 8.5 percent from $61,709 for Class of 2018 graduates to the current average of $66,942.

The reported average starting salary for Class of 2018 business majors was essentially flat. That has changed this year, however, as the average starting salary for Class of 2019 business graduates jumped 4.5 percent from $52,040 in last year’s report to $54,399 in this year’s.

Graduates earning health sciences degrees from the Class of 2019 saw a small bump in their average starting salaries, as the overall average rose 2.6 percent from $52,076 to $53,425.

The overall average starting salary to social sciences graduates is up 7.1 percent to $50,099 from the average of $46,797 for the Class of 2018.

Data were gathered from Class of 2019 graduates through December 31, 2019, and reported to NACE through June 30, 2020. The salary data presented here were reported to NACE through its national Class of 2019 First-Destination Survey by approximately 356 colleges and universities nationwide and represent data for almost 729,756 graduates at the associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree levels. The analysis provided here focuses on the data provided for more than 94,740 bachelor’s degree graduates. The Summer 2020 Salary Survey report will be available later this month.

Figure 1: Starting Salaries by Discipline for Class of 2019 Bachelor’s Degree Graduates