Salaries projected to be up for college and university students graduating in 2024

Let’s be honest: the vast majority of people work to make enough money to put a roof over their heads, food into their mouths, and medicine into their bodies. They work, in other words, to survive.

Are jobs that are interesting and fulfilling great? Yes, absolutely. Does every student and recent graduate deserve a great career? Also, yes, absolutely. But do they also deserve to be paid fairly for their labor? Again, yes, absolutely. So we were heartened to see the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Winter 2024 Salary Survey as it was full of good news for workers: wages continue to be on the rise.

At a high level, the Survey projects that salaries for all reported groups of majors will be higher for the Class of 2024 than those for the Class of 2023. By contrast, salaries for some majors were higher for the Class of 2022 than they were for the Class of 2023.

The top-paid major is projected to be engineering, with an overall projected average salary of $76,736, an increase of 3.1 percent over 2023 graduates.

Close behind in second place should be computer science majors, with an overall projected average salary of $74,778, an increase of 2.7 percent over 2023 graduates. The 2023 graduates, incidentally, earned less than did their 2022 counterparts by four percent.

Math and science majors win the bronze medal for third place. They’re looking to average $71,076, almost six percent higher than their counterparts in 2023.

Rounding out the top four were business majors with an average salary of “only” $63,907, an increase of three percent over 2023.