The bachelor’s degree enables academics to quickly start their careers. Nevertheless, many prefer to continue with a master’s degree in order to improve their professional opportunities. But does that also pay off on the payslip? In order to find out, the salary database salary.de analyzed the records of 13,300 bachelor’s and master’s graduates and compared their starting salaries. The salaries of academics with a maximum of three years of professional experience were taken into account.
On average, the master’s degree is worth around 3000 euros a year at the start of your career. While the average bachelor’s graduate earns a starting salary of 43,200 euros, it is 46,000 euros with a master’s degree. In principle, the master’s student starts at a slightly higher level, but the bachelor’s graduate earns money earlier.
However, the figures for specific occupations are more meaningful than the general average. Because this shows that there are lucrative professions in which you earn very well with a bachelor’s degree – and vice versa, there are also those in which the pay is significantly lower despite a master’s degree. Bachelor graduates as IT consultants, sales engineers or in technical research and development receive average starting salaries of almost 50,000 euros. Graphic designers, editors and architects, on the other hand, only come up with average values ??of around 33,000 euros, even with a master’s degree.
Profession
Medium starting salary
IT consultant
50.000 Euro
sales engineer
48.900 Euro
Technical research and development
48.800 Euro
…
…
client advisor
33.000 Euro
Architect
30.700 Euro
Graphic artist
29.900 Euro
According to the evaluation, the best-paid master’s graduates are risk managers. These experts, who are in demand above all in finance and insurance, earn an average of more than 57,000 euros at the start of their career. All average values ??given are gross annual salaries (median values).
Profession
Medium starting salary
Risk Manager
57.600 Euro
Technical research and development
52.700 Euro
Engineer in production
51.500 Euro
…
…
Architect
33.400 Euro
Editor
32.700 Euro
Graphic artist
32.300 Euro
