Revealed: The jobs where graduates are earning six-figure salaries – and the university degrees you SHOULD be studying
- Recruitment firm Hays has revealed where graduates earning $100,000 plus
- These six-figure salaries pre-tax are double Australia’s median wage of $55,400
- The mining and oil and gas sectors are particularly generous on paying staff
Some graduates in Australia are earning six-figure salaries while most workers receive below average pay rises, new figures show.
Recruitment company Hays’s salary guide for 2019-20 has listed pay levels in 24 industries ranging from banking to health care and resources.
While Australia’s median salary is stagnating at $55,400, those who have recently completed a university science or engineering bachelor’s degree are earning double that.
Graduates in Australia are earning six-figure salaries even as most workers receive meagre pay rises. Recruitment company Hays’s salary guide for 2019-20 has listed pay levels in 24 industries ranging from banking to health care and resources (stock image)
This is especially so in the mining and oil and gas sectors.
The petroleum engineering and geosciences sector is particularly generous.
In the Northern Territory, graduate engineers who specialise in petroleum reservoirs are earning $75,000 to $125,000 before tax.
The Top End of Australia is also paying handsomely to those working in the mining industry.
Graduate geologists specialising in metalliferous mining – the extract of minerals used to make metal – are being paid $85,000 to $100,000 in the NT.
In Western Australia, they are earning $85,000 to $105,000.
The petroleum engineering sector is also well-remunerated with graduate geoscientists in the NT earning $70,000 to $110,000.
China’s strong demand for iron ore, used to make steel, is also fuelling generous salaries in the mining industry.
While Australia’s median salary is stagnating at $55,400, those who have recently completed a university science or engineering bachelor’s degree are earning double that. Graduate geologists are earning $100,000 or more in Western Australia and the Northern Territory (stock image)
Graduate mining engineers are earning $90,000 to $120,000 in WA and $70,000 to $100,000 in the NT.
WA’s mineral processing segment of the mining industry is also well-paid, with graduate metallurgists getting $75,000 to $100,000.
By comparison, law graduates working for a small legal practice are receiving $51,000 to $55,000.
Graduate psychologists are getting $45,000 to $55,000 in New South Wales.
Equivalent graduate physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech pathologists are receiving slightly more, $50,000 to $57,000 in the same state.
Graduate architects in Sydney, with at least two years’ experience, are getting $60,000 to $80,000, which is still less than Australia’s average, full-time salary of $82,000.
Australian workers are continuing to see weak pay increases, with average wage levels failing to rise above three per cent since 2013.
China’s strong demand for iron ore, used to make steel, is also fuelling generous salaries in the mining industry. Graduate mining engineers are earning $90,000 to $120,000 in WA and $70,000 to $100,000 in the NT (pictured is an iron ore worker form the Pilbara region)