Quick answer: The average starting salary out of college in the U.S. is roughly $58,000 to $60,000 a year. New York Fed data puts the median for full-time recent graduates (ages 22 to 27, bachelor's only) at $60,000 in 2025. Your major matters a lot: NACE projects Class of 2026 computer science grads at $81,535.
If you've seen headlines promising that every new grad walks into an $80,000 job, take a breath. Some do. Most don't. And the gap between what students expect and what employers pay is one of the most consistent findings in every salary survey out there.
This guide pulls the numbers from authoritative sources (NACE, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics), explains what they actually measure, and shows you how to land at the higher end of the range.
Average Starting Salary Out of College in 2026
There isn't one official "average starting salary" number, because different sources measure different things. Here are the three most reliable ones:
- New York Fed, recent graduates (2025): The median annual wage for full-time workers aged 22 to 27 with a bachelor's degree only was $60,000 (in 2025 dollars). The 25th percentile was $45,000 and the 75th percentile was $85,000.
- New York Fed, early career by major (2024): Across all majors, the median early-career wage was $58,000, rising to $87,000 by mid-career (ages 35 to 45). These figures come from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey.
- NACE Winter 2026 Salary Survey: Employers projected average starting salaries for the Class of 2026 by major category, ranging from about $68,900 for business to $81,535 for computer sciences.
Why the gap between the Fed's ~$60,000 and NACE's higher numbers? NACE surveys its employer members, which skew toward larger organizations that recruit on campus and tend to pay more. The Fed numbers cover all full-time recent graduates, including people working in jobs that don't require a degree. Think of NACE as "what big campus recruiters plan to pay" and the Fed as "what typical grads actually earn."
Our takeaway: If you're a typical new graduate, a starting salary around $55,000 to $65,000 is normal. Anything above $70,000 usually means a high-demand major, a competitive employer, or an expensive city.
Starting Salary by Major (NACE Class of 2026 Projections)
NACE's Winter 2026 Salary Survey asked employers what they plan to pay Class of 2026 bachelor's graduates. These are base salary projections only, with no bonuses, commissions, or overtime.
- Computer sciences: $81,535 (up 6.9%, the biggest increase of any category)
- Engineering: $81,198 (up 3.1% from $78,731)
- Petroleum engineering (top individual major): $100,750
- Math and sciences: $74,184 (up 6.4% from $69,709)
- Business: $68,873 (up 5.5% from $65,276)
- Business administration/management: $68,831
- Sales: $67,927
- Marketing: $66,994
- Social sciences: the only category projected to decrease, down 1.7%
NACE collected these projections from 150 employer members between October 8 and November 30, 2025. That's a modest sample, so treat the figures as a useful benchmark rather than a guarantee. Final, actual Class of 2026 salaries are typically reported about a year later.
Average Salary for College Graduates by Major: Early Career vs. Mid-Career
The New York Fed's "Labor Market for Recent College Graduates" tracks median wages for 73 majors. Here's a selection from its 2024 data (full-time workers with a bachelor's degree only; early career = ages 22 to 27, mid-career = ages 35 to 45).
Highest-paying majors early in your career
- Computer engineering: $90,000 early career, $131,000 mid-career
- Computer science: $87,000 early, $120,000 mid-career
- Aerospace engineering: $85,000 early, $130,000 mid-career
- Chemical engineering: $85,000 early, $135,000 mid-career
- Industrial engineering: $83,000 early, $100,000 mid-career
- Electrical engineering: $82,000 early, $123,000 mid-career
- Mechanical engineering: $80,000 early, $120,000 mid-career
- Construction services: $75,000 early, $120,000 mid-career
Solid middle-of-the-pack majors
- Economics: $72,000 early, $115,000 mid-career
- Business analytics: $72,000 early, $109,000 mid-career
- Finance: $70,000 early, $112,000 mid-career
- Nursing: $70,000 early, $87,000 mid-career
- Mathematics: $70,000 early, $100,000 mid-career
- Accounting: $68,000 early, $97,000 mid-career
- Marketing: $60,000 early, $100,000 mid-career
Majors that start lower (but often grow)
- Political science: $52,000 early, $100,000 mid-career
- Biochemistry: $52,000 early, $100,000 mid-career
- History: $47,500 early, $80,000 mid-career
- Psychology: $45,000 early, $72,000 mid-career
- Biology: $45,000 early, $83,000 mid-career
- Elementary education: $45,000 early, $55,000 mid-career
- Performing arts: $44,000 early, $75,000 mid-career
- Theology and religion: $41,600 early, $66,000 mid-career
Two patterns jump out. First, engineering and computing dominate the top of the list. Second, several majors that start low, such as political science and biochemistry, nearly double by mid-career, often because many of those grads go on to law school, medical school, or other graduate degrees. (The Fed's wage figures only count people with a bachelor's degree only, so the "doubling" is partly experience and partly self-selection.)
So if your major is near the bottom of the starting list, that's not a life sentence. It's a slower on-ramp.
Expectations vs. Reality: Why New Grads Overestimate Pay
Surveys keep finding that students expect to earn much more than they actually will. A spring 2026 survey of 769 undergraduates by Clever Real Estate found that students expected to earn about $80,000 a year after graduation, far above what typical graduates actually earn.
Some reasons the expectation gap exists:
- Social media survivorship bias. You see the software engineer posting a $120K offer. You don't see the hundreds of people quietly accepting $52K.
- Averages vs. medians. A few very high salaries pull averages up. Medians are a better picture of "typical."
- Headline majors. Most salary headlines lead with computer science and engineering, which are the top earners.
- Ignoring location. A $75,000 offer in a high-cost city may leave you with less spending money than $58,000 somewhere cheaper.
None of this means you should lowball yourself. It means you should research your specific role, city, and industry instead of anchoring to a headline number. (Your future self, staring at a rent bill, will thank you.)
How Recent Grads Are Doing in the Job Market
Salary is only half the story. You also need to get the job. The New York Fed's latest update says labor market conditions "remained challenging for recent college graduates" through the second quarter of 2026:
- Unemployment rate for recent graduates: about 5.6%
- Underemployment rate: about 42%, meaning roughly four in ten recent grads work in jobs that typically don't require a degree
Underemployment matters for your paycheck. Grads in "non-college" jobs usually earn far less than the medians above. Majors with low underemployment in the Fed's 2024 data include nursing (about 13%), aerospace engineering (about 15%), and civil engineering (about 16%). Criminal justice (about 66%) and performing arts (about 64%) sit at the other end.
What this means for you: Your first job choice has an outsized effect on your earnings trajectory. Landing a role that actually uses your degree, even at a slightly lower starting salary, often beats taking a higher-paying stopgap job that doesn't build relevant experience.
College vs. High School: The Long-Term Pay Gap
Starting salaries understate the real difference a degree makes, because the gap widens with experience.
- Recent grads (ages 22 to 27, 2025, NY Fed): median $60,000 with a bachelor's degree vs. $40,000 with a high school diploma only.
- All workers age 25+ (2025, BLS): median weekly earnings of $1,578 for bachelor's degree holders vs. $966 for high school graduates. That's roughly $82,100 vs. $50,200 a year (our calculation, weekly × 52).
- Unemployment (2025, BLS): 2.8% for bachelor's degree holders vs. 4.3% for high school graduates.
BLS notes its 2025 annual figures are 11-month averages that exclude October 2025, when data weren't collected during the federal government shutdown.
For a deeper breakdown of diploma-level pay and the best jobs that don't require a degree, see our guide to the average salary of a high school graduate. If you're still deciding whether to go, read is a college degree worth it?
What Affects Your Starting Salary
Two graduates with the same degree can get very different offers. The biggest levers:
- Major and role. Covered above, and it's the biggest factor.
- Industry. Tech, finance, consulting, and energy typically pay more than nonprofits, education, and media for similar roles.
- Location. Big metros pay more, but rent eats much of the difference.
- Internships. Relevant internship experience gives you leverage and often leads directly to full-time offers.
- Employer size. Large employers that recruit on campus (the kind NACE surveys) often pay more than small firms.
- Graduate degrees. NACE projects Class of 2026 master's grads in computer sciences at $94,212 and in engineering at $92,873.
- Negotiation. Many grads accept the first number without asking. A polite, researched counteroffer is normal and expected in many fields.
How to Land a Higher Starting Salary
You can't change your major the week before graduation (well, you can, but the registrar will look at you funny). Here's what you can control:
- Target roles, not just titles. "Analyst" can pay $50K or $85K depending on the company and industry. Research the specific role on BLS's Occupational Outlook Handbook and in employer salary ranges posted in job ads.
- Turn your internships into proof. Write results-focused bullet points, not task lists. Our guide to resume bullet points that turn duties into results shows how.
- Make your skills easy to find. Recruiters and applicant tracking systems scan for specific skills. See the best skills to add to your resume.
- Apply to more employers that recruit on campus. Career fairs and campus recruiting pipelines often feed into higher-paying programs.
- Negotiate once, professionally. Use real data, show enthusiasm, and ask about the whole package (signing bonus, relocation, start date). Our salary negotiation guide has scripts.
- Consider total compensation. A $62K offer with strong benefits and a 401(k) match can beat a $66K offer with neither.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good starting salary out of college?
A good starting salary out of college is one at or above the typical median for your major and city. Nationally, the median for full-time recent graduates was about $60,000 in 2025 (New York Fed), so offers above that are generally solid. In high-demand fields like computer science and engineering, $75,000 to $90,000 is common.
What major has the highest starting salary?
In NACE's Class of 2026 projections, computer sciences is the top-paid category at $81,535, with engineering close behind at $81,198. Petroleum engineering is the highest individual major at $100,750. In New York Fed data, computer engineering ($90,000) and computer science ($87,000) lead early-career medians.
Is $60K a good salary right out of college?
Yes, for most majors. $60,000 is right around the national median for full-time recent graduates in 2025. It's below average for engineering or computer science grads but above the typical early-career median for majors like psychology, biology, education, and history.
How much more do college graduates make than high school graduates?
According to the BLS, in 2025 workers age 25 and over with a bachelor's degree had median weekly earnings of $1,578, compared with $966 for high school graduates. That's a difference of about $612 a week, or roughly $31,800 a year. Among young workers aged 22 to 27, the NY Fed puts the 2025 gap at $60,000 vs. $40,000.
Should I negotiate my first job offer?
Usually, yes, as long as you're polite and use real data. Many employers expect a counteroffer and build some room into their first number. If the base salary is fixed, you can often negotiate a signing bonus, start date, or relocation support instead.
Do starting salaries include bonuses?
NACE's projections cover base salary only and exclude bonuses, commissions, fringe benefits, and overtime. When comparing offers, look at total compensation, including health insurance, retirement matching, and any signing bonus.
Why is my offer lower than the average I saw online?
Many online "averages" come from employer surveys that skew toward large companies, or they're inflated by a few very high salaries. Location, industry, company size, and whether the role actually requires your degree all affect your number. Compare against data for your specific role and city.
Land the Offer That Matches Your Degree
The best way to hit the top of the starting salary range is to get in front of the right employers with a resume that shows real results from your classes, internships, and projects. Our Resume Builder helps you turn coursework and part-time jobs into ATS-friendly bullet points, so you can spend less time formatting and more time comparing offers.