A survey of what Australians with a university education shows the value of becoming a graduate but when it comes to income, it’s better to be a bloke.

The AFR’s Julie Hare looked at 2024 Graduate Outcomes Survey and concluded that “women are paid less than men the minute they leave university, as new data exposes a $3000 gender pay gap in graduates’ first jobs”.

But it’s not all bad news, with the same report revealing that university graduates pocket a 34% increase in their annual salaries in just three years.

Natasha Bita in The Australian zoomed in on the pay differences that look surprising in this new age.

In the same survey she found:

1. Female architects earn 20% less than men with the same education and experience after three years in the workplace.

2. In nursing, women earned $7,100 less than men with identical training and experience. That’s a 7.6% difference.

3. Female doctors earn $6500 less than male doctors after three years work.

4. However, the computing and IT industry has parity of pay between the sexes.

5. Psychology also has pay parity.

The overall story of pay disparity gets worse if a graduate gets a high end-qualification such as a PhD or Masters.

This is what Bita found: “Four to six months after leaving university, men with postgraduate qualifications earned $15,000 more than women – a 17.7 per cent gap averaged across all fields. Three years later, men earned $15,700 more than women – a 14.7 per cent gender pay gap in 2024. The pay gap for workers with postgraduate qualifications was widest in the female-dominated field of health services and support, where men earned $22,700 – or 17.8 per cent – more than women, three years after leaving university.”

Aside from the unfairness of the pay that women graduates receive, the overall good news for those who have attended university is:

1. 71% of graduates found a full-time job within six months of graduating.

2. The starting salary on average was $65,800 and it was $88,100 within three years.

3. Higher degree graduates started on $90,000 and went to $112,500 within three years.

4. 71.3% of English-speaking background students found a full-time job within six months but only 57.6% of students with a foreign-speaking background were so lucky.

5. Interestingly, within three years, the employment rate difference between English-speaking students and those with a foreign background tongue was virtually closed, but they still earned about $3,000 less on average.

While there are differences in the pay that different Australians get from going to university, what they all face is a rising cost of getting a degree. “A separate analysis commissioned by Deakin University has found the cost of getting a degree, which has risen to at least $50,000 for a degree in arts, humanities or social sciences, has become a significant barrier to enrolment for many students, especially women,” Hare revealed.

This report also found close to 50% of students aged between 25 and 34 years of age thought universities don’t “prepare people for the real world that the quality of teaching falls short, and that course content is outdated.”

One final point needs to be made. According to seek.com.au, the average weekly earnings for someone with a degree was $1,578, while those with no post-school qualifications was $988.

Given what these surveys tell us about the pay and the costs of education, the words of Andy McIntyre are worth remembering. “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”