Wealth

These degrees offer the best starting salary in South Africa in 2018

Staff Writer

 ·31 May 2018

Data from salary research group, PayScale shows the average salaries for graduates with less than a year of work experience, and the degrees which they studied.

The data is based on the qualifications data of almost 8,000 employees, submitted to the site, as of 17 September 2017.

It is important to note that PayScale’s salary data is determined by years of experience, and not by age specifically. However, it can be assumed that experience and age are closely aligned if most employees leave university at age 21.

According to PayScale’s data, graduates with a bachelor’s degree can expect to start out earning an average of R125,850 a year in their first year of work – though this increases to an average of R180,850 after the first year.

This represents both high-earning careers (engineering) and lower-earning fields (education), across the whole of South Africa.

Salaries are highly dependent on level of experience and other factors beyond simply having a degree or qualification.

Using PayScale data looking at years of experience beyond the first year – using the collective salary data of over 30,000 employees – it becomes clear that earnings, particularly in the technical fields, increase significantly.

Notably, different career paths reach their potential peaks at different points. While someone with a degree in education may start out with a higher average salary in their first year, their salary will not grow significantly over the years.

Meanwhile, someone who starts off on the lower rungs in the field of business administration will end up earning a much higher salary in the longer term.

Read: The best degrees in South Africa if you want to make the most money