Does an American college education pay off: ranking of specialties by salary level after graduation

Engineering degrees earn the highest payouts for recent college graduates from the New York Federal Reserve, according to the latest study of salaries of recent college graduates. CNBC.

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All of the top 10 majors that will bring in the most money five years after graduation are in engineering, with the exception of computer science, which ranks fifth among all majors. The average annual salary in the top 10 is just over $68, while the average salary for computer engineers is $000, more than all majors.

• Computer Engineering $74
• Chemical Engineering $70
• Aerospace Engineering $70
• Electrical engineering $70
• Computer Science $70
• Industrial Engineering $69
• Engineering $68
• Engineering $65
• Civil Engineering $63
• General engineering $62

The lowest salaries in the 10 majors after five years are mostly liberal arts degrees, and they all receive less than $40 in salary right out of college. In some cases, larger, lower-ranking companies pay almost half of what people in the highest paying companies earn.

• Housing Economics $32
• General social sciences $34
• Theater Arts $34
• Social Services $35
• Anthropology $36
• Preschool $36
• Theology and Religion $36.600
• Psychology $37
• Humanities $37.400
• Foreign language $38
• English $38
• Miscellaneous Biological Sciences $38
• Hospitality $38
• Fine Arts $38

By comparison, a minimum wage job that pays $15 an hour is $31 a year if you work 200 hours a week. That pay is almost what you'd earn with a degree in Housing Economics, a college degree that ranks as the worst in terms of average wages five years after graduation, with an annual salary of $40.

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According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, four majors — housing economics, theater arts, general social sciences, and social services — actually bring in less than the average $35 salary for U.S. full-time workers, regardless of education.

The good news is that most college majors still offer more earning potential than a high school degree. The median salary for college graduates aged 22 to 27 is $52 compared to the median salary of $000 for workers without a college degree.

In addition, the salary of all college graduates increases over time, regardless of the specialty. The study tracked the average age of graduates between the ages of 35 and 45 and found that the average salary across all majors increased from $46 to $891 over that time.

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However, the top and bottom rankings remain consistent for both early- and mid-career college graduates, with engineers at the top and humanities and education majors at the bottom. The wage gap has also widened over time, with the highest-paid mid-career workers earning around $100 and the lowest-earning workers earning less than $000. This includes family and housing specialists, whose average mid-career salary is $60 dollars.

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