What is the average graduate salary?
The average graduate salary will depend on several factors such as career type, industry and location. You may arrive at your graduate salary in different ways if you have a salary bands in place for instance. Luckily, there is information out there that takes these factors into consideration and produces an average graduate salary report. In addition to GRB data on average graduate salaries there are three other reports that many graduate recruiters use to benchmark their salaries are produced by High Fliers Research, the Institute of Student Employers (ISE) and GOV.UK as detailed below.
GRB Graduate Average Salary Index
Based on a broad range of clients across a variety of sectors, regions and vacancy types, our index gives you an accurate view on the latest data collected by quarter.
Q3 2023 £28,739
Q2 2023 £28,016
Q1 2023 £27,616
Q4 2022 £28,624
Q3 2022 £27,483
Q2 2022 £27,972
Q1 2022 £28,501
The ISE Survey
Graduates starting with 169 ISE members representing 42,846 hires, had a median starting salary of £32,000 in 2023 (£30,921 in 2022).
Here's the breakdown by sector for median graduate salaries (2022 in brackets):
- Charity & Public sector £28,000 (£27,299)
- Built environment £29,500 (£25,500)
- Energy, Engineering & Industry £31,000 (£25,500)
- Retail & FMCG company £32,000 (£26,000)
- Health & Pharmaceuticals £31,250 (£28,500)
- Finance & Professional Services £33,500 (£27,687)
- Digital & IT £33,000 (£26,000)
- Legal £47,000 (£40,750)
GOV.UK
The Graduate Labour Market Statistics (GLMS) covers labour market conditions for English domiciled graduates and postgraduates and compare these to English domiciled non-graduates. This edition of the GLMS summarises the annual employment and earning outcomes data for graduates, postgraduates and non-graduates in 2022. All earnings data in this publication are calculated for full-time workers only.
In 2022, the median nominal salary for working-age graduates was £38,500. This was £11,500 more than working-age non-graduates (£27,000), but £6,500 less than working-age postgraduates (£45,000). In nominal terms, salaries increased for all groups. However, in real terms (2007 prices, using CPI-H), salaries for graduates and non-graduates remained the same from 2021 to 2022, whilst postgraduates saw a decrease of £1,000. The gap between the median salaries of graduates and non-graduates has increased by £1,000 since 2021 in nominal terms and by £500 in real terms. Please note, salaries are calculated using earnings from individuals’ .
The High Fliers Survey
The average graduate salary in 2022 is £32,000 (£30,000 in 2021).The figures do not include additional benefits such as relocation allowances, regional weighting, subsidised company facilities or bonus schemes. This survey asks companies in the Times Top 100 Graduate Employers.
Here's the breakdown by sector:
- Investment banking £50,000 (£50,000 in 2021)
- Law £50,000 (£46,000 in 2021)
- Consulting £47,500 (£45,000 in 2021)
- Oil & energy £40,000 (£40,000 in 2021)
- Banking & Finance £38,000 (£32,500 in 2021)
- Retailing £36,800 (£36,800 in 2021)
- Armed Forces £33,000 (£27,800 in 2021)
- Consumer goods £32,000 (£32,000 in 2021)
- Technology £32,000 (£32,000 in 2021)
- Accounting & professional services £32,000 (£30,600 in 2021)
- Media £31,500 (£32,500 in 2021)
- Engineering & industrial £28,500 (£28,000 in 2021)
- Public sector £23,100 (£24,200 in 2021)
“The key for us, number one, has always been hiring very smart people.”
- Bill Gates, Microsoft