In this article, I rank the engineering majors by early career salary. This data comes from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, a representative survey of Americans for the years 2009 to 2019. The incomes were adjusted into 2022 dollars.
For methodology, see the bottom of the post.
The Highest Paying: Petroleum, Naval, and Nuclear Engineering
Overall, Petroleum Engineering is the highest paying engineering major ($117,000 starting salary), followed by Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering ($90,000 starting salary), followed by Nuclear Engineering in third ($83,000), then Computer Engineering, and in fifth, Chemical Engineering
The Lowest Paying: Environmental, Geological, Civil, and Biological Engineering
Among the major engineering disciplines (I’m ignoring the misc engineering technology fields), we see that Environmental engineering pays least ($62,000 starting salary), followed by Geological Engineering ($66,000 starting salary), and then by Civil and Biological Engineering (both at $66,000 starting salary).
You may notice that there is a pattern: harder engineering majors generally earn more than easier majors.
The table below also shows where the engineering major ranks in terms of starting salary relative to all college majors.
Engineering Majors Ranked By Starting Salary
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Methodology
These averages were compiled by the author using public use American Community Survey microdata between 2009-2019. All dollar values were converted into 2022 dollars. Only those respondents with a bachelor’s degree as the highest credential were retained (those with graduate degrees were excluded).