Competitive Starting Salaries for Geoscience Graduates

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Date updated: 2007-12-14
Data Brief 2007-003
Written and compiled by Cindy Martinez for AGI, December 2007

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Geoscience starting salaries were competitive with other science and engineering fields in 2007. Bachelors geoscience graduates, generally employed in the environmental and hydrology industry, earned an average of $31,366 p.a. compared to $31,258 for life scientists and $32,500 for chemistry students.

Recent Masters recipients saw the highest starting salaries in the Oil and Gas industry, with an average of $81,300 p.a., according to a new study of recent geoscience graduates by AGI and the American Geophysical Union. This salary level is significantly higher than the average starting salary of all science Masters degree recipients, who earned an average of $46,873 p.a.

New doctorate recipients in all fields of science earned an average of $62,059 p.a. in the private sector, while new geosciences doctorates commanded an average of $72,600.

Starting salaries for new geoscience Masters and PhDs graduates in 2007. Source: AGI/AGU study on Recent PhD and Masters Degree Recipients, 2007.

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