The salaries of young professionals with a Bachelor’s degree in Austria are getting closer to those of Maser’s graduates, shrinking the gap between them. Such estimation has been made through a recent analysis of Austria’s Federal Statistical Office, Statistics Austria.
The increase in starting salaries for Bachelor’s graduates in Austria is attributed to the fields of health and social work as well as education.
The analysis also reveals how the choice of degree course affects the differences in incomes between men and women.
A degree is still a guarantee for a quick entry into professional life and a good starting salary. One year after a master’s degree, the median salary is just over €3,000 gross per month. Additionally, starting salaries after a bachelor’s degree in the healthcare or social sector have increased significantly over the past ten years.
The Bologna Process and the expansion of the University of Applied Sciences have led to an increasing number of job entrants with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Austria.
In the 2008/09 academic year, nearly 16,000 degrees were obtained without further education, and this number will increase to nearly 27,000 by 2020/21. At the same time, in the 2020/21 academic year, nearly four-fifths of these degrees were either Bachelor’s (36.0 per cent) or Master’s (43.6 per cent).
On average, people at the beginning of their career with a Bachelorʼs degree were able to take up their first employment within around two months, while those with a Masterʼs degree were able to do so in less than a month. Furthermore, the employment rate of career starters with a Bachelorʼs or Masterʼs degree increased over the monitored period.
While this rate was 77.3 per cent for graduates twelve months after completing a Bachelor’s degree in the academic year 2008/09, a total of 81.8 per cent were already employed in the academic year 2020/21.
In addition, graduates with a Master’s degree have also shown a similar trend, with the statistics revealing that 84.3 per cent were in employment twelve months after graduating in 2008/09 and 87.3 per cent after graduating in the academic year 2020/21.
The average monthly income for full-time work, one year after completing a Master’s degree program, varied between nearly €3,100 and €3,300 during the observed period.
In contrast, the median income of Bachelor’s graduates increased notably from the academic year 2012/13 onwards. In the academic year 2012/13, it stood at €2,653, reaching €2,986 by the academic year 2020/21.
Thus, the difference to graduates with a Masterʼs degree reduced from just under €600 in the graduation year 2008/09 to around €200 in 2020/21.
A study focused on comparing the income of men and women with a university degree revealed that one year after finishing a Bachelor’s degree in 2020/21, men earned a median income similar to that of female graduates with a Master’s degree.
According to the study, the difference can partly be attributed to gender-specific differences in the choice of degree program.
While men are overrepresented in fields such as computer science and communication technology, engineering, manufacturing and construction, with relatively high incomes, women are more focused on social sciences, journalism and information, with comparatively low incomes.
