Women leaving university have plenty to celebrate as it’s been revealed that they earn triple the yearly salary of female non-graduates.
Official figures have been published from the Institute for Fiscal Studies and have highlighted that going to university can really pay off.
The research also found that men can in fact double their salary if they choose to go to university, after researchers analysed salary data from the Student Loans Company.
The salaries of more than 260,000 graduates had been used in the research in 1998-2011, while looking at their earnings in 2011-12.
Earning more with a degree
It has been found that a female non-graduate in her 30s will take home an average of £6,300 per annum, while a graduate would receive £19,500.
For male graduates, the results are similar, with a non-graduate earning £10,700 and a graduate bringing home £25,200 per annum.
Interestingly, the research also found that today’s graduates are actually more “recession proof” compared to their non-graduate counterparts.
For example, the research found that during the four years after 2007, graduate men witnessed their salaries decline by 14% while non-graduate experienced a 30% decline.
Meanwhile, female graduates lived with a 20% drop in earnings while non-graduate women saw a 40% decline in their annual salary.
The power of a degree
The authors of the research stated that the “graduate premium” that was identified was in fact maintained throughout the years of recession, although all groups of individuals saw a fall in earnings during this time.
Jack Britton, Research Economist at the IFS, explained that the “value of a degree is therefore particularly true for women”.
Gaining a degree will provide a certain level of “protection” from low income and therefore works to “shield” graduates from the vast amount of negativity that’s associated with a recession, he added.
Are you a recent graduate? Are you benefiting from higher salaries? Speak to Discovery Graduates today!
