Engineering majors earn some of the highest salaries right after college — and they’re still near the top years later.
That’s according to the latest findings from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, based on 2024 U.S. Census data, the most recent available.
The analysis breaks down annual earnings for college graduates by major and reflects the income of full-time workers whose highest degree is a bachelor’s, excluding currently enrolled students. Various engineering degrees have consistently ranked among the top-paying fields in recent years.
The highest-paying majors for workers ages 22 to 27 are computer engineering, computer science and chemical engineering, with recent graduates earning median early-career salaries of $85,000 or more. That’s well above the U.S median personal income of just over $45,000, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
However, engineering accounts for about 6% of bachelor’s degrees awarded nationwide, representing a relatively small share of all college graduates, according to the most recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics.
