Gen Z graduates are tossing their tassels with six-figure salaries in their eyes. But some won’t be making $50,000—even if they chased college degrees hailed as AI-proof.
While some college majors like liberal arts and performing arts are resulting in rock-bottom salaries, other stable career pathways are handing out the same dismal pay.
Post-grad pharmacy majors aged 22 to 27 with only a bachelor’s degree earned just $40,000, the lowest median income of all college concentrations, according to a new Federal Reserve Bank of New York report analyzing 2024 U.S. census data.
Pharmacy’s early-career payout is thousands of dollars lower than the U.S median income of $45,140, according to Census Bureau data. However, it bears noting that the Fed data doesn’t represent those in the pharmacy pipeline with a graduate degree—the Doctor of Pharmacy degree—who qualify to practice and can earn a median pharmacist salary of $137,480 annually, according to 2024 BLS data.
Other Gen Z college graduates are feeling the pinch, earning less than the average American; theology and religion majors made $41,600, social services took home $43,000, performing arts earned just $44,000, and liberal arts received just $45,000 in the years following their bachelor’s programs.
