Starting Salaries to See Modest Growth in 2015

Around 37% of employers will increase starting salaries by 3% to 5% in 2015, according to a recent study.

Michigan State University economist Phil Gardner, MS, PhD, the director of the Collegiate Employment Research Institute, discovered a little more than one-third of the more than 5700 companies that participated in his survey will increase their starting salaries modestly this year.

Slightly more than 60% of employers will keep their starting salaries the same as last year, but more companies are offering incentives, such as signing bonuses, to new graduates. Dr. Gardner also found that almost 40% of employers will be hiring more interns compared with last year, while only 4% will reduce their number of interns.

A few of Dr. Gardner’s other findings included:

· 18% of employers will increase salaries by more than 10%.

· 28% of employers will offer performance bonuses after 1 year of employment.

· 14% of employers will provide a base salary, plus commission.

· The health care sector may see starting salaries increase by 6% to 7%.

· Among the jobs that Dr. Gardner examined, engineers earned the highest starting salaries.

While some employers are increasing their wages for new employees, salaries may not be keeping up with inflation rates, Dr. Gardner warned.

The full report of Dr. Gardner’s findings will be released in November 2015 in Recruiting Trends, the nation’s largest survey of employers’ hiring intentions for college graduates.