This chapter examines the weekly earnings of employed graduates in the years after graduation. Only income through the PAYE system is included in this analysis and income from self-employment activities registered through the self-assessment system is therefore excluded here. Median values for earnings are presented in each case rounded to the nearest €5. All earnings relate to average gross pay (liable to the Universal Social Charge). As in the previous chapter, due to the low overall counts of ‘Other gender’ graduates, this cohort’s earnings are not included in the proceeding plots as a distinct category but are included in the relevant PxStat tables accompanying this release.
Looking across graduation cohorts, median weekly earnings one year after graduation increased from €430 per week for 2013 graduates to €625 per week for 2022 graduates, an increase of €195.
Male and female 2013 graduates differed in their median weekly earnings by €25. Comparing this to the latest 2022 cohort, this gap between male and female earnings one year post-graduation has narrowed slightly to €20, with median weekly earnings of €635 per week for male graduates compared to €615 per week for female graduates. The graduation cohort showing the largest difference between male and female graduates was the 2014 graduation cohort. For this cohort the difference was €30, with male graduates earning €465 and female graduates earning €435.
Figure 4.2 shows median weekly earnings for 2013 graduates one to ten years after graduation for male and female graduates. Median earnings of all graduates increased from €430 per week in the first year after graduation, to €735 per week after five years, and to €1,090 after ten years.
Examining these three timepoints for 2013 graduates, median weekly earnings were consistently higher for males as compared to females and this gap appeared to widen with time. After ten years a difference of €170 was evident, with male graduates earning €1,195 per week compared to €1,025 for female graduates.
Graduates from Education programmes in 2022 displayed the highest earnings in the first year after graduation with median earnings of €815 per week. This was followed by Health and Welfare graduates at €775 and Information and Communication Technologies graduates at €765 per week. The field with the lowest median earnings was Arts and Humanities, with weekly earnings for 2022 graduates of €470. The second-lowest earnings was seen for Services graduates, who earned on average €510 per week in the first year after graduation.
It should be reiterated that this analysis includes graduates who were classified as being in both employment and education. Lower earnings in certain fields may therefore be partially explained by graduates engaging in substantial part-time work while they continue their studies. As the earlier chapter What Graduates Do highlighted, the proportion of graduates in both education and substantial employment (relative to the total number of graduates in substantial employment) was higher for fields such as Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics and Health and Welfare. The prevalence of graduates of certain fields of study at varying NFQ levels is also likely to influence overall earnings.
Graduates of the 2022 cohort showed increased earnings in their first year after graduation relative to their 2013 counterparts across all fields of study. Looking across graduation cohorts from 2013 to 2022, the largest proportional growth in median earnings seen across the period was for Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics graduates, with earnings rising from €430 to €670.
Taking a ten-year view of the 2013 cohort of graduates, in the first year after graduation employed graduates from Education programmes had the highest median earnings at €600 per week. This was followed by Information and Communication Technologies and then by Health and Welfare graduates who earned €540 and €535 per week respectively.
Ten years after graduation, however, graduates from Information and Communication Technologies had the highest earnings at €1,405 per week. This was followed by graduates from Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction at €1,265 per week. After ten years, Education graduates showed the fifth-highest earnings at €1,100 per week.
Graduates’ median earnings one year after graduation were consistently higher with higher NFQ level across all graduation years. Amongst the 2022 graduate cohort, NFQ Level 10 graduates displayed the highest earnings at €960 and graduates from courses at NFQ Level 6 the lowest median earnings, at €355 per week.
Nevertheless, 2022 graduates at all NFQ levels had higher earnings than the equivalent 2013 cohorts. The greatest increase in weekly earnings between 2013 and 2022 graduation cohorts was seen for NFQ Level 10 and NFQ Level 9 graduates, with earnings increasing by €235. Proportionally, the greatest change was seen for NFQ Level 7 graduates, whose earnings have increased by approximately 51%.
It should again be noted that this reflects substantially employed graduates regardless of whether they were also re-enrolled in education after their original graduation. As detailed in the earlier chapter What Graduates Do, in the latest graduation year, graduates from programmes at NFQ Level 6 and NFQ Level 7 were more likely to also be re-enrolled in higher education whilst in employment after their graduation.
Median weekly earnings for graduates in their first year after graduation are shown in Figure 4.6 for each university. Graduates from Trinity College Dublin had the highest median earnings in the first year after graduation for all graduation cohorts, although in 2019 this was matched by graduates from Dublin City University. Taking a ten-year view, for those institutions in which this can be assessed, graduates from University College Dublin have seen the largest growth in earnings, with the 2022 cohort earning €230 more on average as compared to their 2013 counterparts.
Please note that over the last number of years, several higher level institutions have under gone structural changes including mergers and amalgamations. Therefore earnings values for the same institution may not necessarily be comparable across graduation years. These changes and the effect on the number of graduates are detailed in Table 5.2 in the Overview of Graduates chapter.
Figure 4.7 shows median weekly earnings of 2013 graduates one to ten years after graduation for each university. Other combinations of graduation year and years since graduation are available within the accompanying PxStat table.
Among the 2013 cohort, graduates from Trinity College Dublin had the highest median earnings in the first year after graduation at €520 per week. This was followed by graduates from Dublin City University who earned €495 per week.
Ten years after graduation, 2013 graduates from Dublin City University showed the highest median earnings at €1,310 per week. This was followed by graduates from Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin at €1,235 and €1,230, respectively.
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