Psychology Degrees Employment, Wage, and Career Trajectory Consequences

Abstract

Psychology is a very popular undergraduate major. Examining wage data from a range of degree holders reveals much about the expected career trajectories of those with psychology degrees. First, regarding baccalaureates, psychology and other liberal arts graduates-compared with those from certain preprofessional and technical undergraduate programs-generally fall in relatively low tiers of salary levels at both starting and later career points. Salary levels among baccalaureate alumni groups correlate with averaged measures of salary satisfaction, repeated job seeking, and perceptions of underemployment. These patterns seem to stem from the specific occupational categories (job titles) entered by graduates in psychology compared with other graduates, calling into question the employability advantage of so-called generic liberal arts skills. Second, psychology master's degree holders also generally fall in a low tier of salary among their science, engineering, and health counterparts. Third, psychology college faculty (including instructors) fall in low tiers of salary compared with their colleagues from other academic fields. Such broadly based indications of the relative economic disadvantages of psychology degrees have implications for career counseling in the field.
© The Author(s) 2011.

Full text

Psychology Degrees: Employment,
Wage, and Career Trajectory Consequences
D. W. Rajecki
1
and Victor M. H. Borden
2
1
Department of Psychology, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, and
2
Department of Educational Leadership
and Policy Studies, Indiana University Bloomington
Abstract
Psychology is a very popular undergraduate major. Examining wage data from a range of degree holders reveals much about the
expected career trajectories of those with psychology degrees. First, regarding baccalaureates, psychology and other liberal arts
graduates—compared with those from certain preprofessional and technical undergraduate programs—generally fall in relatively
low tiers of salary levels at both starting and later career points. Salary levels among baccalaureate alumni groups correlate with
averaged measures of salary satisfaction, repeated job seeking, and perceptions of underemployment. These patterns seem to
stem from the specific occupational categories (job titles) entered by graduates in psychology compared with other graduates,
calling into question the employability advantage of so-called generic liberal arts skills. Second, psychology master’s degree holders
also generally fall in a low tier of salary among their science, engineering, and health counterparts. Third, psychology college faculty
(including instructors) fall in low tiers of salary compared with their colleagues from other academic fields. Such broadly based
indications of the relative economic disadvantages of psychology degrees have implications for career counseling in the field.
Keywords
college majors, baccalaureates, career counseling, career trajectories, employability, liberal arts skills, master’s degree holders,
occupational categories, wages
As part of their mandate to advance the discipline through
effective teaching and advising, academic psychologists recog-
nize the importance to students of ‘‘accurate information about
earning potential with a psychology undergraduate degree’’
(Littleford et al., 2010, p. 77). To that end, the news is not
always glowing, when there exist such statements as about a
‘‘disconnection between the popularity of the psychology
major and the potential dissatisfaction with the outcomes of a
psychology education indicated by employers [and] students’’
(Landrum et al., 2010, p. 152). Specifically, research on
first-year-out employment outcomes revealed that many new
psychology baccalaureates find themselves in jobs that have
apparently unsatisfactory characteristics: not requiring a
degree, offering relatively low pay, and being unrelated to the
major (Borden & Rajecki, 2000; Rajecki & Borden, 2009).
Commentators sometimes caution, however, that early
employment outcomes of psychology baccalaureates might not
reflect or anticipate subsequent career trajectories. A classic
study in this domain indicated that over a number of years fol-
lowing commencement, psychology graduates might expect
upward mobility in terms of the increasing percentage of a
cohort who find jobs that require a college degree (Titley,
1978). Attention to a longer view of work life can thus translate
directly into psychology advisors’ pronouncements. For exam-
ple: ‘‘You’ll probably have about eight different jobs that may
span three different professions or occupations’’ (Landrum,
2009, p. 9).
Accordingly, it seemed worthwhile to identify and assess
published data on aspects of long-term career development
among psychology degree holders. We wanted to compare
graduates from psychology with those from a variety of other
degree programs and to consider more or less extended periods
or critical steps in the working lives of those individuals. To do
so, we settled on four nationally prominent research projects or
programs (here called cases), all available via the Internet, that
had the added advantages of longitudinal or replicated data
collection.
Corresponding Author:
D. W. Rajecki, 11245 Garrick Street, Fishers, IN, 46038-1928
E-mail: dwrajecki@sbcglobal.net
Perspectives on Psychological Science
6(4) 321–335
ªThe Author(s) 2011
Reprints and permission:
sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1745691611412385
http://pps.sagepub.com

But before taking up the four cases, we note that undergrad-
uate programs in psychology generally conform to the liberal
arts tradition (Brewer, 2006; Korn, 1985; McGovern, Furu-
moto, Halpern, Kimble, & McKeachie, 1991) and review some
of the ongoing discussion regarding the commercial advantages
of a liberal arts education.
Employability With a Liberal Arts Bachelor’s
Degree
The liberal arts skills message
In the judgment of some authorities, a liberal arts bachelor’s
degree amounts to a quite positive credential for a job candi-
date in today’s knowledge economy. From the perspective of
human resources in business, for instance, a number of publica-
tions point to the presumably good fit between results of liberal
arts training on the one hand and corporate management needs
on the other (Johnston et al., 1986; Useem, 1989). This general
view persists:
[Most] hiring managers care more about a job candidate’s skills
than they do about a college major. And the skills employers
say they want most in a candidate, such as communication and
critical thinking, are precisely those for which liberal arts stu-
dents are known. (Gehlhaus, 2007–2008, p. 3)
According to this general line of thought, liberally educated job
candidates have had opportunities to acquire valuable generic
skills during their undergraduate years. Proficiencies include
critical thinking and oral and written communication, as noted
in the preceding quote, along with literacy and numeracy and
experience with research and teamwork. Additional potential
outcomes are a sense of ethics and a propensity for lifelong
learning (e.g., Knotts, 2002).
A skills message corollary: The pie-in-the-sky
proposition
Employers may speak well of employees’ literacy, numeracy,
and the ability to think critically, yet it is a long-noted fact that
college graduates with liberal arts degrees tend to draw rela-
tively low wages in their entry-level jobs (e.g., Parrish & Duff,
1975; Phelan & Phelan, 1983). For example, in a study of sal-
ary dollar differentials of 1985–1986 bachelor’s degree recipi-
ents, men who had majored in engineering earned more than
the average annual wage for their cohort (þ4,774), whereas
former social science majors earned less (–2,485). The respec-
tive values for women from these fields were þ6,860 and
–2,091 (adapted from Rumberger & Thomas, 1993).
If the economic reality of the paycheck represents an embar-
rassment to supporters of the commercial utility of an arts and
sciences education, there is a way around the difficulty: A num-
ber of pundits have put forward what we judge to be a corollary
to the basic liberal arts skills message. In our take on this
optimistic extension, employment opportunities might be
somewhat limited or limiting for freshly minted liberal arts
graduates, but their future circumstances could be much more
promising.
This idea can be traced to findings that in at least one large
corporation, managers holding humanities and social science
degrees fared better by midcareer than did those from engineer-
ing programs (Beck, 1981; Howard, 1986). This revelation was
noticed:
[There] is clear evidence that in terms of long-term career
mobility within the same technically oriented company, huma-
nities and social science majors do as well if not better than
those with science, business, or engineering degrees. ... Con-
sequently, it seems reasonable to expect that the impact of
major field may be substantially reduced or perhaps changed
when later career earnings is the criterion. ... [A longitudinal
study] found that after twenty years, engineers had lower sal-
aries than economics, business, and English majors. (Pascarella
& Terenzini, 1991, p. 517)
In some circles, the emphasis on the long-term career prospects
of liberally (broadly) educated individuals still resonates, argu-
ing that liberal arts majors are more adaptable in the face of
economic and labor market changes (Knotts, 2002).
We chose to nickname the skills-message corollary a pie-in-
the-sky proposition because the formulation reminds us of
words from the famous old song having to do with early rela-
tive deprivation, continued effort, and eventual reward (‘‘work
and pray, live on hay, you’ll get pie in the sky when you die’’).
In this view, comparative career conditions for liberal arts
degree holders could improve over time because demands of
the contemporary knowledge economy are fluid and change-
able; to be successful, employees must adapt (learn). There-
fore, appropriate rewards should eventually come to those
literate, numerate, and critically thinking lifelong learners
(i.e., liberal arts grads) who strive hard and are patient. Accord-
ing to this notion, while their myopic and rigid preprofession-
ally and technically trained coworkers wither in the flux of the
commercial world, far-seeing and flexible former liberal arts
majors should thrive (cf. Association of American Colleges
& Universities, 2007, p. 16; Jones, 2005, p. 35; Rimer, 2003,
p. B7). This is clearly a proposition about career trajectories.
The present research
We now describe the results of four empirical investigations of
aspects of career paths, considered separately as cases. Case 1
addresses the matters of starting and midcareer wages—along
with a content analysis of actual job titles—of psychology and
other baccalaureates who did not attain a higher degree. Case 2
provides information about first-ten-years-out trends and pat-
terns in employment outcomes—such as satisfaction with
wages and perceptions of underemployment—for graduates
of social and behavioral sciences (including psychology) and
preprofessional or technical major fields. Cases 1 and 2 thus
bear on the validity of the liberal arts skills message and are
useful for an evaluation of the pie-in-the-sky proposition.
322 Rajecki and Borden

Case 3 examines the pay levels and work activities of new
psychology bachelor’s and master’s degree holders compared
with those of graduates from other science, engineering, and
health fields. Finally, Case 4 considers issues at the very source
of psychology and other baccalaureate degrees: college faculty
career-span salaries. Cases 3 and 4 thus shed light on career con-
sequences for individuals with advanced psychology degrees.
Each of the four cases makes a contribution to our grasp of
career trajectories among psychology degree holders. But as a
disclaimer we note that, because of the aims of the original
authors, each case is also limited or restricted in one or another
feature of its design or procedure so that some questions of inter-
est to psychology career counselors cannot be addressed here.
Case 1: Baccalaureates’ Starting and
Midcareer Salaries
Source
PayScale, Inc., is a Seattle-based firm that specializes in research
and consultation on employment compensation, claiming own-
ership of the world’s largest database of online employee salary
information. Among other economic news, the company pro-
vides annual reports of the starting and midcareer salaries of bac-
calaureates. The cross-sectional survey respondents in its recent
2010–2011 College Salary Report were identified as thousands
of people who successfully completed PayScale.com’s
employee survey. These individuals graduated from 120 differ-
ent undergraduate major programs across America. The aca-
demic majors covered in the report fell within a wide range of
categories of postsecondary programs of study, including ‘‘aca-
demic,’’ ‘‘arts and sciences,’’ ‘‘career-oriented,’’ ‘‘liberal arts,’’
‘‘preprofessional,’’ ‘‘technical,’’ ‘‘SEH’’ (Science, Engineering,
Health), ‘‘STEM’’ (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathe-
matics), and ‘‘vocational.’’ Participants had a bachelor’s and
no higher degree and were employed full-time. So-called start-
ing employees were typified as 25 years old and having 2 years
of experience; midcareer employees were typified as 42 years
old and having 15 years of experience (PayScale.com, 2010a).
Salary levels of fields compared
We sorted median 2010–2011 starting salaries of the 120 types
of alumni from highest to lowest levels, revealing a clear pat-
tern linking specific former major programs to subsequent
group differences in wages. The frequency distribution for
these starting salaries is shown in the upper panel of Figure 1.
Also shown in that panel are the distribution’s mean of med-
ians, standard deviation, and the position of psychology. Bac-
calaureates from petroleum engineering programs topped the
list at $93,000. Computer engineering alumni came in at
$61,200 and nursing graduates at $52,700. Among liberal arts
majors, economics degree holders came in at $48,800, history
majors at $38,500, and English majors at $37,800. Finally, near
the bottom of the list were theology majors ($34,700) and art
students ($33,500) (PayScale.com, 2010a).
Psychology baccalaureates’ standing:
Starting and midcareer salary distributions
The psychology median starting salary of $35,300 is well below
average (z¼–0.81, which is less than 79.1%of the other starting
salaries sample). The frequency distribution of the 120 median
midcareer salaries reported by PayScale.com is shown similarly
in the lower panel of Figure 1. The psychology median midca-
reer salary of $62,500 is also well below average (z¼–0.60,
which is less than 72.6%of the midcareer salaries sample).
Correspondence of starting and midcareer
salary levels
Naturally, median midcareer salaries exceeded levels of starting
salaries for workers from all 120 undergraduate major fields in
question. Regardless, a general correspondence of level or rank
of matched pairs of salary values was evident across the two
career points. For example, at midcareer in 2010, median earn-
ings for graduates of petroleum engineering, history, and theol-
ogy programs were, respectively, $157,000, $73,000, and
$51,300. The correlation over the 120 matched pairs of reported
dollar amounts was positive and strong, r(120) ¼.90, p< .01.
Work activity
Additional insights concerning career trajectories among psy-
chology and other baccalaureates can be gained through an
examination of graduates’ various work activities as revealed
by obtained job titles. The PayScale.com 2010–2011 College
Salary Report offered a number of site pages under the heading
of ‘‘Most Popular Jobs by Major’’ (PayScale.com, 2010b). For
each of the several major programs on record in this section,
PayScale.com listed the job titles most frequently reported by
employees with that specialization. The samples included work-
ers holding only a bachelor’s degree. Workers with all years of
experience were included in these popular-occupation profiles,
provided they worked full-time in the United States.
Our quick content analysis of the literal titles of the ‘‘10
most popular jobs’’ per major was based on a simple count
of keywords. For instance, we found that of the list generated
by former biology majors, 8 of 10 of the titles included one or
another of the words medical, pharmacy, veterinary, biotechnol-
ogy, or microbiologist. Within the list from computer science
graduates, all 10 titles made mention of software, programmer,
information technology, or web. Clearly, at least some college
graduates with certain academic specializations obtained jobs
definitely related to their former major.
To extend the work activity analysis, Table 1 presents the
2010–2011 PayScale.com top 10 popular job titles and salaries
reported by psychology baccalaureates, as well as the lists for
economics and English graduates. (Job titles in Table 1 sections
are rank ordered by popularity as in the original.) We chose
these particular majors for examination because it is not
uncommon to encounter reports that aggregate them in various
ways, and with other fields, under headings such as ‘‘liberal
Psychology Degrees 323

arts.’’ Possible differences in employment patterns within this
trio may speak to the wisdom of seeking results from disaggre-
gated academic disciplines.
Indeed, the entries in Table 1 indicate strikingly different
work activity patterns and average salary levels for these three
degrees. Sooner or later, economics, English, and psychology
students go their separate ways and enter mostly nonoverlap-
ping work circles that can yield different levels of material
rewards. As seen in Table 1, economics graduates tended
toward money matters, those from English were drawn to writ-
ing and teaching, and former psychology majors often became
involved with helping, counseling, and personnel.
Comment
First, depending heavily on specific undergraduate fields, bac-
calaureate recipients of relatively low (or high) starting salaries
Figure. 1. Frequency distributions of median starting and midcareer salaries of baccalaureates from
120 academic fields. Psychology graduates’ positions are indicated by triangles. Adapted from
PayScale.com (2010a). Std Dev ¼standard deviation.
324 Rajecki and Borden

can expect to also receive relatively low (or high) midcareer
salaries. That is, the pie-in-the-sky proposition—that at later
points in their careers liberal arts alumni, such as those from
psychology, might experience advances over their counterparts
from more technically oriented or certain preprofessional
fields—did not gain support. Figure 1 (lower panel) indicates
that, in terms of earnings, at the midcareer point the relative
position of psychology alumni (z¼–0.60) had not nearly over-
taken graduates of, say, chemical engineering (z¼2.03), com-
puter science (z¼1.43), construction management (z¼0.83),
or occupational health (z¼0.24).
Second, Table 1 shows striking differences in the occupa-
tions and salaries of graduates of three nominally liberal arts
fields. It is awkward to argue that, for example, the large differ-
ence in average wages of economics versus psychology alumni
was due to differences in their levels of liberal arts skills.
Rather, it makes more sense to say that economics graduates
were simply more interested in (or cognizant of) money matters
than were psychology graduates and that an interest in money
led to involvement with money. For additional career-span sal-
ary surveys for years prior to 2010–2011, see PayScale.com
(2008, 2009).
Case 2: The Class of 1992–1993: 1, 4, and 10
Years Later
Source
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) identified
a nationally representative sample of individuals from dozens
of different undergraduate major programs who received a
bachelor’s degree during the 1992–1993 academic year.
Follow-up surveys of this sample occurred in 1994, 1997, and
2003, making for a longitudinal design (NCES, 1996, 1999,
2001, 2006, 2008). A strength of this research is that, beyond
salaries in dollars, survey instruments included measures of
other aspects of employment with a baccalaureate, such as
satisfaction with wages and number of jobs held over a period
of time. A weakness of the NCES series, however, is that for
many of the agency’s reports, responses of psychology gradu-
ates were aggregated with those of other social sciences,
including anthropology/archeology, economics, sociology,
geography, and city planning.
Salary levels of fields compared: 1 and 4 years
later
An early document (NCES, 1996)covered the 1994 survey of the
1992–1993 graduates. Eleven undergraduate program categories
were identified in that report, with psychology treated as a sep-
arate field. The percentages of women per program fell in a dis-
tinct pattern: education (79%), health professions (75%),
psychology (74%), public affairs/social services (60%), huma-
nities (59%), social sciences (51%), biological sciences (48%),
business/management (46%), history (40%), mathematics/other
sciences (40%), and engineering (14%). Regarding average
annual wages in then-current dollars, alumni (men and women
combined) from programs in health ($31,302, z¼1.75) and
engineering ($30,948, z¼1.66) topped the earnings list. Psy-
chology graduates were near the bottom ($19,463, z¼–1.04),
exceeding only those from education ($19,280, z¼–1.08). For
similar findings on first-year employment outcomes of a later
cohort (the Class of 1999–2000), see NCES (2003).
In 1997, a subsample was constructed explicitly of 1992–
1993 baccalaureates who had not enrolled in graduate educa-
tion. ‘‘These college graduates represented 70 percent of all
graduates, and most entered the labor market immediately after
finishing their degree’’ (NCES, 2001, p. iii). The NCES (2001)
report presented 1994 and 1997 salary information in summary
form for 12 categories of fields (excluding here a 13th catchall
‘‘other’’ grouping), as shown in Table 2. Salary values in
Table 2 are expressed in 1997 dollars; rows are arranged in des-
cending order of entries in the 1994 column. Generally speak-
ing, the predominantly technical or preprofessional categories
of computer science, engineering, health, and business are
Table 1. Titles and Median Annual Salaries in 2010 of Jobs Most
Frequently Obtained by Baccalaureates From Three Popular
Undergraduate Major Fields
Major field/job title Salary ($)
Economics (average median ¼$69,320)
Financial analyst 52,800
Staff accountant 46,000
Finance/banking analyst 70,800
Economist 66,200
Data analyst 57,200
Financial advisor 116,000
Investments analyst 71,200
Business process/management consultant 104,000
Financial research analyst 60,500
Marketing analyst 48,500
English (average median ¼$48,200)
High school teacher 50,200
Administrative assistant 35,100
Technical writer 68,900
Paralegal/legal assistant 53,100
Marketing coordinator 39,700
Consumer service representative 34,900
Editor 52,400
Elementary school teacher 46,500
Copy editor 46,300
Managing editor 54,900
Psychology (average median ¼$39,640)
Administrative assistant 35,100
Social services manager 34,900
Social worker 41,000
Mental health counselor 36,500
Mental health case manager 32,800
Applied behavior analysis therapist 40,700
Nonprofit organization program coordinator 38,600
Human resources administrator 44,500
Employment/recruitment or placement specialist 54,800
Substance abuse counselor 37,500
Note. Adapted from PayScale.com (2010b), with permission.
Psychology Degrees 325

found in the top part of this list. Next, liberal arts fields such as
social sciences (aggregated with psychology), communica-
tions, and humanities emerge in a lower tier, followed at the
bottom by social work and education.
Social science baccalaureates’ standing: 1994
and 1997 salary distributions
Table 2 also presents zscores based on the separate distribu-
tions of 1994 and 1997 salary entries. In 1994, the social
sciences group earned an average salary clearly in the lower
part of the distribution (z¼–0.70). By 1997, however, the rela-
tive position of these social sciences baccalaureates was relo-
cated nearer the center of the distribution (z¼–0.13). This
positive shift was due in part to the relatively reduced fortunes
of graduates of several other major fields: health/nursing,
mathematical/physical sciences, biological/interdisciplinary
sciences, and education (and see the following section on
changes in specific work activities for social sciences gradu-
ates). Even so, the 1997 salary level for baccalaureates in the
social sciences was still well below that of several other major
fields, including health/other, engineering/architecture, com-
puter science, and business.
Correspondence of fields’ 1994 and 1997
salary levels
Comparative pay levels over career trajectory are very stable.
The correlation over the 12 matched pairs of dollar amounts
in Table 2 is positive and strong, r(12) ¼.83, p< .01. This indi-
cates that levels of 1994 salaries were predictive of levels of
1997 salaries. That is, based on longitudinal information, reci-
pients of relatively low (or high) 1994 salaries also generally
earned relatively low (or high) 1997 salaries.
Gender-based wage differentials, 1997
Of additional interest, 1997 salary levels were reported sepa-
rately for women and men (NCES, 2001). For the 11 (of 12)
fields with complete data, men earned somewhat higher aver-
age wages ($36,957) than did women ($31,506), a common
finding in the employment literature. It is noteworthy, how-
ever, that over the 11 fields in question there was a high
degree of correspondence of men’s and women’s average
annual salaries, r(11) ¼.92 p< .01. This correlation indicates
that for the class of 1992–1993, in 1997 those academic fields
that produced relatively well (or poorly) paid baccalaureate
menalsoproducedrelativelywell(orpoorly)paidbacca-
laureate women.
Other 1997 employment factors of fields
compared
Beyond salary, the NCES (2001) document provided informa-
tion about three additional types of employment experiences of
the 1992–1993 graduates in (or by) 1997, summarized at the
level of the 12 major fields identified in Table 2. The first of
these measures was the percentage of respondents who were
very satisfied with the pay of their 1997 jobs. The highest rate
of such satisfaction was for health/other at 48.4%; the lowest
was for biological/interdisciplinary sciences at 23.9%. The sec-
ond measure was the average number of different jobs begun
since graduation in 1992–1993. The highest number of such
jobs was 2.9 for humanities/arts; the lowest was 1.6 for
health/nursing.
The third additional measure had to do with ‘‘overeduca-
tion.’’ Overeducation is one term economists use to character-
ize a situation where a worker has had more schooling than
called for by her or his current job (Rubb, 2003). An equivalent
expression is ‘‘underemployment’’ (Parrish & Duff, 1975).
Table 2. Average Salary and Selected Employment Features in 1994 and 1997 for Full-Time Employed 1992–1993 Baccalaureates From Various
Major Fields
1994 1997
Major field Salary ($) zSalary ($) z
Very satisfied
with 1997 salary (%)
Number
of jobs
Underemployed
(%)
Health/other
a
35,515 1.68 42,066 1.19 48.4 1.9 53.4
Health/nursing 34,194 1.42 37,012 0.42 38.0 1.6 56.6
Engineering/architecture 32,217 1.05 42,931 1.32 42.0 1.8 46.5
Computer science 29,428 0.51 44,624 1.58 40.7 1.9 54.0
Business 29,017 0.43 37,448 0.48 34.3 1.9 62.8
Mathematics/physical sciences 25,958 –0.16 31,565 –0.42 38.1 2.5 58.5
Biological/interdisciplinary sciences 25,380 –0.27 28,760 –0.85 23.9 2.5 62.7
Social sciences
b
23,166 –0.70 33,463 –0.13 29.3 2.5 67.4
Humanities and arts 22,359 –0.85 29,630 –0.72 26.6 2.9 66.6
Communications/journalism 22,170 –0.88 32,294 –0.31 30.9 2.8 59.1
Social work/protective services 21,328 –1.04 27,350 –1.07 33.9 2.2 73.5
Education 20,443 –1.21 24,543 –1.50 27.0 2.6 62.9
Note. Adapted from NCES (2001). Salaries are expressed in 1997 dollars. Rows are ordered on the 1994 salary column.
a
Includes audiology, community/mental health, hospital administration, and more.
b
Includes psychology.
326 Rajecki and Borden

Survey researchers at NCES employed a dual standard to
reflect underemployment on the part of their questionnaire
respondents: having a job that either does not require a college
degree or has no career potential (NCES, 1996, p. 60). The
NCES (2001) paper reported the percentage of respondents per
field who indicated that their 1997 job required a college
degree and had career potential (call it D þP). We converted
this information to a statement of underemployment by calcu-
lating the complement (100 minus D þP) for each major field.
The highest rate of underemployment was 73.5%for social
work/protective services; the lowest rate was 46.5%for engi-
neering/architecture.
To determine the statistical associations between the several
employment variables, the 12 major fields’ average 1997 salary
levels, percentage very satisfied with 1997 salary, number of
jobs since graduation, and percentage reported underemployed
were entered in a 4 3 bivariate intercorrelation analysis. The
resulting six coefficients are shown in Table 3, five of which
are significant. The range of salary levels was positively
associated with satisfaction with salary and negatively associ-
ated with number of jobs since graduation and with underem-
ployment. In turn, salary satisfaction levels were negatively
associated with number of jobs since graduation and with
underemployment.
Salary levels of fields compared: 10 years later
Baccalaureates from the class of 1992–1993 were surveyed
again in 2003 (NCES, 2008). Of individuals in the total 2003
sample, highest degree attained ranged from bachelor’s
(74.4%), to master’s (19.7%), to first professional (4.0%), to
doctorate (1.9%). Within the same sample, 25.1%of respon-
dents obtained occupational licenses, 30.2%earned profes-
sional certifications, and 44.5%completed work-related
classes (NCES, 2006). Taken as a whole, the class of 1992–
1993 had not fared badly:
Ten years after finishing college, most graduates had a job they
considered a career and used their education, and their average
salary, adjusted for inflation, had roughly doubled since 1994.
A majority were satisfied with their pay, fringe benefits, job
security, and opportunity for promotion (NCES, 2008, p. x).
Particulars of salary and other information for nine aggregated
fields were reported by NCES, as shown in Table 4. (Responses
of individuals who had earned postbaccalaureate credentials
were mixed with those with only a bachelor’s degree.) In terms
of comparative salary levels, a familiar pattern emerged. With
10 years of postgraduate experience, graduates of certain pre-
professional and technical undergraduate programs topped the
list, with arts and science graduates somewhere in the middle,
and former education majors at the bottom. The average 2003
salary for the social/behavioral sciences group fell at about the
center of the distribution (z¼0.03). Salary level was strongly
associated with a measure of satisfaction with salary, r(9) ¼
.88, p< .01, but not so strongly with the prevalence of advanced
degrees over fields, r(9) ¼–.35, ns.
Work activity from 1994 to 2003
NCES reported percentage distributions over 11 occupational
categories in 1994, 1997, and 2003 of 1992–1993 graduates
from nine major fields (NCES, 2008). Reminiscent of the
PayScale.com ‘‘popular job’’ data discussed in the previous
case, in 2003 graduates from preprofessional and technical
fields tended to have jobs related to their undergraduate specia-
lizations. Fully 48.8%of former engineering majors were iden-
tified as having jobs as engineers or architects. Similarly,
computer science majors were likely to become computer
scientists (48.0%), business/management majors were likely
to become business workers or managers (55.7%), health
majors were likely to become medical professionals (68.8%),
and education majors were likely to become educators
(65.1%). Interestingly, biological sciences students were likely
to become medical professionals (42.7%).
Where the social and behavioral sciences group was con-
cerned, Table 5 shows that in 1994, 10 occupational categories
accounted for 95.9%of all employment. The combined cate-
gories of service workers and administrative/clerical/legal sup-
port workers accounted for over a third (34.0%) of the 1994
jobs of such graduates. By 2003, however, there were smaller
percentages of social/behavioral sciences alumni in those two
Table 3. Intercorrelation Matrix of Alumni Group-Level Variables for
1992–1993Baccalaureates in 1997
Variable 1 2 3 4
1. Salary, 1997 — .81** –.73** –.77**
2. Very satisfied with 1997 salary — –.74** –.68
*
3. No. of jobs since 1992–1993 — .52
4. Underemployed —
Note. Adapted from NCES (2001). Degrees of freedom ¼12 for all coefficients.
*p< .05. **p< .01.
Table 4. Average Salaries in 2003 of 1992–1993 Graduates and Per-
centages of Respondents Satisfied With Their Salary and Holding an
Advanced Degree, by Major Field
Major field
Salary
($) z
Satisfied
with salary
(%)
Advanced
degree
(%)
Engineering 74,900 1.35 75.0 27.3
Computer science 72,600 1.11 76.7 17.3
Business/management 65,900 0.41 70.7 17.7
Health 65,000 0.32 73.0 22.6
Social/behavioral sciences 62,300 0.03 60.7 31.4
Biological sciences 62,200 0.02 62.5 46.1
Mathematics/physical
sciences
58,200 –0.39 67.9 46.9
Arts/humanities 52,800 –0.96 60.6 27.6
Education 43,800 –1.90 55.2 30.7
Note. Adapted from NCES (2008). Rows are ordered based on the salary
column.
Psychology Degrees 327

comparatively low-wage categories and larger percentages in
most of the remaining, presumably more lucrative or conge-
nial slots (see Table 5). This net change in earning potential
over the years helps explain why, as noted in a previous sec-
tion, the average 2003 salary for the social/behavioral
sciences group fell at about the center of the distribution of
that sample.
Comment
First, Table 2 shows that some 1992–1993 graduates encoun-
tered marked wage premiums in 1994 and again in 1997,
whereas other graduates encountered patterns of salaries that
might be called pay penalties (Samuelson, 2010) or negative
wage effects (Kahn, 2010). This may be so, but most people
who have earned a bachelor’s degree feel that higher education
was worth the time and money (Kiley, 2010; NCES, 2006).
Table 4 indicates, nonetheless, that salary differences over
fields—and levels of satisfaction with salary level—were still
evident a decade after college commencement. It may be obvi-
ous to some that salary level would be associated with salary
satisfaction. But the intercorrelation matrix seen in Table 3 sug-
gests that satisfaction—even mundane salary satisfaction—is
implicated with other variables in a broader dynamic of
employment experiences. On the basis of Table 3, we speculate
that higher salaries produced more job satisfaction, which feel-
ings prompted less job seeking because of fewer perceptions of
underemployment.
Importantly, salary satisfaction is related to undergradu-
ate specialization. Other such findings are worth mention.
In a study commissioned and reported by the Wall Street
Journal, workers who obtained a bachelor’s degree between
1999 and 2010 were surveyed in 2010. A central question
was, ‘‘Overall, how satisfied are you with your current
career path up to now?’’(Light, 2010). At the high end,
many graduates from chemical engineering (54%) were sat-
isfied, as were those from accounting (50%). Fewer satisfied
graduates were found among those from English (44%)or
economics (40%). The lowest rate of satisfied alumni was
for psychology (26%). This range of satisfaction levels led
to a comment that, compared with engineers who embark
on a specific career path early on, the least satisfied alumni
‘‘tend to be those who fell into general majors, such as
philosophy ... and ended up in unrelated fields’’ (Light,
2010, p. 2).
Second, the dollar amounts earned by graduates of certain
preprofessional and technical fields tended to be higher than
the wages of liberal arts degree holders at 1, 4, and 10 years
after graduation. These patterns are most reasonably attributed
to the demands and reward structures of the specific jobs
involved. Table 5 indicates, for example, that a substantial per-
centage of first-year-out social sciences graduates became ser-
vice or support workers and subsequently departed those
apparently unsatisfactory positions. The reason those graduates
initially found themselves in service or support work may be
better understood in terms of deficiencies of college counseling
services, rather than anyone’s lack of acquired generic skills or
penchant for lifelong learning. In any event, beginning a career
in a service or support job is a dubious first step toward catch-
ing up and surpassing fellow graduates who possess engineer-
ing, computer science, or health degrees. So much for the pie-
in-the-sky proposition.
Case 3: Bachelor’s and Master’s
Early Salaries
With reference to the preceding Cases 1 and 2, an undergradu-
ate, while majoring in psychology, might learn of the relative
disadvantages of such a bachelor’s degree in the general work-
force. To enhance personal employability, the student might
contemplate an additional degree at the next academic stra-
tum—perhaps in her or his chosen major. It would be useful,
therefore, to examine certain employment outcomes of new
psychology master’s degree holders.
Source
The National Science Foundation (NSF) regularly conducts a
National Survey of Recent College Graduates (NSRCG). Given
NSF’s mission, respondents are limited to those earning a
bachelor’s or master’s degree in science, engineering, or health
(SEH) fields. However, because psychology and other social
science disciplines are included among the science fields, the
NSRCG data are useful for the present purpose. A recent
NSRCG study collected salary information in 2006 from
cross-sectional samples of bachelor’s and master’s graduates
who received degrees from 18 different fields during the aca-
demic years of 2002–2003, 2003–2004, and 2004–2005 (NSF,
2010).
Table 5. Percentages of Social and Behavioral Sciences Graduates of
1992–1993 Who Had Jobs in Various Occupational Categories, 1, 4,
and 10 Years Later
Total (%)
Occupational category 1994 1997 2003 Change (%)
Business workers/managers 26.4 29.1 29.9 þ3.5
Service workers 18.3 14.8 12.1 –6.2
Administrative/clerical/legal
support workers
15.7 8.2 4.1 –11.6
Human/protective services/legal
professionals
14.7 18.5 18.8 þ4.1
Educators 9.3 12.6 15.0 þ5.7
Researchers/scientists/technical
workers
5.6 4.8 5.1 –0.5
Medical professionals 2.2 2.5 4.8 þ2.6
Editors/writers/performers 1.9 2.4 3.5 þ1.6
Computer scientists 1.7 1.4 3.1 þ1.4
Engineers/architects 0.1 0.5 1.1 þ1.0
Total 95.9 94.8 97.5
Note. Adapted from NCES (2008). Rows are ordered based on the 1994
column.
328 Rajecki and Borden

Salary levels of fields compared and
psychology graduates’ standing
Table 6 shows the 2006 median annual salaries (rounded
to $1,000) for bachelor’s and master’s degree holders sepa-
rately for men and women from 18 SEH fields. Engineering,
computer application, and health graduates generally occupy
the upper part of the list; liberal arts graduates (e.g., chemistry,
biological sciences, political and related sciences, and
sociology/anthropology) occupy the lower part of the list.
For both sexes and both degrees, psychology median
salaries are well below the corresponding distribution mean.
For those with baccalaureate degrees, men’s median salary was
$32,000 (z¼–1.15), and women’s median salary was $30,000
(z¼–0.98); for those with master’s degrees, men’s median sal-
ary was $42,000 (z¼–1.57), and women’s median salary was
$39,000 (z¼–1.31).
Correspondence of fields’ salary levels
To determine the degree of correspondence over academic
fields, the four columns of 18 median salaries each shown in
Table 6 were entered in a 4 3 bivariate intercorrelation
matrix. Of the resulting six coefficients, all were positive and
statistically significant. Of interest to the current discussion,
over the 18 fields, salaries for men with bachelor’s degrees
were predictive of salaries for women with bachelor’s degrees,
r(18) ¼.97, p< .01; as were salaries for men with master’s
degree predictive of salaries for women with master’s degrees,
r(18) ¼.83, p< .01. Also, salaries for men with bachelor’s
degrees were predictive of salaries for men with master’s
degrees, r(18) ¼.80, p< .01; as were salaries for women with
bachelor’s degrees predictive of salaries for women with mas-
ter’s degrees, r(18) ¼.87, p< .01.
Work activity
For the 2006 survey, NSF researchers determined the degree of
relatedness of a respondent’s job field to his or her degree field.
Three coding categories were defined: job in the same SEH
field, job in a different (but related) SEH field, or job in a
non-SEH field (NSF, 2010). Based on selected programs, and
combining data for men and women, the left side of Table 7
indicates that for bachelor’s graduates, a clear majority of those
from health, engineering, and computer/information sciences
held jobs in the same or a related field. On the contrary, bache-
lor’s graduates from psychology, sociology/anthropology, and
economics were quite likely to find employment in some non-
SEH field. Where psychology alumni are concerned, this out-
come is understandable, simply because in the United States
an undergraduate degree in this field does not qualify the holder
to be a psychologist (Brewer, 2006).
Approximately the same pattern of degree-field/job-field
relatedness emerged in the right side of Table 7. A difference,
though, is that master’s graduates in psychology, sociology/
anthropology, and economics found employment in the same
field category at somewhat higher rates than did their bacca-
laureate counterparts. Where psychology master’s degree hold-
ers are concerned, this higher rate (28.5%vs. 5.0%) may be due
to the fact that a master’s degree does qualify the holder for
some types of work as a psychologist. In any event, to para-
phrase a statement from an earlier section of this article, Table 7
basically shows that sooner or later, preprofessional/technical
and social science graduates go their separate ways and enter
Table 6. Median Salaries in 2006 for Bachelor’s and Master’s Graduates of 2003–2005 by SEH Major or Degree Field and Gender
Bachelor’s Master’s
Major/degree field Men ($) zWomen ($) zMen ($) zWomen ($) z
Chemical engineering 56,000 1.76 54,000 1.64 64,000 0.85 63,000 1.35
Electrical/computer engineering 53,000 1.39 52,000 1.42 69,000 1.40 64,000 1.46
Industrial engineering 52,000 1.27 52,000 1.42 61,000 0.52 59,000 0.91
Mechanical engineering 52,000 1.27 53,000 1.53 64,000 0.85 64,000 1.46
Civil/architectural engineering 48,000 0.79 48,000 0.98 55,000 –0.14 56,000 0.57
Health 48,000 0.79 44,000 0.55 67,000 1.18 55,000 0.46
Computer/information sciences 45,000 0.42 40,000 0.11 69,000 1.40 57,000 0.68
Economics 42,000 0.06 39,000 0.00 59,000 0.30 52,000 0.13
Mathematics/statistics 40,000 –0.18 35,000 –0.44 62,000 0.63 57,000 0.68
Physics/astronomy 40,000 –0.18 36,000 –0.33 59,000 0.30 45,000 –0.65
Chemistry 36,000 –0.67 34,000 –0.55 50,000 –0.69 48,000 –0.31
Agriculture/food sciences 35,000 –0.79 28,000 –1.20 44,000 –1.35 42,000 –0.98
Biological sciences 35,000 –0.79 29,000 –1.09 46,000 –1.13 47,000 –0.43
Earth/atmospheric/ocean sciences 35,000 –0.79 34,000 –0.55 48,000 –0.91 44,000 –0.76
Political and related sciences 35,000 –0.79 31,000 –0.87 60,000 0.41 48,000 –0.31
Environmental life sciences 33,000 –1.03 33,000 –0.66 50,000 –0.69 35,000 –1.76
Psychology 32,000 –1.15 30,000 –0.98 42,000 –1.57 39,000 –1.31
Sociology/anthropology 30,000 –1.39 30,000 –0.98 44,000 –1.35 40,000 –1.20
Note. Adapted from NSF (2010). Rows are ordered based on the salary column for men with bachelor’s degrees. Distribution zscores were calculated separately
for men and women. SEH ¼science, engineering, or health.
Psychology Degrees 329

mostly nonoverlapping work circles that can yield different
levels of material rewards.
Comment
There is no doubt, generally speaking, that levels of education
correlate positively with levels of salary (Supiano, 2010). But
for decades now, another solid generalization is that this educa-
tion premium is far from equal for all baccalaureates, as shown
repeatedly by cases in this review and elsewhere. Table 6 indi-
cates that inequalities also exist for master’s degree recipients.
Moreover, substantial correlation coefficients reveal the corre-
spondence in men and women’s and in bachelor and master’s
salary levels over fields. Put one way, education beyond the
baccalaureate will probably result in a higher salary, but fields
with relatively modestly paid baccalaureates, such as psychol-
ogy, are also the fields with relatively modestly paid master’s
degree holders. This economic trend is probably best under-
stood as a function of the types of employment encountered
by former psychology students, which tend to be outside the
science and engineering domain (Table 7). For additional find-
ings along these lines, see NSF (2006).
Case 4: The Professoriate—Academic
Fields, Ranks, and Salaries
Motivated psychology majors might decide to avoid com-
pletely the vicissitudes of the commercial job market and
instead aspire to a place in the professoriate, where learning
of many kinds is admired and rewarded. The attractive job of
professor (or instructor) is one to which undergraduates are fre-
quently exposed. It would be well, then, to inquire about
pecuniary details among various fields in academe.
Source
The College and University Professional Association for
Human Resources (CUPA-HR) provides information regarding
professors’ annual salaries. Findings for the 2010–2011 aca-
demic year were drawn from both public and private four-
year institutions, represented over 200,000 faculty members,
and were based on an identified 31 academic fields in relation
to four traditional ranks among the professoriate: instructor,
assistant professor, associate professor, and full professor
(CUPA-HR, 2011).
Salary levels of fields compared
To approximate the general levels of remuneration accorded
the 31 different fields in 2010–2011, we calculated the
unweighted means of the average salaries of faculty across the
four academic ranks. For example, top overall average dollars
went to preprofessional and technical disciplines: legal profes-
sions/studies ($95,767), business/management/marketing
($87,627), engineering ($83,882), and computer/information
sciences ($77,616). Roughly midrange money went to natural
sciences and related areas: biological/biomedical sciences
($66,267), physical sciences ($64,574), and mathematics/sta-
tistics ($62,520). Lowest salaries went to arts and humanities:
history ($60,094), visual/performing arts ($59,511), English
language/literature/letters ($59,109), and theology/religious
vocations ($58,036). Thus, in the CUPA-HR set, the ordering
of academic fields based on dollar amounts roughly resembles
lists presented elsewhere in this review (see Table 2).
Psychology faculty distribution standings:
Instructors’ and professors’ salaries
The various panels of Figure 2 show the frequency distribution
of average salaries for college faculty in 2010–2011, along with
summary statistics. At all levels, the average salary raw score
for psychology faculty is below the mean for that rank: for
instructors ($45,421), z¼–0.34; for assistant professors
($55,133), z¼–0.49; for associate professors ($64,892), z¼
–0.61; and for full professors ($84,509), z¼–0.56.
Correspondence of fields’ faculty salary levels
To determine the degree of correspondence of earnings across
ranks (career trajectory) over academic fields, four col-
umns—instructor, assistant, associate, and full professor—of
31 average salaries each from CUPA-HR (2011) were entered
in a 4 3 bivariate intercorrelation matrix. Of the resulting six
coefficients, all were positive and statistically significant, with
Table 7. Relation of Occupation to Major or Degree Field in 2006 for Selected Bachelor’s and Master’s Graduates of 2003–2005
Bachelors (%) Masters (%)
Major/degree field Same SEH field Different SEH field Non-SEH field Same SEH field Different SEH field Non-SEH field
Health 80.7 — 18.2 73.7 6.9 19.4
Engineering 65.8 15.5 18.7 63.8 21.8 14.2
Computer/information sciences 64.2 3.9 31.9 75.5 5.9 18.7
Biological sciences 20.0 30.1 49.9 52.0 25.1 22.9
Psychology 5.0 9.5 85.4 28.5 7.8 63.7
Sociology/anthropology 3.6 6.7 89.7 36.0 — 56.0
Economics 3.5 9.0 87.6 36.7 — 50.0
Note. Adapted from NSF (2010). SEH ¼science, engineering, or health. Dashes indicate missing data in the original. Rows are ordered based on the bachelor’s
same SEH field column.
330 Rajecki and Borden

r(31) ranging from .89 to .98, all ps < .01. That is, salary levels
for any given rank were predictive of levels over fields for
every other rank.
Comment
As shown in Figure 2, faculty members in psychology depart-
ments are likely to spend their entire careers at low compara-
tive levels of remuneration. Like psychology baccalaureates
and master’s degree holders employed elsewhere, should some
former psychology students find themselves at different stages
in a career trajectory defined as instructor, assistant, associate,
or full professor, they can also expect to encounter wage defi-
cits in relation to colleagues from other academic fields
(CUPA-HR, 2011). For more information on faculty compara-
tive pay levels, see ‘‘Average Faculty Salaries by Field and
Rank at 4-Year Colleges and Universities’’ (2008, 2009, 2010).
Discussion
Empirical issues
Liberal arts skills message. Concerning the so-called liberal
arts skills message, it is an empirical question whether levels
of attainment of those generic proficiencies reliably anticipate
earnings and other outcomes when psychology graduates enter
the job market. To date, direct evidence is weak. Papers on var-
ious skills measures allude to course grades or self-reported
proficiency levels in such generic areas as ‘‘communications,
computer savvy, creative thinking, and ethics.’’ Perhaps rele-
vant to the current debate, these approximate indexes failed
to consistently or strongly correlate with eventual employment
factors, including salary, or with estimates of need for a degree,
preparedness for a job, or relatedness of a job to one’s major
(Rajecki & Borden, 2010).
Alternatively to the skills message, this review indicates
that much more striking patterns of specific work activities
and remuneration are related to peoples’ substantive field of
undergraduate study. As shown in Figure 1, the median sal-
aries of psychology baccalaureates were below the distribution
means at both starting and midcareer points. It is questionable
whether these comparatively low wages were due to anyone’s
deficits in literacy, numeracy, and critical thinking skills (or
their disdain for lifelong learning). Rather, Table 1 indicates
that those with psychology baccalaureates tend to get specific
jobs that simply do not pay top dollar, never mind that the
work might involve helping people, a priority for many under-
graduate psychology majors (Metzner, Rajecki, & Lauer,
Fig. 2. Frequency distributions of average salaries of instructors and assistant, associate, and full professors from 31 academic fields.
Psychology faculty members’ positions are indicated by triangles. Adapted from CUPA-HR (2011). Std Dev ¼standard deviation.
Psychology Degrees 331

1994). If wages are the proper standard, psychology alumni do
not fare particularly well even among kindred liberal arts
peers. For example, whether or not former psychology majors
were literate and numerate critical thinkers, Table 1 shows that
they got neither the jobs nor the pay encountered by economics
graduates. Major may not be destiny (as someone said), but a
very good way to predict many employment outcomes is to
begin not with measured levels or counts of generic skills but
simply with the labels of people’s choices of undergraduate
major field.
Further, apart from sheer wages, something should be said
about the quality of jobs encountered by psychology graduates.
In the psychology section of Table 1, two of the 10 most
popular occupations—social worker and substance abuse coun-
selor—apparently qualify as ‘‘stressful jobs that pay badly’’
(Dickler, 2009). A third job seen in that section of Table 1,
administrative assistant, requires only on-the-job training, not
a college degree (Rajecki, 2008). Other jobs in the PayScale
.com (2010b) full list of popular jobs for psychology majors
include some—daycare teacher and home health aide—that
pay relatively poorly and do not require higher education. Little
wonder that, over first decade of work life, Table 5 shows a
discernable movement of social and behavioral sciences grad-
uates away from jobs as service workers and administrative/
clerical/legal support workers.
Pie-in-the-sky proposition. As cited in the introduction,
Pascarella and Terenzini (1991) were early advocates of what
we term the pie-in-the-sky proposition. By the time of their
book’s second volume, however, these authors seem to have
changed their minds:
[A]lthough the net effect of academic major on earnings
appears to be most definitive or pronounced in starting salary
or early in one’s career, the general pattern of economic returns
to different majors appears to hold later in one’s career. (Pascar-
ella & Terenzini, 2005, p. 507)
This revised view was based in part on the work of an
economist, Mark C. Berger. During the 1960s and 1970s,
youngmenages14to24yearswereinterviewed,andbasing
a mathematical model on trends found in data provided by
bachelor’s degree recipients, Berger predicted such men’s
wages at the levels of 1, 5, 10, and 15 years of work experi-
ence (Berger, 1992). Berger’s projected numbers were
hypothetical, but his terse conclusion regarding undergradu-
ate specializations was solid:
The differences between the various fields do narrow, but after
15 years of experience the rank ordering of the wages by field is
the same as at entry into the labor market. In other words, even
after 15 years of experience, liberal arts majors do not catch up
to the wages of engineers. (Berger, 1992, p. 155)
To Berger’s projected trends in 1992, we can add the real-
world findings shown in Figure 1 and Tables 2 and 4. This
bigger picture yields the same conclusion: At later points
in their careers, liberal arts alumni—including those from
psychology—do not catch up to the wages of alumni from
fields such as engineering or computer science, among others.
Generally speaking, undergraduate major field is a powerful
predictor of career-long salary level. Salary level, in turn, is
associated with measures of salary satisfaction, frequency of
job shifts, and underemployment (Table 3). The pie-in-the-
sky proposition loses credibility in light of these several inter-
related findings.
Advanced degrees. To seek a master’s degree in psychology
seems like a good idea, because such advanced graduates make
more money than do their psychology baccalaureate counter-
parts (Table 6) and are more likely to work in their chosen field
(Table 7). Still, a psychology master’s degree does not always
close the gap, much less confer an advantage, relative to mas-
ter’s degree holders in other fields. Table 6 indicates the posi-
tions of the psychology master’s degree median salaries for
men and women in their respective distributions yielded
zscores of –1.57 and –1.31. In other words, for the psychology
master’s graduates, the annual median salaries of $42,000 and
$39,000 were lower than at least 90%of the other dollar
amounts in the SEH master’s salaries sample. A version of
Berger’s dictum comes to mind: Psychology master’s degree
holders do not catch up.
Likewise, Figure 2 show that, among a variety of depart-
ments, instructors and assistant professors of psychology earn
comparatively low salaries, and so do their associate and full
professor counterparts. Surely, we do not believe that profes-
sorial career patterns are interpretable in precisely the same
ways as employment outcomes of bachelor’s and master’s
degree holders. A twist on the Berger dictum may yet apply:
Tenured professors of psychology do not catch up.
Conceptual issues
The findings presented here in Cases 1 and 2 and from an ear-
lier analysis (Rajecki & Borden, 2010) do not lend support to
the liberal arts generic skills message that such proficiencies
are somehow guaranteed to serve bachelor’s degree recipients
well for their career prospects and trajectories. However, evi-
dence that does not support a hypothesis does not necessarily
support its antithesis: that such skills are not helpful. In this sec-
tion, we consider two alternative hypotheses that might account
for the empirical results on hand. First, baccalaureate degree
recipients generally do not gain liberal arts skills at levels that
make a difference for their career outcomes. Second, liberal
arts skills are necessary but not sufficient to ensure satisfying
career outcomes.
Liberal arts skills are not being learned. In their recent book,
Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses,
Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa (2011) describe the results
of a longitudinal study of students enrolled at 4-year colleges
and universities. Using the Collegiate Learning Assessment
(CLA), an authentic, holistic measure of critical thinking,
analytical reasoning, and other liberal arts skills, the authors
found discouraging results regarding increases in such learning
over students’ college careers. The authors cite unsubstantial
332 Rajecki and Borden

academic demands as the main culprit for these small gains, as
exemplified by courses that require relatively low levels of
reading (fewer than 40 pages per week) and writing (fewer than
20 pages per week) over a semester. Their study also confirms
findings typical of national college student surveys, such as the
National Survey of Student Engagement and the Higher Educa-
tion Research Institute Continuing Student Survey, that stu-
dents carrying a full-time course load (12–17 credit hours)
study for about 12 to 14 hr per week. Time spent studying alone
(i.e., not with peers) was positively correlated with improve-
ment in CLA performance (Arum & Roksa, 2011). These find-
ings suggest that perhaps many students are simply not picking
up the liberal arts skills that would serve them well for career
prospects. However, Arum and Roksa also found that students
with liberal arts majors experience significantly higher gains
compared with students majoring in business, education, social
work, and communications.
Liberal arts skills are necessary but not sufficient. But even if
liberal arts majors attain these skills-learning outcomes at
higher levels than do other types of undergraduates, the rela-
tionship between liberal arts skills and career outcomes is
likely to be complex. Long-term career trajectories are prob-
ably accountable for by a combination of technical skills, the
sheer market value of various careers, as well as levels of lib-
eral arts skills. It is certainly the case that careers requiring
certain types of technical skills (e.g., engineering, computer
science, and health fields), pay far more on average than those
requiring other types of skills (e.g., elementary education).
For careers requiring advanced (i.e., postbaccalaureate) levels
of education and training, this finding extends to other types
of specialized skills, such as law, finance, and specific health
areas.
In this way of thinking, it is still possible that among stu-
dents who have attained the requisite technical and specialized
skills for these well-paying careers, those with better honed lib-
eral arts skills face more positive career prospects than those
who are less proficient. We might conclude, then, that the
impact of liberal arts skills on career prospects is conditional
upon the more technical and specialized skills related to spe-
cific major areas of study. Such a position is consistent with
recent data on employers’ demands for multiple competencies
on the part of modern college graduates, which is seen as ‘‘rais-
ing the bar’’:
The majority (59%) of executives think that graduates who
want to pursue advancement and long-term career success at
their organizations need both a broad range of skills and knowl-
edge that apply to a range of fields and in-depth knowledge and
skills that apply to a specific field or position. (Association of
American Colleges and Universities, 2010, p. 6)
Taken together, these alternative hypotheses suggest that the
career prospects for psychology bachelor’s degree recipients
depend on the combination of technical and liberal arts skills that
they gain through their bachelor’s degree and any further educa-
tion they pursue. However, it is essential to demonstrate that stu-
dents actually do gain these skills at levels of proficiency that
make a difference in the career marketplace. The lack of credible
evidence for such learning gains is a topic of broad concern as all
higher education institutions come under increasing scrutiny
regarding the value and effectiveness of their programs.
To close, here and there in this review we point to the rela-
tive economic disadvantages of a specialization in psychology.
Under the circumstances, what should one tell the students?
Regarding matters of money, some advisors put things plainly.
Referring to the PayScale.com (2010a) wage distributions
depicted in Figure 1, Lynn O’Shaughnessy (2010) identified
the three ‘‘worst-paying’’ degrees—based on starting
salaries—as social work ($31,800, z¼–1.18), elementary edu-
cation ($31,600, z¼–1.21), and child and family studies
($29,500, z¼–1.43). Her counsel: ‘‘If you want to avoid the
worst-paying college degrees, think twice before choosing a col-
lege major that involves children’’ (O’Shaughnessy, 2010, p. 1).
Were we inclined to adopt O’Shaughnessy’s style to serve our
current theme, the resulting statement could read: If you want
to avoid a comparatively low-paying college degree, think twice
before choosing a college major that involves psychology.
On the contrary, some psychology career counselors see wages
as merely a proxy for more meaningful measures of the quality of
employed life, such as decision autonomy, recognition, and impact
on the well-being of others. As one anonymous peer reviewer for
this article put it, too much attention to salary at the expense of
other information is ‘‘a little like the ‘d ru nk and the lamppost’ joke.
We look where the light is and pretend that is where we dropped
the keys. As long as we keep using bad proxies for work satisfac-
tion, like salary, we’ll never develop better ones.’’ Still, prospec-
tive psychology majors deserve good counseling about financial
issues. To mix the metaphor a bit, it is important that advisors
do not use employment statistics selectively, as the drunk uses the
lamppost, for support rather than illumination.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared that they had no conflicts of interest with respect
to their authorship or the publication of this article.
References
Arum, R., & Roksa, J. (2011). Academically adrift: Limited learning
on college campuses. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Association of American Colleges and Universities. (2007). College
learning for the new global century. Retrieved from http://
www.aacu.org/advocacy/leap/documents/GlobalCentury_final.pdf
Association of American Colleges and Universities. (2010). Raising
the bar: Employers’ views on college learning in the wake of the
economic downturn. Retrieved from http://www.aacu.org/leap/
documents/2009_EmployerSurvey.pdf
Average faculty salaries by field and rank at 4-year colleges and uni-
versities, 2007–8. (2008, March 14). The Chronicle of Higher Edu-
cation. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/Average-
Faculty-Salaries-By/47059
Average faculty salaries by field and rank at 4-year colleges and uni-
versities, 2008–9. (2009, August 24). The Chronicle of Higher
Education. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/Average-
Faculty-Salaries-by/47993
Psychology Degrees 333

Average faculty salaries by field and rank at 4-year colleges and
universities, 2009–10. (2010, March 8). The Chronicle of Higher
Education. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/Chart-
Average-Faculty/64500
Beck, R. E. (1981). Career patterns: The liberal arts major in Bell
System management. Washington, DC: Association of American
Colleges.
Berger, M. C. (1992). Private returns to specific college majors. In W.
E. Becker & D. R. Lewis (Eds.), The economics of American
higher education (pp. 141–171). Boston, MA: Kluwer.
Borden,V.M.H.,&Rajecki,D.W.(2000).First-yearemploy-
ment outcomes of psychology baccalaureates: Relatedness,
preparedness, and prospects. Teaching of Psychology,27,
164–168.
Brewer, C. L. (2006). Undergraduate education in psychology: United
States. International Journal of Psychology,41, 65–71.
College and University Professional Association for Human
Resources. (2011). National faculty salary survey for the 2010–
11 academic year by discipline and rank in four-year colleges and
universities. Retrieved from http://www.cupahr.org/surveys/files/
salary2011/NFSS11ExecutiveSummary.pdf
Dickler, J. (2009). Stressful jobs that pay badly. Retrieved from http://
money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/pf/0910/gallery.stressful_jobs/index
.html
Gehlhaus, D. (2007–2008, Winter). What can I do with my liberal arts
degree? Occupational Outlook Quarterly Online, 51(4). Retrieved
from http://www.bls.gov/opub/ooq/2007/winter/art01.htm
Howard, A. (1986). College experiences and managerial performance.
Journal of Applied Psychology,71, 530–552.
Johnston,J. S., Jr., Burns, S. T., Butler, D. W., Hirsch, M.S., Jones, T. B.,
&Kantrow,A.M.,...Useem, M. (1986). Educating managers:
Executive effectiveness through liberal learning. San Francisco,
CA: Jossey-Bass.
Jones, R. T. (2005). Liberal education for the twenty-first century:
Business expectations. Liberal Education,91, 32–37.
Kahn, L. B. (2010). The long-term labor market consequences of grad-
uating from college in a bad economy. Labour Economics,17,
303–316.
Kiley, K. (2010, December 13). Nearly 90%of young alumni say
going to college was worth it, survey finds. The Chronicle of
Higher Education. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/
Nearly-90-of-Young-Alumni-Say/125712
Knotts, H. G. (2002). Rethinking liberal arts skills in the new econ-
omy. NACADA Journal,22, 26–31.
Korn, J. H. (1985). Psychology as a humanity. Teaching of Psychol-
ogy,12, 188–193.
Landrum, R. E. (2009). Finding jobs with a psychology bachelor’s
degree: Expert advice for launching your career. Washington,
DC: American Psychological Association.
Landrum, R. E., Beins, B. C., Bhalla, M., Brakke, K., Briihl, D. S.,
Curl-Langager, R. M., ... Van Kirk, J. J. (2010). Desired out-
comes of an undergraduate education in psychology from depart-
mental, student, and societal perspectives. In D. F. Halpern
(Ed.), Undergraduate education in psychology: A blueprint for the
future of the discipline (pp. 145–160). Washington, DC: American
Psychological Association.
Light, J. (2010, October 11). Psych majors aren’t happy with options.
The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/
article/SB10001424052748704011904575538561813341020.html
Littleford, L. N., Buskist, W., Frantz, S. M., Galvan, D. B.,
Hendersen, R. W., McCarthy, M. A., ... Puente, A. E. (2010).
Psychology students today and tomorrow. In D. F. Halpern (Ed.),
Undergraduate education in psychology: A blueprint for the future
of the discipline (pp. 63–79). Washington, DC: American
Psychological Association.
McGovern, T. V., Furumoto, L., Halpern, D. F., Kimble, G. A., &
McKeachie, W. J. (1991). Liberal education, study in depth, and
the arts and sciences major—psychology. American Psychologist,
46, 598–605.
Metzner, B. S., Rajecki, D. W., & Lauer, J. B. (1994). New majors and
the feminization of psychology: Testing and extending the
Rajecki-Metzner model. Teaching of Psychology,21, 5–11.
National Center for Education Statistics. (1996, August). A descriptive
summary of 1992–93 bachelor’s degree recipients: 1 year later
(NCES 96-158). Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs/96158.pdf
National Center for Education Statistics. (1999, July). Life after col-
lege: A descriptive summary of 1992–93 bachelor’s degree recipi-
ents in 1997 (NCES 1999-155). Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/
pubs99/1999155.pdf
National Center for Education Statistics. (2001, February). From
bachelor’s degree to work: Major field of study and employment
outcomes of 1992–93 bachelor’s degree recipients who did not
enroll in graduate education by 1997 (NCES 2001-165). Retrieved
from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2001/2001165.pdf
National Center for Education Statistics. (2003, August). A descriptive
summary of 1999–2000 bachelor’s degree recipients 1 year later
(NCES 2003-165). Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2003/
2003165.pdf
National Center for Education Statistics. (2006, October). Where are
they now? A description of 1992–93 bachelor’s degree recipients
10 years later (NCES 2007-159). Retrieved from http://nces.ed
.gov/pubs2007/2007159.pdf
National Center for Education Statistics. (2008, February). Ten
years after college: Comparing the employment experiences of
1992–1993 bachelor’s degree recipients with academic and
career-oriented majors (NCES 2008-155). Retrieved from http://
nces.ed.gov/pubs2008/2008155.pdf
National Science Foundation. (2006, November). Characteristics of
recent science and engineering graduates: 2003 (NSF 06-329).
Retrieved from http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/nsf06329/notes.htm
National Science Foundation. (2010, August). Characteristics of
recent science and engineering graduates: 2006 (NSF 10-318).
Retrieved from http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/nsf10318/
O’Shaughnessy, L. (2010, August 12). 20 worst-paying degrees in
2010. Retrieved from http://finance.yahoo.com/college-education/
article/110196/
Parrish, J. B., & Duff, F. L. (1975). Job experience of college gradu-
ates: A case study. Quarterly Review of Economics and Business,
15(4):25–36.
Pascarella, E. T., & Terenzini, P. T. (1991). How college affects
students: Findings and insights from twenty years of research.
San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
334 Rajecki and Borden

Pascarella, E. T., & Terenzini,P. T. (2005). How college affects students:
Vol. 2.A third decade of research. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
PayScale.com. (2008). Best undergrad college degrees by salary.
Retrieved February 10, 2011, from http://www.payscale.com/
2008-best-colleges/degrees.asp
PayScale.com. (2009). Best undergrad college degrees by salary.
Retrieved February 10, 2011, from http://www.payscale.com/
2009-best-colleges/degrees.asp
PayScale.com. (2010a). Best undergrad college degrees by salary.
Retrieved February 10, 2011, from http://www.payscale.com/
best-colleges/degrees.asp
PayScale.com. (2010b). Most popular jobs by major. Retrieved
February 10, 2011, from http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/
popular-majors.asp
Phelan, T. J., & Phelan, J. C. (1983). Higher education and early life
outcomes. Higher Education,12, 665–680.
Rajecki, D. W. (2008). Job lists for entry-level psychology baccalaure-
ates: Occupational recommendations that mismatch qualifications.
Teaching of Psychology,35, 33–37.
Rajecki, D. W., & Borden, V. M. H. (2009). First-year employment
outcomes of American psychology baccalaureates revisited: Need
for a degree, salary, and relatedness to the major. Psychology
Learning and Teaching,8(2):23–29.
Rajecki,D.W.,&Borden,V.M.H.(2010).Liberalartsskills,
psychology baccalaureates, and first-year employment: Notes
on a meritocracy hypothesis. Teaching of Psychology,37,
157–164.
Rimer, S. (2003, February 19). Justifying a liberal arts education in
difficult times. The New York Times, p. B7.
Rubb, S. (2003). Overeducation in the labor market: A comment and
re-analysis of a meta-analysis. Economics of Education Review,
22, 621–629.
Rumberger, R. W., & Thomas, S. L. (1993). The economic returns to
college major, quality and performance: A multilevel analysis of
recent graduates. Economics of Education Review,12, 1–19.
Samuelson, R. J. (2010, March 15). The real generation gap: Young
adults are getting slammed. Newsweek,155, 18.
Supiano, B. (2010, September 21). Education pays, but how much?
The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://
chronicle.com/article/Education-Pays-but-How-Much-/124552/
Titley, R. W. (1978). Whatever happened to the class of ’67? Psychol-
ogy baccalaureate holders one, five, and ten years after graduation.
American Psychologist,33, 1094–1098.
Useem, M. (1989). Liberal education and the corporation: The hiring
and advancement of college graduates. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de
Gruyter.
Psychology Degrees 335