A new report from a Georgetown University team shows that students who major in science, technology, engineering or mathematics fields will have greater income potential than non-STEM majors, though they show high levels of attrition from the job field.
The report finds that non-STEM occupations will earn on average an entry salary of $36,000, compared to a STEM employment's $51,000. STEM majors will also earn $500,000 more than non-STEM majors in their lifetime, regardless of the job field they choose to enter.
"STEM wages at all levels of education pay relatively well, so we know that employers are demanding these competencies," Nicole Smith, co-author of the report and senior economist at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, said in an email. "We find that people who major in STEM (even if they work in another occupation) also tend to make more."
STEM graduates do not always continue to work in their fields, however. The report says out of every 100 undergraduate students, only 19 will have STEM majors, and of those 19 only 10 will receive a job in a STEM field post-graduation. Ten years down the line, only eight of those 10 will still be working in the field.
Diversion from a career in the STEM fields can be accounted for by factoring in people's interests and values and their ability to move to a more interesting job which uses similar skill sets, said Michelle Melton, co-author of the report and research analyst at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.
She said people often stay in low-paying jobs such as teaching because they enjoy their job. "I think that that's something that is talked about really vaguely all the time, but we really put the numbers on that," Melton said.
The report states that graduates divert from the STEM fields because "social pressure ... tells them they don't fit in the discipline, some don't see people who look like them working in the top research universities, and some realize that they could earn more money doing work outside of a lab or manufacturing plant."
After 10 years in a field, STEM graduates start to reach managerial positions and can make more money elsewhere than they could in a STEM field, Melton said.
"Pay out of college is better for people in STEM fields [but] five to 10 years out in the work force, pay really starts to increase [in other fields]," Melton said.
Edward Berger, the associate dean for undergraduate programs in the Engineering School, said the University lacks complete data on what career choices STEM graduates choose because it varies from year to year and also by discipline. He said a STEM skill set is now being applied to more jobs than it was previously, however.
"Probably in the last 10 to 15 years, new opportunities are open to engineers because new companies are recruiting engineers because they have a great skills set," Berger said. "Of the students who get jobs [straight out of college], lots and lots of those end up in STEM workplaces"
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