10 Highest-Paying Majors for Black College Graduates
By Anthony P. Carnevale and Megan L. Fasules
In celebration of Black History Month, we compiled a list of the highest-paying college majors for Black/African American graduates. Industrial and manufacturing engineering tops the list with median annual earnings of $80,900. In fact, the top five majors are all in engineering fields, including electrical, mechanical, and chemical engineering. Health, business, and computers, statistics, and mathematics majors round the top 10.
Engineering yields high earnings not only for Black/African American graduates but for graduates in general. On average, a worker with a bachelor’s degree in engineering earns 25 percent more than the average bachelor’s degree holder in the first job after graduation.¹ Overall, majors in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields, health, and business yield the highest pay for college graduates, leading to average annual wages of $65,000 or more throughout a career.
These differences in annual earnings add up over graduates’ lifetimes. The highest-paying college majors are associated with earnings of $3.4 million more than the lowest-paying college majors over the course of a career.
Our research shows that Black/African American individuals made significant gains in education and the workforce in recent decades. Between 1991 and 2016, millions of Black/African American individuals earned bachelor’s degrees, and Black/African American workers with bachelor’s degrees steadily gained good jobs — those that pay at least $35,000 per year and had a median pay of $65,000 in 2016.
It’s time to build on that progress by opening the doors of opportunity for more Black/African American students to pursue lucrative majors like STEM, health, and business.
1. Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering: $80,900
2. Electrical Engineering: $79,900
3. Mechanical Engineering: $79,300
4. Chemical Engineering: $75,700
5. General Engineering: $69,200
6. Computer Engineering: $69,200
7. Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Administration: $69,200
8. Nursing: $68,800
9. Computer Science: $67,800
10. Management Information Systems and Statistics: $67,000
Source: Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce Analysis of data from US Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2015–2019.
Note: Only earnings for majors with observations of 100 or more are included in this analysis.
¹ Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce analysis of data from the US Census Bureau, American Community Survey, pooled data, 2015–2019.
Dr. Carnevale is Director and Research Professor and Dr. Fasules is Assistant Research Professor and Research Economist at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. CEW is an independent, nonprofit research and policy institute affiliated with the Georgetown McCourt School of Public Policy that studies the links between education, career qualifications, and workforce demands.
