Follow
If you’ve already earned your bachelor’s degree in business and have started on a career, you might be wondering about what an online MBA graduate’s average salary is like. Furthering you education is usually a good idea, but before you decide to go back to school, you should find out whether an MBA will substantially raise your earning potential or not.
Experience
An online MBA graduate’s average salary depends on how much experience he or she has. For instance, according to PayScale, you’ll probably end up more than doubling your starting salary if you stick with your career choice for a couple of decades. Based on data from over 50,000 individuals, you’ll most likely end up with an annual salary of $50,000 if you earn your master’s degree. After one to four years, you’ll be making almost $60,000 if you have a similar salary to other MBA graduates with the same amount of experience as you. After five to nine years, don’t be surprised if you start making $75,000 or so per year, and if you stay in the same field for a decade or two, you’ll have a salary that’s just shy of six figures. Once you get twenty or more years of experience under your belt, expect to make around $115,000 per year.
Gender
Gender equality has come a long way, but women still don’t earn as much as men in the field of business. There are many possible reasons for this, but when you get right down to it, the average man with an MBA makes about $20,000 more than the average woman with an MBA. Men make an average of $91,267 every year, but women make an average of $70,274. Because many fields have more high-earning males than females, this doesn’t necessarily mean that a women shouldn’t get her master’s degree. For women, an online MBA graduate’s average salary is still more than the salary of traditional career choices.
Location
In general, you’ll get paid more if you work in the city instead of in a rural area. The bigger the city is, the higher your salary will be. For instance, an online MBA graduate’s average salary is above $100,000 in both New York and San Francisco. Smaller cities, such as Dallas, Atlanta and Houston all have average salaries that hover around $85,000 or so. If you take a broader view and look at the United States as a whole instead of focusing on individual cities, there’s another trend that’s a little more surprising. Northern states may have higher salaries than southern states. For instance, Florida has an average salary of $72,412 while Pennsylvania has an average salary of $78,759, and the average MBA graduate will make $10,000 more per year by working in New York instead of Texas.
Once you get your MBA degree, you’ll be more marketable and will be able to make more money. While an online MBA graduate’s average salary depends on experience, gender and location, getting your master’s degree makes financial sense no matter who you are.
