Highest Paid Social Science Careers

A new graphic shows the highest paid jobs for experienced social science graduates in the USA.

Methodology Annual pay for bachelor’s graduates without higher degrees. The years of experience necessary to qualify as an experienced employee for a given job title is relative to others with that job title. See full methodology.

The data is from a 2013 article drawing on the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (see methods here). This includes social sciences beyond sociology, such as economics, political science, anthropology, and geography.

The highest paid profession is management consultant earning $10K per year and the lowest is a land surveyor, with $58K. Remember this is for highest median pay, so lower paid professions, though no less important, such as community work, are not represented.

Other social science jobs that are included in the top paid jobs are:

• operations director
• marketing manager
• financial securities/investment
• supply chain analyst
• executive analyst
• executive director not-for-profit
• business analyst
• account manager.

Elsewhere, a survey by The National Association of Colleges and Employers finds that the average starting salary for a new Bachelor’s graduate is $44,928. This is 5 percent higher than the previous year. However, for humanities and social science majors, the average salary is $37,058.

If you’re wondering about careers for applied sociologists in other fields, head our Working Notes section. We provide examples of researchers working in local, state and federal government; sociologists working as union representatives; health policy analysts; and more.

Is your job represented here? Wondering how you might use sociology in these jobs? Tell us in the comments!

Image source: Pay Scale.