A new national survey has found that male university graduates generally earn higher starting salaries than female graduates across most fields of study, despite women being more likely to secure full-time employment shortly after completing their degrees.

The findings come from Australia’s 2025 Graduate Outcomes Survey, which examines employment and salary outcomes for graduates during the first months of their careers. The results have renewed discussion about gender pay differences at the very beginning of working life, well before many of the factors commonly associated with long-term earnings become relevant.

According to the survey, male graduates working full-time reported a median starting salary of A$79,000 compared with A$75,300 for female graduates, representing a gender pay gap of approximately 4.7 per cent. While women achieved a slightly higher full-time employment rate than men, salary differences remained evident across most disciplines.

Men recorded higher median salaries in 14 of the 19 fields of study examined. Some of the largest differences appeared in law, architecture, health services, science and mathematics, engineering, nursing and teaching. In several of these areas, the gap amounted to several thousand dollars during graduates’ first full-time jobs after university.

Women, however, earned higher median salaries in a smaller number of disciplines. Psychology graduates recorded one of the largest female salary advantages, while women also earned more than men in creative arts, communications and social work. These findings suggest that graduate salary outcomes vary considerably depending on both the field of study and the occupations graduates enter after completing university.

The report notes that women were actually more likely than men to obtain full-time employment soon after graduation, with employment rates of 76.5 per cent and 73.8 per cent respectively. This indicates that differences in employment opportunities alone do not fully explain the salary gap observed among new graduates.

Researchers involved in the survey caution against drawing simple conclusions from the figures. They suggest several possible influences, including differences in career progression, job-switching patterns, the mix of skills graduates bring to employers and personal career preferences. The report does not attempt to determine whether discrimination contributes to the observed salary differences.

Beyond gender comparisons, the survey also highlights substantial variation in earnings between professions. Dentistry graduates reported the highest starting salaries, followed by medicine, social work and teaching. Creative arts, communications and pharmacy graduates generally recorded lower starting incomes, although employment opportunities and longer-term earnings may develop differently over time depending on career pathways.

The findings arrive as policymakers, universities and employers continue examining ways to improve graduate outcomes and workforce participation. While Australia’s broader gender pay gap has narrowed in recent years, official data indicates differences in earnings remain across many industries and occupations. Graduate salary outcomes are increasingly being used as one indicator to help assess the effectiveness of higher education and labour market policies.

The Graduate Outcomes Survey is conducted annually and provides one of Australia’s most comprehensive snapshots of how university graduates transition into employment. As future surveys are released, they will continue to inform debate about graduate careers, workforce demand and whether salary differences observed early in working life persist over the longer term.