How Much Money Will I Make With My Undergrad In Business?

Bach­e­lor’s degrees in busi­ness are cur­rent­ly the Unit­ed States’ most pop­u­lar with approx­i­mate­ly 358,000 grad­u­ates each year. Under­grad­u­ate busi­ness pro­grams span cours­es from account­ing to eco­nom­ics and mar­ket­ing to facil­i­tate career pro­gres­sion into the pri­vate sec­tor. Major­ing in busi­ness can be a strate­gic move to gath­er log­i­cal think­ing, prob­lem-solv­ing, com­mu­ni­ca­tion, and orga­ni­za­tion­al lead­er­ship skills, but it’s often a deci­sion made with mon­ey in mind. Besides STEM majors, busi­ness pro­grams have the high­est aver­age start­ing salary at $52,236. PayScale shows that BBA alum­ni can make any­where from $32,681 to $125,738 though. Let’s look at sev­en com­mon jobs for bach­e­lor’s stu­dents to guessti­mate your earn­ing poten­tial with an under­grad in business.

Market Research Analyst

Mar­ket research ana­lysts are bach­e­lor’s-edu­cat­ed work­ers that help busi­ness­es deter­mine the con­sumer demand for prod­ucts or ser­vices by gath­er­ing mar­ket data from sur­veys, focus groups, and opin­ion polls. These mar­ket­ing spe­cial­ists are com­pen­sat­ed with a mean year­ly wage of $70,620, or $33.95 per hour. Mar­ket research ana­lysts make the most in aero­space prod­uct man­u­fac­tur­ing for $111,710 on aver­age. Cal­i­for­nia, Delaware, and Wash­ing­ton are top-pay­ing states where mar­ket research ana­lysts earn $80,560, $79,280, and $79,190 respectively.

Commercial Loan Officer

Com­mer­cial loan offi­cers with BBAs focus on review­ing loan appli­ca­tions from small busi­ness­es to large cor­po­ra­tions to eval­u­ate whether they’ll be a smart lend­ing deci­sion finan­cial­ly. These bank­ing indus­try spe­cial­ists are reward­ed for reduc­ing risks with an aver­age annu­al wage of $76,260, or $36.67 per hour. Com­mer­cial loan offi­cers bring home the most from secu­ri­ties bro­ker­ages for $98,890 on aver­age. New York, Mass­a­chu­setts, and New Hamp­shire are top-pay­ing states for com­mer­cial loan offi­cers mak­ing $101,630, $96,090, and $88,780 respectively.

Claims Adjuster

Claims adjusters with under­grad­u­ate busi­ness degrees are respon­si­ble for inspect­ing dam­age done to prop­er­ties, offices, and auto­mo­biles to decide how much insur­ance com­pa­nies must pay for cov­er­age. These inves­ti­ga­tors are giv­en an aver­age year­ly salary of $64,990, or $31.24 per hour, for set­tling insur­ance lit­i­ga­tion. Claims adjusters make the most in archi­tec­tur­al and engi­neer­ing ser­vices at $80,450 on aver­age. The Dis­trict of Colum­bia, New Jer­sey, and Alas­ka are top-pay­ing states for claims adjusters to make $80,850, $74,210, and $73,840 respectively.

Budget Analyst

Bud­get ana­lysts need busi­ness bach­e­lor’s degrees to estab­lish finan­cial plans for orga­ni­za­tions to max­i­mize fund­ing meth­ods by lim­it­ing spend­ing expen­di­tures and ris­ing rev­enue lev­els. Track­ing the mon­ey with cau­tion leaves these finance gurus with an aver­age annu­al income of $77,170, or $37.10 per hour. Bud­get ana­lysts have the high­est earn­ing poten­tial with min­ing com­pa­nies for $102,740 on aver­age. The Dis­trict of Colum­bia, Vir­ginia, and Cal­i­for­nia are top-pay­ing states where bud­get ana­lysts earn $94,820, $87,030, and $86,140 respectively.

Human Resources Specialist

Human resources spe­cial­ists are BBA-lev­el grads who han­dle an orga­ni­za­tion’s per­son­nel needs by recruit­ing, inter­view­ing, plac­ing, train­ing, pay­ing, and solv­ing work­place prob­lems for employ­ees. Boost­ing cor­po­rate human cap­i­tal gives these HR pro­fes­sion­als a mean annu­al salary of $64,890, or $31.20 per hour. Human resources spe­cial­ists earn the most from oil com­pa­nies for $97,110 on aver­age. The Dis­trict of Colum­bia, New York, and Mass­a­chu­setts are top-pay­ing states for HR spe­cial­ists to score $90,590, $75,380, and $74,740 respectively.

Staff Accountant

Staff accoun­tants hold a bach­e­lor’s-lev­el posi­tion inspect­ing account books to dou­ble check that a busi­ness’s finan­cial trans­ac­tions are report­ed accu­rate­ly and prop­er­ly taxed on time. Before earn­ing CPA licens­ing, these num­ber crunch­ers gath­er a mean annu­al wage of $76,730, or $36.89 per hour. Staff accoun­tants obtain the high­est aver­age income from invest­ment firms for $101,950 on aver­age. New York, the Dis­trict of Colum­bia, and New Jer­sey are top-pay­ing states where staff accoun­tants bring home $93,280, $93,210, and $88,940 respectively.

Supply Chain Specialist

Sup­ply chain spe­cial­ists uti­lize their under­grad busi­ness degree to coor­di­nate the logis­ti­cal life cycle of a com­pa­ny’s prod­ucts from design through dis­pos­al while inject­ing time-sav­ing strate­gies that raise prof­its. Keep­ing inven­to­ries stocked leaves these logis­ti­cians with a mean year­ly income of $77,810, or $37.41 per hour. Sup­ply chain spe­cial­ists earn the most from insur­ance bro­ker­ages at $105,880 on aver­age. The Dis­trict of Colum­bia, Mary­land, and Alaba­ma are top-pay­ing states for sup­ply chain spe­cial­ists mak­ing $100,440, $89,490, and $87,870 respectively.

Many pro­fes­sion­als are mak­ing bank with their under­grad in busi­ness, but oth­ers may need an extra boost from a Mas­ter of Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion. Accord­ing to the 2016 GMAC Cor­po­rate Recruiters Sur­vey, MBA grad­u­ates have a medi­an start­ing wage of $105,000 year­ly. Fifty-hour per­cent of employ­ers also admit­ted plans to jack up salaries for new MBA hires too. For­tune mag­a­zine report­ed that the high­est-paid MBAs where alums of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia, Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty, Duke Uni­ver­si­ty, and Uni­ver­si­ty of Chica­go. Excep­tion­al pay pack­ages can sur­pass $350,000 for unbeat­able ROI, so you’ll have to deter­mine if pay­ing MBA tuition is worth mak­ing more mon­ey than under­grads in business.

Relat­ed:

25 Best Bach­e­lor’s in Busi­ness Administration

15 Best Online Bach­e­lor’s in Busi­ness Administration

25 Best Bach­e­lor’s in Human Resources

15 Best Online Bach­e­lor’s in Human Resources

25 Best Bach­e­lor’s in Mar­ket­ing Degree Programs

15 Best Online Mar­ket­ing Degree Bach­e­lor’s Programs

25 Best Bach­e­lor’s in Accounting

15 Best Online Bach­e­lor’s in Accounting

15 Best Online Bach­e­lor’s in Sup­ply Chain Management

10 Fastest Online Bach­e­lor’s in Sup­ply Chain Management

The Top 15 Under­grad Busi­ness Degrees