In answering this question, it helps to first establish some context in regards to average graduate salaries. The most reliable (and recent) resource for such information is the 2017 Graduate Outcomes Survey, which was funded by the Australian government’s Department of Education and Training, and based on responses from 120,747 tertiary students and graduates.
According to the report, in 2017, 71.8 percent of undergraduates were in full-time employment four months after completing their degree, up from 70.9 per cent in the previous year. The average salary for undergraduates who found full-time work after finishing their degrees was $60,000; this rose to $81,000 for postgraduate coursework graduates, and $87,800 for postgraduate research graduates.
With this in mind, we can now consider salaries within specific industries. The same report found that undergraduates who found full-time work in the ‘tourism, hospitality, personal services, sport, and recreation’ space earn an average of salary of $55,000 (males) or $51,800 (females). The average salary for postgraduate research and coursework graduates (male and female) was $65,500.
Interestingly, while these salaries are below the average earnings of graduates across all industries, employees in the ‘humanities, culture and social sciences’ and ‘tourism, hospitality, personal services, sport, and recreation’ sectors reported higher levels of overall satisfaction with their studies and subsequent careers than graduates in any other industry.