Higher education lands better pay

The higher your educational attainment, the more salary you earn, a study in New Zealand stated.

The report revealed that after five years upon graduation, graduates with Doctorate degrees earn more than double the national median wage, Master’s degree holders earn almost twice the national median wage, and Bachelor’s degree graduates earned about one-and-a-half times the national median wage, according to a study by New Zealand’s Ministry of Education.

Specifically, graduates a Bachelor’s degree in the health field earn the most after the five-year period, with a median of $62,647 (USD$52,726). On the other hand, Bachelor’s degree holders in creative arts earned the lowest wage amongst the rest in study – a median $42,575 (USD$35,832) after five years, the report further established.

The average weekly income in June last year was $806 (USD$678), or $41,912 (USD$35,271) a year, according to Statistics NZ data as stated by The New Zealand Herald.

"It's important for young people themselves to probably realise that the world's got a bit tougher in the last few years,” New Zealand’s Tertiary Minister Steven Joyce was reported as saying.

"The first decade of the century it was sort of pretty much no matter what you studied, the world was full of money and people could get jobs. Now we're in a stage where actually people realise that decade ... was pretty much a false environment from an economic point of view ... so that means thinking a bit harder about careers that would give you a good income," he added.