About Business Career Salaries

When choosing a career, it’s important to select something you enjoy doing, but most people also want to earn a competitive salary for the work they do. For people interested in the business field, knowing which jobs earn higher business career salaries can be a key factor in choosing which path to pursue.

Factors Affecting Business Career Salaries

One of the major factors that contributes to a higher business salary, regardless of the field you’re in, is your degree. The more advanced your degree, the higher you can expect your salary to be. Typically, where you live also has a bearing on how much you earn. Major metropolitan areas that have a higher cost of living usually offer more competitive starting salaries. The longer you stay in a particular field, the more you will earn, so length of career is another determining factor in how much you make.

As a comparison, here are average earnings for someone with an Associates degree in business administration:

  • Administrative Assistant: $29,893
  • Customer Service Representative: $31,886
  • Executive Assistant: $41,850
  • Human Resources: $49,821
  • Office Manager: $37,380
  • Retail Store Manager: $41,850.
The business administration salary range for those who possess only a two-year degree is not that high and wouldn’t go far in a city with high prices for rent, mortgage or food.
 
Once you obtain a bachelor's degree, the earnings increase by a sizeable margin. Here are average earnings for bachelor's degree holders in business administration:
  • Controller (Financial): $87,777
  • Executive Administrative Assistant: $36,454
  • Human Resources Director: $72,806
  • Human Resources Manager: $61,526
  • Project Manager, Construction: $76,908
  • Project Manager, IT: $78,446
  • Senior Accountant: $51,272.

If you want to pursue even higher-level positions, you can obtain a master's degree in business administration. These are the average salaries for master's degree holders in various business-related fields:

  • consulting: $101,736
  • energy: $100,263
  • finance: $103,122
  • health care: $111,477
  • high-tech: $98,621
  • manufacturing: $98,417
  • nonprofit/government: $73,125
  • products/services: $94,558.


Business Management Salaries

In the following areas, you can expect to earn a higher salary than in other business management careers:
  • contract
  • government or federal
  • hospital
  • individual company
  • private practice/firm.

A business management salary in any of the above areas is highly competitive and beats out salaries offered in other industries such as:

  • foundation/trust
  • franchise
  • non-profit
  • school/school district
  • self-employed.
Someone who’s just starting out in the business field will earn approximately $20,000 less than a person who’s worked in the field for 20 years.

Business Analyst Salary Information

The business analyst field, which deals with computer software and hardware systems, has an entry-level salary of about $50,000 per year. Current business analysts who’ve been in this career for 20 years or more earn about $74,000. The most lucrative fields for business analysts are:
  • contract
  • foundation/trust
  • government or federal
  • individual company
  • private practice/firm.
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