New data from the federal Education Department reveals that female university graduates in Australia continue to face a pay gap compared to their male counterparts in their first full-time jobs. The 2025 Graduate Outcomes Survey, which collected responses from approximately 120,000 graduates, highlights a persistent gender pay disparity across most fields of study despite women’s higher rates of full-time employment shortly after graduation.

According to the survey, women who completed their degrees between late 2024 and May 2025 earned a median salary of $75,300, while men earned $79,000 in their initial full-time roles, representing a 4.7 percent gender pay gap. Notably, 76.5 percent of female graduates secured full-time employment within six months, exceeding the 73.8 percent rate for male graduates.

The pay gap was evident in 14 of the 19 fields surveyed. Among law graduates, men earned a reported median salary of $83,000, approximately $6,000 more than women. In architecture, the difference was $6,800, equating to a 9.4 percent gap. Health services also showed disparities, with men earning $3,800 more than women. Male nurses earned $3,000 more than their female colleagues, while women doctors earned slightly less than male doctors by $900. Teaching, a sector where women made up 70 percent of graduates, still saw female teachers starting with salaries $3,100 lower than men. The engineering field, dominated by men, also reflected a $2,600 pay gap in favor of male graduates.

Exceptions to this trend included psychology, where female graduates earned $77,000, approximately $5,000 more than men. Women holding communications degrees earned $1,200 more than their male counterparts, and those in creative arts earned a $1,700 premium.

The survey’s authors suggest several factors might contribute to the disparities beyond the "motherhood penalty," which is often cited as an explanation for gender pay differences. They point to differences in skill sets, career progression, job mobility, caregiving responsibilities, and personal preferences. However, the report did not address the potential role of discrimination or systemic bias in pay outcomes.

In terms of starting salaries across professions, dentistry was the highest paying at $103,100, surpassing doctors’ median starting salaries of $85,900. Social work graduates earned $85,300, while teachers earned $82,100—more than law graduates, who started at $80,000. Earnings were lowest in creative arts ($63,200) and communications ($66,000). Pharmacists’ median starting salary was $62,600, noted as lower due to a compulsory year of supervised training post-graduation.

Graduate satisfaction with their degree quality varied considerably. Around 25 percent of respondents reported dissatisfaction overall, with higher rates of discontent in computing and IT, dentistry, engineering, and architecture—where about one in three graduates rated their education negatively. Satisfaction was highest among those studying agriculture and environmental studies, medicine, pharmacy, science and mathematics, and social work.

Employment rates also differed by discipline, with pharmacy, medicine, physiotherapy, teaching, veterinary science, engineering, dentistry, and nursing showing the strongest full-time employment figures. Nearly half of creative arts graduates had yet to secure full-time roles within six months.

The survey noted the potential impact of artificial intelligence on employment prospects, particularly in IT, journalism, science, and mathematics, where only about two-thirds found full-time work shortly after graduating. A change in survey methodology means that 2025 data should not be directly compared with previous years.