College graduate starting salaries stagnated after 2000 after booming in the 1990s

Evidence

And it may be generous to say that college graduates have seen wage stagnation: real wages have decreased in several of the past years. One report found “the average starting salary for a graduate in 2009 was $48,633, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, a decrease of 1.2 percent from 2008. From 2000 to 2007, real starting pay for those with bachelor’s degrees fell 3.2 percent among men and 1.7 percent among women. In contrast, between 1995 and 2000, real starting pay for college-educated men and women increased 20.9 percent and 11.7 percent, respectively. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 679