India Among Countries With Lowest Salary Expectations in Business, STEM Fields

By Little India Desk | January 23, 2018

India is among the 10 countries where fresh graduates in the fields of Business and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) have the lowest salary expectations, a recent survey shows. Among the countries with lowest expectations, India comes at the ninth spot, followed by the Czech Republic.

Indian business students expect their salary to be $14,236 a year on average, while the figure is $14,832 for STEM students. India follows China, which occupies the eighth position in this list, with business students expecting $13,709 and STEM students expecting $14,021. In Indonesia, the salary expectation in the business and STEM fields is $8,140 and $8,970, respectively.

Feedback from 533,351 business and STEM students from 29 countries was taken for the 2017 Talent Survey conducted by the human-resources consulting firm, Universum Global. “In order to assess the cost of talent in each country we asked business and STEM students what they expect to earn in their first job after graduating university,” it said in a statement.

The country with the highest salary expectation is Switzerland, where a business student can expect $74,400 in total annual compensation while STEM students can expect $75,300. In Denmark, business and STEM degree holders can expect to earn $61,500 and $65,000, respectively.

Students of business in the United States expect to make a little over $56,000 per year, while STEM graduates expect $59,500. The average expected salary in Australia in the fields of business and STEM is around $45,000 and $48,000, respectively.

“For business students with the highest salary expectations, the top three most chosen industries were, aerospace & defense, real estate and financial services,” said the survey. STEM students with the highest salary expectations had very similar industry preferences and chose financial services, aerospace and defense and management and strategy consulting.

India has the largest gap when the highest and lowest expectations in salary STEM are compared. People harboring the lowest salary expectations chose healthcare services, while those with the highest salary expectations thought they would earn 1.7 times more by joining the financial services industry.

Saying that India had the most dramatic gap is salary expectation in the field of STEM, the survey said that remuneration is a driving factor while choosing a career for most. It also revealed that the countries with the lowest gap in salary expectation within the STEM field of study are Norway and Sweden.

“In Norway, those who have the lowest salary expectations chose Arts, Entertainment and Recreation as a preferred industry, whereas those with the highest salary expectations chose Construction and Civil Engineering, yet they only expect to earn 1.2 times more,” said the survey.

In Sweden, with students with the lowest salary expectations chose tourism, hospitality and leisure activities and those with the highest salary expectations chose Financial Services. However, those choosing financial services made only 1.1 times more.

The survey also showed that business talent from Russia, India and Spain displayed the biggest disparity in terms of expected income, whereas Malaysia, Sweden and Canada have the smallest gap in salary expectations.

Among all the 29 countries that took part in the survey, male talent in both fields of study were shown to expect to earn more than their female peers. Countries with the biggest contrast in expected earnings amongst male and female STEM talent are the Netherlands, Canada and Indonesia.

In India, men in the field of STEM demand close to $18,000, while women ask for about $15,000. In the field of business, men demand around $15,000 as compared to about $12,000 for women.

There is no clarity as to why male talent continued to demand and negotiate higher salaries. “If female talent does not demand higher wages during negotiations, the gap will not be narrowed unless employers are proactive and voluntarily provide higher wages to women without being asked for them,” said the survey.

In Switzerland, men in the field of business ask for about $75,000 while women demand a little above $70,000. The gender gap is almost equal in the field of business in Malaysia and Sweden, with both men and women demanding close to $8,000 and $45,000, respectively.

Countries with Lowest Salary Expectations 1. Kazakhstan Business Graduates: $7,628 STEM Graduates: $8,367 2. Indonesia Business Graduates: $8,140 STEM Graduates: $8,970 3. Malaysia Business Graduates: $8,765 STEM Graduates: $9,284 4. Russia: Business Graduates: $11,096 STEM Graduates: $10,919 5. Turkey Business Graduates: $11,417 STEM Graduates: $12,181 6. Poland Business Graduates: $11,853 STEM Graduates: $12,513 7. Mexico Business Graduates: $12,494 STEM Graduates: $13,352 8. China Business Graduates: $13,709 STEM Graduates: $14,021 9. India Business Graduates: $14,236 STEM Graduates: $14,832 10. Czech Republic Business Graduates: $14,901 STEM Graduates: $15,527