What salary can I earn with a BSBA degree?

When you choose to pursue higher education you’re making an investment in your future. It’s only natural that you’d want to have an idea in mind of what your return on investment could be from earning your degree. Overall, earning a bachelor’s pays off. Workers with a bachelor’s degree had median weekly earnings of $1,305 in 2020, compared with $781 for workers with a high school diploma and $938 for a worker with an associate degree. It’s also worth noting that the unemployment rate for bachelor’s-level workers was 5.5 percent, compared with 9.0 percent for those whose highest level of education was a high school diploma.¹

The salary you earn is dependent on many things including the industry you work in and type of career you pursue. In this blog we’ll explore the different factors that contribute to the salary you earn as well as the types of jobs you could get into with an online Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree.

The salaries listed in this blog are national averages but there are other factors that can determine the salary you could earn with a BSBA degree, however they’re not all weighted equally in terms of how much they might impact your salary. The Brookings Institute found that differences in educational attainment account for 16 percent of the variation in earnings across workers, while age, race/ethnicity, sex, and occupation explain an additional 20 percent of the variation. That means the most significant variation in wages is based on individual characteristics, followed by education. Location only accounts for a 1.5 percent variation.² Fortunately, this demonstrates that national averages can give you a pretty accurate idea of what you can earn in different professions, but all of these factors are important to keep in mind when you’re doing salary negotiations.

The more time you spend in a role, the more scenarios you’ll encounter that can’t be taught in school and the better you’ll become at collaborating with others and managing projects. It’s also likely that you’ll gain responsibilities the more years you spend in a certain job- especially if you stick at one company over time. Some employers offer annual or performance-based bonuses. It’s important to know going into a role what an organization’s pay, benefits and bonus structure is.

Maybe you’ve heard of commissions when it comes to retail workers but many jobs also have some aspect of commission pay. Depending on the role and company you might have a salary and earn commission on top of it, only earn commissions, or earn a bonus based on performance. Careers that typically have this type of earning structure are sales-based like real estate agents, account representatives for insurance companies or advertising agencies and financial analysts or advisors. Your BSBA courses and professors will be able to give you insight prior to graduation if the type of career you’re interested in is likely to be based on commissions or have other competitive aspects to it.

Professional licensure or certification can lead to higher salaries as can higher levels of education. An MBA is the obvious choice for furthering your business education but master degrees in specific areas like marketing can also enhance your ability to negotiate for higher wages. According to a 2019 research report by the Society for Human Resource Management, 56% of employers offer educational assistance benefits.³ Educational assistance can take the form of partial or full tuition coverage, scholarships and more. Make sure to check out the benefits offered by different organizations when you’re looking for your first job after completing your BSBA.

Your BSBA degree salary can go further depending on where you’re located. Although location doesn’t have as big of an impact on wages as other factors, your salary can go further based on geographic demand for a job and average cost of living in an area. As the Brookings Institute explains, “A worker in a metro area with a relatively low cost of living (e.g., Dallas) might think twice before accepting a slightly better-paying position in a metro area with a higher cost of living (e.g., San Francisco).”³ You might also consider income or sales taxes, as well as public amenities like libraries, cultural centers and other attractions.

A Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) can lead to many different types of careers. The curriculum of most BSBA programs require that students take a core set of courses in subjects like finance, marketing, economics and management and electives that dive deeper into widely applicable business skills like negotiation, project management and analytics. With this comprehensive curriculum, BSBA degree programs are excellent for exploring different business niches and figuring out what path you want to take. Once you earn your degree, you’ll want to get some hands-on experience working in the business world. Depending on your interests and major you could pursue the following jobs and anticipate somewhere around the national average salaries for these positions annually. We’ve included entry and senior level salaries so you can anticipate where you might begin in your career and where you could end up:

Financial Analyst⁴

• Entry level: $50,058
• Senior level, often titled senior financial analyst: $94,543

Accountant⁵

• Entry level, often titled staff accountant: $56,961
• Senior level, often titled senior accountant or managing accountant: $78,011

Marketing⁶

• Entry level, often titled marketing coordinator or specialist: $63,284
• Senior level, often titled marketing manager or director: $104,295

Human Resources⁷

• Entry level, often titled HR generalist or coordinator: $61,416
• Senior level, often titled HR manager or director: $77,632

Sales Management⁸

• Entry level, often titled sales manager: $72,984
• Senior level, often titled senior sales manager: $86,113

Logistics and Operations⁹

• Entry level, often titled buyer, inventory analyst: $60,000
• Senior level, often titled supply chain manager or director: $90,000