Bachelor's · earnings grade

Is a Business Administration, Management and Operations degree worth it?

Graduates earn a median $41,937 two years after finishing, more than 62% of bachelor's majors. Measured across 1,597 US programmes by the Department of Education — real graduate pay, not survey answers.

C

The verdict on the money

It pays around the middle. What you earn will depend more on where you study and what you do with it than on the subject label.

Median earnings $41,937 2 years after finishing
Typical range $37,503–$47,260 middle half of US programmes
Over no degree +$2,417 vs $39,520 high-school median
Graduates a year 160,246 1,597 programmes

Where a Business Administration, Management and Operations degree pays best US programmes ranked on their own graduates' median earnings two years out.

#University1 yr out2 yrs out3 yrs outGraduates/yr
1 Maine Maritime Academy $71,675 $106,421 not published —
2 Bismarck State College $94,930 $104,749 $113,181 40
3 Rice University cost & debt at this university → not published $89,530 not published 16
4 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor cost & debt at this university → $83,131 $83,177 $100,155 613
5 University of California-Berkeley cost & debt at this university → $74,034 $81,456 $95,007 428
6 Carnegie Mellon University cost & debt at this university → $78,783 $80,196 $102,811 151
7 Emory University cost & debt at this university → $72,076 $77,283 $89,530 422
8 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill cost & debt at this university → $74,938 $73,823 $89,917 401
9 Stevens Institute of Technology cost & debt at this university → $69,349 $73,635 $86,958 91
10 Texas Christian University cost & debt at this university → $63,621 $71,015 $84,099 122
11 Georgetown University $67,676 $69,338 $69,269 49
12 Manhattan University not published $67,660 not published 45

What this figure does and does not tell you

It is the median of what real graduates of this exact major earned, taken from tax records two years after they completed. It is not a starting salary, not an average of job adverts, and not a projection. The median bachelor's major in this dataset reports $37,568, so Business Administration, Management and Operations sits above the middle by $4,369.

Two years is early in a career. Fields with long training pipelines — medicine, law, research — look weaker at this point than they will at ten, while trades and applied technical fields peak sooner. Read a low figure in a long-pipeline subject as "slow start", not "bad degree".

There is no debt figure here on purpose. The Department of Education publishes earnings by field of study but not borrowing, so nobody can honestly tell you the debt of a specific major. Debt is published per institution — that is where our university cost pages carry it.

Business Administration, Management and Operations at other levels

Master's — $64,706 (C)

Majors that pay more at this level Closest first — useful if you are still choosing.

Business/Commerce, General — $42,154 Marketing — $42,154 Mathematics — $43,687 Economics — $46,087 Accounting and Related Services — $47,260 Finance and Financial Management Services — $49,864

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Business Administration, Management and Operations: the questions people ask

How much do Business Administration, Management and Operations graduates earn?
The median bachelor's graduate earns $41,937 two years after finishing, across 1,186 US programmes that publish the figure. One year out it is $41,068.
Is a Business Administration, Management and Operations degree worth it?
It pays around the middle. What you earn will depend more on where you study and what you do with it than on the subject label. The median graduate earns $2,417 a year more than a US worker whose highest qualification is a high-school diploma.
What is the salary range for Business Administration, Management and Operations?
Half of US programmes report medians between $37,503 and $47,260. Where you study moves this figure more than most applicants expect.
How many people graduate in Business Administration, Management and Operations each year?
About 160,246 students complete a bachelor's in this field each year across 1,597 US programmes.
Does this include student debt?
No — and deliberately. The Department of Education publishes earnings by field of study but not debt, so any "debt by major" figure you see elsewhere is an estimate. Debt is published per institution, which is why our university pages carry it and this page does not.
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Source: US Department of Education College Scorecard, field-of-study earnings (median earnings of graduates who received federal financial aid, measured 1–3 years after completion). Figures are per major and credential level, pooled across US programmes. Information only, not financial advice.