Master's · earnings grade

Is a Hospitality Management degree worth it?

Graduates earn a median $49,058 two years after finishing, more than 40% of master's majors. Measured across 72 US programmes by the Department of Education — real graduate pay, not survey answers.

D

The verdict on the money

Financially it is a slower start than most majors at this level — worth planning your borrowing around.

Median earnings $49,058 2 years after finishing
Typical range $45,383–$57,860 middle half of US programmes
Over no degree +$9,538 vs $39,520 high-school median
Graduates a year 1,226 72 programmes

Where a Hospitality Management degree pays best US programmes ranked on their own graduates' median earnings two years out.

#University1 yr out2 yrs out3 yrs outGraduates/yr
1 University of Nevada-Las Vegas cost & debt at this university → $76,060 $73,949 $73,853 51
2 Cornell University cost & debt at this university → $60,247 $63,005 $77,283 70
3 Georgia State University cost & debt at this university → $51,386 $61,064 $67,445 8
4 New York University cost & debt at this university → $60,963 $57,860 $56,680 91
5 Roosevelt University cost & debt at this university → not published $52,107 $54,119 3
6 University of Houston cost & debt at this university → $39,570 $49,058 not published 59
7 Texas Tech University cost & debt at this university → not published $48,432 not published 13
8 Florida International University cost & debt at this university → $50,909 $47,260 $50,609 168
9 George Washington University cost & debt at this university → $54,760 $45,383 $43,949 19
10 University of New Orleans cost & debt at this university → $38,126 $42,682 $48,131 16
11 University of North Texas cost & debt at this university → not published $41,565 not published 22

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 master's major in this dataset reports $52,837, so Hospitality Management sits below the middle by $3,779.

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.

Hospitality Management at other levels

Bachelor's — $36,497 (C)

Scholarships for Hospitality Management students

Whatever the subject pays, the money you do not borrow is the money you keep.

University of Salford Scholarships for International Students... 70 International Scholarships at Perth College of Business & T... 50 International Scholarships for Short Courses at ESE in Madr... UK 30 Strathclyde Business School Masters Scholarships 2018 Introductory Culinary Arts Scholarships in Australia, 2018 Canada TSoM Love Canada Diploma Scholarship for International...
See all Hospitality Management scholarships →

Study Hospitality Management Programmes listed on ScholarshipsAds.

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

Nutrition Sciences — $49,702 Sustainability Studies — $50,856 Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education — $51,482 Public Administration — $51,482 Public Health — $52,733 Educational Leadership — $52,837

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Hospitality Management: the questions people ask

How much do Hospitality Management graduates earn?
The median master's graduate earns $49,058 two years after finishing (weighting each programme by how many students it graduates), across 11 US programmes that publish the figure. One year out it is $51,148.
Is a Hospitality Management degree worth it?
Financially it is a slower start than most majors at this level — worth planning your borrowing around. The median graduate earns $9,538 a year more than a US worker whose highest qualification is a high-school diploma.
What is the salary range for Hospitality Management?
Half of US programmes report medians between $45,383 and $57,860. Where you study moves this figure more than most applicants expect.
How many people graduate in Hospitality Management each year?
About 1,226 students complete a master's in this field each year across 72 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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Classified by the Department of Education as Hospitality Administration/Management (CIP 5209). 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.