Identifying Differences in Business Students’ Salary Expectations

Abstract

The authors investigated preparedness variables affecting business students’ salary expectations by utilizing a sample of 209 finance students from a regional university and 51 students attending the Financial Management Association Leaders’ Conference in New York in 2011. Students who network more, are applying for a higher level job, and perceive their mathematical ability to be higher expect to earn more 1 and 5 years after graduation. However, students who perceive the difficulty of finding a job to be higher have lower expectations for salaries when graduating. These relationships are more pronounced for men than for women. However, female finance students expect to earn higher salaries than male finance students, holding these variables constant.