1:30min
By Helen Carter
Journalist
The median starting salary for optometrists graduating with a Bachelor degree in Australia remained stable in 2014 at $70,000, the same as in 2013, a new report shows.
The Graduate Careers Australia report reveals that the optometry graduates received an average wage of $70,000 or $35.40 per hour for working a mean 38 hours a week.
This statistic is based on the survey responses of 20 female and nine male optometry graduates who qualified via an undergraduate degree, were aged younger than 25 years and were working in their first full-time job.
Female optometry graduates were earning on average 96 per cent of the earnings of their male counterparts.
Optometry graduates again had the second highest starting salary of all graduates surveyed, behind dentists, whose starting salary was $75,000.
The Graduate Salaries 2014 report also revealed that in 2014 the median salary for postgraduate optometrists in full-time employment, who were not graduates in their first year out, was $82,000 for those with a Masters degree.
This was based on the survey responses of 31 optometrists with Masters qualifications.
The median salary was $100,000 for those with a Postgraduate Diploma or Certificate, based on the survey responses of 26 optometrists with these qualifications who were postgraduate optometrists in full-time employment and not in their first year out.
Other Graduate Careers Australia reports cover graduate destinations and graduate course experience of higher education.