Teachers earn as much as doctors, but dentists take the biggest bite

TEACHERS now earn as much as doctors and more than lawyers or engineers in their first year of work following university.

Starting salaries for teachers average $61,000, slightly less than the starting pay for medical graduates, who earn an average of $65,000 in their first job as hospital interns / Supplied

• ALMOST 50,000 QUALIFIED TEACHERS CAN’T FIND WORK

TEACHERS now earn as much as doctors and more than lawyers or engineers in their first year of work following university.

The latest Graduate Destinations survey reveals dentists and optometrists earn the most money straight from uni, with $80,000 salaries.

Starting salaries for teachers average $61,000, slightly less than the starting pay for medical graduates, who earn an average of $65,000 in their first job as hospital interns.

But doctors work longer hours than teachers, on average, so they earn the same $28.80 hourly rate.

More than a quarter of teaching graduates were still looking for full-time work four months after leaving university last year, compared to just 3.7 per cent of medical graduates.

Despite earning as much as doctors, who are selected from the smartest school-leavers, one in every 14 university students enrolled in teaching degrees failed a compulsory literacy test, and one in 10 failed the numeracy test, set by the federal government this year.

Teaching students cannot graduate unless they pass the new test, which became mandatory this year.

Doctors work longer hours than teachers, on average, so they earn the same $28.80 hourly rate / Supplied

State Education Minister Adrian Piccoli said the government had worked hard to raise the status of teachers. “I encourage high-achieving students to consider teaching as a career,’’ he said.

The nation’s biggest annual survey of post-university employment, by Graduate Careers Australia, reveals that first-year engineers earned $60,000, lawyers $55,000 and computer scientists $54,000 in 2015.

Science graduates were most likely to be unemployed, despite the federal government’s push for more students to study STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects. Nearly half the graduates in chemistry, life sciences and geology were still looking for full-time work four months after graduating. But two out of three maths and computing graduates, and about 80 per cent of engineers, had a full-time job.

Accountants earned $50,000 in their first job, with three-quarters finding full-time work within four months of leaving university. New architecture graduates earned $45,000 a year, slightly more than the $40,000 salary for art and design graduates.

But half the artists, including painters, actors and dancers, were hunting for full-time work, compared to 30 per cent of architects.

The Graduate Destinations report shows that nearly 70 per cent of all university graduates find full-time work within four months of graduation.