This starting salary won't hurt a bit

The most lucrative career for freshly minted university graduates involves poking around mouths, with young dentists earning more than their 20 to 24 year old contemporaries, an analysis of professional incomes has found.

First-year dentists earn an average of $1638 gross a week, says Rod Stinson, an independent labour market researcher who has analysed Australian Bureau of Statistics data in his most recent study, What Jobs Pay 2008-2009.

But the mining, building and infrastructure boom has made engineering managers the most highly paid professionals across all age groups, at $2562 a week.

Mr Stinson said that while there was anecdotal evidence of engineers and some blue-collar employees earning more than $4000 a week, he was using widely accepted average income data in all occupational categories.

He said dentistry paid well for young graduates because it was a "monopoly occupation" that was tightly regulated.

"Basically, no one else can pull your teeth out except a dentist and the training numbers are fairly limited at the moment."

While dentistry remained a lucrative career, it has lost its gloss by the time professionals reached their late 20s and 30s, trumped by engineering managers, financial dealers and mining engineers.

Politicians, or "legislators", featured in the top 10 professions for all ages, along with engineering managers, financial dealers, mining engineers, general managers, research and development managers, surgeons, psychiatrists, anaesthetists and internal medicine specialists.

Traditionally prestigious jobs such as general practitioners, barristers and school principals trailed information technology specialists and security consultants on the income scale.

Mr Stinson found the female-dominated "caring professions", such as early childhood education, social work and counselling, were among the lowest paid.

Infants' teachers, even those in mid career, were earning just $967 a week, counsellors earned $1033 a week and registered nurses an average of $1094.

Ministers of religion were the country's lowest-paid professionals, on a weekly average of just $706.

Published: 05 June 2008