tl;dr It’s up to you to make it worth it. A PhD can hurt your finances, sink you in debt, and leave you with no clear path to success in some fields. But PhDs statistically earn more than their and have lower unemployment rates.

Fields where having a Ph. D. over a master’s degree may not make much difference in terms of salary include communications and journalism, industrial arts and consumer services, and education. In these fields, holding a doctorate will only increase your salary earnings potential by $15,000 per year at the most.

All told, the average pay raise for all professionals who hold a master’s degree is about 38 percent nationwide. That’s a respectable bump in pay no matter the industry.

$25,416 per year
The average salary for a PhD Graduate Student is $25,416 per year in Canada, which is 11% lower than the average University of Alberta salary of $28,665 per year for this job.

Summary. A second Master’s degree will provide you with specialist knowledge in various subjects in your field. A doctoral degree will provide you with research skills and expert knowledge in a single topic within your field.

Although a master’s degree salary and PhD salary may start off similarly (roughly $50,000 for each), a PhD salary can double over the span of 20 years, jumping to more than $100,000 per year 20 years after completing a PhD degree, making the value of a PhD even more apparent.

According to a study from the US Census Bureau, using data from the most recent comprehensive national census, adults with PhD degrees earn 7% to 33% more than those with just master’s degrees.

There could be lots of reasons why workers with a master’s degree had higher or lower wages than did those who had a bachelor’s degree. Master’s degree holders, for example, might have qualified for better paying jobs and have earned more than their counterparts who had a bachelor’s degree.

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) PhDs tend to pay the most, according to research conducted by Payscale. Electrical & computer engineering is America’s most lucrative PhD, with early career pay reported to be approximately $102,000.

Overall, the average life earnings of doctorate holders are higher than other degree holders within the same industries. However, the life earning gap between master’s and Ph. holder earns 27 percent more than that of a master’s holder.

PhD actually is a full time job, that requires skills that in many cases (for instance in computer science) will be highly paid in the industry. Projects faced during the PhD are often more complex than homologous industrial projects.

For most students, a bachelor’s degree is the ‘first’ degree. Second is a Masters degree. Third is Doctorate degree, such as the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), is a ‘terminal degree’. But that doesn’t mean it’s the same path for everyone or for all subjects.

You may have many reasons for considering a master’s or PhD program, but evidence gathered from employers around the world suggests that candidates with graduate degrees earn more money than their colleagues without such qualifications.

Whereas in some other fields, such as business, there is only a small difference of 8 percent. If you are looking for ways to improve your career, obtaining an MBA degree may be worthwhile financially as graduates receive similar work-life earning as Ph.D. graduates.

If we average these numbers, psychologists with a doctorate make on average about $93,750. Considering the BLS statistics incorporate average salaries for those holding bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees, we can assume it’s a rough average of what someone holding a master’s might make.