Salary survey provider
NACE salary surveys
NACE is a U.S. professional association, founded in 1956, for college career services staff, early talent recruiters and the vendors that serve them. Its research arm runs member surveys on new-graduate starting salaries, intern pay, hiring outlook and the staffing and pay of recruiting and career services teams. The Salary Survey reports projected and actual starting salaries for new college graduates.
- Headquarters
- Bethlehem, PA
- Focus
- New college graduate starting salaries, Intern and co-op pay, Early talent / university recruiting, College career services
- Data covers
- United States
- How you get the data
- Surveys are mostly sent to NACE member organizations, with one person answering for each organization. The Salary Survey is included with NACE membership and sold as a subscription to non-members.
- ~373
- colleges and universities supplied salary data (Summer 2026 Salary Survey)
- 80,000+
- bachelor's degree graduates in the Summer 2026 salary analysis
- 2x a year
- Salary Survey editions (winter and summer)
- 18,000+
- career services and recruiting professionals connected through NACE
NACE salary surveys
- Salary SurveyStarting salaries for new college graduates by major, degree level, job function, industry and region; winter issue uses employer projections, summer issue uses actual graduate-reported salaries · United States (national, with regional breakouts)Winter issue: data collected Oct-Nov, released January. Summer issue: based on First-Destination data collected Jan-Apr, released August
- Guide to Compensation for Interns & Co-opsHourly pay and benefits for interns and co-op students by degree, major, year of study, industry, company size and region · United States2026 edition published March 2026; data from the Internship & Co-op survey collected Oct-Dec
- Internship & Co-op Report & DashboardIntern programs: pay, offer, acceptance and conversion rates, and program structure, with a filterable dashboard · United StatesData collected Oct-Dec; report released March
- Recruiting Compensation + Staffing BenchmarksSalary, bonus and tenure for five core early talent recruiting roles, plus recruiting staffing, budgets and hiring performance · United States, filterable by region2026 data collected mid-April to May, released September; compensation data collected every other year
- Career Services Compensation + Staffing BenchmarksSalaries for college career services staff by role, responsibility, region, Carnegie classification and institution size, plus staffing ratios and budgets · United States2025-2026 edition current; next collection Oct-Nov 2027 with release in February; collected every other year
Survey list and figures from NACE’s website, checked October 8, 2026.
Using NACE data in CompTool
- We load every NACE survey you license at no extra cost, in under three days on average.
- Multi-match prices whole job families across NACE and your other surveys in one pass.
- Blend and age the data by your own rules, alongside Squirrel’s real-time employer-posted pay.
Load your NACE surveys into CompTool
Every survey you license, loaded at no extra cost in under three days on average.
You’ll meet with comp professionals like Zack, Matt, Brittni and Caitlin, not a sales script.
