Degrees With the Lowest Salaries: A Realistic Look at Career Prospects in 2025

Here's something that doesn't get discussed at length at all those career fairs: not all degrees yawn open the gates to winning paycheques. Plenty of folks step onto campus with big dreams, but somewhere along the way, reality can bite. India especially has this tradition of picking certain degrees that don’t even let you earn enough to buy a weekly plate of biryani in Chennai without stressing about next month’s rent. It isn’t about bashing anyone’s choice, but wouldn’t you want to know which degrees might leave you counting coins? Cold, but fair—so let’s go there with numbers, real stories, and the kind of advice I wish someone shared with me during my college years.

The Degrees at the Bottom of the Payscale

Take a look at the numbers, and you’ll realize that not every three or four-year struggle results in a fat offer letter. The root of the matter lies in the market demand, the practical utility of the subject, and sometimes, just pure economics. Year after year, lowest salary degrees keep repeating in reports worldwide—and it’s a list you see in both India and the West. For 2025, Humanities top the unwanted charts. Degrees in Fine Arts, Social Work, Drama, and Religious Studies often lead the numbers in lower starting salaries, trailed closely by Education and Library Science.

Fine Arts graduates in India, for example, might earn INR 14,000–18,000 monthly in their early jobs, if jobs even come by quickly. On the global scale, NACE’s 2024 survey on US graduates flagged Drama and Theatre Arts with an average starting offer of $34,000—about half of what Computer Science students see. Indian council data puts Social Work majors at INR 12,000–20,000 starting salary. Library Science? It's similar. Of course, famous actors and authors can make crores, but those are the dazzling outliers, not the norm for grads waiting in line at the HR counter.

Here's a table that rounds up median salaries for these fields, both for India and international figures—because a comparison helps, right?

Notice something? These numbers barely budge over years. And this isn't because people in these fields aren't skilled or passionate—they're just in areas where spending power, public funding, or sheer volume of jobs is lower. In India, when you compare these numbers to freshers from tech or business fields—earning INR 30,000 to 50,000 or more straight out of school—the contrast is sharp. And abroad it’s no different.

So if you’re weighing if your college days will land you somewhere comfy or barely paying off EMIs, this table’s your first check.

Why Do Certain Degrees Lead to Lower Salaries?

This isn’t some cosmic conspiracy or a judgement on anyone’s dreams. It’s the simple math of supply and demand. For every job opening—say for classical musicians, drama teachers, or NGO managers—there might be fifty or a hundred applicants, all with nearly identical qualifications. When so many want one job, salaries stay low.

Plus, there’s this weird Indian irony: we value teachers, librarians, and social workers with words but not with pay. A passionate B.Ed. graduate in a Chennai government school might work harder than a private tech consultant, yet take home a fraction of the salary. Sure, some might scoff and say, "It’s about making a difference, not earning money." But when you’re seeing your friends buying cars and you’re working six days a week just to break even, that sentiment doesn’t buy groceries or fix a non-functioning AC in May.

In fields like Fine Arts, the talent pool is big, but landed, high-paying gigs are rare. Even when job opportunities exist—think NGOs hiring social workers, or schools bringing in art teachers—the budget’s tight. Private sector, except for rare cases, doesn’t absorb these graduates. A 2023 survey of job listings on Naukri.com showed that the number of programmer jobs outnumbered Fine Arts job offers by more than 20 to 1.

Even overseas, the story doesn’t change much. In the US and UK, all those memes about "starving artists" aren’t far off. LinkedIn’s Salary Insights tool regularly puts these majors in the bottom slot for entry-level earnings. These are the degrees that fill all the university seats, but for grads, it often means gig jobs, freelancing (read: hustling), or waiting years to build a name.

There’s a flip side. Some with super rare talent do break through and crush it—award-winning journalists, famous actors, bestselling authors. But for every one of those, there are hundreds working side gigs just to keep their creative dreams alive.

Can You Make a Low-Salary Degree Work for You?

Now, don’t read this and burn your application for B.A. in Literature. If you're naturally drawn to any field on the low salary list, there are ways to fight the odds. The trick is planning ahead, grabbing extra skills, or even finding unexpected career paths linked to your passion.

• Double up with a skill: For every social worker who learns grant writing, or artist who gets savvy with digital marketing, your odds of landing a better job or freelancing profitably multiply. Pair your degree with professional courses, online certifications, or even learning to code basic web pages for your own portfolio, and suddenly employers take notice.
• Location matters: Big cities almost always offer better-paying gigs, especially in creative fields. Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore—urban centers have high rent, but better freelance gigs or specialized jobs. If you’re open to relocation, you might edge ahead of the pack.
• Build a name online: You don’t have to wait for a gatekeeper to give you a break. Artists using Instagram, teachers creating YouTube channels, or writers sharing on Substack sometimes earn more on side gigs than their full-time job. In fact, Skillshare reported in 2024 that the top 10% of its teachers, many with arts backgrounds, made over $2,000 per month—just by teaching online.
• Network shamelessly: This might feel fake, but in low-paying fields, knowing people opens doors. Join forums, online groups, go to events, or send those awkward emails. Connections often bring freelance work or job alerts that never hit public job boards.
• Think outside your degree: Librarianship low on pay? Plenty of graduates join publishing, ed-tech firms, or research roles for better salaries. Social workers jump to HR or diversity and inclusion in corporates—sometimes for twice the pay. Study what jobs accept your skill set that aren’t obvious matches.

One student I spoke to from Stella Maris College turned her English Literature degree into a solid gig in digital marketing—she picked up copywriting and SEO in her second year online, and by graduation, her internship paid double the typical school teacher’s salary. It’s possible if you stay curious.

Don’t assume you’re stuck with a low-paying path. But don’t ignore the data either, especially if personal finances matter a lot in your life. The comfort is: low salary today isn’t a life sentence, if you’re up for a little hustle and smart pivoting.

Smart Tips for Picking a Degree Without Regret

If you’re still staring at application forms, or having nightmares about making "the wrong choice," you probably want a way to mix what you love with the ability to pay the bills. Is there a perfect hack? Not really, but you can get close.

• Combine passion with practicality: If you love drama but don't want to risk underemployment, consider double majoring with something like Mass Communication or Education. This way, you have a fallback—not to mention more options after graduation.
• Research the market: Check real, recent job postings on sites like LinkedIn, Naukri, or Glassdoor. How many jobs are there in your field? What are employers asking for—just a degree or extra skills? The number of postings tells how healthy the industry is for freshers.
• Talk to actual graduates: Don't trust the college brochures; reach out to actual alumni, read their stories on Quora or Reddit. Ask what their pay looked like after two, three, and five years. Success stories are cool, but the regular journey reveals more about likely salary growth.
• Don’t ignore side incomes: If you’re picking a low-paying field because you care deeply about the work, plan for a side gig—freelancing, teaching, even content creation. Many drama grads make more money doing advertising voiceovers than acting on the stage.
• Pay attention to new trends: In the last decade, unexpected fields—ed-tech, UX writing, online content curation—have started hiring arts and education grads for surprisingly good pay. Stay open to twists and turns in the job market.
• Keep upskilling: The job world isn’t about a single degree anymore. Free/cheap online courses (think Coursera, Udemy) can close the salary gap or even flip it, especially if you’re moving into roles that need technical or business know-how along with your main skill.

Your degree isn’t a destiny. Think of it as your starting card in a complicated board game. If you keep your ears open and adapt, you can play even a low-paying field to your advantage. And maybe, just maybe, you’ll be the one who turns that passion into something bigger—without watching your wallet every weekend.