Postgraduate studies may be expensive but the return of investment is great when one returns to the workforce.

Graduate Careers Australia (GCA) research shows men with postgraduate qualifications in management and commerce are earning average salaries of $118,000. Men who hold postgraduate degrees and are in the mining industry can command the average salary of $140,000 three years after entering the workforce.

According to GCA senior research associate David Carroll, men who hold degrees such as masters of commerce or accounting (MBAs) experienced a "remarkably high salary growth" of 75 percent over the first three year period.

Carroll said, “Once people with graduate qualifications enter the workforce they appear to progress quickly.”

The GCA surveyed almost 8000 graduates from 23 universities three years after they were first surveyed in 2006. The survey discovered the salaries for bachelor degree graduates went up 41 percent during the survey period from 2006 to last year, while salaries for postgraduates climbed 36 percent during the same period.

Postgraduate men in finance and insurance firms earned an average of $110,000, while those in science and technology earned an average of $100,000. Women with postgraduate qualifications fall below the $100,000 threshold but they were found to be the highest earning women. They earned on average $90,000.

Carroll added, “In terms of highest paying industries, postgraduate management and commerce females employed in public administration and safety earned the highest average salary of $84,000.”