Media & Creative
What you can do with Public Relations
Shaping how the public sees a company, a cause or a person.
- Careers
- 3
- Early career
- $60,000
- Mid-career
- $92,000
- Growing fast
- 2 of 3
How these numbers work: A major does not have its own salary. Early and mid-career pay is what people who hold this degree earn at the start of their careers and midway through them. Career pay comes from the 3 careers a Public Relations degree commonly leads to, and counts everyone in those jobs, including people who have been doing them for thirty years. The two answer different questions, which is why they do not match.
The New York Fed does not report Public Relations on its own. Its early and mid-career figures here are for Advertising and Public Relations, the broader group it places this major in.
2 of 3 careers this degree leads to are projected to grow faster than average from 2024 to 2034. Of those, Public Relations Specialist has the most openings, about 27,600 a year.
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3 careers this degree leads to
Public Relations Manager
$146,910Own an organization's public image: lead communications strategy, media relations, and crisis response.
- Middle half of workers
- $106,580 to $204,520
- Growth
- Faster than average
- Openings a year
- 6,600
- Media Relations
- Communications Strategy
- Crisis Management
- Writing
Fundraising Manager
$125,470Lead the campaigns and donor relationships that fund nonprofits, universities and the arts.
- Middle half of workers
- $95,970 to $169,990
- Growth
- About average
- Openings a year
- 3,600
- Relationship Building
- Campaign Strategy
- Writing
- Public Speaking
Public Relations Specialist
$74,750Create and maintain a favorable public image for the organization they represent.
- Middle half of workers
- $56,260 to $100,370
- Growth
- Faster than average
- Openings a year
- 27,600
Work-life52Remote62Satisfaction68- Media Relations
- Writing
- Social Media Management
- Crisis Communication
Related majors
Set on Public Relations?
Save it as your major and PlanexAI will shape your dashboard, career matches, and study plan around it.
Where these pay figures come from
Early and mid-career pay is the median annual wage of full-time workers who hold a bachelor's degree in that major, ages 22 to 27 and ages 35 to 45, from 2024 data. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (IPUMS). Published as Outcomes by Major by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Career pay is the annual wage of everyone working in that occupation, not only recent graduates, so it includes people who have done the job for decades. The middle half is the 25th to the 75th percentile. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and O*NET OnLine (median and percentile annual wages May 2025; employment projections 2024-2034).
All figures are national. What you earn depends on where you work, who you work for, and how far you take the degree.