Bachelor of $80,000 pa

New graduates of Honours degree in Geology from Australian universities are paid as much as AU$80,000 up to $90,000 pa by Australian mining companies. This is due to the geologist shortage as a result of increasing mining exploration and exploitation activities on the continent. The high demand on Honours graduates mean academic institutions are having difficulties in attracting top Australian graduates to pursue research jobs, such as doing a PhD, because they prefer to get $80 grand a year. What an easy choice, $80,000/year instead of suffering as a research student for 3 years :)...