Times have changed (salaries)

When I got out of college, not only were starting average salaries much lower, but it was just a bad time to be looking for a job. The fact that new accounting graduates can expect to get almost $44,000 is encouraging. Cost of living has risen so dramatically that compesnation practices have lagged in the last few years. On average, salaries were up 4.2% this year. Here's the data from about.com.