Why Mba gets paid more??
Well its an interesting question. I will divide the question into 2 parts..
1)Why Mbas(finance) from top-notch B-schools get more pay than a CA:.The salary difference here is basically due to the fact that the job profiles given to a CA and an Mba from a top B-School are totally different. These mba guys get plum management and consulting roles,IB roles,etc. which arent normally given to a CA fresher. I don’t think it is right to compare people handling different job profiles.
2)Why Mbas(finance) from decent, ordinary colleges earn more than a CA:Well here mbas are in direct competition with CAs. They aren’t going to get the kind of job profiles that are being provided to Mbas from top B-Schools. They will also find it hard to get into hard-core taxation and accounting roles which are dominated by Chartered Accountants. For the remaining job profiles, they vie with CAs and other professionals like CMAs,etc. Now coming to ur question, the basic reason for a better initial pay in case of many mbas from ordinary colleges can be attributed to the fact that the Campus placements in these institutes are much better organised. As a matter of fact, all these ordinary Mba institutes are aware that this is the arena of the survival of the fittest. If these institutes aren’t able to show good placement stats, they will soon be forced to close down. So they are as desperate and eager as the students in respect of campus placement and try out all ways and means of securing a good package to their students. However I don’t see ICAI being so desperate in the conduct of its campus placement. All the other things like communication skills,presenatation skills,etc. too play some part in the starting salary difference. But according to me, the major reason is the better campus placement.
Whatever I mentioned above was regarding the starting salary. But, to be honest, when we are talking about a person’s career which spans over 30+ years, starting salary is the least important thing. We need to see things from a long-term perspective and I think many of the Mbas(finance) from ordinary colleges who get a better starting salary will be overtaken by their CA counterparts in the long run. In other words, according to me, the proportion of experienced Mbas(finance) with a better salary in comparison to the experienced CAs will be much lesser than the proportion of fresher mbas(finance) with a better starting salary in relation to the CA freshers(I know it isn’t really proper to generalise things..I know that one’s skills, area of experience, etc. have a crucial role in the future pay..But since this is a very general question, I will have to answer it on a general basis.). Actually it will be really interesting to see the salary of ur friend and his brother after ,lets say, 10 years. What I am trying to say is that we cant make any judgement about who gets better remuneration, purely on the basis of starting salary.