Salary
For all the work you end up doing and for all of the stress that you have to endure, the average salary can seem a bit low for most PR pros. Salaries range from about $35,000 at the low end (and by no means is this the usual starting point for somebody just out of college—think about chopping about $5,000-$8,000 off of this) to an average of around $55,000 for seasoned PR experts (source).
Unless you work for seriously high-end clients, you won't actually be making the kind of super money that you see PR pros make on TV. Let alone the actors who portray them. But…you can enjoy at least part of their lifestyle just by being around all of the fancy-shmancy social events they get to attend.
For those of you lucky enough to not get settled in a Marcomm department of some huge corporation, there's more opportunity for upward mobility and—kaching!—more money. Agencies often have better pay, letting top earners move beyond the $100,000mark (source).
Typically, this type of salary is reserved for senior execs who have worked in the trenches, maintained ruthless OT schedules, bring in new clients, and have the best track record with current clients (source). Perks can include lavish expense accounts, company cars, extra vacation time, and flexible hours (like that matters when you're already working sixteen-plus hours a day) plus the opportunity to work remotely at least part of the time.
So, what other way can your career take off? There's always the "I gotta do my own thing" route. Often, after working in the world of corporate PR for, say, ten years or so, you (and everybody else in the four-by-five cubes surrounding you) start feeling ultra bored and super burned out.
Even mice are no longer exciting.
Breaking away from the corporate boredom by going out on your own as a PR consultant is very common. Those who do this won't have a ready-made list of clients to go after, since their company was their client, but they can take inventory of the vendors they worked with and bring that with them.
This is a huge advantage since these vendors, provided that they've been treated well in your dealings, often provide great leads for new work. Armed with this, you could easily get yourself several good contracts within your first year, enough to stay afloat as an independent. With good success on those contracts, you'll likely find that you're more in demand and may even need to hire staff or partner with someone to let your business expand.
On the other hand, you may be one of those people who chooses to go it alone as a contractor right off the bat—you want to exert your entrepreneurial spirit and not be trapped by salary caps, defined work schedules, and all the other junk that comes with corporate America.
This is more difficult since you don't have any "ins" with vendors, but it's very doable as long as you're committed to pressing through the hard times, eating ramen noodles for at least another year (you really thought you'd left them behind when you graduated?), and can balance time spent making connections with doing actual work on your own until you've got people in place to do the work for you. Land a couple of good contracts, do well with them, and your business is off and running!
In either case, the money won't be really good right off (unless you land some really super high profile client), but it will steadily increase if you're good at what you do. Lots of PR consultants in good markets, and with solid client lists, find themselves clearing the $100,000 mark within the first five years of starting their solo gig.