A Graduate School of Business survey revealed that an employer’s ethical reputation is now nearly as important as salary level to graduating MBAs. This year’s graduates, who watched Enron and Worldcom collapse as they finished their undergraduate studies and witnessed Bear Stearns vanish as they earned their graduate degrees, are willing to give up $15,000 a year to work at a socially responsible firm, according to researchers.

David Montgomery, professor emeritus at the GSB, and Catherine Ramus, associate professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, conducted the web poll, which asked 759 MBAs graduating this year from 11 top American and European business schools to rank corporate qualities according to importance in comparing job offers. Intellectual challenge was first, followed by salary and geographic location.

“It turns out however that ethics and caring about people are about 95 percent as important as money and geographic area,” Montgomery said. “That’s surprising.”

While Montgomery said that the $15,000 figure might be slightly inflated, he agreed that it indicates that business ethics has become a significant factor in career considerations for top young businesspeople.

The survey tested four characteristics of social responsibility to encompass issues relating to the community, the environment and stockholders. Ethical conduct and care for employees ranked 75 percent as high as the top consideration, intellectual challenge, while responsibilities towards the community and investors were slightly less important.

“I have showed historically that these hypothetical choices will actually predict pretty well,” Montgomery said, citing studies from the late 70s and early 80s.

To test old versions of the survey, he used students’ rankings and job offers in January to anticipate which firms they would choose in May. Chance alone yields 30 percent accuracy; Montgomery’s predictions were correct 63 to 83 percent of the time.

Unfortunately, it’s impossible to tell, even from these past surveys, whether the high ranking of corporate responsibility is a new trend — the 2008 survey was the first of its kind to include ethical concerns. Without telling respondents, Montgomery and Ramus specifically designed the survey to determine the weight of new factors.

“Times have changed,” Montgomery said. “What are the 21st century aspects of job search?”

Apparently, a social conscience ranks high among them.