This study analyses the effects of institutional stratification in higher education systems on graduates' wages in engineering fields in Germany and Korea. We use survey data from the Korean 2013 Graduates Occupational Mobility Survey (GOMS) and the German 2013 Graduate Survey Cooperation Project (KOAB). For Korea, where the higher education system is hierarchically stratified by reputation, the study found clear effects of institutional stratification on graduates' wages. For Germany, where the higher education system is primarily stratified horizontally by type of university and only lightly stratified hierarchically by reputation (although strategic networks are gradually changing this situation), the study found weak effects of institutional stratification on graduates' wages. The study concludes that institutional stratification affects wages across different higher education systems, although to different degrees.