My earlier “Education Pays: Income by Education Level” post receives among the most hits of any I have, but those numbers are now out of date. That post had data from 2004; this one uses the most recent data from 2007 (released in January 2009). Unfortunately, the numbers presented in the previous post were for means and the Census has not (at least at this point) provided the data on means for 2007. As such, the numbers in this post report medians instead. Graphically, the new numbers look like this:
The data come from the U.S. Census and are presented in their annual report: Educational Attainment in the United States: 2007. The press release is here, and data and reports from previous years are available on their educational attainment page located here.
The data in the graph come from Table 3: “Median Earnings for Workers Aged 25 and Over by Educational Attainment, Work Status,Sex, and Race and Hispanic Origin: 2007″ in which they report the following results for “Full-Time, Year-Round Workers”:
- Median for all full-time, year-round workers: $41,568
- Not a high school graduate: $24,964
- High school graduate: $32,862
- Some college or associate’s degree: $40,769
- Bachelor’s degree: $56,118
- Advanced degree: $75,140
The report also provides breakdowns in Table 3 for both gender and race/ethnicity for the various educational levels.
February 10, 2009 at 5:42 am
[...] October 28, 2006 Education Pays: Income by Education Level Posted by Jon under 08 – Education & Religion, 10 – Social Class, Education, Income [Update: I now have a new post with more recent data from the 2009 report. It is available here: Education Pays: Income by Education Level (2009 Update).] [...]
February 12, 2009 at 11:38 am
[...] known for a long time that people with advanced degrees are likely to make more in their lifetime, something Jon at the Big Picture reminded us of recently. However, taking out huge loans to pay for that advanced degree may eat up a large portion of [...]
March 17, 2009 at 9:45 am
As a guidance counselor I find it more impacting to seperate the “Some college, no degree” from the “Associate’s” category.