Education, Not Gender Or Race, Now Largest Factor In Worker Earnings: Census

Despite a little skepticism, it still more than pays to go to school.

In fact, education has a greater effect on how much one earns over their career than does race or gender, according to a new study by the U.S. Census Bureau. Based on data from before the recession, between 2006 to 2008, the report estimates that over a forty-year career, the variation in annual earnings between the least educated (or those with an eighth grade education or less) and the most educated (those with a doctorate degree) is $72,000.

That's five times higher than the difference in annual earnings between genders, which stands at $12,618. It's also substantially more than the difference between whites and other races.

Education also has a significant effect on employment levels, the study reports. Indeed, 68 percent of those with a doctorate are employed full-time, compared to only 38 percent of those with less than a high-school diploma, the report finds.

A recent study from the Labor Department drew similar conclusions, reporting that the unemployment rate for those with a college degree is around half the national average, while those with only a high-school diploma exceed it.

Still, while it pays to go to school, those benefits have recently been a bit mitigated. The Economic Policy Institute reports that the average wage of new college graduates dropped by almost a full dollar last decade.

Here is a chart showing the median annual earnings by age and educational attainment for full-time, year-round workers according to the U.S. Census Bureau:

Comments

[William Munny]

12:48 PM on 09/14/2011

At the end of the day education is all about control. The less educated the population is the easier it is to manipulate them and keep them divided. There is a reason why slaves weren't allowed to learn how to read and write. A public that can think and reason for themselves is very dangerous. It is no coincidence that education is never mentioned in any of these Republican/Tea Party debates. The corporations who fund these candidates drive the narrative of these debates. When manufaturing became cheaper in other countries there was no need to worry about eductating the people to at least high school. There aren't any machines for them to know how to operate anymore. As a result, highschool drop out rates increase and the buildings are left in disrepair. The few jobs that remain are the higher paying technical jobs where they can get educated immigrants to fill for less money. At the end of the day corporations have this country by the nads. Education is the only way to turn things around and it needs to happen from the grassroots level. People can't wait for politicians to do anything about it.

[fortressfountain]

11:37 AM on 09/14/2011

Education determines your salary? Humm, so that means no matter what is brought to the table-even abject failure will be rewarded and compensated at the cost of the producers.
If this is true why has the USA proclaimed and stated a service economy is what will help us in globalization.
The most educated city in the world is Toronto Canada-not Washington D.C.

[nothingchanges]

10:11 AM on 09/14/2011

In the Middle Ages, peasants were forbidden access to an education. It was a way of consolidating power and exerting control over the majority of the people.

In the US today, only those with access to large sums of money, or credit, have reasonable access to a secondary education. For the same reasons?

If the purpose of a good education is to make us more competitive in the world market, wouldn't it be better to provide it to those with the greatest ability (and/or desire) to learn, rather than the ones with access to the most money?

Education is publicly financed to grade 12...............Why?

If it's not enough anymore to provide for a middle class income......why not more?

If it's purpose is no longer to provide for employability. why not stop at grade 10 and save money? Grade 8? Grade 6?

In a world based on dollars and cents..............

Seems to me, a lot more people could be making a lot more dollars, if our educational system made more sense.

[serialcoma]

09:22 AM on 09/14/2011

The GOP's relentless attacks on education prove they seek a society of masters and slaves....

[El Chingaso]

10:01 AM on 09/14/2011

You must not think too highly of yourself. Politicians from both parties aren't the sharpest tools in the shed, either...and only have control over you if you cede to them (and believe the mainstream media).

[serialcoma]

10:04 AM on 09/14/2011

My opinion of myself isn't the issue here....  perhaps you should work on your reading comprehension.  And keep fighting.. you have a very, very long way to go.

[Tom Langley]

03:19 PM on 09/13/2011

To some extent this is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It doesn't neccessarily mean that and education teaches you to be successful, it means the diploma is the price of admission to a high salary.
If the rules are written such that to be considered for a high salaried job, you must have a degree, then the people who get those jobs, will have degrees. That doesn't neccessarily mean those people are any better at earning, or hteir ideas are superior, it just means they had privelege and access to higher education, and that opened the door to placement in a higher salaried role. But just becuase an NBA/NFL criminal completes college, obviously doesn't mean they learned anything productive. They just got the certificate. It's the price of entry to the automaton world of corporate-ville, not a measure of intelligence.

[Mondayboy]

09:12 PM on 09/13/2011

What if someone earns a degree from MIT or Caltech, is that a sign of intelligence or just a certificate?

[serialcoma]

09:22 AM on 09/14/2011

Intelligence and education are two different things and are often mutually exclusive.

[Tom Langley]

11:04 PM on 09/14/2011

I would say it's more indicative of access than intelligence. Being intelligent is no guarantee of access to education, but this article holds forth that lack of education guarantees lack of access to success. My postulate is that is so contrary to the American ideal and what the public education institutions were formed to achieve as to be absolutely despicable. But it is being held forth as not quite restrictive enough. It is being proposed that instilling the profit motive into higher education will improve it. It will improve it in the same way it has improved university campuses all over the nation, buy having gleaming, well endowed, schools of corporatism, and dusty, musty schools of intelligence and thinking. Personally, if it were me, Business Schools would be banned from university campuses. Business is not an avocation, it a vocation. A means to an end, not an end in itself. Capitalism is designed to feed a machine of human progress, not to be the point, nor the yardstick of human progress.

[heelsstore]

12:09 PM on 09/13/2011

Economic impact is very large, even some highly educated people who can not find work.

[whyus]

11:25 AM on 09/13/2011

Education is always the answer, not just to higher paying jobs, but to keep us from being uninformed and self centered. Students have always needed to be careful how to pay for higher education so they don't go into debt. Californians have been lucky: we have Junior colleges and State Colleges and the University System, all better choices of course than 'for profit ' mills. Admittedly, it's harder now to get into a profession, but then, it's never been all that easy, either. The economy's got to change first, then jobs will follow.

[Ron Dernick]

10:50 AM on 09/13/2011

If the Tea-Party has it's way we'll all be working for Min wages and have very few benefits and no retirement. Education will play very little in the ability to have good wages, And in today's world it's WHO you know not what you know. I look forward to the class social WARFARE AND THE REVOLUTION THAT WE'VE SEEN IN ITALY-GREECE-AND OTHER COUNTRIES..COMING TO A CITY AND STATE NEAR YOU SOON THANKS TO THE GOP

[morris111]

03:41 AM on 09/14/2011

What a falacious load of crap. Get real.

[serialcoma]

09:23 AM on 09/14/2011

true... F&F

[Ron Dernick]

10:47 AM on 09/13/2011

This would be great news except for one thing: Given the layoffs and job market many college grads and many people that lost their jobs have degrees and even advanced degrees..and some will have to look for a new career and some will never get a job with the earning power they once had. To make matters worse, many college students will not be able to make money due to student loan obligations.

[IC4U]

10:41 AM on 09/13/2011

As efficiency increases, employment (number of jobs and total payroll) must decrease.

[Botany5000]

09:55 AM on 09/13/2011

So much for the Progressive clarion call of racism at every turn.

[Pavane]

10:24 AM on 09/13/2011

How absurd.

[Botany5000]

12:24 PM on 09/13/2011

To an Obama sycophant like you,,,yes.

[IC4U]

10:43 AM on 09/13/2011

Go tea party Go ! (* sarcasm at the expense of lab0tamy5O0)

[Botany5000]

09:59 AM on 09/14/2011

ONLY a Progressive!!!!
Good sarcasm doesn't need to be explained.

[dtmfman]

09:00 AM on 09/13/2011

"Education, Not Gender Or Race, Now Largest Factor In Worker Earnings:"

FAIL....Largest factor is corp greed...

This has been a public service announcement....

[PuSencer]

11:42 PM on 09/13/2011

there is a treatment for corporate greed, but the vast conservative voice of america would rather be held down. A nigh-punitive tax rate for the wealthiest americans would protect us from corporate greed and relieve our government of debt and deficit. but, we're apparently, too stupid to clearly see such solutions.

[Ariel Bonzai]

08:49 AM on 09/13/2011

This may be so. Yet ironically, educators are paid less and less to do more and more but have never been more under appreciated .the colleges prefer adjunct instructors, who are paid less than migrant workers in California and have far Kessler security and no benefits. There is mot much chance to go tenure track unless you are publishe and or know the right folks.public school teachers are being cleansed to break contract as they juggle more duties and the most outrageous demands imaginable whe one considers the standardized test as a viable method of evaluation when it has 40% margin of error and no concession to all the things teachers have to address ( not administrators, officials or tentmakers ) : language, special Ed, remediation ,cultural bias, boredom and indifference about exams that don't count for anybody but the teacher with 50 kids in a class., all programed for conveinece not their best interests, much less her.private school may not be so ruthless but the pay is poor. I bet people earn more per hour teaching aerobics, cosmetology, computer repair and pole dancing than most teachers and professors. Marketing agents, longshoremen, plumbers, consultants, parole officers, car salesmen, realtors, bankers, prime mortgage loan officers and reality teevee stars do. What does that convey about the quality of education and how much we value the round academic individual? Gates clones Duncan & Deasy are rumored to have paid for their education but apparently couldn't bother to attend class.

[HaltCruelty]

09:58 AM on 09/13/2011

Agreed. I have a doctorate with 16 years experience in academics and I receive $45000 per year as a tenure-track university faculty member.

[janereally]

08:47 AM on 09/13/2011

See they way the graph is turning DOWNWARD for Master's degrees and below?

think you'll get out of school for under $100K to hopefully earn $60K? Things are changing. Once everyone has a doctorate, that line will start going down too. what was true 30-50 years ago isn't going to be true in 5-10 when today's teens get their "advanced" degrees. All those jobs will be overseas as well.

[ms schatzi]

12:10 PM on 09/14/2011

" Once everyone has a doctorate, that line will start going down too."

Not in this country, the kids are dumber than ever.

[Peter007]

08:14 AM on 09/13/2011

Other factors to consider.

1. Government jobs usually require an advanced degree and the government will pay more for an advanced degree than private industry will. PHD's are usually employed by state colleges and state governments.

2. Those with professional degrees have legislated out much of the competition in their careers. A doctor need not be concerned with pricing his services lower because there is a very limited supply of doctors, not the same with dish washers. .

3. People that are highly motivated will generally get college degrees, those not motivated will not.
Is it the degree that increases the salary or the motivation of the individual?

[Mrald]

08:37 AM on 09/13/2011

"Is it the degree that increases the salary or the motivation of the individual­? "

I think that statement is very accurate. I have met many people with degrees who have the motivation of a dishrag and even less common sense....while on the other hand I know many people with no degrees who are highly motivated and have risen up the ranks to very comfortable levels.

A degree is a piece of paper that opens doors that would otherwise remain closed even if you were qualified for the position! The true thirst for knowledge does not require a degree.

[janereally]

08:46 AM on 09/13/2011

what about highly motivated people with no money? they're just losers in the lottery that is the US of A.