Summary: The Earnings Of College Graduates

For years adults have been questioning whether or not college is worth its cost. Over time the price for college has increased drastically and the potential income of a college graduate is barely following that trend. As colleges become more wealthy and powerful, they’re too pricy for someone to afford without help and debt.

Bird stated that the college money can be invested in something that has a higher income than a college diploma and she gave an example of a Princeton high school graduate who liked fooling around with cars could have saved his $34,181 and worked at a garage and learn auto mechanic. When he is 28, he would have earned $73,113 which is enough to get his own car dealership and that is expected to be more than a college graduate.

White is using good sources, that she is respected in her field, and that this is a timely article. What about the conclusion she draws? The data she uses appears incontrovertible. She uses two graphs from the Georgetown study that are eye opening. The first, on rates of unemployment, shows that having a bachelor’s degree makes you less likely to be unemployed than all workers by two percent, and 4% less likely than a high school graduate with experience. The second graph, demonstrating earnings by education, vividly shows how much more you earn with more education. Recent college grads enter the market at slightly higher wages than experienced non-degree holders, but the experienced non-degree holders top out there, while the degree holders go up in yearly earnings with more education and experience (White). I can’t put it any better than Ms. White

Supporters of getting a college degree often point to the statistics that college graduates earn more than their high school educated peers over a lifetime. Statistics by the U.S. Census Bureau reports that since 1977, “Adults with bachelor's degrees in the late 1970s earned 55 percent more than adults who had not advanced beyond high school. That gap grew to 75 percent by 1990 -- and is now at 85 percent.” A gap of an 85% pay difference is a huge figure and a clear reason why college is a great option for some people. But there are problems with that figure because when the number of college graduates who are either unemployed or underemployed is taken into account it changes the value of the statistic. In an article by Businessweek’s Richard Vedder we get statistics to counter that argument. He tells of how the number of new college graduates far exceeds job growth in technical, managerial, and professional jobs where graduates traditionally have searched for employment. As a consequence, we have underemployed college graduates doing jobs historically performed by those with just a highschool education. He says we have “more than 100,000 janitors with

David Leonhardt, the author of “Is College Worth It? Clearly, New Data Say,” makes the controversial argument that even with college debt increasing substantially in the United States it is still worth earning a degree. Leonhardt uses a variety of relevant figures and statistics to support his claim of the irreplaceable value of a college education. The majority of statistics used by Leonhardt concern the earnings advantage of college graduates as compared to their counterparts who decided not to attend college. Among the first issues Leonhardt addresses is the growing concerns prospective students and their parents have with attending college such as underemployment after graduation, debt, and unemployment (Leonhardt 33). To refute these arguments, he cites statistics from the Labor Department concerning inequality of income distribution; these statistics were

A college education is proven to increase an individual 's earnings, however, women’s earnings are still not as much as men’s, even when they have the same degree (Patten, 2015).

Recent high school students are debating whether to or not attend college, should consider the benefits of attaining a college degree. For many low or middle income students, this a route to gain opportunities to improve their economic circumstances. An article, “Pathways to Prosperity,” states in 2008, workers with bachelor's degree make about 65 percent higher than high school graduates and workers with associate's degree make about 73 percent more than high school dropouts.. This is evidence obtaining a college degree can be an opportunity to have earnings higher and significantly increase one's income.

As it is heavily believed and statistically proved by Document A, Earnings and Unemployment Rates Based on Educational Attainments (2015), the higher the degree earned, the more money attained, similarly the higher the degree earned, the lower the unemployment rate. This proves the worth of college by giving numerical comparisons of those who invested in it verses those who didn’t. The median weekly earnings of $1,730 from someone with a professional degree put up against the $678 from someone who only graduated from high school shows a very obvious difference. This information greatly supports the decision of going to college by displaying the “in the long run” advantage of college through the amount of money you can make in the future with the degree you earn

Many college students choose to also get more than one degree while attending college to earn more income and further their education. College graduates have the choice of get higher level degrees and training resulting in earn even more income based on the different higher level degrees earned and training received (this means the more degrees and training you have the more income you may receive). People with higher level degrees and training earn more money that those without degrees. In 1996, for example, workers with bachelor's degrees had median annual earnings of about $36,000, while college graduates with more advanced degrees earned around $40,000 (Mittelhauser 3). This is a four-thousand dollar difference in income; this is only one of several examples of how people who graduate college make more money than the average high school graduate and that of people with lower-level degrees. The median annual wage for a bachelor’s degree in 2010 was $63,430. While the median annual wage for a person with a doctoral or professional degree in 2010 was $87,500 ("Employment by Education and Training Assignment, 2010 and Projected 2020"). This is almost a twenty-four thousand difference income just based off of median annual wage of different degrees. The income difference from college graduates than to those of high school graduates is great. College graduates are getting better wages and job openings than those of high school graduates (“President’s Perspective:

In Stephanie Owen’s and Isabel Sawhill’s article “Should Everyone Go to College” the return on the investment in college is briefly broken down. The article “Should Everyone Go to College” opens up with a widely known claim that a college degree is necessary to enter the middle class. Owen and Sawhill test this claim by comparing the return on an education of general types of degrees and colleges. The article states that on average high school graduates make around $15,000 less a year than graduates with a bachelor’s degree. To further the prove the return on your investment in education the articles states that by the age 50 a person with a bachelor’s degree makes around $46,500 more a year than a high school graduate. This accumulates to

In their article “The Upside of Income Inequality” authors Gary Becker and Kevin M. Murphy argue that the solution to income inequality is to have more and more students attend and graduate from colleges. Becker and Murphy imply that students from “broken households” earn lower grades and test scores, therefore reducing their chances at entering and staying enrolled in colleges due to subpar cognitive skills. Throughout the article, charts are shown to show promising statistics of students of all ethnicities being successful in colleges. However they later state:

The study concluded that the young adults who attended college experienced continuous growth of income in their twenties, while non-students’ wages leveled out in their twenties and did not rise (Mitchell & Syed, 2015). The non-college bound young adults had children

Education and wealth have a big impact on income inequality. Education and wealth go hand in hand when talking about income inequality. When a family is more wealthy, they can afford a better education. One article from ACE states that “currently in America, getting a postsecondary degree—in particular a bachelor’s degree—generally results in higher incomes, greater job choice, satisfaction, and security, as well as other outcomes considered good for our society, such as voting and community service.” This is important because if

Our question is, “Does the level of education you receive affect the amount of income you will earn?” Currently, it is said that you need at least a college degree to earn a decent income. This question is often important because in todays society, the amount of money one makes is important to the quality in which one wishes to live. By looking at data we have found through our research it seems as if the higher your level of schooling, reaching anywhere from a high school diploma to a phD, generally leads to a higher average income. In an online article posted on dailyedventures, a close look is taken at five different segments which include, high school diploma or GED, high school diploma, training in vocational schools or associates degree, bachelors degree, and lastly a graduate degree, and specific occupations within those segments. The lowest reported salary came from the first segment, high school diploma or GED. At an average income of only $17,700 a year were waiters/waitresses. The average income increased with the amount of school and the occupation in which you chose, yet this article proved just what we were looking to prove. At an average income of $166,400+ surgeons chimed in, proving that the longer you go to school, the more money you are likely to make. Another article looked at similar information, this time it was against the unemployment rates in the United States. In March 2014 the Bureau of Labor Statistics looked at the earnings and unemployment rate

     According to Bowles and Gintis, results have concluded that socioeconomic status determines greater education attainment