Education Pays, U.S. Census Bureau Finds

By Rose Cahalan in Promote & Protect on September 8, 2011 at 10:30 am | No Comments

Education level impacts career earnings more than any other factor, says a new study from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The study, “Education and Synthetic Work-Life Earnings,” examined earnings as linked to race, gender, Hispanic origin, geographic location, and other predictors. All of these factors were found to influence how much money people make, but none as powerfully as education.

For example, someone with a professional degree makes about $72,000 more per year than someone with an eighth-grade education. That difference was about five times the impact of gender–men make about $13,000 more per year than women, the study found.

The good news: Pursuing higher education will very likely increase your earning ability, regardless of your race and gender.

The bad news: There’s still a lot of inequality. White males earn the most of any group (except for Asian males with professional degrees, who earn slightly more than their white counterparts). And women are particularly disadvantaged. According to the study, “Women in the most economically advantaged race groups usually earn less than men in the most disadvantaged race groups. For example, a white female with master’s degree is expected to earn $2.4 million over a 40-year work-life. In comparison, a Hispanic male with a master’s degree is expected to earn $2.8 million.”

Read the study here:
Education and Synthetic Work-Life Earnings
Photo from Flickr Creative Commons

Tags: college value, earning potential, education, higher education value, us census bureau