Here is something for the data hungry: The WSJ on July 17, 2008 reported about the declining value of the four year college degree in the U.S. According to the article, the degree is less of a guarantee for pay advances as it used to be in the past. However, compared to the average person with a high school diploma, someone who has a four year college degree still makes about 75% more on average.
On average, here is what you could expect to earn per year by the end of 2006:
- High School Diploma: about US$31,000
- Some college/Associate Degree: about US$ 33,000
- Bachelor’s Degree: about US$ 58,000
- Advanced Degree: about US$ 82,000
The WSJ also provides some further interesting graphics to correlate education levels with salaries, unemployment, expectations about globalization, and recent salary shifts. Interesting fact here is that almost all educational levels had to go through net salary losses (adjusted for inflation) from 2001-2007, except for professional doctoral degrees. I guess though this is still simply a late dot.com, 9/11 and general global market condition adjustment, and does not mean these degrees have lost their earnings power.
The Economist Intelligence Unit has the average personal disposable income per head at US$35,400 for 2008.
