College is a good investment. Yes, still. But, as this graph sent in by Deeb shows, entry level wages for college graduate, controlled for inflation, have shown quite a bit of variance over the last 30 years. Starting salaries are consequential. For many jobs raises are calculated as a proportion of your existing salary, such that starting salaries have cumulative effects over the lifetime.
Today’s college graduates, according to the Economic Policy Institute, will have an average starting salary of $1.00 less than ten years ago:
Comments 30
LS — September 4, 2011
This also illustrates that gender wage gap isn't entirely due to "time off for children" as is often argued. If the lag in women's wages were due to fewer years worked, new grads would start on an equal footing. I assume part of the difference here is artifact from male-dominated (and often highly-paid) industries, such as various STEM fields (and that rapid climb in the late 90s is probably the dot-com bubble) but that's still a sizable gap.
Anonymous — September 4, 2011
Wow, so women still don't make as much as a male college grad did in 1979, and never has.
"But we don't neeeeed feminism anymore!!!" (/sarcasm)
Rob — September 4, 2011
Very interesting... I can't say that I'm surprised at the sex gap, but it's actually larger than I thought- I was thinking more like a dollar hourly these days.
Kathbarbadoro — September 4, 2011
I'm surprised by how high these averages are. I went to a top 20 liberal arts school, graduated in 2010, and know very few people that make even close to these figures.
YesImAtroll — September 4, 2011
Masters or degree in what? French Literature - yep, $13.20 and hour sounds right but at least you can say "do you want fries with that" in French. Computer Science or Engineering? You can probably buy your own McDonald's in a few short years. Folks - pick something relevant and useful to study if you want to make money; if you really want to pursue your dream as the world's authority on medieval ditch digging tools, expect to be slinging fries for the rest of your life.
Yrro Simyarin — September 4, 2011
Isn't this a slightly pessimistic reading? The graph shows a net gain from start to finish. Mostly what I read from this is that the late 90's was a bubble and an anomaly.
Sarah — September 4, 2011
Sweet Jeebus on a pogo stick - college grads in the 70s made more out of the gate than I did just a few short years ago? Message to past self from current self: Don't major in journalism.
Ripcrd — September 5, 2011
Soooo...what do we do about it? Get degree, get first job, make yourself valuable / marketable and then job hop a couple times at least. Don't leave these like saps hanging, tell the truth of how to get ahead.
Oh, and if you backstab to get ahead, it will come back around to you someday.
No where to go but up.
taylor — September 5, 2011
Damn, I'm even lower on the totem pole than I thought. If I could make as much as the average recently graduated woman in 1970 I'd feel rich (I'm a male, graduated a year ago).
Though I'm not sure I buy those numbers. At least in my circle of friends, very few are making even close to $18-22/hr and whether one went to college or not doesn't predict anything.
Abandoning Eden — September 5, 2011
Is this employed college graduates only? The graph says 23-29, so is
this an average for all college graduates that age, or the ones who
graduated in the last year only? Also it's hourly salary, how many
hours are they working compared to previous generations? My husband
graduated college in 2007, had a part time job for 2 years (couldn't
find a full time one) got laid off from that due to budget cuts at the
university he worked at, unemployed for almost a year, then a census job
for a few months, now unemployed another year. Where is he on this
graph? He made $15 an hour at his part time job, but it was only 15-20
hours a week.
On an unrelated note- Lisa Wade- I keep running into your name/resarch
in some sexuality research I'm doing, I kept thinking your name sounded
really familiar, but I didn't put the two together until just now. :)
Mieko Gavia — September 5, 2011
Hah! Try halving that, and you've got a good starting salary for many college grads. There's just very little work outside of non-paying internships and fast food. The employers that are seeking want people who have much more "experience"--yet they pay these people a measly starting salary.
Lyndorr — September 5, 2011
They are going to have to start recognizing people who go to university and then go back to school to get a diploma at a community college that will train them for a specific job. I know people who got degrees and then went to (community) college to become a paramedic, a respiratory therapist, librarian...seems to be happening more than before. University is not always the most advantageous route.