The table below shows dollar figures and percent change at the beginning and the end of the charted period and presents data by sex. Inflation rose 204% during this period. The more educated a person was, the better able he or she was to keep up with inflation.
Mean Annual Earnings by Educational Attainment and Sex: 1975 and 1999
| Year/% change | Total | Non-high school grad | High school grad | Some college/Assoc. degree | Bachelor degree | Advanced degree |
| Total Both Sexes | ||||||
| 1975 | 8,552 | 6,198 | 7,843 | 8,388 | 12,332 | 16,725 |
| 1999 | 32,536 | 16,121 | 24,572 | 28,403 | 45,678 | 67,697 |
| % change | 280% | 160% | 213% | 237% | 270% | 305% |
| Male | ||||||
| 1975 | 11,091 | 7,843 | 10,475 | 10,805 | 15,758 | 19,672 |
| 1999 | 40,257 | 18,855 | 30,414 | 35,326 | 57,706 | 84,051 |
| % change | 263% | 140% | 181% | 226% | 266% | 327% |
| Female | ||||||
| 1975 | 4,968 | 3,438 | 4,802 | 5,019 | 6,963 | 9,818 |
| 1999 | 23,551 | 12,145 | 18,092 | 21,644 | 32,546 | 46,307 |
| % change | 374% | 253% | 277% | 331% | 367% | 372% |
While the contrast in earnings between college graduates and those at other education levels is dramatic for both sexes, the biggest gain in earnings was for women. Since college-educated women were making less than 50% of what college-educated men were making in 1975, they had nowhere to go but up. They are not equal yet. The average annual 1998 income for a man with a bachelor's degree was $51,405; for a woman it was $36,559.
Occupational Groups with Highest Mean Hourly Wages, 2000
| Field | Wage |
| Legal | 33.14 |
| Management | 32.78 |
| Computer/mathematical | 27.91 |
| Architecture/engineering | 25.99 |
| Business/finance | 23.30 |
Who earns the top dollars? People in the legal professions earned about four times more than the lowest-paid service workers in 2000. According to the BLS, all but two of the 50 highest paying occupations require a college degree. (The exceptions are air traffic controllers and nuclear power reactor operators. Their median salary in 2000: $82,520 and $57,220 respectively.) The table shows mean hourly wages in 2000 for some of the highest-paid professionals. It seems we will need more teachers to accommodate the students entering college. According to the American Federation of Teachers, the average teacher salary in 1999-2000 was $41,820 (about $29 an hour for a nine-month, 40-hour-week schedule).
The gap between the earnings of higher and lower paid workers has been rising for decades, although the good economic times of the 1990s did see a sharp rise in income for those in the bottom 20% of the earnings scale. Earnings inequality receives a lot of media attention — we've seen the headlines trumpeting the news that CEOs make 500 times more in salary than average workers.
Numerous theories have been advanced to try to explain the gap — education and urbanization mean higher pay, the quality of jobs is changing as we move away from a goods-producing economy, it has something to do with women entering the labor force, it has everything to do with the computer age and the digital divide. George Bernard Shaw said: "If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion" — and they haven't. Meanwhile, the media warn that class warfare is inevitable if the trend continues.
Can the trend of high earnings for high skills continue? Economists do not agree on whether the demand for educated workers will rise faster than the supply. Robert Reich says yes. Dan Luria warns that "most of the new jobs being created are relatively low wage jobs in companies that are not investing in their workers, or in their plants" and that these "low-wage, low-investment firms are winning in the marketplace." (See the Work & Leisure, Chapters 2 and 3 for a discussion of labor market predictions.)
Sources: U.S. Bureau of the Census. Online. Available: http://www.census.gov. April 12, 2002. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Online. Available. http://www.bls.gov. April 12, 2002. American Federation of Teachers. Online. Available: http://www.aft.org. April 12, 2002. Ryscavage, Paul. "A surge in growing income inequality?" Monthly Labor Review. August 1995. Online. Available: http://www.bls.gov. April 12, 2002. Reich, Robert B. "How Selective Colleges Heighten Inequality." Luria, Dan. "But Where Are the Jobs?" American Prospect. Online. Available: http://www.prospect.org. April 12, 2002. "Frontline: Does America Still Work?" Online. Available: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/america/americandream.html. April 12, 2002.
1 In 2000 constant dollars, the increase was 34% (from $71,036 in 1993 to $95,000 in 2000).
2 In 2000 constant dollars, the increase was 12% (from $4,743 in 1992-1993 to $5,308 in 1999-2000).
3 Since 1965, Medicare paid part of this salary. Direct graduate medical education payments are inflation adjusted based on the average per-resident amount in 1984 and upon the number of residents and the proportion of inpatient days used by Medicare patients. Congress has since modified the formula to reduce Medicare reimbursement payments.
4 The interest rate is based on a weighted average of the loans being consolidated, and rounded up to the next highest one-eighth of 1%. This is a federally mandated interest rate for educational consolidation loans, and will be the same whether the consolidation loan is financed through the federal government, banks, or other lenders.
5 Instructional, administrative, and research costs; scholarships and fellowships; student services; and plant operations and maintenance.
6 Based on the 1990 census, the most recent data available. Educational attainment data for Alaska Natives are not available.
7 Reported in the Christian Science Monitor; see source notes.
8 The government is looking at ways to extend federal aid to students for distance education. Restrictions on aid were put in place in response to abuses relating to program quality. See http://www.ed.gov/offices/OPE/PPI/DistEd/ (April 9, 2002).
9 Quoted in NCES, Distance Education … See source notes.
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