Fast Facts: “More Education Still Means More Pay in 2014” (Data and Chart via BLS)

From the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics:

September marks the time when students go back to school for another year of education. Few things affect people’s earnings power more than their level of education. In general, more education means more dollars earned. In 2014, median weekly earnings for people with a bachelor’s degree or higher were $1,193, compared with $488 for those with less than a high school diploma. High school graduates without any college earned $668 per week in 2014, and those with some college or an associate degree earned $761 per week.
In 2014, median weekly earnings for men with a bachelor’s degree or higher were $1,385, compared with $1,049 for women with the same level of education. On the other end of the scale, among people without a high school diploma, men earned just $517 per week in 2014 and women earned $409 per week.
At each level of education, women have fared better than men with respect to earnings growth. Although both women and men without a high school diploma have experienced declines in inflation-adjusted earnings since 1979, the drop for women was much smaller than that for men: an 11-percent decrease for women compared with a 33-percent decline for men. On an inflation-adjusted basis, earnings for women with a bachelor’s degree or higher have increased by 31 percent since 1979, while those of their male counterparts have risen by 15 percent.

Direct to Data and Chart (via BLS)

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