Today’s post is a really handy, interactive graph that lets you see just how much you, or anyone else, stands to make based on highest level of education. There are a few things that need to be taken into account when looking at this, because of some factors that the data can’t account for. Keep in mind that net lifetime earnings is determined as if someone worked every year of their life after completing their education. So it doesn’t account for unemployment, which is considerably higher in college graduates than high school graduates.
These statistics have been gathered from countless surveys taken from 40-somethings who are approaching their highest level of income. That means it’s not going to be quite as accurate toward this generation of laborers. If anything, the gaps that you see between career paths will only widen in the years to come. One exception is disparity between genders. Not only does a male with an art degree have a higher income than a female with a science degree, but so does a male college dropout. It’s true that things are slowly getting better in that regard, but it is by no means soon enough to acknowledge gender inequality in the workforce as any thing other than a pervasive problem.
Be sure to click the link below and enter in your information to see how you stack up with the rest of the labor pool.