Work-Life Earnings by Field of Degree and Occupation for People with a Bachelor’s Degree: 2011

The United States Census Bureau has recently issued a brief concerning the relationships between individuals’ educational attainment, occupation, and work-life earnings (the amount earned over the course of a career). The brief is based on data from the American Community Survey (ACS). As other Census Bureau reports have found, among social characteristics, an individual’s level of educational attainment is the greatest predictor of earnings.

Among the brief’s findings:

• Work-life earnings rise in accordance with educational attainment and range from $936,000 for those with the lowest levels of educational attainment to approximately $4.1 million for individuals with a professional degree. The work-life earnings by level of educational attainment are as follows:

• The work-life earnings between individuals with only a high school diploma and those with a bachelor’s degree is approximately $1 million, and there is yet another $1 million difference in work-life earnings between individuals with a bachelor’s degree and those with a doctorate degree.
• While on average an individual with a bachelor’s degree will have work-life earnings of approximately $2.4 million, there is great variety in work-life earnings among bachelor’s degree holders in accordance with major or degree of study and with occupation.
  • Among those with a bachelor’s degree, individuals majoring in engineering, computers and math, science and engineering-related fields, business, physical science, and social science have higher work-life earnings than the average.
  • Among bachelor’s degree holders, individuals working in the occupations of architecture and engineering, computer and math, management, business and financial, healthcare practitioners and technicians, sales, and science have higher work-life earnings than the average.
• Variations in work-life earnings exist among individuals with the same college major and among individuals working in the same occupation. For example, while on average individuals who majored in the arts have lower work-life earnings ($2 million compared to $2.4 million), individuals with arts majors who have occupations in architecture and engineering or management have higher work-life earnings ($2.8 million compared to $2.4 million).

Additional U.S. Census Bureau briefs of interest include:

Field of Degree and Earnings by Selected Employment Characteristics: 2011 (U.S. Census Bureau: October 2012).