Effect of Experience on the Earnings of College Majors
- In 2018, terminal bachelor’s degree holders (TBHs) in the humanities who were in the first part of their careers (ages 23–32) had median estimated earnings of $46K, with one in four earning more than $62K (Indicator III-08a).3
- The median earnings of younger humanities TBHs were most similar to those of TBHs from the behavioral/social sciences and were 10% below the median for all fields combined ($51K). Young TBHs in engineering had the highest median earnings ($71K), with one in four earning more than $90K.
- Humanities TBHs ages 48–59 had median earnings of $71K in 2018 (with one in four earning more than $109K), which was closest to the median earnings for both the life sciences and the behavioral/social sciences ($73K) and 8% lower than the median for all fields combined ($77K; Indicator III-08b). The median for engineering TBHs—the highest in this age cohort—was $103K, with one in four engineering graduates earning more than $149K.
- Among humanities majors with an advanced degree (in any field) who were in the early stage of their careers (ages 25–35), median earnings were $61K, which is $5K (or 8%) below the median for advanced degree holders (ADHs) from all fields combined (Indicator III-08c). One in four early career humanities ADHs earned more than $86K. Engineering graduates with advanced degrees had the highest median earnings in this age cohort ($91K), with one in four engineering graduates earning more than $122K.
- The median earnings for ADHs ages 49–60 with an undergraduate major in the humanities were $91K, which is $10K (or 10%) below the median for graduates from all fields combined (Indicator III-08d). One in four earned more than $146K. Engineering ADHs had the highest median earnings in this age cohort ($132K), but the best-paid natural sciences graduates earned more than their engineering counterparts (with one in four life sciences graduates earning more than $248K and 25% of physical sciences graduates earning more than $203K--compared to $185K for engineering majors).
- The earnings deficit experienced by humanities majors relative to graduates in two of the other fields examined as part of this analysis was somewhat less pronounced among older workers (Indicator III-08e). While humanities TBHs ages 23–32 made only 65% of what engineering TBHs did, workers in the 48-to-59 age range made 69%. Older humanities TBHs also fared better than their younger counterparts when compared to TBHs in health and medical sciences. The same pattern held for ADHs, with business being a third field with which older ADHs were somewhat closer to earnings parity than their younger counterparts (Indicator III-08f).
- In contrast, older humanities majors, both TBHs and ADHs, earned less than their younger counterparts relative to degree holders in the natural sciences. For example, while the earnings of young humanities TBHs were actually higher than their contemporaries among life sciences majors (with humanities graduates reporting earnings that were 107% of those reported by life sciences graduates), older humanities majors’ earnings were lower (97%).
Endnotes
- 3All earnings estimates are for the 12 months preceding response to the ACS and have been rounded to the nearest $1,000.
The range of “typical” or “usual” values exhibited by a population of persons or objects is described through the use of a statistic referred to as the “interquartile range,” which ignores the most extreme values of a sample distribution. Quartiles are statistics that divide the observations of a numeric sample into four groups, each of which contains 25% of the data. The lower, middle, and upper quartiles are computed by ordering the values for a particular variable (earnings, in this case) from smallest to largest and then finding the values below which fall 25%, 50%, and 75% of the data. The middle quartile is known as the median. The lower quartile and the upper quartile define the interquartile range.
When it comes to the analysis of the earnings of humanities majors and how they compare to majors in other fields, the HI always reports the median rather than the mean (“average”). This is necessary due to the highly skewed nature of the U.S. earnings distribution, meaning that there is a small share of the US population that earns considerably more than the vast majority of Americans. The mean is very sensitive to such extreme values. The median is far less so and is thus a better measure of “typical” earnings.
III-08a: Median Annual Earnings of Full-Time Workers with a Terminal Bachelor’s Degree, Ages 23–32, by Field of Degree, 2018*
* Full-time workers are those who worked 35 or more hours per week for 50 or more weeks in the previous 12 months. For an inventory of the particular degree programs included under each of the broad academic fields to which the graph refers, see the ACS-HI Crosswalk.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2018 American Community Survey Public-Use Microdata Sample. Data analyzed and presented by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).
The information presented here is based on an original analysis by the Humanities Indicators (HI) of data from the American Community Survey (ACS), which has been administered on an annual basis by the U.S. Census Bureau since 2005. The ACS replaced the “long form” version of the decennial census and collects information—used to allocate billions in state and federal funding—about Americans’ personal characteristics, family composition, employment, income, and housing.
For the purposes of ACS, the U.S. Census Bureau defines earnings as “the sum of wage or salary income and net income from self-employment. ‘Earnings’ represent the amount of income received regularly for people 16 years old and over before deductions for personal income taxes, Social Security, bond purchases, union dues, Medicare deductions, etc. An individual with earnings is one who has either wage/salary income or self-employment income, or both. Respondents who ‘break even’ in self-employment income and therefore have zero self-employment earnings also are considered ‘individuals with earnings’” (from ACS documentation provided at http://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/tech_docs/subject_definitions/2014_ACSSubjectDefinitions.pdf, p. 83).
The age ranges selected for the two types of degree holder with which these indicators deal—those with a terminal bachelor’s degree and those who went on to earn an advanced degree—reflect the additional time required to pursue an advanced degree, the age at which earnings peak for each group, and the need for enough survey responses to ensure the reliability of the earnings estimates.
This indicator features estimates of the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile annual earnings for humanities majors. The 25th and 75th percentiles are known as the lower and upper quartiles. Quartiles are statistics that divide the observations of a numeric sample into four groups, each of which contains 25% of the data. The lower, middle, and upper quartiles are computed by ordering the values for a particular variable from smallest to largest and then finding the values below which fall 25%, 50%, and 75% of the data. The lower quartile and the upper quartile are the two values that define the interquartile range (the middle quartile is known as the median). The interquartile range, which excludes the most extreme values of a data distribution, is used to describe the range of “typical” or “usual” values exhibited by a set of persons or objects.
When it comes to the analysis of the earnings of humanities majors and how they compare to majors in other fields, the HI always reports the median rather than the mean (“average”). This is necessary due to the highly skewed nature of the U.S. earnings distribution, meaning that there is a small share of the US population that earns considerably more than the vast majority of Americans. The mean is very sensitive to such extreme values. The median is far less so and is thus a better measure of “typical” earnings.
The ACS permits respondents to specify up to two fields of bachelor’s degree. For the purposes of this analysis, an individual was counted as having a bachelor’s degree in the humanities if the field of either reported degree was within the scope of the humanities as specified by the HI. Information regarding the specific disciplines treated as within the humanities for the purposes of this analysis is provided in the ACS-HI Crosswalk.
The ACS does not ask respondents about their amount of work experience. The Humanities Indicators (HI) thus uses age to distinguish between workers who are in the first years of their career and those who are more experienced. Age and work experience are not perfectly correlated, but age does provide an approximate measure of work experience that allows the HI to examine the effect of this experience on unemployment and earnings of humanities majors.
III-08b: Median Annual Earnings of Full-Time Workers with a Terminal Bachelor’s Degree, Ages 48–59, by Field of Degree, 2018*
* Full-time workers are those who worked 35 or more hours per week for 50 or more weeks in the previous 12 months. For an inventory of the particular degree programs included under each of the broad academic fields to which the graph refers, see the ACS-HI Crosswalk.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2018 American Community Survey Public-Use Microdata Sample. Data analyzed and presented by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).
The information presented here is based on an original analysis by the Humanities Indicators (HI) of data from the American Community Survey (ACS), which has been administered on an annual basis by the U.S. Census Bureau since 2005. The ACS replaced the “long form” version of the decennial census and collects information—used to allocate billions in state and federal funding—about Americans’ personal characteristics, family composition, employment, income, and housing.
For the purposes of ACS, the U.S. Census Bureau defines earnings as “the sum of wage or salary income and net income from self-employment. ‘Earnings’ represent the amount of income received regularly for people 16 years old and over before deductions for personal income taxes, Social Security, bond purchases, union dues, Medicare deductions, etc. An individual with earnings is one who has either wage/salary income or self-employment income, or both. Respondents who ‘break even’ in self-employment income and therefore have zero self-employment earnings also are considered ‘individuals with earnings’” (from ACS documentation provided at http://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/tech_docs/subject_definitions/2014_ACSSubjectDefinitions.pdf, p. 83).
The age ranges selected for the two types of degree holder with which these indicators deal—those with a terminal bachelor’s degree and those who went on to earn an advanced degree—reflect the additional time required to pursue an advanced degree, the age at which earnings peak for each group, and the need for enough survey responses to ensure the reliability of the earnings estimates.
This indicator features estimates of the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile annual earnings for humanities majors. The 25th and 75th percentiles are known as the lower and upper quartiles. Quartiles are statistics that divide the observations of a numeric sample into four groups, each of which contains 25% of the data. The lower, middle, and upper quartiles are computed by ordering the values for a particular variable from smallest to largest and then finding the values below which fall 25%, 50%, and 75% of the data. The lower quartile and the upper quartile are the two values that define the interquartile range (the middle quartile is known as the median). The interquartile range, which excludes the most extreme values of a data distribution, is used to describe the range of “typical” or “usual” values exhibited by a set of persons or objects.
When it comes to the analysis of the earnings of humanities majors and how they compare to majors in other fields, the HI always reports the median rather than the mean (“average”). This is necessary due to the highly skewed nature of the U.S. earnings distribution, meaning that there is a small share of the US population that earns considerably more than the vast majority of Americans. The mean is very sensitive to such extreme values. The median is far less so and is thus a better measure of “typical” earnings.
The ACS permits respondents to specify up to two fields of bachelor’s degree. For the purposes of this analysis, an individual was counted as having a bachelor’s degree in the humanities if the field of either reported degree was within the scope of the humanities as specified by the HI. Information regarding the specific disciplines treated as within the humanities for the purposes of this analysis is provided in the ACS-HI Crosswalk.
The ACS does not ask respondents about their amount of work experience. The Humanities Indicators (HI) thus uses age to distinguish between workers who are in the first years of their career and those who are more experienced. Age and work experience are not perfectly correlated, but age does provide an approximate measure of work experience that allows the HI to examine the effect of this experience on unemployment and earnings of humanities majors.
III-08c: Median Annual Earnings of Full-Time Workers with an Advanced Degree (in Any Field), Ages 25–35, by Field of Undergraduate Major, 2018*
* Full-time workers are those who worked 35 or more hours per week for 50 or more weeks in the previous 12 months. For an inventory of the particular degree programs included under each of the broad academic fields to which the graph refers, see the ACS-HI Crosswalk.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2018 American Community Survey Public-Use Microdata Sample. Data analyzed and presented by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).
The information presented here is based on an original analysis by the Humanities Indicators (HI) of data from the American Community Survey (ACS), which has been administered on an annual basis by the U.S. Census Bureau since 2005. The ACS replaced the “long form” version of the decennial census and collects information—used to allocate billions in state and federal funding—about Americans’ personal characteristics, family composition, employment, income, and housing.
For the purposes of ACS, the U.S. Census Bureau defines earnings as “the sum of wage or salary income and net income from self-employment. ‘Earnings’ represent the amount of income received regularly for people 16 years old and over before deductions for personal income taxes, Social Security, bond purchases, union dues, Medicare deductions, etc. An individual with earnings is one who has either wage/salary income or self-employment income, or both. Respondents who ‘break even’ in self-employment income and therefore have zero self-employment earnings also are considered ‘individuals with earnings’” (from ACS documentation provided at http://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/tech_docs/subject_definitions/2014_ACSSubjectDefinitions.pdf, p. 83).
The age ranges selected for the two types of degree holder with which these indicators deal—those with a terminal bachelor’s degree and those who went on to earn an advanced degree—reflect the additional time required to pursue an advanced degree, the age at which earnings peak for each group, and the need for enough survey responses to ensure the reliability of the earnings estimates.
This indicator features estimates of the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile annual earnings for humanities majors. The 25th and 75th percentiles are known as the lower and upper quartiles. Quartiles are statistics that divide the observations of a numeric sample into four groups, each of which contains 25% of the data. The lower, middle, and upper quartiles are computed by ordering the values for a particular variable from smallest to largest and then finding the values below which fall 25%, 50%, and 75% of the data. The lower quartile and the upper quartile are the two values that define the interquartile range (the middle quartile is known as the median). The interquartile range, which excludes the most extreme values of a data distribution, is used to describe the range of “typical” or “usual” values exhibited by a set of persons or objects.
When it comes to the analysis of the earnings of humanities majors and how they compare to majors in other fields, the HI always reports the median rather than the mean (“average”). This is necessary due to the highly skewed nature of the U.S. earnings distribution, meaning that there is a small share of the US population that earns considerably more than the vast majority of Americans. The mean is very sensitive to such extreme values. The median is far less so and is thus a better measure of “typical” earnings.
The ACS permits respondents to specify up to two fields of bachelor’s degree. For the purposes of this analysis, an individual was counted as having a bachelor’s degree in the humanities if the field of either reported degree was within the scope of the humanities as specified by the HI. Information regarding the specific disciplines treated as within the humanities for the purposes of this analysis is provided in the ACS-HI Crosswalk.
The ACS does not ask respondents about their amount of work experience. The Humanities Indicators (HI) thus uses age to distinguish between workers who are in the first years of their career and those who are more experienced. Age and work experience are not perfectly correlated, but age does provide an approximate measure of work experience that allows the HI to examine the effect of this experience on unemployment and earnings of humanities majors.
III-08d: Median Annual Earnings of Full-Time Workers with an Advanced Degree (in Any Field), Ages 49–60, by Field of Undergraduate Major, 2018*
* Full-time workers are those who worked 35 or more hours per week for 50 or more weeks in the previous 12 months. For an inventory of the particular degree programs included under each of the broad academic fields to which the graph refers, see the ACS-HI Crosswalk.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2018 American Community Survey Public-Use Microdata Sample. Data analyzed and presented by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).
The information presented here is based on an original analysis by the Humanities Indicators (HI) of data from the American Community Survey (ACS), which has been administered on an annual basis by the U.S. Census Bureau since 2005. The ACS replaced the “long form” version of the decennial census and collects information—used to allocate billions in state and federal funding—about Americans’ personal characteristics, family composition, employment, income, and housing.
For the purposes of ACS, the U.S. Census Bureau defines earnings as “the sum of wage or salary income and net income from self-employment. ‘Earnings’ represent the amount of income received regularly for people 16 years old and over before deductions for personal income taxes, Social Security, bond purchases, union dues, Medicare deductions, etc. An individual with earnings is one who has either wage/salary income or self-employment income, or both. Respondents who ‘break even’ in self-employment income and therefore have zero self-employment earnings also are considered ‘individuals with earnings’” (from ACS documentation provided at http://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/tech_docs/subject_definitions/2014_ACSSubjectDefinitions.pdf, p. 83).
The age ranges selected for the two types of degree holder with which these indicators deal—those with a terminal bachelor’s degree and those who went on to earn an advanced degree—reflect the additional time required to pursue an advanced degree, the age at which earnings peak for each group, and the need for enough survey responses to ensure the reliability of the earnings estimates.
This indicator features estimates of the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile annual earnings for humanities majors. The 25th and 75th percentiles are known as the lower and upper quartiles. Quartiles are statistics that divide the observations of a numeric sample into four groups, each of which contains 25% of the data. The lower, middle, and upper quartiles are computed by ordering the values for a particular variable from smallest to largest and then finding the values below which fall 25%, 50%, and 75% of the data. The lower quartile and the upper quartile are the two values that define the interquartile range (the middle quartile is known as the median). The interquartile range, which excludes the most extreme values of a data distribution, is used to describe the range of “typical” or “usual” values exhibited by a set of persons or objects.
When it comes to the analysis of the earnings of humanities majors and how they compare to majors in other fields, the HI always reports the median rather than the mean (“average”). This is necessary due to the highly skewed nature of the U.S. earnings distribution, meaning that there is a small share of the US population that earns considerably more than the vast majority of Americans. The mean is very sensitive to such extreme values. The median is far less so and is thus a better measure of “typical” earnings.
The ACS permits respondents to specify up to two fields of bachelor’s degree. For the purposes of this analysis, an individual was counted as having a bachelor’s degree in the humanities if the field of either reported degree was within the scope of the humanities as specified by the HI. Information regarding the specific disciplines treated as within the humanities for the purposes of this analysis is provided in the ACS-HI Crosswalk.
The ACS does not ask respondents about their amount of work experience. The Humanities Indicators (HI) thus uses age to distinguish between workers who are in the first years of their career and those who are more experienced. Age and work experience are not perfectly correlated, but age does provide an approximate measure of work experience that allows the HI to examine the effect of this experience on unemployment and earnings of humanities majors.
* For workers employed 35 or more hours per week for 50 or more weeks in the previous 12 months. For an inventory of the particular degree programs included under each of the broad academic fields to which the graph refers, see the ACS-HI Crosswalk.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2018 American Community Survey Public-Use Microdata Sample. Data analyzed and presented by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).
The information presented here is based on an original analysis by the Humanities Indicators (HI) of data from the American Community Survey (ACS), which has been administered on an annual basis by the U.S. Census Bureau since 2005. The ACS replaced the “long form” version of the decennial census and collects information—used to allocate billions in state and federal funding—about Americans’ personal characteristics, family composition, employment, income, and housing.
For the purposes of ACS, the U.S. Census Bureau defines earnings as “the sum of wage or salary income and net income from self-employment. ‘Earnings’ represent the amount of income received regularly for people 16 years old and over before deductions for personal income taxes, Social Security, bond purchases, union dues, Medicare deductions, etc. An individual with earnings is one who has either wage/salary income or self-employment income, or both. Respondents who ‘break even’ in self-employment income and therefore have zero self-employment earnings also are considered ‘individuals with earnings’” (from ACS documentation provided at http://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/tech_docs/subject_definitions/2014_ACSSubjectDefinitions.pdf, p. 83).
The age ranges selected for the two types of degree holder with which these indicators deal—those with a terminal bachelor’s degree and those who went on to earn an advanced degree—reflect the additional time required to pursue an advanced degree, the age at which earnings peak for each group, and the need for enough survey responses to ensure the reliability of the earnings estimates.
Quartiles are statistics that divide the observations of a numeric sample into four groups, each of which contains 25% of the data. The lower, middle, and upper quartiles are computed by ordering the values for a particular variable from smallest to largest and then finding the values below which fall 25%, 50%, and 75% of the data. The middle quartile is called the median.
The ACS permits respondents to specify up to two fields of bachelor’s degree. For the purposes of this analysis, an individual was counted as having a bachelor’s degree in the humanities if the field of either reported degree was within the scope of the humanities as specified by the HI. Information regarding the specific disciplines treated as within the humanities for the purposes of this analysis is provided in the ACS-HI Crosswalk.
The ACS does not ask respondents about their amount of work experience. The Humanities Indicators (HI) thus uses age to distinguish between workers who are in the first years of their career and those who are more experienced. Age and work experience are not perfectly correlated, but age does provide an approximate measure of work experience that allows the HI to examine the effect of this experience on unemployment and earnings of humanities majors.
* For workers employed 35 or more hours per week for 50 or more weeks in the previous 12 months. Advanced degree could be in any field. For an inventory of the particular degree programs included under each of the broad academic fields to which the graph refers, see the ACS-HI Crosswalk.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2018 American Community Survey Public-Use Microdata Sample. Data analyzed and presented by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).
The information presented here is based on an original analysis by the Humanities Indicators (HI) of data from the American Community Survey (ACS), which has been administered on an annual basis by the U.S. Census Bureau since 2005. The ACS replaced the “long form” version of the decennial census and collects information—used to allocate billions in state and federal funding—about Americans’ personal characteristics, family composition, employment, income, and housing.
For the purposes of ACS, the U.S. Census Bureau defines earnings as “the sum of wage or salary income and net income from self-employment. ‘Earnings’ represent the amount of income received regularly for people 16 years old and over before deductions for personal income taxes, Social Security, bond purchases, union dues, Medicare deductions, etc. An individual with earnings is one who has either wage/salary income or self-employment income, or both. Respondents who ‘break even’ in self-employment income and therefore have zero self-employment earnings also are considered ‘individuals with earnings’” (from ACS documentation provided at http://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/tech_docs/subject_definitions/2014_ACSSubjectDefinitions.pdf, p. 83).
The age ranges selected for the two types of degree holder with which these indicators deal—those with a terminal bachelor’s degree and those who went on to earn an advanced degree—reflect the additional time required to pursue an advanced degree, the age at which earnings peak for each group, and the need for enough survey responses to ensure the reliability of the earnings estimates.
Quartiles are statistics that divide the observations of a numeric sample into four groups, each of which contains 25% of the data. The lower, middle, and upper quartiles are computed by ordering the values for a particular variable from smallest to largest and then finding the values below which fall 25%, 50%, and 75% of the data. The middle quartile is called the median.
The ACS permits respondents to specify up to two fields of bachelor’s degree. For the purposes of this analysis, an individual was counted as having a bachelor’s degree in the humanities if the field of either reported degree was within the scope of the humanities as specified by the HI. Information regarding the specific disciplines treated as within the humanities for the purposes of this analysis is provided in the ACS-HI Crosswalk.
The ACS does not ask respondents about their amount of work experience. The Humanities Indicators (HI) thus uses age to distinguish between workers who are in the first years of their career and those who are more experienced. Age and work experience are not perfectly correlated, but age does provide an approximate measure of work experience that allows the HI to examine the effect of this experience on unemployment and earnings of humanities majors.
