The State of the Humanities: Higher Education 2015
Median Annual Earnings of Full-Time Workers with Bachelor’s Degrees in Selected Fields, by Highest Degree Earned and Undergraduate Major, 2012
![Median Annual Earnings of Full-Time Workers with Bachelor’s Degrees in Selected Fields, by Highest Degree Earned and Undergraduate Major, 2012 Median Annual Earnings of Full-Time Workers with Bachelor’s Degrees in Selected Fields, by Highest Degree Earned and Undergraduate Major, 2012](/sites/default/files/styles/article_image_1x/public/media/images/HigherEd2015-12.png.webp?itok=UA-ab7o_)
After college, the median earnings of humanities majors are somewhat lower than the median earnings of all workers with college degrees. Among humanities graduates with a terminal bachelor’s degree who were employed full-time in 2012, median annual earnings were $51,000, which placed the field above education and the arts, and on par with the social, behavioral, and life sciences. Earning an advanced degree in any field (44% of humanities majors employed full-time hold such advanced degrees) boosted humanities majors’ earnings by 40%.