Median Annual Earnings of Full-Time Workers with Bachelor’s Degrees in Selected Fields, by Highest Degree Earned and Undergraduate Major, 2012

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%.