The earning gap between high school and college graduates has stretched to its widest level in 50 years.
According to an analysis by the Pew Research Center, young adults with high school diplomas presently earn 62 percent of the typical college graduate’s income, compared with 81 percent in 1965.
The analysis attributes this to the standardization of college degrees as a requirement for better-paying jobs.
UF economics professor Steven Slutsky said the shift is also due to massive technological changes that occurred after 1965.
Today’s economy is polarized between high- and low-wage work, making college degrees more necessary to get past the wage gap, according to the Pew Research Center’s analysis.
But for degree-seeking students, finances are a big consideration. About two-thirds of students take out education-related loans, and 86 percent said they believe it will be worth the high price tag, according to Pew.
The national average of undergraduate college debt is about $29,000, and UF’s average is a little more than $20,000, he said.
Pew researchers found a college degree typically yields more inflation-adjusted earnings than before. The analysis also found that young adults with only high school diplomas are more likely to live in poverty and be dissatisfied with their career.
David Muir, a 24-year-old UF electrical engineering graduate and co-founder of Kinwa, a mobile design and application company, said getting a college degree helped him start his own business after graduation. Without it, his chances of success would’ve been “a lot lower.”
College degrees come with a more formal approach to developing and creating things that those without a degree often lack, he said.
“I would definitely consider (hiring someone without a college degree), but that decision would be based on an assessment of that person and their portfolio,” he said.
[A version of this story ran on page 4 on 2/24/2014 under the headline "Grads’ wage gap grows"]
