How Much Is Your Education Worth

When it comes to your earning power, your education is the most important thing you can do. Searching for California Colleges can help you along the way. The more education you have, the better your chances of earning more “lifetime” income.

How Much Is Your Education Worth
Cost of Living
Additional Web Resources

How Much Is Your Education Worth

When it comes to your earning power, your education is the most important thing you can do. And searching for California Colleges can help you along the way. The more education you have, the better your chances of earning more “lifetime” income.

• Did you know that the average “lifetime” earnings of a person with a 4 year college degree is about $1,000,000 more than the earnings of a high school graduate; $800,000 more than a person with an AA degree?
• Did you know that earning your Masters Degree increases your lifetime earnings by about $500,000?
• And, an Associate Degree will provide an additional $300,000 more than the high school graduate!

Take a look at the chart below. Here, you will see the average annual earning power for different age groups by education achieved. The information comes from data gathered during the U.S. 2000 census. California-colleges-search.com has compiled the data into an easy to read graph. Not surprising, “professionals” (doctors, dentists, lawyers, and some engineers) receive the highest annual income.

Although the data covers an average of all persons, irrespective of gender, race or location, notice that those with college degrees or better, including those from California colleges, increase in annual income as age increases. In contrast, those with lower achieved education appear to plateau at an early age. That is because the job skills of a poorly educated person do not change very much as age increases. Therefore, older persons are unable to attain higher incomes as long as there are younger people willing to take the job for less. More income is attained when job skills are improves either through education or job experience.

Click to view full size image.

This table covers the average “lifetime” income of each education category. Notice how much more income you can expect by attaining more education.


Source = http://ferret.bls.census.gov/macro/032001/perinc/new04_001.htm Annual Demographic Survey 2000Values calculated consider typical work starting age for each education level achieved through age 65.

Cost of Living

Most students secure their first job in one of 2 regions:Where they attended school - or - Close to their hometown. Since you are interested in California colleges and California schools, you may want to pay particular attention to the cost of living in this region. Use the table below to compare the cost of living in different metropolitan areas. Rows highlighted include locations where the most California colleges are located. Cost of Living Index
Top Participating Metropolitan Areas Over 2 Million in Population

Metropolitan Area	Composite	Grocery	Housing	Utilities	Transpor-tation	Health Care	Misc. Goods & Services
New York (Manhattan Only) NY	231.8	141.5	460.3	179.8	119.6	185.8	135.2
Oakland (Pleasanton) CA	156.6	121.6	249.9	107.3	134	146.8	114.7
Nassau-Suffolk (Nassau County)	143.5	124.5	177.8	160	116.4	153	126.5
Washington DC-MD-VA-WV	137.8	110.2	196	97.1	136.4	123.4	114.4
Boston MA	136.2	114.5	186	138.2	118.7	130.7	110
San Diego CA	126.4	122.5	158.7	104	121.1	122.4	108.4
Los Angeles-Long Beach CA	123.1	110	155.5	119.8	113.5	114.3	107
Seattle WA	118.7	109.7	144.5	66.4	124.5	130.4	110.2
Philadelphia PA-NJ	116.9	107	132	145.1	107	98	107.9
Riverside-San Bernardino CA	114.7	114.4	108	135	113.8	131.7	108.9
Detroit MI	112.9	106.2	137.6	107.7	103	109.6	100
Cleveland-Lorain-Elyria OH	112.2	108.9	117.4	138.6	110.7	118.9	102.5
Chicago (Joliet) IL	109	109.3	109.6	110.7	115.8	112.4	105.5
Minneapolis-St. Paul MN-WI	105.4	99.5	104.9	101.6	107.8	130.2	105.4
Atlanta GA	103.2	106.7	101.8	97.1	99.8	114.9	103.5
Phoenix-Mesa AZ	102.3	104.9	95.7	105.2	109.5	114.8	101.9
Dallas TX	101.1	99.2	96.9	107.2	104.7	106.8	102.2
St. Louis MO-IL	97.3	99.6	95.9	96.1	99.5	105.7	95.7
Baltimore MD	97	97.2	92.4	121	97.1	94	95.5
Houston TX	94.5	93.3	83.8	100	105.8	110.7	97.1

Source: http://www.accra.org/eduprof/pubs/colisample.htm

Additional Web Resources

This site contains lots of information published by the state of California. You may want to take a close look at the Total personal income (current dollars) report.
http://www.dof.ca.gov/HTML/FSDATA/LatestEconData/Datahome.htm

This is a good site to compare 2- and 3-Year-Average Medians Household Income(s) (year 2000) by state:
http://www.census.gov/hhes/income/income00/statemhi.html

This Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistical Data homepage covers a number of reports. Check out the Prices & Living Conditions and Compensation & Working Conditions reports. You may select a metropolitan area and occupation to find average wage rates.
http://www.bls.gov/data/home.htm

This website page is similar to the one above but it contains annual wage information for major metropolitan areas by occupation.
http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ocs/compub.htm

Consumer Price Index by Region by year:
http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?cu

This is a great website resource. It presents Demographic, Social, Economic, and Housing Information by state and city. The Economic section includes some useful income information. The Social section covers attained education levels.
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Products/Profiles/Single/2000/C2SS/index.htm

Similar to the link above, this page gives you a quick look at Household Median Income by state.
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Products/Ranking/SS01/R07T040.htm

Posted on January 14, 2006 at 4:18 PM

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