Also, how much of the gap is due to the high school graduate falling behind, and how much from the college wage rate moving ahead?
Doug Henwood wrote:
> Stephen E Philion wrote:
>
> >doug, how much of those gains are offset by the decrease in value of a
> >college degree in the past few decades?
>
> What decrease? Our friends at the EPI report the following college
> hourly wage premium over HS grads
> <http://epinet.org/datazone/data/collpremium.xls>. Men with
> bachelor's (or more) earned 33% more than those with only a HS
> diploma in 1973, and 44% more in 1997; for women, the premium went
> from 43% to 51%. And the unemployment rate for those with college or
> more is much lower than those with only HS diplomas - 1.4% vs. 3.5%
> last month.
>
> COLLEGE/HIGH SCHOOL HOURLY WAGE PREMIUM
>
> men women
> 1973 32.5 43.0
> 1974 32.4 38.6
> 1975 34.0 40.2
> 1976 33.4 36.6
> 1977 30.6 34.1
> 1978 28.3 33.0
> 1979 27.3 30.8
> 1980 28.8 31.9
> 1981 30.1 32.3
> 1982 32.8 33.8
> 1983 34.6 36.2
> 1984 37.4 38.8
> 1985 39.1 40.5
> 1986 38.7 42.2
> 1987 39.2 43.6
> 1988 39.2 44.0
> 1989 41.8 46.0
> 1990 42.4 47.7
> 1991 42.3 46.5
> 1992 44.4 49.4
> 1993 45.1 49.9
> 1994 44.8 51.9
> 1995 44.1 52.2
> 1996 43.3 50.7
> 1997 44.1 51.1
-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu