haven't read this stuff since i did some benchmarking community research on education and job training about 5 years ago. but, as i recall, the issue is that the wages of those with a high school degree have dropped dramatically because of deunionization. the college premium is relative to what you would earn without it, with only a highschool or less than highschool degree. the college premium looks greater but it is being compared to wages of non college degreed that have been steadily declining.
same deal with women's wage gains: much of the gain is explained by the fact that men's wages decreased (also attributed to the decline in unionized jobs that paid fairly well)
in other words, it's not like women are getting paid more per se (tho disagregating the data tells a better story than i'm doing here). it's that men's wages have decreased over all. being a white man gets you less than it used to. similarly, it's not like the college premium is necessarily buying higher wages for all college educated. rather, it's that a high school degree is buying less than it did.
>--
>Michael Perelman
>Economics Department
>California State University
>Chico, CA 95929
>
>Tel. 530-898-5321
>E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu