The Education Pay-Off!

Wake up some days and wonder why the heck you do it? Years and years of study for a degree and your not sure if it’s worth it – well it is! You might have other reasons but we all know money is a big motivator, money makes the world go round, and the further along you get in your degree program the more money for you. That’s true if you are a man or a woman but unfortunately it’s truer if you are a man. This is what the U.S. Census Bureau tells us about education and money:

If you don’t finish high school your average income will be $19,989 per year. If you finish high school but don’t go on to tertiary education your pay will average $27,448. That s an excellent pay increase just for making it to the end of high school. A bachelor degree will get you $47,853 and a graduate degree $63,174. That’s the difference between a barely comfortable lifestyle and an excellent lifestyle with holidays abroad and lots of toys.

Unfortunately if you’re a woman with a graduate degree you will still make less than a guy with a bachelor's degree. In fact he’ll make $7,000 more a year than you will so what’s going on - why are there more women in varsity than ever before? Well the $52,301 average a woman with a graduate degree will earn is still better than the female high school graduates earnings of $21,711. If you can get away with it, for example if you are in a profession where you aren’t seen, for example a writer, you might be better off changing your name or writing under a pseudonym for the extra man dollars!

Even if the pay disparity does piss you off the thing to take from these stats is that education does, at the end of the day pay off, so keeping slogging away!