College was once widely seen as a path to success, but today only about one in four Americans say a bachelor’s degree is necessary to get a high-paying job, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center.
Fifteen years ago, about three in four people told Pew that a college degree was extremely or very important to getting ahead in life. The change comes as the costs of higher education continue to skyrocket, with some universities now charging nearly $100,000 a year for tuition and other fees.
At the same time, job opportunities and earnings for young men without college degrees have improved over the past decade, reversing some of the economic damage that eroded the group’s fortunes beginning in the 1970s.
“Things are getting better for less-educated young men,” Richard Fry, senior economist at Pew, told CBS MoneyWatch. The shift in Americans’ views on college may be based “not only on improvements in the job market and outcomes of less-educated young men, but it is also clear that there is concern about borrowing for university.
Young men with only a high school diploma have seen their incomes increase slightly since 2014, Pew found. The median annual income for men ages 25 to 34 without a college degree was $45,000 in 2023, a 15% increase from $39,300 in 2014 after adjusting for inflation, according to Pew’s analysis of census data.
Generation gap
But even though less-educated young men are doing a little better than a decade ago, they still have not caught up to the earnings of older generations of men of the same age in the 1970s. By 1973, young men without a college degree earned nearly $58,000 a year. That means typical income for this group remains 22% lower than it was a half-century ago, according to Pew.
“If you were a high school-educated young man in the early 1970s, you were more likely to be a union member, manufacturing employment was much more important. So, in short, from 1980s, things moved away from opportunities for less educated young men,” Fry noted.
“Overall, younger and less educated men are not where they were 50 years ago,” he added.
Young women without college degrees are, in some ways, better off than young men, in part due to their increased job opportunities. Their income has increased from about $35,000 a year in 1973 to $36,000 today. But young women with college degrees still earn much more, at about $65,000 a year, Pew found.
More income and wealth for college graduates
When asking whether a college degree is important for getting a “well-paying” job today, Pew did not define the term, leaving it open to individual interpretation, Fry said.
But data from Pew’s analysis clearly shows that today’s typical college graduate not only earns far more than their high school-educated counterparts, but is also capable of amassing far more wealth. important. In other words, a college degree opens the door to a lifetime of higher income, which, in turn, allows for ways to build wealth, such as jobs with 401(k) plans and action plans.
That’s not to say that younger workers without college degrees can’t earn higher incomes or create wealth either. For example, people who work in trades like plumbing or welding generally earn higher incomes. The median annual salary for plumbers is $61,550, significantly higher than the typical annual income of $45,000 for high school graduates, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But that’s still well below the median annual income of $77,000 for young men with college degrees and the median income of $65,000 for young women with college degrees.
Young college graduates also roughly quadrupled the wealth of their less-educated counterparts, Pew found. People ages 25 to 34 with a bachelor’s degree have an average net worth of about $120,000, compared to about $31,000 for those with only a high school diploma.
“Higher education generates greater wealth,” Fry said. “Wealth tends to come from two places: home equity and stock equity or retirement assets. Families with a college-educated head have a higher rate of homeownership. And college-educated adults are more likely to have access to 401(k)s and 403(b)s,” referring to employer-sponsored retirement programs.
Is college worth it?
Half of Americans said Pew College was only worth the money if you didn’t have to go into debt, Pew found. Only 22% consider the investment worth it if they have to borrow to obtain the degree.
“I’m a little surprised at how low that number is,” Fry said of the 22 percent share, “but it suggests that how you pay for college is also a concern.”
This comes as Americans have racked up $1.7 trillion in student debt, a burden that makes it harder for some to buy a home or achieve other hallmarks of middle-class life.
Among the most skeptical of the value of college are Republicans, with the survey finding that nearly 6 in 10 Republican-leaning respondents said it was less important to have a college degree today today than 20 years ago. About 4 in 10 Democrats agreed with this proposition.
Such views could be a wake-up call for the higher education sector, especially as the proportion of young male high school graduates enrolling in college has declined. And some colleges have closed in recent years due to low enrollment and other financial issues.
“College administrations, boards and presidents should be concerned about these perceptions of the value of college,” Fry said.