Comparing Earnings of White Males by Education for Selected Age
Cohorts: “High School vs. College Graduates”
A Statistical Brief by John Coder and Gordon Green
Sentier Research - October 2016
Summary
The “working class” in
America has been frequently defined as white males with a high school education
working at wage and salary jobs. Some have said that this is one of the groups that
has been “left behind” and newly energized during this year’s election process.
This statistical brief compares changes in earnings for white males,
contrasting the experiences of high school graduates and college graduates
between 1996 and 2014. It utilizes a cohort approach to examining changes in
their earnings. The results suggest vastly different experiences for high
school and college graduates during the period. For example, during this
18-year period wage and salary income per cohort member for high school
graduate cohorts declined by 9 percent overall while the income for college
graduate cohorts increased by 23 percent. In 2014, income per cohort member
stood at $94,601 for college graduates but only $36,787 for high school
graduates. Using cohort analysis instead of cross-sectional methods shows that
while wage and salary incomes of white male college graduates soared as they
aged through this 18-year period, the earnings of most high school graduate
cohorts managed only meager gains and, for some cohorts, declines. It may be
that the “working class” understands better than most just how far their
earnings have fallen behind.
The term “working class” in this report refers to white males with a high school education.
The term “working class” in this report refers to white males with a high school education.