Exploring Earnings by Major in the PSEO Data: Multi-State Trends

If you have been following the progression of our blog posts, the US Census Bureau’s Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes (PSEO) data has served as the primary content driver in the the past four blog entries. The posts in May (05/01/2021 and 05/15/2021) introduced average earnings for bachelor’s degreeholders by Carnegie Classification (Doctoral Institutions and Master’s Institutions), while the posts in June (06/01/2021 and 06/15/2021) explored the degree to which bachelor’s degreeholders were classified as non-employed or marginally employed by Carnegie Classification within the PSEO data. This blog post continues the exploration of the PSEO data by examining average post-graduation earnings by academic discipline across all public institutions included in the PSEO data, providing us with broader trends across the 11 states in the PSEO data. As a reminder, there are several caveats in the PSEO data, such as the earnings data being based on Unemployment Insurance (UI) wages that exclude some segments of the workforce (e.g., workers among private sector employers that are independent contractors, unincorporated self-employed, some family employees of family-owned business, certain farm workers, etc.).

Average Earnings by Major Groups Over Time: 1, 5, and 10 Years Post-Graduation

In order to see patterns across clusters of instructional programs, we have organized academic disciplines into 15 “Major Group” classifications based on the taxonomy developed by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce (see page 39). As with the previous presentations of the PSEO data, three time-points are included across the data visualizations below: 1, 5, and 10 years after graduation. Different years can be accessed using the “Year After Graduation” filter on the right. The first visualization below (see tab: Differences from Highest (Overall)) shows weighted average earnings aggregated across all institution types in the data (Doctoral, Master’s, and Bachelor’s institutions) in order to determine the overall trends, regardless of institutional level. The second tab (Differences from Highest (Carnegie)) shows earnings data by major group as well, but is broken out by Carnegie Classification. Use the “Carnegie Group” filter to the right to change which institution level is visualized. In both visualizations, the labels at the end of the bars have three components: major group weighted average earnings, and how far (in dollars) and by what percentage that major group is below the highest group. Each of these values is separated by a vertical bar (|), except for the highest earning major group in each year that serves as our reference group.

Ranking of Average Earnings by Major Group: All Carnegie Classifications 

  • Across all public universities in the PSEO data, the Architecture and Engineering major group has the highest weighted average earnings at all three time-points in the data: $56,427 in Year 1, $73,875 in Year 5, and $92,851 in Year 10 after graduation.
  • The Health major group starts out as the second-highest category in Year 1 with average earnings of $51,856, which is $4,571 or 8.1% below the highest major group. By Year 10, the Health major group is ranked 6th overall with earnings just over $70,000, which is a gap of over $22,000 or 24.4% from the highest major group.
  • The Psychology and Social Work major group starts as the lowest average earnings group in Year 1 with $28,129, which is slightly less than half of the average earnings for Architecture and Engineering graduates. By Year 10, Psychology and Social Work bachelor’s graduates earn an average $53,777, which is more than $39,000 below the highest average earnings in the PSEO data.
  • The  major group with the largest gain from Year 1 to Year 10 is Biology and Life Sciences. In Year 1, this major group earns just over $28,000, which is essentially half of the earnings of Architecture and Engineering majors. In Year 5, Biology and Life Sciences graduates’ average earnings increased to $48,887, which is 34% below the leading major group, but ranks sixth overall out of the 15 major groups. In Year 10, the Biology and Life Sciences group moves up one more spot to fifth overall, earning just over $70,400 per year. From Year 1 to Year 10, the average earnings for Biology and Life Sciences majors increases by 149% in the PSEO data.
 Ranking of Average Earnings by Major Group: Within Carnegie Classifications 
  • In both the Doctoral Institutions and Master’s Institutions categories, Architecture and Engineering bachelor’s graduates earn the highest salaries at 1, 5, and 10 years after graduation for the full cohort in the PSEO data.
  • In the Bachelor’s Institutions group, the Health major group has the highest earnings in Year 1 and Year 5 after graduation, with the Architecture and Engineering major group moving into the highest earnings category in Year 10.
  • One of the interesting findings throughout the comparison within Carnegie Classifications can be seen in the gaps between the major groups with the highest and lowest earnings.
    • For Doctoral Institutions, the gap in Year 1 is $29,054 ($56,920 vs. $27,866), which is a 51% difference. In Year 5, the percentage gap decreases to 45.6% from Year 1, but the actual average earnings gap increases to $34,077 ($74,495 vs. $40,418). In Year 10, the earnings gap goes up again, rising to $44,349 ($93,831 vs. $49,482), and the percentage gap also increase from 45.6% in Year 5 to 47.2% in Year 10.
    • For Master’s Institutions, there are smaller gaps in Year 1 than in Doctoral institutions. The earnings gap is $25,828 ($53,599 vs. $27,771), which is a 48.2% gap in in Year 1. Similarly to the Doctoral Institutions, the earnings gap for Master’s Institutions increases from Year 5, rising to $29,503 ($69,636 vs. $40,132), but the percentage decreases from 48.2% to 42.4% in Year 5. The earnings gap continues to increase into Year 10, with the lowest major group earning an average of $34,147 less than the highest earning group ($83,941 vs. $49,794), as the percentage gap decreases to 40.7% in Year 10.
    • The gaps exhibited in the Bachelor’s Institutions are greater in Year 1 and Year 5 when compared to Doctoral and Master’s Institutions.  In Year 1, there is a $39,206 earnings gap between highest and lowest ($65,736 vs. $26,530), which represents a 59.6% gap. Both the earnings and percentage gap decrease from Year 1 to Year 5, as a $34,423 ($74,045 vs. $39,622) earnings gap exists, which is a percentage gap of 46.5% in Year 5. The earnings gap continues to fall from Year 5 to Year 10, with the lowest major group earning $29,924 less than the highest group ($78,763 vs. $48,839), as the percentage gap also dropped further to 38% in Year 10.
NOTES: If you are unable to read the labels in the visualization below, we recommend clicking the “Full Screen” button on the lower right of the visualization window to enlarge the information. Hovering over each point will provide a tooltip with additional information. 

Ranking Average Earnings Within Years After Graduation

In addition to gaining a better understanding about overall trends and trends within Carnegie Classifications, we also wanted to see which major group had the highest average earnings at each time point after graduation, regardless of Carnegie Classification.

  • Interestingly, the visualization below shows that Health majors from Bachelor’s Institutions have the highest average earnings in the PSEO data in Year 1 after graduation with an average earnings of almost $66,000. Health majors from Master’s Institutions and Doctoral Institutions are also in the top-5 Year 1 average earnings, with Architecture and Engineering graduates from Doctoral Institutions and Master’s Institutions taking the 2nd and 3rd slots in Year 1. Arts, Psychology and Social Work, and Biology and Life Sciences major groups are at the bottom of the earnings rankings in the Year 1 PSEO data. The gap from the highest earning group in Year 1 is $39,206 ($65,736 vs. $26,530), which represents a 59.6% gap.
  • In Year 5 post-graduation, Architecture and Engineering graduates from Doctoral Institutions take the top spot in the earnings rankings, edging out Health majors from Bachelor’s Institutions by an average of $450. As seen in the overall data above, Biology and Life Sciences majors make big jumps in the rankings from Year 1 to Year 5. The overall gap from the highest earning group in Year 5 is $34,873 ($74,495 vs. $39,622), which represents a 46.8% gap.
  • In Year 10 after graduation, the top 5 average earnings major groups are from Doctoral and Master’s Institutions in the fields of Architecture and Engineering, Computers, Statistics, and Mathematics, Business, and Physical Sciences. The gap from the highest earning group in Year 10 is $44,992 ($93,831 vs. $48,839), which represents a 48% gap. 

So What?

As with most of our blog posts, the earnings by major group data create more questions worthy of further exploration:

  • What are Bachelor’s Institutions incorporating into their Health programs to promote high wage earnings in early career professionals?
  • Which constructs could help explain why the gap between major groups with the highest and lowest earnings increases over time for Doctoral Institutions and Master’s Institutions, while the gap decreases for Bachelor’s Institutions from Year 1 to Year 10 in the PSEO data?
  • How does graduate school enrollment differentially affect graduates from certain major groups? For example, does directly enrolling in graduate school for Biology and Life Science bachelor’s degreeholders depress early career earnings that rebound as they earn higher-level credentials and enter the workforce between 5 and 10 years post-graduation?
  • What role do life choices, such as starting a family, have on wages and earnings as bachelor’s graduates move beyond early career earnings?

We welcome your comments on any of these questions using the Comment feature at the bottom of this blog post.