IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/fip/fedfel/96630.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Falling College Wage Premiums by Race and Ethnicity

Author

Listed:
  • Leila Bengali
  • Marcus Sander
  • Robert G. Valletta
  • Cindy Zhao

Abstract

Workers with a college degree typically earn substantially more than workers with less education. This so-called college wage premium increased for several decades, but it has been flat to down in recent years and declined notably since the pandemic. Analysis indicates that this reflects an acceleration of wage gains for high school graduates rather than a slowdown for college graduates. This pattern is most evident for workers in racial and ethnic groups other than White, possibly reflecting an unusually tight labor market that may have altered their college attendance decisions.

Suggested Citation

  • Leila Bengali & Marcus Sander & Robert G. Valletta & Cindy Zhao, 2023. "Falling College Wage Premiums by Race and Ethnicity," FRBSF Economic Letter, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, vol. 2023(22), pages 1-6, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedfel:96630
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.frbsf.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/el2023-22.pdf
    File Function: Full text - article PDF
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leila Bengali & Mary C. Daly, 2014. "Is it still worth going to college?," FRBSF Economic Letter, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    2. Ashworth, Jared & Ransom, Tyler, 2019. "Has the college wage premium continued to rise? Evidence from multiple U.S. surveys," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 149-154.
    3. David Autor & Arindrajit Dube & Annie McGrew, 2023. "The Unexpected Compression: Competition at Work in the Low Wage Labor Market," NBER Working Papers 31010, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Stephanie R. Aaronson & Mary C. Daly & William L. Wascher & David W. Wilcox, 2019. "Okun Revisited: Who Benefits Most from a Strong Economy?," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 50(1 (Spring), pages 333-404.
    5. David J. Deming, 2023. "Why Do Wages Grow Faster for Educated Workers?," NBER Working Papers 31373, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Richard Audoly & Martín Almuzara & Davide Melcangi, 2023. "A Measure of Core Wage Inflation," Staff Reports 1067, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    2. Jeffrey T. Denning & Eric R. Eide & Kevin J. Mumford & Richard W. Patterson & Merrill Warnick, 2022. "Why Have College Completion Rates Increased?," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 1-29, July.
    3. Bennani, Hamza, 2023. "Effect of monetary policy shocks on the racial unemployment rates in the US," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 47(1).
    4. Gökten, Meryem & Heimberger, Philipp & Lichtenberger, Andreas, 2024. "How far from full employment? The European unemployment problem revisited," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    5. Marx, Ive & Haapanala, Henri & Marchal, Sarah, 2024. "Is Poverty Reduction in Europe Doomed? Conjectures, Facts and a Cautiously Optimistic Conclusion," IZA Discussion Papers 16967, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Erica L. Groshen & Harry J. Holzer, 2021. "Labor Market Trends and Outcomes: What Has Changed since the Great Recession?," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 695(1), pages 49-69, May.
    7. Katheryn N. Russ & Jay C. Shambaugh & Sanjay R. Singh, 2024. "Currency Areas, Labor Markets, and Regional Cyclical Sensitivity," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 72(1), pages 152-195, March.
    8. Pereira, João & Ramos, Raul & Martins, Pedro S., 2024. "Wage cyclicality and labour market institutions," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1469, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    9. C. Mistretta-Belna., 2014. "Is the rise in student loan debt in the United States a source of economic fragility?," Quarterly selection of articles - Bulletin de la Banque de France, Banque de France, issue 35, pages 55-73, autumn.
    10. Michael Kaganovich & Morgan Taylor & Ruli Xiao, 2023. "Gender Differences in Persistence in a Field of Study: This Isn’t All about Grades," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(4), pages 503-556.
    11. Ashenfelter, Orley & Jurajda, Štepán, 2024. "The U.S. Low-Wage Structure: A McWage Comparison," IZA Discussion Papers 17142, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Francesco Furlanetto & Ørjan Robstad & Pål Ulvedal & Antoine Lepetit, 2020. "Estimating hysteresis effects," Working Paper 2020/13, Norges Bank.
    13. Jose Maria Barrero & Nicholas Bloom & Steven J. Davis, 2023. "Long Social Distancing," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 41(S1), pages 129-172.
    14. Judith Derndorfer & Daniel Haim & Markus Marterbauer & Patrick Mokre, 2023. "Arbeitskräfteknappheit: Chancen auf gute Arbeit für alle," Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft - WuG, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik, vol. 49(1), pages 5-19.
    15. Arindrajit Dube & Attila S. Lindner, 2024. "Minimum Wages in the 21st Century," NBER Working Papers 32878, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Joseph Richardson, 2023. "Health Risks and Labour Supply," Working Papers 379420583, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.
    17. Nils Braakmann & Boris Hirsch, 2024. "Unions as insurance: Workplace unionization and workers' outcomes during COVID‐19," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(2), pages 152-171, April.
    18. Krebs, Tom & Weber, Isabella, 2024. "Can Price Controls Be Optimal? The Economics of the Energy Shock in Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 17043, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Larrimore, Jeff & Mortenson, Jacob & Splinter, David, 2023. "Earnings business cycles: The Covid recession, recovery, and policy response," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 225(C).
    20. Lindsay C. Page & Judith Scott-Clayton, 2015. "Improving College Access in the United States: Barriers and Policy Responses," NBER Working Papers 21781, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fedfel:96630. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Research Library (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbsfus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.