More Education = More Income

CNBC has an excellent article about the monetary advantages, but decreasing frequency, of upward mobility based on education. Among other things, it documents the financial advantage the average household of two college graduates has over the average household with two high school graduates.

Between 1979 and 2012, that (wage) gap grew by some $30,000, after inflation.

American workers with a college degree are paid 74 percent more than those with only a high school degree, on average.

The article also documents the extent to which upward mobility has decreased in the U.S.

Barely 30 percent of American adults have achieved a higher level of education than their parents did. (snip) And matters are getting worse, not better. Among 25- to 34-year olds, only 20 percent of men out of school and 27 percent of women have achieved a higher level of education than their parents.

Something slipped over the last generation, however. In the 1970s, graduation rates from four-year colleges slowed sharply and even went into reverse for men. And the world caught up.

As more Americans have college educations, the number who will exceed the educational achievements of their parents will taper off as a percentage of the population. It's simple arithmetic.

See also this Pew Research article on "assortative mating." It documents that college grads are marrying each other, leading to greater income inequality and less upward mobility.

Another factor not mentioned by the CNBC article is the 10+ million mostly Hispanic illegal immigrants for whom English is a non-native language. Generally the least educated members of the societies they fled, their large families have pulled down average educational achievement in the U.S.