Can education make your wallet fatter?
In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Samaritan Smare", an alien race known as the Pakled kidnapped chief engineer Geordi La Forge in order to improve their technology. Their classic line was, "We are smart, we are strong."
Science fiction aside, does education and smarts truly equal strength? Specifically, economic strength?
We checked with our friends at the Statistic Brain Research Institute to find out.
- Average High School Degree Salary: $32,552
- Average Associate Degree Salary: $39,884
- Average Bachelor’s Degree Salary: $53,976
- Unemployment Rate for someone with less than a High School Diploma: 14.9%
- Unemployment Rate for a high school graduate: 10.3%
- Unemployment Rate for an Associates Degree holder: 7.0%
- Unemployment Rate for a Bachelor’s Degree holder: 4.7%
As it turns our the Pakled were on to something. The more education you have, the better chance you have of having a well-paying job (or a job at all).
So, instead of kidnapping engineers, they should have stayed in school.
Source: statisticbrain.com/college-education-costs-and-statistics/