Wage Inequality Between College Majors Is Growing

From Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/20/workers-math-science-degrees_n_1437685.html

By Bonnie Kavoussi

04/20/2012

If you worry that you may make the same meager inflation-adjusted salary forever, you may want to consider going back to school and getting a different degree.

The premium on a good education is rising, according to the Wall Street Journal. That's because demand for workers in areas requiring math and science training is growing at a faster pace than the supply of those employees, so employers are willing to pay higher wages to hire and retain those workers.

As a result, wage inequality between college majors is growing. The median salary of math, science, and computer science majors' first jobs rose 5 times as quickly as the median salary of humanities and science majors' first jobs in 2012, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

And workers that start out at a lower salary will likely be making less money for the rest of their lives. Workers that majored in math, economics, biology, and engineering make between $40 and $51 per hour on average in 2012, according to a separate Wall Street Journal report that analyzes a recent economics paper by Yale University economists. Workers that majored in nearly anything else make less than $40 per hour on average. For example, economics graduates make twice as much as social work graduates on average.

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