All Posts Tagged With: "earnings"
The million-dollar promise
Your university degree may be worth less than you think
Andrew Vaughan/CP
The message to young people is simple. If you want an extra million dollars, maybe more, just get a university degree. Your lifetime earnings will be at least that much more than those of someone with only a high school education. Or so says the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), quoting the 2006 census.
The university establishment does not lack confidence on this matter. In September 2012, Paul Davidson, president of the AUCC, quoted a more impressive statistic: “While it is true that tuition has increased in recent years, so too has the value of a degree. The income premium of a university degree is large and growing. University graduates will on average earn $1.3 million more during their careers than a high school graduate and $1 million more than a college grad.”
College can add more earnings than university
Relative value varies by industry: study
Ever wondered whether an applied college degree or a traditional university degree will add more to your paycheque?
The answer depends on what industry you work in, according to a new study published by the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto. While university degrees generally offer a higher rate of return (as measured by increased earnings over people with only high school diplomas), there are some jobs where the college degree is worth more.
Not surprisingly, university rules in health care, senior management and in the legal field. In those industries, workers with university degrees make about 40 per cent more than those with no post-secondary credential, while college degrees bring only about 20 per cent more earning power.
But chefs and cooks, child-care workers and sales people who have college credentials have a roughly 20 per cent advantage over those with only high school, while those with university better their pay by only five to 10 per cent.
And in the trades, including construction and transportation, college credentials offer roughly a 20 per cent premium over high school alone while university adds only about five per cent.
What’s not considered in the study is the fact that there may be an advantage to earning a university degree and then adding a college credential. To read more about The College Advantage, click here.
Post-secondary education pays: StatsCan
Largest difference in earnings was between bachelor’s and master’s degrees
A new study suggests it pays to go to school.
The Statistics Canada survey found that more than 80 per cent of college and university students who graduated in 2005 and did not pursue further studies had found full-time employment by 2007, while earnings generally increased by level of study.
A higher proportion of graduates with a master’s degree were working full time than college graduates or those with a bachelor’s degree or a doctorate.
The pool of graduates with a master’s was higher in 2005 than it was in 2000 for both men and women.
However, the employment rate among master’s graduates remained stable for men at 94 per cent, while it rose for women, to 92 per cent in 2007 from 89 per cent in 2002.
Findings also showed differences in earnings from one level of education to another, with the largest earnings gap existing between the bachelor’s and master’s levels.
The agency says the earnings gap between a master’s and doctorate suggests that the monetary gain from employment two years after graduation for doctorate students is marginal.
About half the 2005 graduates who did not pursue further education financed their post-secondary studies without taking on any education-related loans. Nearly half (46 per cent) of all 2005 bachelor’s graduates completed their studies debt-free, as did 56 per cent of doctorates, 55 per cent of college grads and 54 per cent of those with a master’s.
While relatively similar proportions of college, bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate graduates were able to find work two years after graduation, there were differences in terms of their earnings.
The median annual earnings among those working full time in 2007 was lowest for college graduates at $35,000. This increased to $45,000 for bachelor’s graduates, $60,000 for master’s graduates and $65,000 for doctorate graduates.
- The Canadian Press
