New income statistics suggest holding a college degree is more valuable than ever, despite a lagging economy and fresh debate about student loan debt.
The New York Times reports the pay gap between college graduates and other Americans else reached a record high last year, based on Labor Department data analyzed by the Economic Policy Institute.
People with four-year degrees made 98 percent more per hour, on average, than people without a degree, an increase from 89 percent five years ago, 85 percent a decade ago and 64 percent in the early 1980s, The Times reports.
The data suggests there are not enough college grads to satisfy the current economy. If there were too many, the pay gap would shrink, according to the newspaper.
“We have too few college graduates,” David Autor, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told The Times. “We also have too few people who are prepared for college.”
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