What Is The Typical Annual Salary Increase

If you're considering going back to college , you may exist considering the various arguments for and against the value of earning a bachelor'due south degree.

Many professionals cite "the ability to make more than money" as the motivating gene behind why they chose to pursue a college degree. But does earning a higher degree really lead to a higher salary? And if and so, how much higher? Is the increment in pay ultimately worth it —worth the fourth dimension, effort, and money spent earning it?

The curt answer is: Yes! Advancing in your education does typically lead to college annual and lifetime earnings, at all levels of instruction.

Below, we explore the boilerplate salary earned at each educational level and then you can better sympathize your electric current earning potential and make a smarter decision every bit to whether or not earning a college degree makes sense for you.

[Editorial Note: All bacon information is sourced from the U.S. Agency of Labor Statistics (BLS) .]

Average Salary by Pedagogy Level

Chart depicting BLS data of median annual earnings & unemployment rates by education level

Average Salary with Less Than a High Schoolhouse Diploma

Median Weekly Earnings: $592

Median Annual Earnings: $thirty,784

Average Unemployment Rate: five.4%

Peradventure unsurprisingly, individuals without a high school diploma or an equivalent (such as a GED) earn the lowest salary compared to all other educational activity levels: $592 per week, or roughly $30,784 per twelvemonth. These individuals too have the greatest take chances for unemployment, with an average unemployment rate of 5.4 percent.

If you oasis't earned a high school diploma, finishing your education or earning a GED tin bring substantial benefits, including an boilerplate increase in annual income of more than $8,000 along with greater job security. Additionally, earning your high schoolhouse diploma will further permit you to pursue higher education should y'all choose, and all of the benefits associated with it.

Boilerplate Salary with a High School Diploma

Median Weekly Earnings: $746

Median Annual Earnings: $38,792

Average Unemployment Rate: three.vii%

High school graduates earn an boilerplate of $746 per week, or $38,792 annually, and lower their take a chance of unemployment to 3.vii percentage. Simply completing a high school pedagogy tin can increment your expected income past more than $8,000 compared to non earning a loftier school diploma.

For each level of education that an individual achieves afterwards high schoolhouse, this earning potential increases. Earning an associate caste brings an average pay increase of more than $vii,000, and earning a available's degree brings an average increase of more than than $26,000.

Average Bacon with Some College only No Degree

Median Weekly Earnings: $833

Median Annual Earnings: $43,316

Boilerplate Unemployment Rate: 3.iii%

Individuals who have completed some higher courses but did not graduate earn an average of $833 per week or $43,316 annually. This grouping of students has an average unemployment charge per unit of 3.3 pct.

While these individuals enjoy higher pay and lower unemployment compared to those with merely a loftier schoolhouse diploma and no college experience, they are unable to realize the benefits associated with earning a degree. Past returning to school and earning an associate degree, these individuals tin await to earn an average of $2,808 more than than they are currently earning. Completing a bachelor's caste, however, stands to increase their pay even further, past $21,580 on boilerplate.

If you started higher merely didn't finish , there are a number of options that can assistance you consummate your degree. A caste completion program , for example, is a college program specifically designed for individuals who take started and not finished their degrees. These programs have equally many previously earned credits every bit possible so that students can graduate more speedily than if they were to start over entirely. It may too be possible to earn credit for your prior work experience , further accelerating your degree completion.

Average Salary with an Associate Degree

Median Weekly Earnings: $887

Median Almanac Earnings: $46,124

Average Unemployment Charge per unit: 2.7%

Those who accept completed an associate degree earn an average pay of $887 per week or $46,124 per year. In keeping with the economic tendency, their risk of unemployment likewise decreases compared to those with less education, to 2.7 percent.

Acquaintance degree holders earn more than $7,300 more per twelvemonth than their peers whose education stopped after loftier school—a substantial increase, which translates into more than $293,000 over a typical 40-yr career. And by advancing from an acquaintance degree to a bachelor'due south caste, boilerplate annual pay increases by an additional $xviii,772.

For this reason, information technology is not uncommon for an individual who has earned an associate degree to become dorsum to school in order to convert their associate degree into a bachelor's caste and obtain the college earning potential that typically comes with a iv-year degree. Wages bated, considering a bachelor's degree is a prerequisite for most graduate-level courses, associate degree holders with a want to pursue more advanced degrees empathise that doing so is the side by side logical footstep for them to accept.

Learn More: Associate Caste vs Available'south Caste: five Key Differences

Average Salary with a Bachelor'south Degree

Median Weekly Earnings: $1,248

Median Annual Earnings: $64,896

Average Unemployment Rate: 2.ii%

Available'southward degree holders earn an average weekly pay of $one,248, or $64,896 per year. Their unemployment charge per unit is 2.2 percent, which is nearly half the unemployment rate of high schoolhouse graduates.

While each previously mentioned increase in education brought with it at least some increase in pay, the departure in average pay betwixt an associate degree holder and a bachelor's degree holder is stark. Bachelor's degree holders will earn an average of $eighteen,772 more each year than associate degree holders. Over the course of a forty-year career, this equates to more than than $750,000 in additional income.

Clearly, earning a bachelor's caste nevertheless makes a lot of financial sense. Just according to Anna Hughes, Senior Assistant Director of Enrollment Services at Northeastern Academy, the benefits are more than than financial.

"Earning a available's caste brings a lot of what I telephone call soft skill development," Hughes says. "I think that learning to work together at a higher level with classmates is a huge opportunity to build self-conviction and resilience, which can be difficult to obtain elsewhere."

Additionally, if an individual would similar to somewhen earn a principal'southward degree, doctorate, or professional degree, information technology is almost incommunicable to do so without first earning a available'southward degree. In this style, earning a bachelor'due south caste can serve equally a means of unlocking further educational opportunities and the benefits they bring with them.

While bachelor's degrees are oftentimes referred to as iv-twelvemonth degrees, accelerated bachelor's caste programs tin can be completed in as little as 12 to 18 months, allowing students to realize their benefits even more quickly.

Read More: 10 Benefits of Having a College Degree

Average Bacon with a Primary'due south Caste

Median Weekly Earnings: $1,497

Median Annual Earnings: $77,844

Average Unemployment Rate: 2.0%

Individuals who keep their teaching to the graduate level and earn their master's caste earn an average wage of $i,497 per week or $77,844 per twelvemonth. At 2.0 per centum, their unemployment rate is slightly lower than bachelor'south caste holders.

The wage gap that exists betwixt master's and bachelor'south degree holders is less substantial than the one between an associate degree and a available's degree. Fifty-fifty withal, master's degree holders earn nearly $13,000 more than per year than four-year degree holders—a substantial render on investment for nigh graduates. And simply every bit earning a bachelor'southward degree is a prerequisite for earning a principal's degree, earning a chief's caste is typically required if your eventual goal is to earn a doctorate or professional person degree.

Average Salary with a Doctorate or Professional Degree

Median Weekly Earnings, Professional person Degree: $1,861

Median Almanac Earnings, Professional Degree: $96,772

Boilerplate Unemployment Rate, Professional person Degree: 1.6%

Median Weekly Earnings, Doctoral Degree: $1,883

Median Annual Earnings, Doctoral Degree: $97,916

Average Unemployment Rate, Doctoral Degree: 1.ane%

Doctoral and professional degrees are oftentimes termed "terminal degrees" because they typically represent the furthest that an private tin can accept their education in a given discipline. As such, they're often discussed together in terms of pay and employability.

Those with a professional caste earn an average of $1,861 per week, or $96,772 annually, and accept a low rate of unemployment at one.6 percentage. Doctorate holders earn an boilerplate of $one,883 per week, or $97,916 annually, and enjoy the everyman rate of unemployment at i.1 percent.

The increment in average pay that comes from a master's degree holder advancing to a doctoral or professional degree is comparable in magnitude to the difference that comes from an acquaintance degree holder earning a bachelor'southward caste. Individuals with professional degrees earn nearly $nineteen,00 more than master'south degree holders on average; for individuals with doctorates, that number is over $20,000. Over the form of a 40-twelvemonth career, this ways that those with professional degrees and doctorates can earn as much equally $760,000 and $800,000 more than their peers with main's degrees, respectively.

Making the Correct Decision for Your Future

The salary figures and unemployment rates above demonstrate that, for many individuals, earning a bachelor's degree (or graduate degree) leads to a positive return on investment. Only co-ordinate to Hughes, that isn't enough to conclude that earning a college degree is necessarily the right path for anybody.

"I don't call back anybody needs a available's degree," Hughes says. "For example, a lot of individuals who go to vocational schools probably have the groundwork they need to exist successful in their trade. Of course, to progress in their career, they might have to get back to school, only that should exist an individual decision that you make for yourself."

Read More than: Do I Actually Demand a Bachelor'southward Degree?

That being said, if you do make up one's mind that earning a caste will help you reach your personal and professional goals, it's important that you find a program that aligns with those goals.

Hughes specifically recommends that students evaluating potential programs should examine the schoolhouse's price point and the type of academics being offered. The program that you cull needs to fall within your budget, offer you the flexibility and support yous'll need to complete your caste while juggling other responsibilities , and arm you lot with the feel that will help you land a job after graduating.

The Bachelor's Degree Completion plan at Northeastern University delivers on all of these elements. Flexible learning options such every bit online and hybrid courses allow students to larn whenever and wherever is about convenient for them—making the programme platonic for working professionals seeking to stop their degree. A generous transfer credit policy means that individuals can finish their degree quickly and affordably. And experiential learning opportunities such as co-ops and internships allow students to gain real easily-on experience that employers are looking for.

"One matter that Northeastern is truly known for is its co-ops, which give students the opportunity to proceeds tangible work feel prior to graduating," Hughes says. "Nosotros believe that learning should go beyond what's in the textbook."

Do you think that a available's degree completion plan could be right for you? If and so, we assure you that it'southward within your accomplish ! To learn more, explore Northeastern'southward bachelor'south degree completion programs or get advice from an admissions counselor today.