In 2022, the median earnings of college graduates with a bachelor’s degree or higher was $67,630 (in 2022 dollars). The median value masks differentiation by other variables, such as gender and race/ethnicity. For instance, men earned earned $72,930 versus $62,220 for women, or 17 percent more than women.
We see large gaps in earnings by race/ethnic groups as well. Asian, Pacific Islanders, and White students out-earned Hispanic, Black, and American Indian/Alaskan Natives (AIAN) graduates by large factors. While Asian graduates earned the highest with a median earning of $84,790, Hispanics earned almost $25,000 less ($60,440); $28,000 for Blacks ($57,190), and $35,000 for AIANs ($49,940). This can partially be explained by the higher degrees that some of those groups earned compared to others, which have higher returns. However, other analysis (not illustrated here) show that controlling for degree still results in large gaps by gender and race/ethnic groupings.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS), 1-Year Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) data, 2022. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d23/tables/dt23_505.15.asp.