Income and major: new study--NOT by Payscale

JHS
Thu, 11 Oct 2012 14:16:58 +0000

This information is so broad and general as to be useless, and uninteresting. What good is it to know the median earnings of all English majors over 25, regardless of what additional degrees they have? How does that guide you if you are 18 and thinking about majoring in English Lit?

As for government vs. private sector salaries, it is not necessarily the case that government salaries are that much systematically less than private sector salaries at upper levels. That’s true for business and professions, sure. But think about the millions of people employed in education, or health care (not MDs). There isn’t a huge gap there, and in some cases public sector salaries may exceed private sector salaries. There are many areas where the alternative to government employment may be employment by a hand-to-mouth nonprofit. It is also the case, too, that government employment has benefits (like great pension rights . . . if only they were funded) that close the gap with private employers.