{"id":20521,"date":"2023-10-01T00:00:55","date_gmt":"2023-10-01T00:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tamus.edu\/data-science\/?p=20521"},"modified":"2025-09-15T21:34:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T21:34:53","slug":"the-effect-of-academic-major-and-occupation-on-lifetime-earnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tamus.edu\/data-science\/2023\/10\/01\/the-effect-of-academic-major-and-occupation-on-lifetime-earnings\/","title":{"rendered":"The Effect of Academic Major and Occupation on Lifetime Earnings"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"20521\" class=\"elementor elementor-20521\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-31200cc elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"31200cc\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-5230732\" data-id=\"5230732\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-00cc615 elementor-widget__width-initial elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"00cc615\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>This blog post serves as the third entry in our series reviewing estimated lifetime earnings by educational attainment level. Previous posts have reviewed general trends in terms of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tamus.edu\/data-science\/2023\/09\/01\/answering-the-age-old-question-is-a-college-degree-worth-it\/\">educational attainment levels<\/a>, as well as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tamus.edu\/data-science\/2023\/09\/15\/financial-impact-of-educational-attainment-by-race-ethnicity\/\">variance across race\/ethnicity categories<\/a>. In this post, we <span style=\"color: var( --e-global-color-text ); font-family: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-family ), Sans-serif; font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight );\">shift our focus to how earnings differ based on the combination of educational attainment levels and academic major and occupation. D<\/span><span style=\"color: var( --e-global-color-text ); font-family: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-family ), Sans-serif; font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight );\">ata shown below are from\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"color: var( --e-global-color-text ); font-family: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-family ), Sans-serif; font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight );\">the\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"font-family: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-family ), Sans-serif; background-color: #ffffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/cew.georgetown.edu\/\">Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW) at Georgetown University<\/a>\u00a0and use the broad categories provided within the CEW analysis. <i>Note: The CEW data include &#8220;professional&#8221; degrees as an educational attainment level. However, this category is not included in the visualizations below due to a lack of clarity in how these degrees are defined.<\/i><\/p><p><b><u>MAJOR<\/u><\/b>:<\/p><ul><li>The first visualization below shows the range in median lifetime earnings by university-level academic major, sorted by earnings for a bachelor&#8217;s degree.<\/li><li><b>Median earnings for bachelor&#8217;s graduates range from architecture and engineering majors at $3.8M to education majors at $2M<\/b>. Majors in computers, statistics, and mathematics have the second-highest earnings at $3.6M, while the other 13 major categories are below $3M in median lifetime earnings.<\/li><li><b>Earning a master&#8217;s degree has the greatest financial benefit for graduates in business ($800K increase from $3M for bachelor&#8217;s degree to $3.8M for a master&#8217;s degree), physical sciences ($800K increase from $2.9M to $3.7M), and architecture and engineering ($700K increase from $3.9M to $4.6M).\u00a0<\/b><\/li><li>Education majors experience the greatest percentage financial gain for earning a master&#8217;s degree above a bachelor&#8217;s degree with a 26.7% increase in lifetime earnings ($600K increase from $2M to $2.6M).<\/li><\/ul><h6><b>Notes<\/b>: Hovering over data points shows tooltips with additional information. Click the tab headings to move between visualizations.\u00a0<\/h6>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-440ae7d elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"440ae7d\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-130a91c\" data-id=\"130a91c\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-5aaf3a9 elementor-widget__width-inherit elementor-tabs-view-horizontal elementor-widget elementor-widget-tabs\" data-id=\"5aaf3a9\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"tabs.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-tabs\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-tabs-wrapper\" role=\"tablist\" >\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div id=\"elementor-tab-title-9501\" class=\"elementor-tab-title elementor-tab-desktop-title\" aria-selected=\"true\" data-tab=\"1\" role=\"tab\" tabindex=\"0\" aria-controls=\"elementor-tab-content-9501\" aria-expanded=\"false\">MAJOR<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div id=\"elementor-tab-title-9502\" class=\"elementor-tab-title elementor-tab-desktop-title\" aria-selected=\"false\" data-tab=\"2\" role=\"tab\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-controls=\"elementor-tab-content-9502\" aria-expanded=\"false\">OCCUPATION<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-tabs-content-wrapper\" role=\"tablist\" aria-orientation=\"vertical\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-tab-title elementor-tab-mobile-title\" aria-selected=\"true\" data-tab=\"1\" role=\"tab\" tabindex=\"0\" aria-controls=\"elementor-tab-content-9501\" aria-expanded=\"false\">MAJOR<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div id=\"elementor-tab-content-9501\" class=\"elementor-tab-content elementor-clearfix\" data-tab=\"1\" role=\"tabpanel\" aria-labelledby=\"elementor-tab-title-9501\" tabindex=\"0\" hidden=\"false\"><iframe title=\"Major\" src=\"https:\/\/observablehq.com\/embed\/37fad71a6a30f75c@228?cells=majorChart\" width=\"100%\" height=\"987\" frameborder=\"0\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-tab-title elementor-tab-mobile-title\" aria-selected=\"false\" data-tab=\"2\" role=\"tab\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-controls=\"elementor-tab-content-9502\" aria-expanded=\"false\">OCCUPATION<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div id=\"elementor-tab-content-9502\" class=\"elementor-tab-content elementor-clearfix\" data-tab=\"2\" role=\"tabpanel\" aria-labelledby=\"elementor-tab-title-9502\" tabindex=\"0\" hidden=\"hidden\"><iframe title=\"Occupation\" src=\"https:\/\/observablehq.com\/embed\/37fad71a6a30f75c@228?cells=occupationChart\" width=\"100%\" height=\"964\" frameborder=\"0\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-00580b6 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"00580b6\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-27832a8\" data-id=\"27832a8\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-c2ccd70 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"c2ccd70\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><b><u>OCCUPATION<\/u><\/b>:<\/p><ul><li>The second tab shows the CEW data disaggregated by educational achievement level and occupation. Unsurprisingly the academic majors with the highest earnings correlate with occupational fields that are highest paying.<\/li><li><b style=\"color: var( --e-global-color-text ); font-family: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-family ), Sans-serif;\">The occupations where earning a bachelor&#8217;s degree provides the most financial benefit when compared to a high school diploma are management ($1.52M increase from $2.2M for a HS diploma to $3.72M for a bachelor&#8217;s degree), architecture and engineering ($1.48M from $2.38M to $3.86M), and sales ($1.45M from $1.56M to $3.01M)<\/b><span style=\"color: var( --e-global-color-text ); font-family: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-family ), Sans-serif; font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight );\">.<\/span><\/li><li>Adding a master&#8217;s degree above a bachelor&#8217;s degree increases lifetime earnings the most in the following occupation groups: business and financial operations ($740K increase from $3.05M for a bachelor&#8217;s degree to $3.79M for a master&#8217;s degree), sales ($690K from $3.01M to $3.7M), and production ($530K from $2.16M to $2.69M).\u00a0<\/li><li><b>Earning a master&#8217;s degree in education has the third-highest percentage increase for occupation categories, raising lifetime earnings by 23% above a bachelor&#8217;s degree ($470K increase from $2.01M to $2.48M).\u00a0<\/b><\/li><\/ul>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-03f6192 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"03f6192\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-10e147c\" data-id=\"10e147c\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-84054b2 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"84054b2\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">So What?<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-dd1a850 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"dd1a850\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-224a564\" data-id=\"224a564\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-a1c77be elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"a1c77be\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>The data shown in the visualizations above support the general trend from previous blog posts, namely that increased educational attainment provides greater lifetime earnings. However, lifetime earnings and increases are not uniform across academic majors and occupation categories. If we interpret these findings in light of our previous post that showed variance across race\/ethnicity groups, an additional line-of-inquiry emerges: what is the correlation between race\/ethnicity and academic major\/occupation? We will seek to better understand this combination of variables in terms of estimated lifetime earnings in our next blog post in this series.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This blog post serves as the third entry in our series reviewing estimated lifetime earnings by educational attainment level. Previous posts have reviewed general trends in terms of educational attainment levels, as well as variance across race\/ethnicity categories. In this post, we shift our focus to how earnings differ based on the combination of educational&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1067,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27,50,19,24,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-colleges","category-earnings","category-educational-attainment","category-employment-outcomes","category-universities"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Effect of Academic Major and Occupation on Lifetime Earnings - Data Science<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tamus.edu\/data-science\/2023\/10\/01\/the-effect-of-academic-major-and-occupation-on-lifetime-earnings\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Effect of Academic Major and Occupation on Lifetime Earnings - Data Science\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This blog post serves as the third entry in our series reviewing estimated lifetime earnings by educational attainment level. 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In this post, we shift our focus to how earnings differ based on the combination of educational...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.tamus.edu\/data-science\/2023\/10\/01\/the-effect-of-academic-major-and-occupation-on-lifetime-earnings\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Data Science\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/tamusystem\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-01T00:00:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-15T21:34:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Blake Decker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@tamusystem\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@tamusystem\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Blake Decker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tamus.edu\\\/data-science\\\/2023\\\/10\\\/01\\\/the-effect-of-academic-major-and-occupation-on-lifetime-earnings\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tamus.edu\\\/data-science\\\/2023\\\/10\\\/01\\\/the-effect-of-academic-major-and-occupation-on-lifetime-earnings\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Blake Decker\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tamus.edu\\\/data-science\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/85586d816f0c1679ad91952490f3369e\"},\"headline\":\"The Effect of Academic Major and Occupation on Lifetime Earnings\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-01T00:00:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-15T21:34:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tamus.edu\\\/data-science\\\/2023\\\/10\\\/01\\\/the-effect-of-academic-major-and-occupation-on-lifetime-earnings\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":563,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tamus.edu\\\/data-science\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Community Colleges\",\"Earnings\",\"Educational Attainment\",\"Employment Outcomes\",\"Universities\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tamus.edu\\\/data-science\\\/2023\\\/10\\\/01\\\/the-effect-of-academic-major-and-occupation-on-lifetime-earnings\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.tamus.edu\\\/data-science\\\/2023\\\/10\\\/01\\\/the-effect-of-academic-major-and-occupation-on-lifetime-earnings\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Effect of Academic Major and Occupation on Lifetime Earnings - 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