US: a young bachelor earns $60k a year, about the same as in 1990 after prices
Median pay of full-time workers aged 22–27 in 2025 dollars: $60.0k against $58.1k. With a high-school diploma, $40.0k: it has never got back to the 1990 level ($41.9k) since.
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The degree premium grew, but not because graduates got richer: their pay after prices barely changed over 35 years, while peers with only high school lost ground. "Study and you will earn more" holds against a peer, not over time.
Lines: median annual pay of full-time workers aged 22–27, in 2025 dollars: bachelors without a graduate degree and people with only a high-school diploma.
- US: median pay of a bachelor aged 22–27 2025 dollars
1990: 58,138; 1995: 50,711; 2000: 56,097; 2005: 56,063; 2010: 56,696; 2015: 59,776; 2020: 62,193; 2025: 60,000
New York Fed: The Labor Market for Recent College Graduates (CPS earnings, 2025 dollars)
- US: median pay with a high-school diploma, 22–27 2025 dollars
1990: 41,893; 1995: 37,849; 2000: 37,959; 2005: 37,925; 2010: 36,911; 2015: 35,322; 2020: 38,560; 2025: 40,000
New York Fed: The Labor Market for Recent College Graduates (CPS earnings, 2025 dollars)
New York Fed, The Labor Market for Recent College Graduates: CPS medians, converted to 2025 dollars with the consumer price index. Bachelor: low $50.7k (1995), high $63.4k (2023).
A slower price index (personal consumption expenditures) would show somewhat more growth. Full-time pay only, wages only, without insurance or pension contributions. Composition changes: more people hold degrees, and those with only high school are an ever narrower group.
A question for this picture
And jobs? Young graduates have been unemployed more often than workers overall for more than five years in a row.