July 18, 2012
In April, John Schmitt and I published a CEPR report describing how the experience and education upgrading of the workforce has not received the labor market rewards it deserves. And while I think we did an excellent job, it turns out we left out an important piece: an amazing infographic! That’s where Colin Gordon steps in. Earlier this week, Colin used the report’s data to create an interactive figure that shows the increased educational attainment of low-wage workers. For each state, you can look at the different education categories – less than high school, high school, some college, and at least a four-year degree – for two time periods, 1980 and 2010.
My personal favorite is to toggle between 1980 and 2010 with only the high school and some college categories selected. In 1980, those extra classes after high school really mattered, as seen by the wide distribution along both axes. However, by 2010, the data converges into one large data point, showing that returns to a few years of post-high school education without a four-year degree is doing very little for low wage workers.
