{"id":202440,"date":"2024-08-22T16:23:21","date_gmt":"2024-08-23T02:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=202440"},"modified":"2024-08-22T16:23:21","modified_gmt":"2024-08-23T02:23:21","slug":"college-majors-earnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2024\/08\/22\/college-majors-earnings\/","title":{"rendered":"Which college majors pay the most in Hawai\u02bbi and the U.S.?"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>\"U\n

Medical and health sciences ($106,827), engineering ($103,085), physical sciences ($101,059), and biology and life sciences ($99,996) top the list of majors with the most potential earnings in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>, according to a new analysis by experts at the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Economic Research Organization<\/a> (UHERO<\/abbr>).<\/p>\n

Nationwide, the top majors were engineering ($121,369), economics ($120,669), computer and information sciences ($113,460), and biology and life sciences ($112,625). Report authors Rachel Inafuku and Tim Halliday utilized data from the American Community Survey in their analysis.<\/p>\n

“When comparing the estimated earnings for college graduates in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> to those in the U.S., it is clear that the income range is considerably more compressed in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>. Only three of the top 10 majors in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> reach six-figure salaries by mid-career, and these top earners still earn considerably less than the top three majors across the U.S.,” Inafuku and Halliday write. “Additionally, the earnings gap between the highest and lowest-paying majors is narrower in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>. This compression in earnings is consistent with expectations, given the economy\u2019s heavy reliance on tourism and its lower levels of economic diversity and income inequality compared to other states.”<\/p>\n

UH<\/abbr>\u2019s significant return on investment<\/h2>\n

This analysis follows a January 2024 UHERO<\/abbr> report<\/a> by Halliday and Inafuku that shows lifetime earnings of UH<\/abbr> graduates with bachelor\u2019s degrees were 27% higher than those who exited UH<\/abbr> without their degrees.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is that people with college degrees generally earn substantially more than non-graduates.
— Inafuku and Halliday<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“The bottom line is that people with college degrees generally earn substantially more than non-graduates,” Inafuku and Halliday said. “A widely recognized finding in labor economics is that additional years of schooling cause earnings to increase. In fact, research indicates that an additional year of higher education typically raises earnings by 10%.”<\/p>\n

UHERO<\/abbr> is housed in UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa\u2019s College of Social Sciences<\/a>.<\/p>\n

See the entire analysis on UHERO<\/abbr>\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Report authors utilized data from the American Community Survey in their analysis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[301,197,1467,1363,1026,9,343],"class_list":["post-202440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-college-of-social-sciences","tag-economics","tag-manoa-excellence-in-research","tag-manoa-research","tag-social-science","tag-uh-manoa","tag-uhero","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202440"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":202453,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202440\/revisions\/202453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}