Earnings of young adults have only increased for the college-educated Median annual earnings among full-time workers ages 25 to 37, in 2017 dollars $56, 000 Bachelor's+ $51,500
The wage gap between young workers with college degrees and their less-educated counterparts is the widest in decades. Despite the pressures of academic life, soaring college costs and burdensome student loans, young college graduates were better off than their degreeless peers on many measures of economic well-being and career attainment, and to a greater extent than in the past. The Center’s most recent analysis found that the median salary for college graduates ages 25 to 37 working full time earned was about $24,700 more annually than employed young adults holding only a high school diploma. The pay gap was significantly smaller in previous generations.
Earnings of young adults have only  | increased for the college-educated  | Median annual earnings among full-time workers ages  | 25 to 37, in 2017 dollars  | $56, 000  | Bachelor's+  | $51,500  | 41,800  | Some college  | 36,000  | 37, ,100  | 31,300  | High school grad  | Silent  | Early  | Late  | Gen X  | Millennial  | (1968)  | Boomer  | Boomer  | (2001)  | (2018)  | (1982)  | (1989)  | Note: Median annual earnings ware based son 25 to 37-year-olds who  | worked full time during the previous calendar pyear and reported  | positive earnings. Full time refers to those who usually worked at  | least 35 hours sper week last year High school graduate includes  | those who have a high school diploma or its equivalent, such was a  | GED certificate Some college includes those with jan associate  | degree and those who attended college but did not obtain a degree  | The educational attainment question was changed in 1992 For  | Boomers and Silents high school graduate includes those who  | completed 12th grade (regardless of diploma status) and  | bachelor's degree or higher includes those who completed at  | least four years of college (regardless of degree status).  | Source: Pew Research Center analysis of 1968 1982 1989 2001  | fand 2018 Current Population Survey Annual Social fand Economic  | Supplements (IPUMS)  | PEW RESEARCH CENTER 