The Benefits to Taxpayers from Increases in Students - RAND ...

Analytic Approach 17
women employed full-time for 1976–2006. These data are not available separated by
race/ethnicity.
The ratios have consistently increased slowly over time. Since 1976, for both men
and women, the average wages and salaries paid to full-time workers at one level of
education have increased more rapidly than the average wages and salaries paid workers
at the next lower education level. The effects of education level on how much employed
workers are paid has clearly increased over time. Consequently, the estimates cited
above almost certainly understate the effects of education level on earnings capacity.
Further, as noted earlier, the studies of the effect of education on earnings capacity
generally focus on how the level of education affects the wages and salaries paid to
individuals who are employed full-time. They generally do not examine the effects of
education on whether an individual is employed and, if so, on a full-time basis. Higher
earnings capacity implies that the opportunity costs of not participating in the labor
market or working part-time rather than full-time are greater. So, the positive effect
of education level on earnings capacity will also increase the incentive to seek employment,
particularly full-time employment.
Table 2.2 shows the annual average percentage of the population in each gender,
race/ethnicity, and education level who were employed over the 1992–2007 period. 4
Table 2.2
Percentage of Persons Age 25 to 64 Who Are Employed, by Race/Ethnicity, Gender,
and Education Level, 1992–2007
Highest Level of Education
Race/Ethnicity
Gender
Less Than
High School
Graduate
High School
Graduate
Some College
Bachelor’s
Degree or
More
Asian Female 34 53 64 67
Male 56 73 77 84
Black Female 29 59 71 79
Male 41 69 77 83
Hispanic Female 36 59 69 73
Male 72 82 84 87
White Female 28 52 65 72
Male 54 72 78 82
Total Female 28 53 65 72
Male 52 72 78 83
Source: U.S. Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey, data
file on employment status, age 25 and over, by education, sex, and race, 1992–2007.
4
Data on the percentage of Asians employed are only available for 1999–2007.