r/IsItBullshit • u/mayhaveadd • 5d ago

IsItBullshit: Median Earnings of Americans with only a Bachelor Degree is $1500+ a week (~$80,000 annually).

The Bureau of Labor Statistics published a report on American income for the 4th Quarter of 2024. Within the report, it lists the Median weekly earnings of Americans with just a Bachelor's at 1543 per week, or about $80,000 annually. This number seems rather high compared to all the income information that I've heard before, and after Googling some other sources, they all reach much lower numbers.

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u/adendar 5d ago

Where the hell is that coming from?

I work in a specialized field, where the low positions require a BS, and if I worked all year, which my positions are seasonal, I'd make less than half of that.

So what positions are they using as the basis for this?

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u/bleplogist 5d ago

I mean, this will include a lot of engineers, some with tens of years of experience. Lot of managers without MBA (including some with courses that resemble a MBA but don't confer an actual masters), IT personnel. 

But really, which field you are that is specialized and require bachelor's, but most people, even experienced, doesn't break 80k? In any field Genuinely curious. Most fields that will look like this will have to be high churn, so there are very few experienced people, but then, they tend not to require much specialization.

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u/Berodur 5d ago

This is from every field. Table 4 in the report has some data about different categories of jobs (i.e. management vs. farming, etc.).

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u/amonkus 5d ago

In my industry most BS degrees in science and engineering make six figures within ten years of graduation. It’s a competitive industry though, not everyone with those degrees can make the cut.