Labor Market Outcomes

• Among postsecondary completers, short-term labor market outcomes appear to be similar regardless of first-generation status.

Among those who completed a degree or certificate and entered the workforce, first-generation and other students were generally distributed similarly among broad occupation groups (table 8). This was true whether they earned a certificate, an associate’s degree, or a bachelor’s degree.

Average salaries did not differ either. Among 1992–93 bachelor’s degree recipients who were employed full time in April 1994, the average salary was about $23,000 for both first-generation graduates and others (Nuñez and Cuccaro-Alamin 1998). On average, males earned higher salaries than females ($26,000 versus $21,000), but there was no difference according to first-generation status for either males or females.

Salary parity continued for at least 3 more years. In April 1997, the average salary for 1992–93 bachelor’s degree recipients who had not enrolled in graduate education and who were employed full time was about $34,000 (Horn and Zahn 2001).¹² A multivariate analysis showed that salary was related to undergraduate major, sex, GPA, and type of institution attended, but not to parents’ education.¹³

¹²Among 1992–93 bachelor’s degree recipients, 70 percent had not enrolled in graduate education by 1997, and 86 percent of those who had not enrolled were employed full time in April 1997. (back to text)

¹³For this particular analysis the categories for parents’ education were "bachelor’s degree" and "less than a bachelor’s degree."