Master’s degree recipients in the humanities have substantially lower median earnings than graduates with master’s degrees in other major academic fields. Contributing to the comparatively low salaries for master’s degree recipients in the humanities (and education) is the relatively large share working as teachers, who have traditionally been paid less than other workers of similar educational attainment.[1]
Findings and Trends
- In 2015, college graduates with a terminal master’s degree in the humanities had one of the lowest median earnings levels of any major academic field, $58,000 (for full-time workers; Indicator III-8aa). This was above the median earnings for master’s degree recipients in education and the arts ($56,000 and $52,000 respectively), but $17,000 below the median for all recipients of terminal master’s degrees. Graduates with a degree in business had the highest median earnings, $105,000.
- Male recipients of humanities master’s degrees had median earnings of $63,000, which is $8,000 greater than their female counterparts but lower than the median earnings for men in every other field. The 12.7% gender gap in earnings among humanities degree recipients was the narrowest found in any major academic field (both in dollars and as a percentage) and was more than 20 percentage points smaller than for all fields combined (Indicator III-8bb).[2] The widest earnings gender gap (41.4%) was found among recipients of arts degrees.
III-8aa: Median Annual Earnings of Full-Time Workers with a Terminal Master’s Degree, by Gender and Field of Degree, 2015* |  | * Full-time workers are those who worked 35 or more hours per week for 50 or more weeks during the previous 12 months. Earnings estimates have been rounded to the nearest $1,000. This analysis excludes holders of the J.D. and other professional degrees.
Source: National Science Foundation, 2015 National Survey of College Graduates. Data analyzed and presented by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org). |
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III-8bb: Earnings Gender Gap among Full-Time Workers with a Terminal Master’s Degree, by Field of Degree, 2015* |  | * The earnings gender gap is the difference between male and female median annual earnings expressed as a percentage of male median earnings. Full-time workers are those who worked 35 or more hours per week for 50 or more weeks during the previous 12 months. This analysis excludes holders of the J.D. and other professional degrees.
Source: National Science Foundation, 2015 National Survey of College Graduates. Data analyzed and presented by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org). |
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Endnotes
[2] The earnings gender gap is the difference between male and female median earnings expressed as a percentage of male median earnings.
About the Data|
Conducted every two years, the National Survey of College Graduates (NSCG) gathers detailed education, occupation, and earnings information from a sample of individuals drawn from the larger pool of all those identified via the American Community Survey (ACS) as holders of a baccalaureate degree. The National Science Foundation makes NSCG data available to researchers and the general public via downloadable data files and its online data analysis tool, SESTAT.
Given the size of the NSCG sample, reliable estimates are available only for broad academic fields. For the NSCG disciplinary categories included in each of the field-of-degree categories employed by the Humanities Indicators, see the provided crosswalk.
This earnings indicator is based on NSCG data, but similar items included in the Humanities Indicators rely on data from the ACS. Due to marked differences in how the NSCG and ACS classify academic fields, the contents of the field-of-degree categories used for this indicator are not identical to those used for the ACS-based Indicators III-4e and 4f. (For more information on the contents of the categories used for the ACS analysis, see the pertinent crosswalk.)
An even more important difference between this indicator and the ACS-based earnings indicators is that the master’s degree recipients considered here are those whose master’s was in the humanities (irrespective of the field of their undergraduate degree). The ACS does not collect data about the field of advanced degrees. The ACS-based indicators thus describe the earnings of undergraduate humanities majors who went on to pursue advanced degrees, regardless of the field of that degree.
About the Data|
Conducted every two years, the National Survey of College Graduates (NSCG) gathers detailed education, occupation, and earnings information from a sample of individuals drawn from the larger pool of all those identified via the American Community Survey (ACS) as holders of a baccalaureate degree. The National Science Foundation makes NSCG data available to researchers and the general public via downloadable data files and its online data analysis tool, SESTAT.
Given the size of the NSCG sample, reliable estimates are available only for broad academic fields. For the NSCG disciplinary categories included in each of the field-of-degree categories employed by the Humanities Indicators, see the provided crosswalk.
This earnings indicator is based on NSCG data, but similar items included in the Humanities Indicators rely on data from the ACS. Due to marked differences in how the NSCG and ACS classify academic fields, the contents of the field-of-degree categories used for this indicator are not identical to those used for the ACS-based Indicators III-4e and 4f. (For more information on the contents of the categories used for the ACS analysis, see the pertinent crosswalk.)
An even more important difference between this indicator and the ACS-based earnings indicators is that the master’s degree recipients considered here are those whose master’s was in the humanities (irrespective of the field of their undergraduate degree). The ACS does not collect data about the field of advanced degrees. The ACS-based indicators thus describe the earnings of undergraduate humanities majors who went on to pursue advanced degrees, regardless of the field of that degree.