Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers, Fourth Quarter 2021,demonstrate that median weekly earnings are

higher for workers who have completed more education. While these rates of return will beat equivalent

investments in Treasury bonds or savings accounts, the estimated returns to education go primarily to the

individual worker, so these returns are private rates of return to education.

Less than a High

High School Degree,

Bachelor's Degree

School Degree

No College

or Higher

Median Weekly Earnings (full-time

workers over the age of 25)

$651

$831

$1,467

TABLE 13.2 Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers, Fourth Quarter 2021 (Source:

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/wkyeng.pdf)

What does society gain from investing in the education of another student? After all, if the government is

spending taxpayer dollars to subsidize public education, society should expect some kind of return on that
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