This month we are highlighting the learning module, “Education and Earnings: Does Education Pay?“ by Dr. Jill Bouma, of Berea College.
In this module, students will explore the relationship between education and earnings, by asking a key question: do people with higher levels of education actually earn more money?
Next, we will return to earlier findings about differences in earnings by race and sex. Previously, we saw that women earn less than men and that people of color earn less than White workers. There are many possible explanations for these gaps. One possibility is that differences in education levels across groups help explain the differences in earnings. For example, if women have, on average, less education than men, lower earnings may be related to education rather than discrimination.
Author(s) – Jill Bouma, Berea College
Learning Goals
Skill
-Using software to access and analyze census data
Identifying independent and dependent variables
Employing control variables
Quantitative writing
-Learning how to construct, read, and interpret bivariate tables displaying frequencies and percentages
Using real world data to enhance and support key course concepts
Substance
-Examine the influence of education on earnings. Do higher levels of education lead to higher earnings? In other words, does education pay off?
-Examine whether race and sex still have an effect on earnings, once we control for education. Is the reason women and people of color make less money because they have less education?