For Young Blacks, a College Degree Eliminates Much of the Racial Income Gap

JBHE data has shown that blacks of all ages with a college degree have a median income that is about 94 percent of the median income of college-educated whites.

A new report from the U.S. Department of Education confirms the powerful influence of a college education on the earnings power of young blacks. According to the report, African Americans who earned their bachelor’s degrees in the 1992-93 academic year who had a full-time job in 2003 had a median income that was 88 percent that of their white peers. In 2003 this group of African-American college graduates from 1992-93 who had a full-time job had a median income of $46,400. For whites who earned their bachelor’s degree in 1992-93, the median income figure for full-time workers was $52,800.

Copyright © 2006. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.