New
data from the U.S. Department of Education shows the value of higher education in closing the racial income gap. According to a new report on bachelor’s degree recipients who earned their degree during the 2007-08 academic year, the average earned income of Black bachelor’s degree recipients in 2009 was $39,700. This was only slightly less than the average earned income of $40,500 for Whites in 2009 who graduated from a four-year college in the 2007-08 academic year.
Therefore, a four-year college education tends to almost totally eliminate the racial earned income gap between Blacks and Whites, at least for those who have recently entered the job market.
