Table 2.7: Median weekly wage earned by education level, as a fraction of median weekly wage earned by all full-time employed workers

a) 25-64-year-olds
Highest educational credential Fraction of median weekly wage earned
1981 1986 1991 1996 2001
None 0.87 0.85 0.83 0.82 0.81
High-school graduation 0.93 0.95 0.92 0.93 0.91
Trades certificate 1.10 1.08 1.03 1.03 1.00
College certificate 1.04 1.08 1.03 1.04 1.03
Univ,< bachelor 1.19 1.20 1.17 1.14 1.11
Univ,bachelors 1.30 1.34 1.33 1.31 1.29
Univ,> bachelors 1.39 1.50 1.48 1.52 1.43
Univ,masters degree 1.60 1.73

1.65

 1.67 1.57
Univ,doctorate 1.87 2.00 2.01 1.92 1.83
All groups 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00

a) 25-29-year-olds
Highest educational credential Fraction of median weekly wage earned
1981 1986 1991 1996 2001
None 0.89 0.88 0.85 0.81 0.80
High-school graduation 0.95 0.95 0.93 0.92 0.88
Trades certificate 1.07 1.02 1.00 0.97 0.98
College certificate 1.03 1.04 1.04 1.01 0.99
Univ,< bachelor 1.08 1.04 1.00 1.02 1.00
Univ,bachelors 1.17 1.20 1.20 1.15 1.17
Univ,> bachelors 1.18 1.24 1.28 1.25 1.27
Univ,masters degree 1.27 1.25 1.32 1.28 1.28
All groups 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00

Source: Authors’ calculations from the 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001 census public use master file8

8 Workers aged 25-29 with doctorate degrees are excluded from Table 6, Panel B. This is because there are too few of them in this age group. Moreover, because these workers have likely graduated at a much older age than their relatively less educated counterparts, they may have less work experience. Given that the wages of more educated workers grow at a much quicker rate than the wages of less-educated workers, this early wage data does not provide a meaningful comparison.