Low-wage workers today have achieved more education than 20 years ago: The share of low-wage workers with a bachelor's or advanced degree has almost doubled

The bars show the share of workers who were paid low wages in 2022 compared to 2000, by the highest level of education attained. In 2000, 6.1% of low-wage workers had attained a bachelor's degree, but by 2022, that number almost doubled to 11.9%.

Bar chart comparing low-wage work prevalence across California in 2000 and 2022, according to the highest level of educational attainment: less than high school, high school graduate or GED, some college, Associate's degree, Bachelor's degree, or Advanced degree. Relative to 2000, the share of low-wage workers with less than a high school degree has dropped dramatically from 34.7% to 20.7% in 2022. Meanwhile, the share of low-wage workers with Associate's, Bachelor's, or Advanced degrees has increased.
In 2022, the value of the low-wage threshold is $19.69. The sample includes workers who live in California, were employed last week but not self-employed, ages 16+, and with non-zero earnings last week. To calculate the share of workers paid low wages in 2000, we inflate 2000 wages to 2022 dollars and apply the 2022 low wage threshold.
Chart: UC Berkeley Labor CenterSource: EPI Current Population Survey Outgoing Rotation Group 2000 and 2022 • Get the dataEmbed Download imageDownload PDFDownload SVGCreated with Datawrapper