What new earnings data reveals about Utah's college grads vs. Utah's high school grads

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah high school graduates, want to double your earnings? Start by claiming a college credential.

Alums of Utah's college programs typically earn $74,202 four years after finishing. That's double the median earnings of what Utah high school graduates are making ($37,112).

Utah's "college credentials-vs-high school diploma earnings ratio" is notably higher than the national average of outcomes across the 50 states and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, according to data released this week by the HEA Group, a national research and policy organization.

The HEA Group's "Payoff of College Credentials" report examined both education/earning levels figures, as well as identifying which higher education programs are proving most profitable.

The data is nuanced, noted HEA Group President Michael Itzkowitz in an Inside Higher Ed report. "But you do have some very interesting numbers when it comes to how much of a premium does a college degree provide. And sometimes it's very encouraging."

The HEA Group's findings echo assertions sounded in a higher education policy brief released earlier this year by the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute: Colleges remain a proven financial return on investment.

The data also doubles as a response to many across the nation who are questioning the value of higher education amid rising tuition, college debt and AI's encroachment across many industries.

The newly released earnings data comes from the Department of Education's College Scorecard and covers students who completed an undergraduate certificate, associate's degree or bachelor's degree in 2017–18 and 2018–19, according to the HEA Group.

Earnings are measured four years later and adjusted to 2024 dollars.

The high school benchmark is each state's median earnings for high school graduates aged 25–34 who never attended college.

Utah: High national/regional earnings rankings

The Beehive State is ranked No. 2 in the nation in measuring the median earnings gap between a state's undergraduate credential earners and the median earnings of its high school diploma earners.

Only Delaware — where graduates of the state's college program typically earn 102% more, four years after finishing, than its high school graduates — enjoys a higher ranking than Utah.

Utah also claimed an earnings spot above any of its regional neighbors, according to the HEA Group report.

When including all higher education credentials included in the data — bachelor's degrees, associate's degrees and certificates — Utah's typical earnings are 100% above the typical earnings of high school graduates with no college.

New Mexico's gap is 79%, Arizona's is 70%, Idaho's is 67%, Nevada's is 63%, Wyoming's is 60% and Colorado's is 55%.

Nationally, Alaska came in last in the earning gap study at 28%. That's partly because the state's high school graduates had the highest median salary in the country of $41,400, according to Inside Higher Ed.

Breaking down Utah's earnings data by credential programs

The HEA Group analysis gave high-earning marks to Utah's computer/information technology administration, business administration and health and medical administrative services program.

Bachelor's degree graduates in Utah in that high-tech field, for example, ranked No. 1 in the nation on the earnings premium scale. The typical Utah graduate from this program earned $127,178, four years after graduating. That's almost $40,000 above that same credential, nationally.

But not all credentials being earned in Utah are typically profitable. Graduates of cosmetology and related personal grooming services, for example, typically earn $9,000 less than Utah's typical high school graduate earnings.

Trump administration takes action against poor-earning programs

College credential earning outcomes have implications beyond the size of a graduate's paycheck.

Last June, the Department of Education announced a "post-secondary education accountability framework."

Under the framework, undergraduate programs will be required to demonstrate that their graduates earn more than the typical high school diploma holder, and graduate programs will be required to demonstrate that their graduates earn more than the typical bachelor's degree holder.

Related:

What the Trump administration plans for colleges earning F's in returns on investment?

The Department of Education launched an "earnings indicator" in December, designed to provide college-bound students and their families with information about a school's post-graduation earnings status.

If a program fails to show at least this "modest financial return on investment" for its graduates in two out of three consecutive award years, it will lose eligibility to participate in the federal Direct Loan program, according to a DOE release.

After three years of consistently failing the earnings premium measure, the DOE could also terminate eligibility for Title IV of the Higher Education Act, including Pell Grant eligibility, for all of an institution's low-earning outcome programs.

"If a program cannot show that it leaves its graduates financially better off than if they had never enrolled, it should not be underwritten by federal taxpayers," said Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent in the DOE release.

"Amid rising rates of default and delinquency in the $1.7 trillion federal student loan portfolio, this new accountability framework is a responsible policy that will safeguard American taxpayer dollars and protect students from taking on unmanageable debt for programs that cannot demonstrate a reasonable return on investment."

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