Do degrees in the humanities increase earnings by 40%?

Debunking the Inside Higher Education article: “Debunking Perceptions About Value of Humanities Degrees”

According to a recent article in Inside Higher Education touting the value of an undergraduate degree in the humanities, “Despite growing skepticism about the value of humanities degrees, college graduates who majored in a humanities field out-earn people with no degree in every state, a new report has found.”

That statement is true. But does it demonstrate that the REASON why those with a humanities degree earn more is actually BECAUSE of their humanities degree? Of course not – for a number of reasons.

First – the entire article is based upon the findings from a study that reports correlational data. But correlation is not causation. The report in question compares the earnings of those who go on to college and major in the humanities with those who don’t go to college at all. Might it be possible that those two populations differ in ways other than the fact that the former received a degree in the humanities? In fact, there is no chance that those two populations don’t differ in important ways — ways that may include intelligence, motivation, family SES, etc. If those who wrote the report wanted to do a better study, they should have at least tried to compare apples (students who go to college and major in the humanities) with academically similar apples (students of comparable academic accomplishment in high school but who decide not to go to college). That would not be a perfect comparison, but it would be WAY better than the one reported.

Second – the article is based upon a comparison of individuals who stop their education with a high school degree with individuals who go to college and receive a humanities degree and, in many cases, a postgraduate degree as well. Again — wouldn’t you think that a better comparison – if the goal is to assess the earnings value of a humanities degree – would involve a comparison between those who receive only a high school degree with those who receive ONLY a humanities B.A.? In fact, the article references data indicating that much of the so-called benefits of a humanities degree are the result of many of those who receive a humanities degree also receiving a post-graduate degree. According to the IHE article “Nationally, 42 percent of humanities majors do go on to earn an advanced degree, which boosts median earnings by 36 percent”. In other words, it is the ADVANCED DEGREE (especially when that degree is in law) that likely accounts for much of the difference in earnings between “High School degree only” individuals and those who earn a humanities B.A. – not the humanities degree itself.

I’m not arguing that humanities degrees are necessarily worthless. Indeed, it MAY BE that such degrees directly increase earnings (as the IHE article argues), and they may be valuable in ways that are not captured by a focus on earnings alone. But given the data referenced in the IHE article, those claims cannot escape the “MAYBE” category; it would take much better data that the findings referenced in the IHE article to actually “debunk” the view that humanities degree are of little value.