It’s drummed into our brains that college is how one earns higher salaries; there’s even a TV commercial (man buying wallet from Asians who are laughing at him as they hand him a tiny wallet). It may even be true that what was once considered a good high school education now requires at least the first two years of college to catch up to the old standard HS diploma. But a person who is willing to self-educate while they’re working is logically a better hiring risk to an employer.
My college degree helped in one job (but perhaps not as much as what the stars told my employer who believed in astrology). The job didn’t really require a college education; OJT was how one became proficient. At present, my degree apparently makes me overqualified for everything but unemployment, yet my bills don’t care how I earn what pays them.