David Neumark, an economist at the University of California-Irvine, said a bachelor's degree can have benefits that aren't fully reflected in the government's labor data. He said even for lower-skilled jobs such as waitress or cashier, employers tend to value bachelor's degree-holders more highly than high-school graduates, paying them more for the same work and offering promotions.
Ah. Brings back memories of the cabbie I met in Madison, Wisc who had a Ph.D. in Medieval Philosophy.
Some of those degrees were earned by people who merely wanted a job the required any degree (military officer, policeman). Now that those jobs have dried up in our area, a lot of criminal justice degrees are wondering what they’ll do now...