Indicator

Earnings of Humanities Ph.D.’s

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Recipients of doctoral degrees in the humanities have the lowest median earnings of any field, due in part to the large share of Ph.D.’s in the field who are employed as postsecondary faculty, an occupation in which average humanities salaries are relatively low.1 The following analysis provides a snapshot of the differences in earnings among the fields and between men and women in each field.

Endnotes

  • 1According to the annual faculty salary survey from the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources for the 2014–2015 academic year, faculty members in history, philosophy, and religious studies, as well as English and languages and literatures other than English, were all in the bottom half of the distribution of median salaries at each rank. For instance, assistant professors in all disciplines combined had a median salary of $67,881, while the median salary for faculty in the larger humanities disciplines was less than $60,000. At the full professor level, the median salary was $100,087 for faculty in all disciplines combined, compared to less than $93,000 for faculty members in the humanities disciplines. Faculty salaries by discipline are available in the report “Median Salaries of Tenured and Tenure-Track Professors at 4-Year Colleges, 2014–15,” Chronicle of Higher Education, March 16, 2015, http://www.chronicle.com/article/Median-Salaries-of-Tenured-and/228435/ (accessed 9/21/2016).
Findings and Trends
Findings and Trends
  • In 2015, college graduates with a Ph.D. in the humanities had the lowest median earnings of graduates with doctorates in any of the major academic fields (Indicator III-24a; due to small sample size, Ph.D.’s in the arts are not included). While Ph.D.’s in the humanities reported median earnings of $77,000, the median income for all doctoral degree recipients was $99,000. Doctoral degree recipients in engineering had the highest median earnings, $125,000.
  • Male recipients of humanities doctoral degrees had median earnings of $85,000, which is $23,000 above their female counterparts, but both men and women with humanities doctorates had the lowest median earnings for doctoral recipients of their gender in any field.
  • The 27% gender gap in earnings among humanities Ph.D.’s was one of the largest among all the fields studied, second only to Ph.D. recipients in life sciences, who had a 30.5% gap. When all fields are considered together, the gap was 30% (Indicator III-24b).
  • The range of earnings of humanities Ph.D.’s was relatively narrow in 2015, with a gap of less than $50,000 between the 25th and 75th percentiles (workers at the 25th percentile made 49.5% of what their counterparts at the 75th percentile did; Indictor III-24c). In comparison, among Ph.D.’s from all fields, the difference in earnings between the quartiles was $86,000 (with lower-earning workers making 41.1% of what their higher-earning counterparts did). Nevertheless, the earnings of the top 25% of humanities Ph.D.’s was greater than those of half of doctoral degree recipients from education, business, and the health/medical sciences.
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Data Source and Other Information

* Full-time workers are those who worked 35 or more hours per week for 50 or more weeks during the previous 12 months. Earnings estimates have been rounded to the nearest $1,000. The analysis excludes holders of the D.D.S., D.V.M., M.D., and other non-research degrees.
Source: National Science Foundation, 2015 National Survey of College Graduates. Data analyzed and presented by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).

About the Data

Since the humanities were dropped from the biennial Survey of Doctorate Recipients (SDR) in 1995, the National Science Foundation’s National Survey of College Graduates (NSCG) is the only source of nationally representative data on the occupations and earnings of humanities Ph.D.’s. Conducted every two years, the NSCG gathers detailed education, occupation, and earnings information from a sample of individuals drawn from the larger pool of all those identified via the American Community Survey (ACS) as holders of a baccalaureate degree. Given the size of the NSCG sample, reliable estimates are available only for broad academic fields. For the NSCG disciplinary categories included in each of the field-of-degree categories employed by the Humanities Indicators, see the provided crosswalk. This earnings indicator is based on NSCG data, but similar items included in the Humanities Indicators rely on data from the ACS. Due to marked differences in how NSCG and the ACS classify academic fields, the contents of the field-of-degree categories used for this indicator are not identical to those used for the ACS-based Indicators III-07a and 07b. (For more information on the contents of the categories used for the ACS analysis, see the pertinent crosswalk.)
Another key difference between these indicators and the ACS-based earnings indicators is that the Ph.D. holders considered here are those whose doctoral degree was in the humanities (irrespective of the field of their undergraduate and any terminal master’s degree). The ACS does not collect data about the field of advanced degrees. The ACS-based indicators thus describe the earnings of undergraduate humanities majors who went on to pursue advanced degrees, regardless of the field of the advanced degree. 

Related Indicators

See also “Occupations of Humanities Ph.D.’s.”
Occupation and earnings information for terminal bachelor’s degree recipients can be found under the topics “Occupations of Humanities Majors with a Terminal Bachelor’s Degree” and “Earnings of Humanities Majors with a Terminal Bachelor's Degree.” (The estimates for terminal bachelor’s degree holders are based on data from a different source, the American Community Survey, and are thus not strictly comparable to the estimates provided here for Ph.D.’s. Please click the “About the Data” button below the graph for further explanation.) For information about the occupational outcomes of terminal master’s degree recipients, see “Occupations of Master’s Degree Recipients in the Humanities” and “Earnings of Humanities Master’s Degree Recipients.” The Humanities Indicators also provides information on the “Job Status of Humanities Ph.D.’s at Time of Graduation” and “Number of Faculty Members in Humanities and Other Fields.” For a comparison of the humanities with other major academic fields with respect to unemployment among majors, see “The Employment Status of Humanities Majors.” For trends concerning the number and type of humanities Ph.D.’s conferred over the past 60 years, see “Advanced Degrees in the Humanities” and “Disciplinary Distribution of Advanced Degrees in the Humanities.”

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Data Source and Other Information

* The earnings gender gap is the difference between male and female median annual earnings expressed as a percentage of male median earnings. Full-time workers are those who worked 35 or more hours per week for 50 or more weeks during the previous 12 months. The analysis excludes holders of the D.D.S., D.V.M., M.D., and other non-research degrees.
Source: National Science Foundation, 2015 National Survey of College Graduates. Data analyzed and presented by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).

About the Data

Since the humanities were dropped from the biennial Survey of Doctorate Recipients (SDR) in 1995, the National Science Foundation’s National Survey of College Graduates (NSCG) is the only source of nationally representative data on the occupations and earnings of humanities Ph.D.’s. Conducted every two years, the NSCG gathers detailed education, occupation, and earnings information from a sample of individuals drawn from the larger pool of all those identified via the American Community Survey (ACS) as holders of a baccalaureate degree. Given the size of the NSCG sample, reliable estimates are available only for broad academic fields. For the NSCG disciplinary categories included in each of the field-of-degree categories employed by the Humanities Indicators, see the provided crosswalk. This earnings indicator is based on NSCG data, but similar items included in the Humanities Indicators rely on data from the ACS. Due to marked differences in how NSCG and the ACS classify academic fields, the contents of the field-of-degree categories used for this indicator are not identical to those used for the ACS-based Indicators III-07a and 07b. (For more information on the contents of the categories used for the ACS analysis, see the pertinent crosswalk.)
Another key difference between these indicators and the ACS-based earnings indicators is that the Ph.D. holders considered here are those whose doctoral degree was in the humanities (irrespective of the field of their undergraduate and any terminal master’s degree). The ACS does not collect data about the field of advanced degrees. The ACS-based indicators thus describe the earnings of undergraduate humanities majors who went on to pursue advanced degrees, regardless of the field of the advanced degree. 

Related Indicators

See also “Occupations of Humanities Ph.D.’s.”
Occupation and earnings information for terminal bachelor’s degree recipients can be found under the topics “Occupations of Humanities Majors with a Terminal Bachelor’s Degree” and “Earnings of Humanities Majors with a Terminal Bachelor's Degree.” (The estimates for terminal bachelor’s degree holders are based on data from a different source, the American Community Survey, and are thus not strictly comparable to the estimates provided here for Ph.D.’s. Please click the “About the Data” button below the graph for further explanation.) For information about the occupational outcomes of terminal master’s degree recipients, see “Occupations of Master’s Degree Recipients in the Humanities” and “Earnings of Humanities Master’s Degree Recipients.” The Humanities Indicators also provides information on the “Job Status of Humanities Ph.D.’s at Time of Graduation” and “Number of Faculty Members in Humanities and Other Fields.” For a comparison of the humanities with other major academic fields with respect to unemployment among majors, see “The Employment Status of Humanities Majors.” For trends concerning the number and type of humanities Ph.D.’s conferred over the past 60 years, see “Advanced Degrees in the Humanities” and “Disciplinary Distribution of Advanced Degrees in the Humanities.” For an occupation and earnings comparison by gender for all advanced degree holders with a humanities background, see Indicator III-3l: Occupational Distribution of Humanities Majors Who Went On to Obtain an Advanced Degree (in Any Field), by Gender, 2015.

III-24c: Range of Annual Earnings of Full-Time Workers with a Doctoral Degree, by Field of Degree, 2015*

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Data Source and Other Information

* Full-time workers are those who worked 35 or more hours per week for 50 or more weeks during the previous 12 months. Earnings estimates have been rounded to the nearest $1,000. The analysis excludes holders of the D.D.S., D.V.M., M.D., and other non-research degrees.
Source: National Science Foundation, 2015 National Survey of College Graduates. Data analyzed and presented by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).

About the Data

Since the humanities were dropped from the biennial Survey of Doctorate Recipients (SDR) in 1995, the National Science Foundation’s National Survey of College Graduates (NSCG) is the only source of nationally representative data on the occupations and earnings of humanities Ph.D.’s. Conducted every two years, the NSCG gathers detailed education, occupation, and earnings information from a sample of individuals drawn from the larger pool of all those identified via the American Community Survey (ACS) as holders of a baccalaureate degree. Given the size of the NSCG sample, reliable estimates are available only for broad academic fields. For the NSCG disciplinary categories included in each of the field-of-degree categories employed by the Humanities Indicators, see the provided crosswalk. This earnings indicator is based on NSCG data, but similar items included in the Humanities Indicators rely on data from the ACS. Due to marked differences in how NSCG and the ACS classify academic fields, the contents of the field-of-degree categories used for this indicator are not identical to those used for the ACS-based Indicators III-4e and 4f. (For more information on the contents of the categories used for the ACS analysis, see the pertinent crosswalk.)
Another key difference between these indicators and the ACS-based earnings indicators is that the Ph.D. holders considered here are those whose doctoral degree was in the humanities (irrespective of the field of their undergraduate and any terminal master’s degree). The ACS does not collect data about the field of advanced degrees. The ACS-based indicators thus describe the earnings of undergraduate humanities majors who went on to pursue advanced degrees, regardless of the field of the advanced degree. 

Related Indicators

See also “Occupations of Humanities Ph.D.’s.”
Occupation and earnings information for terminal bachelor’s degree recipients can be found under the topics “Occupations of Humanities Majors with a Terminal Bachelor’s Degree” and “Earnings of Humanities Majors with a Terminal Bachelor's Degree.” (The estimates for terminal bachelor’s degree holders are based on data from a different source, the American Community Survey, and are thus not strictly comparable to the estimates provided here for Ph.D.’s. Please click the “About the Data” button below the graph for further explanation.) For information about the occupational outcomes of terminal master’s degree recipients, see “Occupations of Master’s Degree Recipients in the Humanities” and “Earnings of Humanities Master’s Degree Recipients.” The Humanities Indicators also provides information on the “Job Status of Humanities Ph.D.’s at Time of Graduation” and “Number of Faculty Members in Humanities and Other Fields.” For a comparison of the humanities with other major academic fields with respect to unemployment among majors, see “The Employment Status of Humanities Majors.” For trends concerning the number and type of humanities Ph.D.’s conferred over the past 60 years, see “Advanced Degrees in the Humanities” and “Disciplinary Distribution of Advanced Degrees in the Humanities.”

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The Humanities Indicators and Departmental Survey have been made possible in part by grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this website do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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