How do earnings for community college bachelor's degree holders compare to those from traditional four-year institutions? Using Census Bureau earnings data at one, five, and ten years after graduation, this analysis presents the unconditional gap between the two groups across eight fields of study.
The analysis compares earnings across 8 fields for public institutions classified as associate's-dominant (CCB) versus primarily baccalaureate (traditional BA) using IPEDS. The traditional BA comparison group includes everything from small regionals to flagship research universities. The CCB sample is geographically concentrated (~72% Utah), and PSEO suppression rules disproportionately affect smaller CCB cohorts at longer horizons.
Acton et al. (2026) report a roughly $2,000 CCB earnings penalty at Year 1 using regression controls. Using the same public data source (PSEO 2025Q4) but with unconditional comparisons, the table below shows a different result. The two approaches differ in methodology, and neither is definitive on its own.
| Approach | Year 1 | Year 5 | Year 10 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acton et al. (regression-adjusted, Y1 only) | -$2,800 | not reported | not reported |
| Our replication, unweighted median | +$4,007 | +$2,649 | +$5,683 |
We use unweighted medians across institution-CIP-cohort observations, giving each program-cohort cell equal weight regardless of graduate count. This is a deliberate choice: graduate-weighting would amplify Utah's already disproportionate influence on the aggregate (Utah contributes ~72% of CCB observations). The discrepancy with Acton et al. reflects both this methodological difference and their regression controls for field-by-state composition. Neither approach controls for underlying differences in student characteristics between CCB and traditional BA programs.
Acton et al. (2026) focus on Year 1 earnings. The data below extend to all available PSEO horizons, with sample size counts and geographic context.
The difference in median earnings between CCB and traditional BA holders, by field. Toggle horizons to see how the gap changes over time.
A note on sample sizes and selection effects: Across all fields, the CCB sample is orders of magnitude smaller than the traditional BA pool. At Year 10, a typical field has 4-9 CCB institutions compared to 150-320 on the traditional BA side. The traditional BA category includes everything from open-access regionals to R1 flagships, creating a comparison group with far more internal variance than the CCB sample. Both positive and negative gaps should be interpreted with caution: they reflect which states and institutions have adopted the CCB model, not necessarily the performance of the credential itself.
Not just medians: the 25th-to-75th percentile range shows the full spread of outcomes. Select a field to compare distributions.
The "Adjust for RPP" toggle converts nominal earnings to a common purchasing-power basis using the Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parities (2023, all items). The formula divides each institution's median earnings by its state's RPP and multiplies by 100:
Adjusted Earnings = Nominal Earnings / RPP × 100
A state with RPP 90 (lower prices) sees its earnings adjusted upward; a state at RPP 110 (higher prices) sees earnings adjusted downward. This answers the question: what could these graduates buy with their earnings, given local prices?
RPPs are state-level averages. They do not capture within-state variation (e.g., New York City vs. upstate New York), and the "all items" index blends housing, goods, and services. A housing-only RPP would show wider state-to-state variation. Because PSEO reports earnings at the state level, a state-level price index is the most appropriate match.
When the toggle is on, institutions are re-sorted by their adjusted earnings. The median lines and gap statistics update accordingly.
Roughly two-thirds of CCB program observations come from Utah at every time horizon. That concentration reflects the scale and maturity of Utah's CCB programs relative to other states.
| Horizon | CCB Programs | Utah Programs | Utah Share | Utah Inst. | Total Inst. | Avg Programs/Inst (UT) | Avg Programs/Inst (Other) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | 1,514 | 999 | 66.0% | 5 | 28 | 200 | 22 |
| Year 5 | 1,141 | 775 | 67.9% | 5 | 20 | 155 | 24 |
| Year 10 | 459 | 292 | 63.6% | 4 | 13 | 73 | 19 |
Utah's five CCB institutions average 200 programs each at Year 1, compared to 22 in Georgia, 13 in Texas, and 13 in Colorado. Because Utah contributes more than half of all CCB programs at every horizon, the CCB median is heavily influenced by Utah outcomes. In practice, the "national" CCB figure largely reflects Utah CCB earnings compared against a geographically dispersed pool of traditional BA earnings.
West Virginia was the first state to authorize community college bachelor's degrees in 1989. Utah followed closely: in 1992, Utah Valley Community College began offering bachelor's programs in Business Management, Computer Science, and Technology Management. The institution is now Utah Valley University. Today, multiple Utah institutions operate as dual-mission colleges with over three decades of CCB experience.
Utah has the lowest Gini coefficient of any U.S. state (0.426, ACS 2024), meaning its income distribution is the most compressed in the country. For comparison, New York's is 0.510. CCB graduates in Utah enter a labor market with a narrower earnings range than most other states, which may affect how the median comparison reads.
Research from Opportunity Insights (Chetty, Hendren, Kline, and Saez, 2014) ranks the Salt Lake City commuting zone first in absolute upward mobility among the 50 largest metro areas. A child born into the bottom fifth of the income distribution in Salt Lake City has a 10.8% chance of reaching the top fifth, compared to 4.4% in Charlotte.
Utah's economic characteristics cut in multiple directions. A compressed wage distribution narrows the gap between credential types, while high baseline mobility may independently improve outcomes. Disentangling the Utah effect from the CCB effect remains an open question.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2024 (Gini coefficients); Chetty, Hendren, Kline, and Saez, "Where Is the Land of Opportunity? The Geography of Intergenerational Mobility in the United States," Quarterly Journal of Economics 129(4), 2014; Utah History Encyclopedia (Utah Valley Community College); Inside Higher Ed, "Utah Valley University Thrives by Being Both Community College and University," January 2018.
All fields, all horizons. Green = CCB above traditional BA; red = CCB below.
| Field | Y1 Gap | Y5 Gap | Y10 Gap | CCB programs (Y10) | CCB inst. (Y10) | BA programs (Y10) | BA inst. (Y10) |
|---|
Every number on this page can be reproduced from the original PSEO data. Download the workbook below to see the full detailed methodology.
Data source: U.S. Census Bureau Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes (PSEO), 2025Q4 release. Institution classification based on IPEDS HD2023 (INSTCAT), with corrections for graduate-only and medical institutions. All earnings in nominal dollars. Each observation is a program-institution pair (30+ completers required by PSEO). Medians are unweighted across these observations.
Caveats: This analysis is descriptive, not causal. CCB sample at Year 10 is small (207 program observations, 13 institutions, 7 states). Utah contributes ~72% of CCB program observations. Different horizons reflect different graduation cohorts, not the same people tracked over time.
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