The Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities That Make High Earners Stand Out
By Anthony P. Carnevale and Megan L. Fasules
Every day on the job, workers use their unique combination of education, experience, and competencies. While much of our work has focused on connecting workers’ education with their earnings, our new research highlights how competencies — the knowledge, skills, and abilities that workers need to do their jobs — mix with education to affect earnings in different occupations.
We examined how workers’ competencies and education level affect their earnings for each of nine major occupational groups, which together include more than 1,000 occupations. Here’s what we found for each occupational group in order of median earnings.
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)
High earnings in STEM occupations may compensate workers for their high levels of education. STEM workers are also rewarded for their intensive use of some specific competencies, such as engineering and mathematics, as well as for using problem solving and complex thinking at high intensity.
Managerial and Professional Office
In managerial and professional office occupations, using in-demand competencies intensively doesn’t typically help workers without higher levels of education reach higher earnings, but it can boost earnings for workers with bachelor’s degrees. The highest earnings premiums for workers in these occupations are for intensive use of perception and attentiveness and digital technology.
Healthcare Professional and Technical
Healthcare professional and technical workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher receive a significant earnings boost, making more than twice as much at the median as workers with a high school diploma or less. These workers are also highly rewarded for using leadership at the highest intensity, receiving an earnings premium of 52 percent above the median for their educational attainment. At lower levels of education, however, workers receive an earnings penalty for using leadership intensively.
Education
Education workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher receive a significant earnings premium over those with less education, while workers with some college or an associate’s degree do not receive an earnings premium over those with less education. Almost 100 percent of workers in these occupations use humanities knowledge at the highest intensity, and the most intensive use of problem solving and complex thinking, communication, and digital technology is generally associated with the highest earnings premium above the median.
Community Services and Arts
Workers in community services and arts occupations who use the most in-demand competencies intensively tend to suffer an earnings penalty. Only two of the most demanded competencies, digital technology and vision and hearing, are associated with an earnings premium when used intensively, mainly in arts occupations.
Blue Collar
Blue-collar workers with lower levels of formal education can earn more than workers with higher levels of education if they use their competencies at the highest intensity. For blue-collar workers across all education levels, the most intensive use of problem solving and complex thinking is associated with an average earnings boost of 89 percent above the median, and the most intensive use of leadership is associated with an average earnings boost of 35 percent.
Sales and Office Support
Workers with higher levels of education in sales and office support occupations receive a substantial earnings boost: those with a bachelor’s degree or higher earn $16,500 more at the median than workers with some college or an associate’s degree and $21,300 more than workers with a high school diploma or less. Workers who use problem solving and complex thinking and teaching and learning intensively can gain a significant earnings boost as well.
Food and Personal Services
In food and personal services occupations, the most intensive use of problem solving and complex thinking leads to an average earnings boost of 130 percent above the median across education levels, and the most intensive use of teamwork leads to an average earnings boost of 104 percent. These earnings premiums can compensate for the earnings penalty that workers with lower levels of education face. However, very few jobs in this occupational group require the most intensive use of these competencies.
Healthcare Support
More than 95 percent of healthcare support workers use health science at its greatest intensity, though they don’t use most generally demanded competencies at the highest intensities. Perception and attentiveness and fine-motor abilities provide workers with a small earnings boost. However, neither higher levels of education nor more intensive use of in-demand competencies result in much of an earnings premium for healthcare support workers. In fact, using teaching and learning intensively leads to a slight earnings penalty.
Learn more about the competencies demanded in today’s workforce in our new report, Workplace Basics: The Competencies Employers Want.
Dr. Carnevale is Director and Research Professor and Dr. Fasules is Assistant Research Professor and Research Economist at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. CEW is an independent, nonprofit research and policy institute affiliated with the Georgetown McCourt School of Public Policy that studies the link between education, career qualifications, and workforce demands.
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