Bureau of Labor Statistics. Jobs requiring higher education pay roughly 2x more than those requiring high school education and roughly 3x more than those requiring no education at all.
And even if there's no formal requirement for a degree, it doesn't automatically mean people lacking degrees will get hired either.
Anyone who wants to get a well paying white collar job pretty much needs a degree.
> I’ve worked with plenty of smart, self taught programmers throughout my career.
And how did they get the job? Networking?
> The highest paid guy I know didn’t finish high school.
I think this ought to be the rule, not the exception.
> Jobs requiring higher education pay roughly 2x more than those requiring high school education
This isn’t really evidence either way. Why do companies pay twice as much for people with higher education? We can’t tell from that statistic. Maybe it’s what you learn in class that makes you twice as valuable to potential employers.
> how did they get the job? Networking?
Probably. After all, that’s how most people in our industry find work. Degree or not.
I claimed job prospects is the biggest reason why people spend years educating themselves. Evidence of 2-3x higher salaries directly supports that by providing an excellent motive.
I can imagine two different reasons for the higher salaries. Companies may genuinely think higher education makes their employees that much more productive. And you see that in their hiring process.
Or the degree is something else. A marker of status. Or a signal of IQ and conscientiousness, since companies are legally barred from directly issuing IQ tests.
An observation of 2-3x higher salaries for graduates doesn't differentiate these two theories.
But rereading your comments, maybe that was never your argument. You said:
> The learning is entirely secondary. The cheating will stop when there is no longer any economic incentive to be there in the first place.
Companies might be entirely rational in offering 2-3x higher salaries to people with degrees. If that is the case, it's not just a meme. And the economic incentive will remain indefinitely. And universities and companies aren't doing anything wrong here.
Throughout your career, on the job performance matters a lot more in aggregate than your CV. Most people are hired from referrals, after all. If students value the degree over the education itself, they're cheating themselves out of all the benefits - economic and otherwise - that education can provide them throughout their career.
Companies are not in fact legally barred from directly issuing IQ tests, and several major companies do. This is for the most part an Internet urban legend (it has a tiny and irrelevant kernel of truth, in Griggs).
I’ve worked with plenty of smart, self taught programmers throughout my career. The highest paid guy I know didn’t finish high school.