Salary gap widens as elite skills reward a select few

The Seattle Times reports:

In fact, the National Association of Colleges and Employers data shows salaries for hospitality majors falling 10.6 percent over the past seven years, even though the leisure and hospitality industry has added nearly 2 million jobs since 2008. Education and human-resources graduates also experienced sharp wage declines.

Even some blue-collar workers who lack a college degree but have very specific skills are better off than college graduates who do not, according to Carnevale.

“If you have an associate’s degree or a certificate in a technical field like heating and ventilation, machine repair, carpentry or plumbing,” he said, “you’ll do better than the average B.A. holder, both at the beginning and 10 years out of school.”

Marginal productivity.