It’s Just the Supply Curve Doing Its Thing

First of all, a B.A./B.S. doesn’t mean that much anymore. Too many people go to college nowadays for it to mean a lot salary-wise. And, yes, there are a lot of jobs that require a college degree and actually pay less than some jobs that don’t, but I think it has to do with more than just experience.
For instance, if I stay where I am now for a couple of years — a job that is essentially an administrative assistant job at its core and does not require a degree — I’d likely make more over those years than I would if I left for any of the jobs I’m looking at. If I got an office manager position somewhere else or a Executive Assistant to the President position somewhere larger (again, not jobs that generally require college degrees), I could easily make $10,000 more next year than I would at say an Ad Agency.
Now, if you graduate with a degree in Engineering in my area, you can make $60,000 out of the gate and a talented programmer just graduating can probably do about the same.
Again, I don’t think it’s just experience because a) I actually have a couple of years of full time work experience, and I’m in the same boat, and b) the salaries are generally pretty similar by industry in almost everything I’ve looked at. If you get hired at an entry-level, you get X pay because there are 50 people lined up outside the door who want that entry-level job that leads to better things. It’s simply economics. There aren’t as many people who want to be good secretaries, good plumbers, good electricians (my dad owns an electrical contracting company, and he pays good electricians ridiculous salaries), etc… so those jobs can often pay pretty well. It’s the Supply Curve at work.
Nowadays, you don’t go to college to make more money (or you shouldn’t, usually). You go to get into fields you can’t get into with a High School Diploma, or to get to positions you can’t reach without the degree.
I know they use those studies (“a College Graduate will make ____ more over the course of their lifetime”), but I think those are flawed based on the people, not the degrees. The people that choose to go to college are generally more ambitious and often more hard-working. Not always. Sometimes, a High School Graduate knows they want to be an electrician or whatnot, and they know they don’t need college; they might be just as hard-working and ambitious, and they’ll probably make just as much money as the average College Graduate. So, the sample is skewed, because the more driven, focused, ambitious people are in the pool, not because of the magical effects of a B.A. (or B.S.).
I think the people who use, compile, and promote those studies realize they are flawed, too, but nowadays high schools are trying to flood colleges with everybody they can try to motivate, and it’s easier to motivate a 16 year old by saying, “Do you want to be poor or not?” than actually sitting them down and seeing their aptitude and what they want out of life, so that the schools can give them real guidance on whether or not to go to college and how to approach their career.
You make great pay in any field through achievement, ambition, intelligence, and hard work. A piece of paper might get you in the door, but you can’t expect someone to hand over a reasonable salary until you’ve done a reasonable day’s work. If you’re already making more than the jobs are offering, you might have some negotiating room, but businesses also know that you need them. The only way to get more money is to show — in a practical way — why they need you more. That’s how Sales works usually. The person who needs (or seems to need) the other less wins.