Education and Income Inequality in the United States

Introduction
Although the USA is regarded as a country of unlimited opportunities, the income gap undermines
people’s aspirations to make their American Dream come true. Diverse factors affect people’s
income, and education has been seen as one of the reasons for income inequality in the United
States. The link between education and people’s wealth is quite direct as people with higher
education have higher salaries due to their prospects of occupying managerial or executive posts.
Blue-collar workers who usually do not have higher education tend to have lower salaries.
Hence, it is believed that education is one of the potent factors contributing to the income gap in the USA.
At the same time, some researchers note that the relationship between education and income is more
complex (Hanauer, 2019). For instance, Hanauer (2019) states that the rate of people with a high-school
education or a degree has increased since the middle of the twentieth century, but the income gap has been
growing. It is necessary to analyze the link between education and income inequality in order to develop
effective strategies to address the problem. This paper includes a detailed analysis of the effects of education
on the income gap in the United States and potential ways to reduce this kind of inequality.