The odds of becoming millionaires for a family headed by someone 40 or older without a high school diploma were 1 in 110 in 2013, according to Emmons and Noeth's calculations. That compares to 1 in 2.6 for a family headed by someone with a graduate or professional degree.
Moreover, much of the educational attainment in the U.S. is concentrated among white and Asian households, adding a racial filter to the issue. At the graduate-and professional-degree level, only Asians have shown a strong upward trend in educational attainment, while blacks and Hispanics, who will be responsible for much of the U.S. population growth in the coming years, still trail other races at every schooling level.
Gender differences are also at work, with women of every race and ethnicity passing their male counterparts at each education milestone, Emmons and Noeth find. This is problematic considering that women have lower labor force participation rates and have yet to reach pay parity with their male colleagues.
"The continuing barriers facing women in fully contributing to their families’ and the economy’s progress, together with the rising share of the black and Hispanic population with very low education levels, make it likely that educational advances will contribute less to economic and financial growth in the future than they have in recent decades," Emmons and Noeth wrote.For more on the global economy, check out Benchmark: