How do graduate wages and program size evolve together across University of Hawaiʻi programs during the first five years after graduation?
Workforce Understory Episode: Episode Two — Understanding Underemployment
Geography: Statewide
Topic: Graduate earnings, program scale, living-wage attainment, and education outcomes
The takeaway
One year after graduation, the median wages associated with every University of Hawaiʻi program shown remain below the living-wage threshold.
By year five, a small number of programs reach or exceed a living wage. Those programs, however, tend to represent relatively small numbers of graduates.
The programs enrolling and graduating the largest numbers of students remain below the living-wage threshold throughout the full five-year period.
The strongest wage outcomes appear in relatively small programs, while most UH graduates are concentrated in programs that do not reach a living wage within five years.
What this visualization shows
This visualization examines two dimensions of program performance at the same time: how graduates’ median wages change during the first five years after completion and how many graduates each program represents.
Looking at wages alone reveals that outcomes improve unevenly across programs. A handful move into living-wage territory over time, while many remain below the threshold.
Adding graduate volume changes the interpretation.
The programs with the strongest wage outcomes are not necessarily the programs serving the largest numbers of students. Instead, many of UH’s largest programs remain below the living-wage threshold throughout the five-year period.
This means that a small number of high-performing programs may create strong economic outcomes without substantially changing the experience of the overall student population.
The visualization therefore shifts the question from whether some UH programs lead to living-wage careers to whether the system’s largest educational pathways are producing economic mobility at scale.
Why this matters
Higher education systems are often evaluated through enrollment, graduation, and employment outcomes. Those measures help determine whether students are entering programs, completing credentials, and finding work.
They do not necessarily show whether the programs serving the most students lead to economic security.
If the largest programs consistently produce median wages below the living-wage threshold, then the system may be succeeding in educating and placing students while still falling short of helping most graduates achieve financial mobility.
That does not mean large, lower-wage programs lack value. Some prepare graduates for essential public-service, education, caregiving, cultural, or community roles whose importance cannot be captured through earnings alone.
But the scale of enrollment makes their economic outcomes impossible to ignore.
Students deserve to understand the likely wage trajectory associated with their chosen program. Institutions also need to consider whether high-enrollment programs are connected to sufficient employer demand, realistic advancement opportunities, and wages that can support graduates over time.
This evidence invites Hawaiʻi to ask:
Are the programs serving the greatest number of students also providing credible pathways toward long-term economic security?
Evidence:
Questions this visualization helps answer
Which programs reach or exceed the living-wage threshold within five years?
How many graduates are represented in the programs with the strongest wage outcomes?
Do the largest UH programs lead to living-wage earnings?
Are most graduates concentrated in programs with relatively strong or weak wage trajectories?
Does the success of a small number of high-wage programs translate into system-wide economic mobility?
How does program scale change the way wage outcomes should be interpreted?
Curiosity:
Questions this visualization raises
Why do many of the highest-enrollment programs remain below the living-wage threshold?
Which specific programs combine large graduate cohorts with lower median wages?
Are those programs preparing students for essential occupations that are structurally underpaid?
Are students enrolling in large programs because of interest, accessibility, institutional capacity, limited alternatives, or incomplete information about outcomes?
Do graduates from these programs experience stronger wage growth beyond the five-year window?
Are they more likely to pursue graduate education or additional credentials?
How many graduates work in occupations directly related to their field of study?
How many are underemployed or working in jobs that do not require their degree?
Which smaller programs produce the strongest wage outcomes, and could they responsibly serve more students?
Would expanding high-return programs create opportunity, or would it oversupply labor markets with limited demand?
Are employers hiring enough graduates from UH’s largest programs?
What role do public-sector wage scales, nonprofit compensation, and state funding play in the results?
How do wage and program-volume patterns differ across campuses?
How do outcomes vary by race, gender, income, first-generation status, disability, or island?
Are graduates from lower-wage programs more likely to leave Hawaiʻi?
Do students receive clear information about both wage outcomes and the number of graduates competing within each field?
How should UH balance student demand, workforce need, program mission, and economic outcomes when deciding which programs to expand?
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