Within each opportunity category, how do average wages and graduate-retention rates compare across University of Hawaiʻi campuses?
Workforce Understory Episode: Episode Two — Understanding Underemployment
Geography: Statewide
Topic: Graduate wages, retention, campus outcomes, program concentration, and geographic equity
The takeaway
UH Hilo records the highest wage figure shown across the campus opportunity categories: approximately $101,053 for programs in its High Wage / Low Retention category. That exceeds UH Mānoa’s corresponding figure of approximately $94,379.
The location of that wage matters, however. UH Hilo has no programs in the High Wage / High Retention category, meaning its strongest-paying programs do not retain graduates at comparatively high rates.
UH Mānoa is the only campus shown with programs represented across all four opportunity categories. Its High Wage / High Retention programs average approximately 77.54% retention, the strongest combined wage-and-retention outcome in the comparison.
UH West Oʻahu appears in only two categories, reflecting both its smaller set of reported four-year programs and the concentration of its graduates in lower-wage outcomes.
UH Hilo produces the highest category-level wage, but UH Mānoa is the only campus that combines strong wages with strong retention.
What this visualization shows
This visualization compares average wages and retention rates within the four opportunity categories at UH Mānoa, UH Hilo, and UH West Oʻahu:
High Wage / High Retention
High Wage / Low Retention
Low Wage / High Retention
Low Wage / Low Retention
The wage view shows the earnings associated with programs in each category. The retention view shows the average share of graduates from those programs who remain in Hawaiʻi.
UH Mānoa is the only campus represented in all four quadrants. Its High Wage / High Retention category provides the clearest dual outcome, combining living-wage earnings with an average retention rate of approximately 77.54%.
UH Hilo’s highest figure appears in High Wage / Low Retention, at approximately $101,053. That number appears to be driven heavily by Nursing, which produces strong earnings but retains a smaller share of graduates than the threshold used for the high-retention category.
The comparison therefore demonstrates why a high wage figure cannot be interpreted on its own. A campus may produce graduates with considerable earning power while still struggling to keep them in Hawaiʻi.
UH West Oʻahu appears in only Low Wage / High Retention and High Wage / Low Retention. Its limited category coverage reflects the small number and narrow distribution of four-year programs included in the data, so comparisons should be interpreted cautiously.
Why this matters
Campus-level averages can create a misleading impression when the number and scale of programs behind them are not considered.
UH Hilo’s approximately $101,053 figure could suggest that the campus offers the system’s strongest wage outcomes. But that result sits in the High Wage / Low Retention category and may be driven primarily by a single program.
One strong pathway can be valuable without representing broad access to opportunity.
If Nursing accounts for most of UH Hilo’s high-wage outcome, the campus may still offer relatively few living-wage options for students interested in other fields. Nursing also requires specialized instruction, clinical capacity, licensing, and employer placements, which limit how quickly the pathway can expand.
UH Mānoa’s distribution is broader. Its presence in all four quadrants reflects a larger and more varied program portfolio, while its High Wage / High Retention category demonstrates that some programs can produce both economic security and staying power.
Even so, that success is concentrated at one campus and within a limited set of programs.
UH West Oʻahu presents a different challenge. Its graduates are concentrated largely in programs with strong retention but lower wages. Improving outcomes there may depend less on adding students to the pipeline and more on increasing compensation, advancement, and job quality in the fields where graduates already work.
The visualization reinforces that each campus needs a distinct strategy. UH Hilo may need to diversify its living-wage pathways and strengthen local demand for high-skill graduates. UH West Oʻahu may need stronger economic returns within fields that already keep graduates rooted in Hawaiʻi. UH Mānoa offers useful examples, but even its strongest combined outcomes are not available at equal scale across the system.
This evidence invites Hawaiʻi to ask:
Does a campus offer broadly accessible pathways to economic security—or does a strong headline result depend on a small number of programs and graduates?
Evidence:
Questions this visualization helps answer
Which campus has the highest category-level wage?
In which opportunity quadrant does that wage appear?
Which campus produces the strongest combined wage-and-retention outcome?
Which campuses have programs represented in all four categories?
How does UH Hilo’s strongest wage outcome compare with UH Mānoa’s?
How concentrated are UH West Oʻahu’s programs across the opportunity categories?
Why is it important to consider wages and retention together?
Curiosity:
Questions this visualization raises
Is UH Hilo’s approximately $101,053 High Wage / Low Retention figure driven almost entirely by Nursing?
How many programs and graduates contribute to each campus-category average?
Does one strong program obscure how few living-wage pathways UH Hilo offers overall?
Why are UH Hilo’s highest-paid graduates less likely to remain in Hawaiʻi?
Are they moving to Oʻahu, leaving the state, or both?
Do local healthcare employers provide enough positions, specialization, and advancement to retain Nursing graduates?
Which programs account for UH Mānoa’s 77.54% High Wage / High Retention average?
What employer relationships, program structures, or labor-market conditions support Mānoa’s dual outcomes?
How many students can access the programs producing Mānoa’s strongest results?
Could any of those pathways be adapted or shared across other campuses?
Why does UH West Oʻahu appear in only two opportunity categories?
How much of West Oʻahu’s pattern reflects its program mix, campus mission, or the students it serves?
Are the category averages weighted by the number of graduates or calculated equally across programs?
How sensitive are the averages to small cohorts or a single unusually large program?
Would median values tell a different story from averages?
How do wages and retention vary within each category rather than only between category averages?
Which campus has the greatest opportunity to move programs from High Wage / Low Retention into High Wage / High Retention?
Which campus has the greatest opportunity to improve wages in programs that already retain graduates?
What additional living-wage pathways could be developed at UH Hilo and UH West Oʻahu?
How should campus leaders balance program expansion with actual regional employer demand?
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