Using the Salary Surfer Tool

Alice van Ommeren & Ryan FullerChancellor's Office Research/TRIS

Background on Student Wages• Historical wage studies– Student surveys (longitudinal)

• Recent national trends in wage studies– Matches with state unemployment databases– College Measures (6-7 states, including TX/FL)

• Future trend– Wages as student outcomes– Accreditation, federal (gainful employment), etc.

Chancellor’s Office and Wages

• Perkins Accountability (1990s)– Unemployment Insurance (EDD) data match

• ARCC Report (2007-2012)– Systemwide Wage Metric

• Salary Surfer (2013)– System/College Wage Tracker

Objectives/Goals• Review methodologies• Address limitations & caveats• Wage outcomes by discipline• Tools and resources• Frequent questions• Use of wage data• What’s next

Methodology• Two different methodologies– System wage tracker and college wage tracker

• Completers or graduates are joined with EDDUI wage data using SSNs

• Both wage methodologies break out by award discipline and award type – 6-digit Taxonomy of Program (TOP) code– Certificates and Associate Degrees

Methodology• “Graduates” scrubbed of the following:– Still enrolled anywhere in higher education, including CCC

after date of award – 21 and under at time of award

• “Clean leavers” wages measured from -2 to +5 yrs. • If person earned >$1 in any reported quarter, they

are considered “in” and counted• Sum all quarters of wages to student annual wage• All data adjusted to current CPI

Methodology DifferencesSystem Wage Tracker (Salary Surfer)• Award completers over 5 academic years• Calculate median wages by discipline and award type• Median calculated for students with wages 2 years

before award, 2 years after and 5 years after awardCollege Wage Tracker (Data Mart)• Award completers over 8 academic years• Median wages by discipline, award type and “college”• Median wages for students 3 years after award

System vs. College Methodology

College

System

Salary Surfer (System Wage Tracker) • Wages by Discipline• http://salarysurfer.cccco.edu/ • Measured median wages at:– 2 years before award (previous employment) – 2 years after award (estimate starting salary)– 5 years after award (approximate journey salary)

• Minimum n=10 wage matches• Includes listing of colleges with programs

College Wage Tracker • Wages by Discipline by College • http://datamart.cccco.edu/Outcomes/• Median wages for 8 years of graduates at:– 3 years after award date

• Timeline for measuring 8 years of cohorts at -2 to +5 was too long (15 years)

• Includes # of awards, and match rate• Allows for college comparison & includes

locally approved certificates.

Data Caveats• Data contains wages of occupations covered by

CA Unemployment Insurance• Excludes military, federal government, self-

employed, out of state and unemployed • Not able to determine part-time or full-time

wages, hours worked not in the EDDUI data.• Only students with SSNs (9.2% missing)• Wages are adjusted for inflation to current

dollars using the California CPI-U

High ROI Programs• Health fields (by far)– Paramedic, RN/LVN, Rad/Cardio, Resp./PT/PA,

Dental, PsychTech, Health Info Tech• Police & Fire Academies, Protective Svcs, AJ• Wastewater/Environmental Control• Electronics/Electric Tech• Plumbing/Fabrication• Computer Networking, CIS

Lower ROI Programs• Cosmetology*• Fashion/Interior Design• Early Child Dev’t• Fine/Liberal/Graphic Arts/Music• Culinary Arts• Things with “Assistant”

Analysis Caveats• Region/locale significantly impacts wages, so

caution in comparing earnings across the state• Wages are not necessarily from employment

associated with a particular award discipline• Wage outcomes should not be a sole measure of

institutional effectiveness/program quality• Other factors besides earnings motivate

students to earn an award in a specific discipline

Accessing Tools and Resources• Query modules using both methods are

available in Datamart– System Wage Tracker & College Wage Tracker

• Salary Surfer is the same as System Wage Tracker and available at salarysurfer.cccco.edu

• Additional wage resources on our webpage• Median wages by program code are available

for colleges in Data-on-Demand

Wages by College by Program• Data-on-Demand file for each college (password)• Degrees, certificates and locally approved

certificates all have program codes (SP04)– Five-digit program code unique to the college

• Wages for every year, starting at 2 years before to 5 years after.

• Not student level data, aggregated by program and award at your college.

Wages by College by Program ExampleAmerican River College (2006-07)

Program (SP04) Before 2 Before 1 After 1 After 2 After 3 After 4 After 5

Registered Nursing

$16,948

$12,776

$68,267

$79,021 $88,403

$94,674

$90,947

Respiratory Care

$17,108

14,028

57,989

62,797 68,440

72,761

70,337

Physical Science/Math

$27,821

43,600

30,367

46,242 68,830

74,479

74,727

Liberal Arts

$17,212

18,391

30,367

33,183 39,561

44,077

37,022

General Science

$17,484

19,278

33,729

50,793 46,067

59,030

42,843

American River CollegeRespiratory Care Associate Deg.

Before 2 Before 1 After 1 After 2 After 3 After 4 After 50

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

70,000

80,000

90,000

2002-20032003-20042004-20052005-20062006-2007

Frequent Questions• Why are there no wages for certain awards?

No wages for awards with less than 10 students within a specific discipline. • Why are wages higher for certificates compared

to awards in the same discipline?Contributing factors include certificate

earners already working in the field, or certificates are specialized, or small number of cases.

Using Wage Data and Next StepsUsing wages for other purposes– Leavers Study–Research Brief– Skills Builders

Salary Surfer II–New EDD data– Include Industry Codes

salarysurfer@cccco.edu

Alice van Ommeren & Ryan FullerChancellor's Office Research/TRIS