The Median Annual Wages by Educational Attainment and High School CTE Status report shows the median annual income and employment numbers for different groups of students one year after completing their highest level of education. Students are grouped by highest level of education, and each group is further broken down based on their high school career and technical education status.
Users can select a specific ISD or Field of Study for a given school year. Field of Study is derived from CTE CIP codes.
The data help to show the relationship between CTE, educational attainment and wages as students move into the Michigan workforce. A clickable legend allows users to focus on one or more specific high school CTE statuses.
The report is updated in early fall. See the Recently Posted Reports page for when the report was last updated.
The bar graph displays the median annual wage for students in each of the following groups:
- High School Diploma
- Certificate
- Associate Degree
- Bachelor’s Degree or Higher
Each group is further broken down into four high school CTE statuses: No High School CTE, Enrolled, Concentrator and Completer.
Users can select statewide data or a specific ISD or category. The data table can be toggled between wages and number employed.
See the MI School Data Quick Start Guide for the basics of navigating the site.
Location Options
The report provides data at the statewide and ISD levels.
The Center for Educational Performance and Information, National Student Clearinghouse, Michigan Office of Career and Technical Education, and Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity - Workforce Development collected the data used to complete this report from the following systems and records:
- Student Transcript and Academic Record Repository: to locate enrollment in a Michigan public community college or university. For details on the data definitions and how the data are collected, refer to the STARR Data Manual on the STARR web page.
- NSC StudentTracker database: to locate enrollment from out-of-state or non-STARR participating colleges or universities. For a list of all colleges and universities in CEPI’s postsecondary data system, refer to the Postsecondary Entity List.
- Career and Technical Education Information System: collects high school enrollment information for state-approved CTE programs including expenditures, enrollment and follow-up.
- Unemployment insurance wage record data: submitted by employers through the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency.
The report uses a single high school graduating class as the base population. Students must have graduated from a Michigan high school to be included. Students may have earned their college certificate or degree from an out-of-state public college or university.
Students who are continuing in education are excluded from the report when viewed by location or Field of Study. However, the number employed for Students Continuing in Education or Unaccounted are shown when the report is set to Statewide.
Students must be employed in Michigan during the fourth quarter after completing their highest education credential to factor in the wage data.
Median wages have been rounded to the nearest $100. There must be at least 10 former students employed for a median wage to be calculated.
If you have questions not addressed here or in the linked resources, please contact CEPI customer support at cepi@michigan.gov.
Report Labels
See the Glossary for additional terms and acronyms used on MI School Data.
High School CTE Status: Indicates whether a student participated in a state-approved secondary CTE program.
- No High School CTE: The student had no enrollment in any state-approved secondary CTE program
- Enrolled: The student completed courses covering less than half the content standards for a state-approved secondary CTE program. Sometimes referred to as a “Participant.”
- Concentrator: The student completed courses covering more than half the content standards for a state-approved secondary CTE program with a grade of 2.0 or better, but did not complete the program.
Completer: The student completed, with a grade of 2.0 or better, course sections covering all content standards of a state-approved secondary CTE program and took the CTE technical skill assessment, if applicable.
