Most Americans Don't Think Higher Education Is Worth the Cost — But This State-By-State Breakdown of College Graduates' Salaries Tells a Different Story More than half of people in the U.S. say that higher education isn't affordable.

A majority of Americans don't believe that a college degree is worth the price tag, according to a poll from The Wall Street Journal and the National Opinion Research Center (NORC). That's perhaps not surprising given that student loan borrowers in the U.S. owe a collective $1.74 trillion in federal and private student loan debt, per NerdWallet, and that since the late 1970s, inflation-adjusted pay for most U.S. workers has largely stagnated, according to the American Bar Association.

Still, roughly 70% of Americans remain convinced that having a college degree does lead to higher-paying jobs, even as more than half of them contend that earning that diploma isn't affordable, Inside Higher Ed reported. College degrees often do translate to higher salaries, though, of course, exceptions abound, and new research from career platform Career.io proves that out, along with just how much the earnings disparity between college graduates and non-college graduates varies depending on state.

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Career.io used census data to calculate the percentage difference between the median earnings of local college graduates and high school graduates over the age of 25 and determined that no matter which state you live in, people with bachelor's degrees likely make more money than the average person in their state who didn't attend college.

California sees the most significant variation, with college graduates earning $37,181 more every year than non-graduates — a 96.56% advantage.

Related: When This 22-Year-Old Graduated From MIT, He Thought He'd Be a Software Engineer. Instead, He Launched a Company That's Shaking Up the College-Admissions Game.

Check out the full breakdown of the salary premium for college graduates in each state below:

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of Career.io}