UK graduates find degrees don’t pay like they once did

For decades, the deal for Britain’s brightest young minds was clear: study hard, go to university and high pay would be among the rewards.

That contract has been steadily breaking down. A Bloomberg analysis shows that the graduate pay premium over minimum-wage salaries in England has been cut in half since 2007. When adjusting for increased living costs, pay for the typical single working-age graduate is 30% — or £8,000 ($10,500) — lower than it was back then.

At a time when the Labour government has decided to stop pushing young people into higher education, the data suggests other aspects of government policy may be making that case more forcefully. An increase in the National Living Wage included in Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves’ first budget last year helped narrow the pa