College-Educated Americans Are Doing Better Only Because Everyone Else Is Doing Worse

College is expensive, but the income gap between college graduates and those without a degree has widened sharply in the last few years.

This chart from a presentation by Bill Emmons at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, and alerted to us by guest author Invictus over at Barry Ritholtz's The Big Picture blog, shows the growing gap in income between those with at least a bachelor's degree and workers who haven't finished college.

"[I]t's not so much that those with college degrees are doing particularly well, it's that everyone else is doing significantly worse," wrote Invictus. "This is a stunner."

Emmons chart tracks incomes on an inflation-adjusted basis. Only the college-educated households have been able to preserve their purchasing power.