What the HECK is `earnings penalty`
 

hello fellow artists and art lovers! (art in this case music, duh)

i have this statistical data on rewards and penalties of being an artist

http://i40.tinypic.com/169kpol.jpg

what are rewards and penalties in these terms, or earnings penalty in general? my mother tongue is german, but actually i'm familiar with all economic terms as this is my major in college. but i never heard of this field. anyone can help? :( (links to definitions etc also welcome)

Well, that chart's saying extra year of education for artists doesn't quite pay as much as that for education, professional, and technical workers. The difference is probably the 'penalty' you read about.

And it appears to be implying that while the percentage return on education over time has actually been increasing, the return for artists actually capped out in the 90's, and then declined recently. Course, it only has one date point per decade, has no units, and little in the way of description, so its a bit light on data. The apparent art decline could be a statistical anomaly depending on how they gathered it.

On the penalty, I don't know the context, but it might also be talking about the advancement of professionals in school vs going out and working. Some professions increase more rapidly with education, while others do so with field work. Hard to tell the way you presented it.

I don't know why you find this surprising...

Artists and musicians dating all the way back to J.S. Bach's time (and earlier) have usually been rather poor; I can't really see this changing any time in the foreseeable future either...

I really wonder what kind of future most of these art and music majors are going to have in store for them once they graduate. Most with dreams of working for a symphony or becoming a famous artist will probably end up having to become a music teacher making ~$30k for the rest of their lives, or end up as a struggling artist who will eventually be forced to give up their trade and pursue a different career.

Man, stock Excel graphs look so professional.

I don't get it, what penalty? All that's showing is how artists generally don't make as much money after school as technical professionals do. That's just the nature of the jobs and the market for them there.

You're welcome.