Does a Law Degree Really Pay Off in 2026? New Study Confirms It Does

Parents urging their children to pursue law or medicine now have data to support their advice, thanks to researchers at Yale University and Vassar College.

On average, a law degree increases graduates’ earnings by 59% — second only to pharmacists and medical doctors, who saw earnings rises of 114% and 110% respectively. MBA graduates experienced a more modest 16% increase.

Law graduates earned an average of $55,521 before law school, rising to $132,520 after graduation, according to a study by Yale economics professor Joseph Altonji and Vassar economics professor Zhengren Zhu. By comparison, medical graduates’ earnings rose from $48,650 to $181,691, while pharmacy graduates increased from $49,892 to $132,460.

Altonji and Zhu examined earnings data spanning from the early 1990s to 2018 for 121 advanced degrees, compiled by the Texas Education Research Centre. They found that graduate degrees generally boost earnings by around 17%, though returns vary widely by discipline. For example, clinical psychologists saw only a 4% average return.

“It is critical to provide students and policymakers with reliable quantitative measures of programmes’ financial value,” the study noted. It was published by the Postsecondary Education & Economics Research Centre, based at George Washington University and American University.

Previous research has also indicated that advanced degrees are financially worthwhile. A 2024 study by the Education Data Initiative found that professional degrees could yield a potential return on investment of 2,249% over a 40-year career.

The latest study accounted for both the cost and duration of obtaining advanced degrees. When adjusting for the high cost of law school, a law degree offered a 41% earnings boost—still the third-highest increase, after medical programmes at 173% and pharmacy at 68%.

Law students typically earn less while studying compared with other advanced degree programmes, reducing what the researchers term their “cost-adjusted returns.”

The institution attended also matters. “We find that MBA and JD programmes ranked higher in the U.S. News & World Report rankings yield greater returns than lower-ranking ones,” the study said.

This aligns with annual law school employment data from the American Bar Association, which shows that graduates from top-ranked schools are far more likely to secure associate roles at major law firms, where starting salaries often exceed $225,000.

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