OLRC Publications: The Economics of Literacy

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The Economics of Literacy

An adult without a high school diploma earns 42% less than an adult with a high school diploma.
High school dropouts have an unemployment rate 4 times greater than that of high school graduates.
50% of Fortune 500 companies underwrite remedial employee training in the basic skills at an annual cost of $300 million a year.
GM devotes more than 15% of the $170 million it spends yearly on job training to remedial education.
It is estimated that limited literacy skills cost business and taxpayers $20 billion in lost wages, profits, and productivity annually.
50% of the chronically unemployed are not functionally literate.
75% of the nation's prison inmates do not have a high school diploma.
The military spends $70 million on basic skills remediation for recruits.
33% of all welfare recipients are not considered to be functionally literate.
84% of unemployed fathers and 82% of all unemployed mothers lack a high school diploma.
41-44% of adults who scored in Level I on the National Adult Literacy Survey (1992) were in poverty according to federal poverty guidelines, compared with 4-6% of adults who scored in the highest level.

The preceding statistics show the relationship between economic factors and literacy levels. Please feel free to use this information in your community, in your grant writing, and in your staff development. For more information, call the Ohio Literacy Resource Center. See reverse side for address and phone number.

References:

Kirsch, I. S., Jungeblut, Ann, Jenkins, Lynn, & Kolstad, Andrew. (1993). Adult literacy in America: A first look at the results of the national adult literacy survey. Princton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.

Darling, Sharon. (1984). Illiteracy: An Everyday Problem for Millions. Appalachia, 18, 21-28.

Gorman, Christine. (1988). The Literacy Gap. Time, 132, 56-57.

Jackson, R. E., & Harris, Joan (Eds.) (1983). A consideration of the social and economic cost to citizens f South Carolina for adult illiteracy. Columbia, SC: South Carolina Literacy Association. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 279 790).

Johnson, J. (1985). Adults in crisis: Illiteracy in America. Washington DC: National Institute of Education. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 254 755).

National Center for Educational Statistics, Digest of Educational Statistics, 1992. U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement.

U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee. Illiteracy: An incurable disease or educational malpractice? Washington, DC, Sept. 13, 1989.

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