Miami-Dade County Residents’ Priorities in Local Government: Part 2

This is the second post in our series detailing our journey to develop CivicPro with residents’ input. Note that the majority of the information presented comes from the survey responses of a sample of Miami-Dade County residents conducted by CivicPro, CUTGroup Miami, and Catalyst Miami.

The vast majority of Miami-Dade County residents we surveyed were college graduates. 70% of respondents in our sample reported graduating college, with about 30% indicating that they also completed graduate school. (Note that, while over 80% of all Miami-Dade County residents have graduated high school, closer to 30% of all residents have graduated college according to the U.S. Census. The discrepancy in educational attainment between the survey sample and the U.S. Census data is likely due the fact that the survey was designed primarily to inform the development of CivicPro’s software through a canvass of likely users.)

Question: What is the highest level of education you have completed?

However, the relatively high levels of educational attainment among survey respondents were not matched by high levels of reported income. 

Question: What's your annual income level?

47% of respondents reported earning less than $50,000 per year. Similarly, 71% indicated that they earned $75,000 per year or less with only about 24% of respondents earning between $50,000 to $75,000 per year.

Whereas a clear majority of respondents are highly educated, only a small minority are high earners. This finding is surprising because, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “among people age 25 years and older, median weekly earnings generally increase with greater levels of educational attainment.”

Unfortunately, the cause of the disconnect reported between educational attainment and income were beyond the scope of our survey. It is obviously a question that deserves further inquiry.