Photo by Glyn Lowe

A D.C. worker with only a high school education made $2 more per hour in 1980 than they did in 2014, when adjusting for inflation. Meanwhile, Washingtonians with a college degree made $4.50 more per hour on average in 2014 than they did in 1980, according to a new report by the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute.

Correspondingly, the city’s impressive economic growth over that period has largely been in highly skilled sectors, particularly education, health, professional and business services; together they account for nearly 100,000 new jobs since 1980.

According to report, the leisure and hospitality industry is one of the few sectors that doesn’t generally require an advanced degree that has seen growth (it added 22,000 jobs since 1990). Transportation, manufacturing, and utilities jobs, meanwhile, have seen large declines.

While the biggest wage drop was for those with a high school diploma, both workers who didn’t complete high school and those who had some higher education also saw declines. Without a high school degree, Washingtonians saw their average wages fall from $13 an hour in 1980 to $12 in 2007, the last year with reliable data, according to the report. And residents with some college education saw their adjusted-for-inflation earnings whipsaw from $16 an hour in 1980 to nearly $19 an hour in the early 2000s, back down to $15 hour.

Via DCFPI.

According to the report, about 50,000 residents don’t have a high school degree, while 81,000 residents have only a high school diploma.

“DC’s economy is not creating opportunities for everyone to succeed” said Ilana Boivie, a senior analyst at DCFPI. “Lots of people are working hard, but not everyone is getting ahead.”