As the earnings gap between workers with and without a bachelor’s degree has widened over the past four decades, policymakers have grappled with ways to expand access to these degrees for students from low-income and under-represented minority (URM) backgrounds. In addition to financial aid and student support programs, a systematic shift in the offering of bachelor’s degrees has quietly been gaining ground across the country. To date, 24 states allow community colleges—institutions known to be more geographically, financially, and academically accessible—to offer bachelor’s degrees directly. Between 2004 and 2022, we find the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded by community colleges more than quadrupled, from roughly 3,300 to over 16,000. In states like Florida and Washington, community colleges now award nearly 10% and 5% of all bachelor’s degrees, respectively.
As these degrees grow in popularity, however, the critical question of efficacy remains: Are these degrees currently delivering on their promise of expanding educational access while maintaining strong labor market returns?
Our new research provides the first comprehensive, descriptive evidence of how Community College Baccalaureate (CCB) graduates fare in the labor market compared to their associate degree and bachelor’s degree holding peers. Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Postsecondary Employment Outcomes (PSEO) program, which covers 10 of the 24 states currently offering CCB degrees, we find that these degrees currently occupy a unique middle ground. CCB graduates see substantial earnings gains compared to associate degree holders but earn less on average than peers who completed a bachelor’s degree from a traditional four-year college.
Policy background
The CCB movement began in 1989 when West Virginia became the first state to authorize these degrees, followed over the next decade by a small number of states—including Vermont, Utah, and Idaho—that introduced programs at a small number of colleges. The early 2000s marked a turning point when Florida (2001) and Washington (2005) authorized CCBs and, crucially, extended that authority to nearly all colleges within their systems, demonstrating that community colleges could offer bachelor’s degrees at meaningful scale. Broad national expansion, however, did not accelerate until the 2010s, when 11 additional states passed authorizing legislation.
Today, CCBs are authorized in 24 states though the gap between authorization and scale remains wide. Policy implementation approaches vary dramatically across states: In contrast to the near-universal authorization in Florida and Washington, California’s 2021 law caps the number of new programs statewide to 30 annually and requires they not duplicate existing UC or Cal State offerings. Similar limits to program introduction based on geography or degree type exist across several recently authorizing states like Iowa and South Carolina. Across the country, a common feature of CCB introduction and approval is the requirement that these programs target local workforce needs, with the most common fields of study offering CCB degrees being business, health professions, computer and information sciences, and education. In most newly authorizing states, fewer than a quarter of their community colleges offer CCB degrees.
Early state-level studies from Florida and Washington have shown promising average earnings for CCB graduates, but more rigorous evidence comparing CCB holders to graduates of traditional postsecondary options across states has been limited. Our new research provides the first national analysis of how CCB graduates fare in the labor market compared to both associate degree holders and recipients of traditional bachelor’s degrees.
Earnings premia and penalties
The PSEO data allow us to track nearly 13,000 CCB graduates across 10 states one year after graduation. Compared to their associate degree (AA) peers, CCB graduates from the same institution and field earn $5,685 more annually at the median, a 14% premium in the year after graduation. This advantage grows across the earnings distribution: $4,264 (13.8%) at the 25th percentile and $8,885 (16.7%) at the 75th percentile, suggesting the relative benefit may be stronger for those in higher-earning fields.
The comparison to traditional bachelor’s degree recipients is more complex, as graduates come from different institutions. Comparing bachelor’s holders from the same state, field, and graduation cohort, CCB graduates earn $2,769 less annually at the median—a 5.5% penalty one year after graduation—relative to graduates from traditional four-year colleges. This penalty shrinks substantially across the earnings distribution: $2,327 (6.1%) less at the 25th percentile but only $1,496 (2.3%) less at the 75th percentile.1
These estimates come with important caveats. First, the analysis is descriptive and cannot account for selection into CCB programs. Indeed, compared to peers who attend traditional four-year institutions, CCB graduates likely differ systematically along various dimensions, including their geographic proximity to college. Second, we observe only graduates who secure full-time employment (excluding about 22% of CCB degree completers and 31% of traditional BA completers), potentially overstating outcomes. Finally, with just one year of post-graduation data, our analysis is an early-career snapshot of differences in earnings by degree type. Future research should assess whether earnings trajectories converge, diverge, or remain stable over time.
Field of study matters
Importantly, we find that aggregate statistics mask significant variation across academic field of study. Using 11 fields where CCBs are offered, we compare outcomes both to associate degrees within the same institution and field, and to traditional bachelor’s degrees within the same state and field. The earnings of graduates from 6 of these fields are presented in Figure 1 below.
In nursing, CCB graduates earn nearly identical salaries to bachelor’s recipients from four-year institutions across the earnings distribution. Criminal justice shows a similar pattern, with CCB graduates exceeding traditional bachelor’s earnings among top earners. Both fields exhibit relatively concentrated employment: 73% of nursing graduates work in health care and social assistance industries, while 48% of criminal justice graduates work in public administration and protective services. In professions with standardized credentials and clearly defined career pathways, the degree level appears to matter more than the institution type, a pattern that has been documented in other experimental settings.
Computer and information sciences shows the opposite earnings pattern. CCB graduates earn approximately $6,200 more than associate degree holders but face a median earnings penalty of nearly $21,000 compared to traditional bachelor’s degree recipients—the largest gap observed in any of the fields in our sample. Employment patterns show that computer science CCB graduates disperse across various industries (agriculture and construction, professional services, education, public administration), each accounting for 12% to 29% of graduates.2
Business programs, which represent over one quarter of all CCB graduates, show no significant earnings difference between CCB and associate degree holders from the same institution, and CCB graduates earn slightly less than traditional bachelor’s recipients. Other health care fields (dental support, health administration), which enroll 22% of CCB graduates, show significant CCB premia over associate degrees ($6,000 to $8,000 annually) but still lag traditional bachelor’s programs. Education and liberal arts programs show mixed patterns across the earnings distribution, with penalties at lower percentiles that diminish or reverse among higher earners.
The cost-benefit calculation
A full assessment of CCBs should consider not just earnings but also costs. Through systematic analysis of college websites across three states, we identified two dominant pricing structures, which are often mandated at the state level:
Constant pricing: Many community colleges charge the same rate per credit for all courses, making a CCB exactly twice as expensive as an associate degree. In Georgia, for example, this translates to $15,000 to $22,500 in total across four years for a bachelor’s degree.
Escalating pricing: Some institutions charge more for upper-division (junior and senior year) courses. In Texas, three institutions charge roughly 40% more for these advanced courses, adding approximately $3,000 to the total cost of a CCB at institutions that use a constant pricing approach.
Critically, even with escalating prices, CCB programs remain substantially more affordable than traditional bachelor’s degrees in the states we studied (Georgia, Ohio, and Texas). Across the public four-year institutions we studied, average CCB tuition and fees totaled $16,800 compared to $31,000 for traditional bachelor’s programs—a difference of over $14,000.
These documented savings don’t account for other cost factors. Importantly, these costs represent the sticker cost of colleges, which is often a misrepresentation of what students—especially those at four-year colleges—pay out of pocket for tuition and fees. Additionally, many CCB students can live at home and community colleges’ flexible scheduling often allows students to work while enrolled.
Policy implications and looking ahead
The CCB policy landscape is active and constantly evolving; Illinois and Iowa both introduced legislation in 2025 to join 24 states in authorizing CCB degrees. But rapid expansion has sparked significant controversy in some states. In California, Governor Newsom has vetoed three bills in two years that would expand CCB programs beyond an existing CCB framework, citing concerns about proper evaluation and coordination with existing universities and highlighting ongoing tensions between expanding access and managing duplication across public higher education systems.
These disputes underscore critical gaps in what we know about CCB programs. While our research provides important baseline evidence on earnings, significant questions remain unanswered. In an optimistic conception, these degrees can improve the accessibility of bachelor’s degrees, especially for those students who live in “education deserts.” For geographically constrained students, particularly those in rural areas or with family obligations, the proximity of community colleges could make the difference between pursuing a bachelor’s degree or not.
As federal regulations around gainful employment advance, many CCB programs—with their combination of lower costs and positive earnings outcomes—have the potential to meet or exceed benchmarks that some traditional programs struggle to achieve. But without further research on the success of these programs, who is enrolling, and graduates’ longer-run outcomes, policymakers are making consequential decisions with incomplete information.
