MBA Statistics

If one of the motivations behind obtaining the MBA degree is money, it's beneficial to know just how successful the MBA program is at helping you earn that extra money. I seached the web for statistics and found this at MSN encarta:

Master's Degrees Worth Millions?

Higher education has always paid off in the workplace, but in a technology-driven economy, the value of 'knowledge workers' has never been higher.
An advanced degree really can be worth millions of dollars in earnings over the course of a career. In fact, almost any step forward in education results in a significant upward bump in income--the further you go in school, the more you are likely to earn. The evidence is in the numbers:

Expected total earnings over a 40-year working life

High school graduate: $1.2 million
Associate's degree: $1.6 million
Bachelor's degree: $2.1 million
Master's degree: $2.5 million
Professional degree: $4.4 million
Doctoral degree $3.4 million
Source: United States Census Bureau

The gap is widening

Education has always paid off, but the income gap between education levels is expanding. According to the Census Bureau, in 1975 workers with an advanced degree--that is, a master's, professional, or doctoral degree--earned about 1.8 times what high school graduates did. By 1999, those with advanced degrees pulled in 2.6 times the salary a high school grad could expect to earn.

What about MBAs?

The Census Bureau study does not break out the lifelong expected earnings for specific master's degrees, such as MBAs. However, a report by the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC)--the organization that administers the GMAT test--reports that MBA students can expect a 64 percent increase in salary from their last full-time job held before beginning the program. In the United States, average salary rose from $50,000 before entering an MBA program to $77,000 after completion. There is no consensus on the lifetime value of an MBA, but the same report by GMAC indicates a very high level of satisfaction with the MBA degree in terms of salary and professional advancement. If the overall career-track trends hold true, the future is bright for MBA students who make the most of their skills.

This is good news for those who plan to make the investment, but this is just one source, I'll continue seaching for more information to see if there are any opposing views.