How some Philly-area workers make $100,000 without a bachelor’s degree

Can you make $100,000 a year in the Philadelphia area without a four-year college degree?

Yes. But it’s not common.

“There is no magic wand to get to a six-figure salary,” said Cynthia Figueroa, who leads workforce development nonprofit JEVS Human Services. “There’s a lot of steps that have to happen along the way.”

Companies including IBM, Delta, and Google have dropped degree requirements in recent years. Locally, Gov. Josh Shapiro slashed college degree requirements for most state jobs in 2023, and Mayor Cherelle L. Parker has advanced an effort to do the same for some city jobs. Meanwhile, more are pursuing vocational training, the Wall Street Journal reported, as some in Gen Z turn to the trades amid the rising cost of college.

Data center technicians are increasingly in demand, don’t require a college degree, and can make a six-figure salary after some experience. And store managers at Walmart, who often don’t have college degrees, can make $128,000 before bonuses.

But who actually makes $100,000 or more in the Philadelphia area without a four-year degree, and what does that path look like? The Inquirer took a look at the data.

Among the Philadelphia metro area’s 3.97 million workers, the vast majority who make a six-figure salary have at least a bachelor’s degree, according to Census data compiled by IPUMS USA at the University of Minnesota. The metropolitan area includes 11 counties in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland.

Roughly 159,000 people made $100,000 or more without a four-year college degree in 2024, the data indicates. (That includes people with an associate’s degree.)

“There is potential” for high-earning without college, but it’s not typical, said Sean Vereen, president and CEO of career-focused education nonprofit Heights Philadelphia.

“We know that not everybody wants to go to college, but particularly the way the economy in this region is constructed, that college degree still is very useful,” said Vereen.

But the majority of the workforce in the Philadelphia metro area lacks a bachelor’s degree. Only about 7% of them reach the high-earning $100,000+ bracket.

It’s more common in jobs where salaries overall tend to be higher, such as management, business and finance. About 51,000 Philly-area people in those jobs with less than a bachelor’s degree earned $100,000 or more in 2024.

Still, more opportunities for people without a four-year degree could be on the horizon.

Shipbuilding is having a resurgence in Philadelphia’s Navy Yard, and more electricians, carpenters and welders will be needed, said Figueroa.

Among Philadelphia construction workers, including carpenters and welders, more than 11,000 do not have a bachelor’s degree and make at least $100,000 annually.

Hanwha, plans to expand its shipbuilding operations in Philadelphia and will need to hire. That includes positions requiring considerable math skills, said Figueroa, of JEVS. The organization is currently figuring out how to get job-training graduates into opportunities.

Philadelphia Works, the city’s workforce development board, is working closely with Hanwha, CEO and president H. Patrick Clancy said.

“Our goal is to do more of the pre-apprenticeship,” Clancy said. “They have a lot of people interested in applying for their roles, but not all of them are passing the math and reading [requirements].”

Last year, a Brookings Institution report highlighted enterprise digital solutions (business software), specialized manufacturing (like producing parts for medical devices or industrial electronics), and biomedical commercialization (life sciences businesses) as areas where Philadelphia residents should be able to find good jobs. Many jobs in those sectors don’t require a college degree.

“We need to be focused on creating the right kinds of jobs,” said Chellie Cameron, CEO and president of the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia, which is now focusing on the areas Brookings identified.

The right kinds of jobs, Cameron said, are not minimum wage positions. They “start at a place where people can earn a family-sustaining wage and have access to pathways for promotion and making more money over the course of their career.”

Orleans Technical College in Northeast Philadelphia, run by JEVS, trains people for building trades and healthcare professions. It had 379 students last year. Tuition ranges from roughly $13,000 to $25,000, but most students get financial assistance and typically leave with $6,000 or less in debt.

“There’s still very much the physical application of running wire, bending metal,” said Figueroa, and many medical tasks seem to be AI-proof for now. “At the end of the day, you need somebody who is taking the blood pressure next to the bed, and who is drawing the blood.”

Construction management and HVAC students can expect starting salaries around $75,000 and $60,000 respectively. Those who work overtime can make even more, Figueroa noted, and pay also increases over the course of a career.

That’s not a six-figure salary on day one, she acknowledged. But college graduates can make a similar amount in their first job, and “they have this enormous debt” from their schooling.

Orleans also offers healthcare training for clinical medical assistants and practical nursing. Starting salaries for those jobs are generally around $44,000 and $64,000 respectively.

“Going from an hourly wage — at like a Target, McDonald’s, Walgreens, what have you — to salaried, hopefully with benefits, is a huge first step,” Figueroa said.

Connecting people to employment also means addressing barriers like lacking a drivers license, needing childcare, financial literacy, or housing support, says Clancy. Pursuing training might mean going without paid work for weeks or months, which can be a challenge. Philadelphia Works has some funds available to pay people during their training.

Young adults need to be aware of opportunities too, said Vereen. For instance, he said, sterilization technician is a good job within a hospital, but young people may not know it’s a path available to them without going to college.

And sometimes young people need to catch up before training for jobs in the trades, Vereen says. “We’ve heard things like, ‘the kid coming from the school district doesn’t have strong enough math skills to take the test for the building trades,” he said.

“You need basic academic skills that are about math and reading and reading comprehension,” he said. “We don’t get away from giving kids basic knowledge.”