Higher education pays off.

A worker with just a high school diploma is twice as likely to be unemployed as a worker with a college degree, according to the newest installment of the Face the Facts initiative by the George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs.

Earning a bachelor’s degree can get you almost twice the salary, research shows. Workers who had a bachelor’s degree earned an average weekly salary of $1,053 in 2011, nearly double the $638 weekly salary for those with only a high school diploma.

Education level affects unemployment rates, too. Unemployment among college graduates was at 4.9 percent last year, compared to 9.4 percent—again, almost double—for workers with just high school diplomas.

And among Latinos, these numbers are exacerbated because Hispanic students across the country are lagging behind their counterparts academically. According to Excelencia in Education, whites are twice as likely to hold college and university degrees than Hispanics.

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