Vietnam Veterans Wages and Education

The Vietnam War was one of the United State’s most costly wars. The US formally entered the Vietnam “Conflict” in 1964 after the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was passed and ended in 1975 with the fall of Saigon and South Vietnam to National Liberation Front (Viet Cong). The war had cost the US $738 billion (2014 USD) (Daggett 2010, 5).

The Vietnam War was also an incredibly divisive war in American history. Many men chose to avoid the draft and protest the war. After hostilities ended in 1975, most Americans simply ignored that there had ever been a war. Ken Meyercord, a draft evader remembers, “There were plenty of people who condemned my actions (to evade the draft), but I was never comfortable with people labelling me as a hero. Mostly though it never came up, people didn’t want to talk about [the Vietnam War]” (Pearl 2016). In this blog post, I will analyze Vietnam veterans’ education and income levels using IPUMS census data compared to non-Veterans by birth year cohorts. I will explore whether or not there are any income and education discrepancies between Vietnam veterans and non-veterans. 

Data:

I am using census data from the University of Minnesota’s Integrated Public-Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) database. My samples range from 1970 to 2010. I am working with 1% samples for 1980 to 2000 but I am also using the 1% Form 2 State sample for 1970 and the 1% American Community Study (ACS) sample for 2010. The ACS is also administered by the U.S. Census Bureau. All analyses are weighted with the individual sample weight PERWT variable. 

I will be using the IPUMS’s definition of who is a Vietnam Veteran. The IPUMS Vietnam Veteran definition is broad. It includes any veteran who served between August 1964 and April 1975, irrespective on whether or not they served in the Vietnam War. It does not include Vietnam veterans who served in the U.S. military in Vietnam before 1964 and only includes National Guard and military reserves members if they were called to active duty.

I will be using INCWAGE to calculate the incomes of veterans and non-veterans. INCWAGE does not record net losses for individuals–zero is the lowest possible income. It only records an income paid by employers and includes commission, tips, and cash bonuses. My understanding is that social security, veterans payments and pension payments will be counted in INCWAGE as long as they are paid in cash to recipients. Non-cash benefits will not appear in INCWAGE.

Method: 

I divide my analyses of Vietnam veterans into Veterans and non-Veterans and only analyze men. I am only analyzing veterans and non-veterans in the labor force (EMPSTAT!=3), including unemployed men. This eliminated veterans too disabled to work and non-veterans who were students in university and not yet searching for work. To remove extreme age outliers, I am analyzing veteran men between the 10th and 90th age percentiles. I am basing the percentiles on who is and is not a veteran in 1980 once the war is over and no one else can become a Vietnam veteran. Somehow IPUMS has men as young as 14 and as old as 73 listed as Vietnam veterans in 1970. By restricting my analysis, I eliminate these impossible outliers. I then separate the remaining men into cohorts by birth years. Each cohort is composed of 2 to 3 birth years.

For each income analysis, I am using 1999 USD. I multiplied the INCWAGE variables by the CPI99 variable to create a common value to compare cohorts, veterans and non-veterans. Without CPI99, it would be meaningless to compare 1980 income to 2010 income. I then created median incomes for each cohort and education level using the PERWT variable.

For the education analysis, I use EDUC. Although EDUCD is more comprehensive, it does not cover 1970 and 1980. I divided education levels based on years of schooling provided in EDUC. For those that attended Grade 12, I assigned “Graduated High school.” Men who attended less than Grade 12 were assigned “did not Graduate High school.” For those that attended college for 4 years, I assigned them “Bachelor’s Degree” and men with 5+ years of college were assigned “Master’s, Doctoral or Professional Degree.” Students who attended college for 1 to 3 years were assigned “Some College.” I recognize that these divisions are rough as years attended does not imply completion and that many students may have graduated or completed degrees faster. It also does not account for trade schools, Associate’s Degrees or other education programs. Finally, the education level is calculated for that census year. Many men may complete a higher level of education later or currently be in the process of completing a degree during enumeration.

Here is my code

Results: 

Figure 1: Veteran and non-veteran income by birth year cohorts. 1970 - 2010.

Figure 1: Veteran and non-veteran income by birth year cohorts. 1970 – 2010.

Figure 1 shows us that Vietnam veterans who were born before 1952 have nearly equal median incomes to their non-veteran counterparts. Veterans born between 1949 and 1951 however have lower incomes from 1970 to 1990 but by 2000, they are almost identical to the non-veteran cohort. Additionally, Vietnam veterans born between 1937 and 1945 have higher median incomes in 2000 and 2010. This is most likely because the older veterans served in the military as career officers and were able to accrue stable pensions and benefits upon retirement.

Figure 1 also shows us that veterans born between 1946 and 1954 have higher incomes than their non-veteran counterparts in 1970. This may be because veterans were paid more in the military than their non-veteran counterparts in entry level positions. However, by 1980 and 1990, non-veterans born between 1946 and 1954 are earning more than veterans. Non-veterans born between 1952 and 1954 earn substantially more than veterans. This may be because the 1952 to 1954 veterans entered the military directly upon turning 18 and then exited service with less work experience and education than non-veterans.

Veterans born between 1943 and 1945 consistently earn more than non-veterans, however I can not explain why. It may be because of a higher proportion of higher education completed. I will explain this with Figure 2.

Figure 2: Education by Birth year cohort for men above age 39.

Figure 2: Education by Birth year cohort for men above age 39.

Figure 2 shows the education attainment breakdown for each cohort. The education data is taken across all census years for men above age 39. I arbitrarily chose age 39 as I believe that a majority of men would have ended their education by 40 years old. I also did not want to raise the age above 39 as higher ages were more affected by mortality, skewing the results. Figure 2 also shows us which cohort had the most Vietnam veterans. Most veterans were born between 1946 and 1948.

We also see in Figure 2 that for all cohorts, more non-veterans completed Bachelor’s or Master’s, Doctoral, or Professional Degrees than their veteran counterparts did. However, overall there are more non-veterans than veterans, making this an unfair comparison. Looking closer, more non-veterans born after 1945, proportionally, completed a college (attended college 4+ years). Conversely, proportionally more veterans born before 1946 completed a college degree by age 40 compared to non-veterans.

Figure 3: Income by educational attainment. 1970 - 2010.

Figure 3: Veteran and non-veteran income by educational attainment. 1970 – 2010.

Figure 3 show us that both veterans and non-veterans with the same education level earn almost identical median incomes. In fact, veterans with degrees earn slightly more than non-veterans over their lifetime. Non-veterans who completed high school or less earn slightly less than veterans with the same qualifications. This may be due to military pensions and benefits.

Figure 3 helps explain why veterans overall earn less than non-veterans. While veterans earn the same amount when they have the same education, more non-veterans have higher levels of education, pulling up the overall non-veteran population.

Conclusion:

Vietnam veteran earnings are primarily determined by how old they were when they entered the military. Younger veterans earn less than their non-veteran counterparts due to entering the military instead of gaining civilian work experience or continuing their education. Veterans and non-veterans earn similar amounts when they both have the same educational qualifications. The 1946 – 1948 cohort, the largest veteran cohort, earns almost identical income to the non-veteran 1946 -1948 cohort. My study would be much more effective if I could analyze the data to see if it is statistically significant and be able to run regressions.

Other studies of Vietnam Veterans’ long term incomes have also concluded that by 2000, veterans were earning as much as non-veterans and that the effect was now negligible (Angrist 2011, 1). Finally, there may be many other variables that cause the discrepancies. For example, race and socioeconomic status may play a factor as many minorities and men from lower/working class backgrounds were over represented in the Vietnam draft (National Vietnam Veterans Foundation).

Cite:

Angrist, Joshua, Stacey Chen, Jae Song. Long Term Consequences of Vietnam Era Conscription: New Estimates Using Social Security Data. MIT. May 2011. http://economics.mit.edu/files/6336

Daggett, Stephen. Cost of Major U.S. Wars. Congressional Research Service. June 29, 2010. https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RS22926.pdf

Pearl, Joshua. Ken Meyercord Interview. oral history conducted 2/26/2016 by Joshua Pearl. Dartmouth Vietnam Project. Rauner Special Collections Library. Dartmouth College. 2016. [Note: This interview is not yet on the Dartmouth Vietnam Project’s website and is not yet transcribed. Available at Rauner by request.]

Sobering Statistics for the Vietnam War. National Vietnam Veterans Foundation. http://www.nationalvietnamveteransfoundation.org/statistics.htm