I made mid 40's as a non-union apprentice. Unions around here start at mid 60's for an apprentice, depending on union. Plenty of 2 year degrees that result in 50-90k/year to start.
If you weed out the people who never pursued higher education because they're lazy burnouts and compared motivated folks who work jobs w/ and w/out degrees there isn't nearly as much difference. The fact that Cleetus and Shantiqua never went to college doesn't change the fact that they'd be living on food stamps or job hopping from minimum wage jobs either way.
I'm not weeding anyone out, I think some folks are just harsh critics of higher education. I also said college isn't for everyone and the thought of working in trades is evil mentality needs to end.
Neither one of my parents went to a university. Dad entered an electrical apprenticeship program when he was 21 after getting laid off as a locomotive engineer and my mom did a hospital program for radiology. Both were able to retire quite well at 60.
I didn't go to college right away either, 1 week after I graduated I ended working as a welder making $6 an hour in 1992, I quit that job 18 months later making top wage of $8 an hour to go to college. I realized that if I wanted to make more than $8 an hour at the time, I needed to get some education. $8 was pretty much the top wage for any job at the time in 1992, there were massive layoffs 10 years earlier (farm crisis) and surplus of labor in the Midwest.