Workers with secondary education earned about 45% more than primary-educated workers in cited 2018 evidence.
Source
World Bank — https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2025/10/17/fragile-gains-enduring-challenges-charting-pakistan-s-path-out-of-poverty. Verified in source set / retroactive normalization pending.
What it proves
Education has measurable economic returns and is productive investment.
How to deploy: Use Workers with secondary education earned about 45% more than primary-educated workers in cited 2018 evidence. (Workers with secondary education earned about 45% more than primary-educated workers in cited 2018 evidence., 2018) to support the claim that Education has measurable economic returns and is productive investment.
What it does not prove: This is a cross-sectional wage gap, so part of the 45% reflects who reaches secondary school at all — wealthier, urban, better-connected families — rather than what the extra schooling itself adds. It is measured on wage earners, which in Pakistan leaves out most self-employed, informal and unpaid family workers, and the 2018 base predates the subsequent inflation surge.
Memory hook: 45% → secondary schooling buys nearly half again the primary-educated wage
Rebuts the claim: "Education budgets are welfare consumption Pakistan cannot afford while it is consolidating fiscally."