The paper comprises a retrospective overview of the educational situation of the Roma in the USA. In contrast to the European situation, efforts to establish schools for Romanies in the United States have been both few in number and - with only a couple of limited exceptions - unsuccessful. There are approximately one million Romanies in the USA, a number which is slowly growing and till now there are any schools established for Romanies to learn their mother tongue or to get integrated in the mainstream educational system of the USA.

In this study, we analyze the relationship between educational attainment and hourly earnings. With large survey data on young adults, our results suggest that there is a significant relationship between earnings and years of schooling, age, sectors of occupation, job tenure, years of experience and gender. Furthermore, having a high school diploma, two- or four-year college degree, master’s or doctorate degree leads to changes in earnings. However, these changes are negative. These negative results may occur because employers value work experience much more than a diploma.