‘Associates degree’ is a weird category: most people who earn them are either young (like right out of HS) or older than those who stop at a Bachelor’s: women who return to school during or after raising families, for example. Either way, an Associates degree is nowhere near comparable to a Bachelor’s in terms of the health or economic benefits that accompany that level of educational attainment. Statistically, a person with a terminal Associate’s is no better off than someone who ended their formal education with a HS diploma.

This is why demographers frequently separate educational attainment categories as HS or less vs. Some college or more, or Bachelor’s degree or more vs. Some college or less (this category includes those who’ve completed formal education with a HS diploma or GED but no college at all, even if a person completed five years of trade school and makes $100K/yr).