College Educations Jobs : Minimum Wage

Here is something that I have always believed, a college education means little or nothing when it comes to making big money. It depends on what discipline you got your degree in.

Anyone that has done the four year college thing knows that the number of people that are taking classes have no business being there. They have no clue what is going on except that it's 'party time".

Just think about all the business majors, English majors, Fine Arts of all kinds, even most sciences. They, for the most part, are worthless. These people are lucky if they can land a job at minimum wage, and then a lot of them will get fired because they have no idea what it takes to hold down a full time job. I know people that refused to take a job that they thought wasn't up to there skills - yikes!

Hey, just look at their education - what did they learn that would prepare them to enter the work force? Discipline? A work ethic? If they didn't have these basic for getting and holding a job, they sure won't get them from a college education.


What About the Margin?
Source: George Leef, "This Paper Refutes Itself," Pope Center, August 4, 2010.

In their study, "Help Wanted: Projections of Jobs and Education Requirements Through 2018," researchers Anthony Carnevale, Nicole Smith and Jeff Strohl conclude that a college degree is definitely "worth it" and that the American workforce will soon face a serious shortage of college-educated workers. However, if you look closely at the data, you reach the opposite conclusions, says George Leef, director of research for the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy.

One of the paper's main arguments is that people with college degrees on average earn substantially more than people who don't, so it follows that the market is indicating the need for more college graduates. While it's true that on average, those who have college degrees earn significantly more than do those without them, but that doesn't tell us anything about the margin, says Leef.

For instance, will an individual who could go to college but is only a mediocre student necessarily enjoy a wage premium if he or she decides on college? A close look at the income distribution data shows:

The top earning category (over $67,500 per year) is dominated by people with college education (76 percent with an associate's degree or higher).
In the lowest two categories, however, you also find a substantial number of college-educated people.

Among those making $20,000 or less annually, 6 percent have master's degrees or higher, 14 percent have bachelor's degrees, and 9 percent have associate's degrees.
Same for the group earning between $20,000 and $35,000 per year -- 5 percent have a master's or higher, 15 percent have a bachelor's, and 11 percent have an associate's degree.

That's a large number of people with college education under their belt who are earning below-average incomes. For quite a few years, scholars have been pointing out that many college graduates spill over into jobs traditionally done by high school graduates (or dropouts), says Leef.

Without realizing it -- the authors of the paper provide corroborative evidence on this point by showing that many college-educated workers are in jobs that do not call for any academic training, says Leef.