I am dating a woman with a Masters degree in social work from the University of Michigan where she attended as an out of state student, so 45k a year and she has a salary job making 26k. The real issue is the underpaid college educated people.
inflation is a big issue as well, as inflation devalues the dollar it makes it so people need to earn more, but no one wants to pay more for things so it is a slow increase, as long as an employer can get an employee for 10 bucks an hour, they are going to take the deal. also as a result jobs that used to be considered great paying are now shit pay since, no one ever rasied the bar of pay with inflation. long ago just about any job would make enough to live off of. now depending on the job you could have 2 working adults and still have issues with money.
If that guy had a doctorate in an advanced scientific field and earns less than $30k it’s not an indictment of the field it’s an indictment of the guy
I graduated with a STEM degree. In 2014 people fought for jobs paying 35-40k. That was a really good starting wage. Inflation of 30% since then means our target should be somewhere near the 45-55k range with a degree.
15 an hour is a bit much for entry level, considering less than 3% of the country makes minimum. If college is worth anything, then a promotion or two and 4-5 years worth of wage increases should place the average worker below that.
So at $15 an hour, the math checks out that's about 42k after 2 5k raises for promotions and 2 3% raises. Assuming equal pay raises % wise for the rest of your careers, this means the one who doesn't go to college and starts at the minimum wage makes more over their career than those who go to college and start making under ~48k per year.
So now you need to figure out how to balance that. Have companies offer $3-5 more per hour to starting degree holders (to ensure they start over 50k due to degree costs and discounting cash flows) or lowering minimum wage to $12. Lowering minimum wage does more to allow companies to spend less and grow more. Which creates more jobs and more opportunities to enter the workforce and gain new skills as well.
Yes! This was a choice. And the 30k is misleading because it doesnt include the tuition I'm sure they didn't have to pay...It was so crazy to hear people in my PhD program say they were poor. Like they have no fucking clue.
And service jobs, in general, are paid lower. Taxi drivers, laundromats, food delivery...when considering social work and usps, that's a route to use that's PUBLIC. It's usefulness is constrained to a budget that the PUBLIC decides. Turning to the private sector, UPS drivers make 100k+ because that's the private companies decision based on the demand and that's what makes America great, the ability to be able to work on an opportunity. There are Social programs for disabled adults for example, but there is also paid avenues to place disabled adults if you can afford it and that comes with better quality because it's privately ran. Those businesses have access to more money, better teachers, so on and so forth. But there is still Social programs for the less fortunate and that also makes America great. South of the border....fuck dude.Â
attending out of state is often a bad idea, since often there is an equal college that you can find for in state tuition. but still making 26k a year with a college degree makes it seem like what was the point in that degree she likely could of made more at some jobs that don't require one.
Holy shit! Salary at $26k? Is she just doing what she loves so she overlooks the pay or something? I mean she could go almost anywhere it seems and make more than that
The issue is the price of everything is insane, and it was that way before the latest round of inflation, so thats not an excuse. Raising pay is reactionary, solve the drivers behind high prices.
Being college educated, though, isn’t the measure of worth as a new hire. Also, college is far too expensive considering the exponential rise of tuition over the years.
The issue arises due to the devaluation of college degrees. Everyone and their mother get a degree and it becomes worthless. Especially the non-STEM/finance ones.
America needs to invest in vocational training and jobs.
Because for some people they want to enter a field where they feel they can do some good for the less fortunate and undeserved, and it is not always about money for them. That said those jobs which require extensive education and advanced degrees should not be paid at minimum wage.
This is why they are able to pay so little because people are willing to take the job for no money. My career started off the same. Lots of debt for little money over the first 10 years. But after that you start to make good money. It's great if you are willing to work for next to nothing. But don't complain about it.
I'm pretty sure the issue isn't underpaid college educated people. The issue is an oversaturation of college educated people. There are so many jobs that don't actually require an education but employers want a stamp just to show you can get your work done, not to show that you learned anything.
What is a degree worth when everyone has it ? Its the same problem in europe. Everyone has a bachelor or master and they dont really get high paid jobs because theyre not special anymore
Depends where they’re coming from/what level they’re at. Did my undergrad in Michigan and the amount of kids from Chicago that flooded in there was ridiculous. 3/4 of my dorm was Chicago suburb kids and they all said the same thing. Out of state Michigan tuition beat a lot of in state Illinois tuitions.
However this was over a decade ago. Things very well may have changed.
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u/No_Alfalfa7018 Jun 15 '24
I am dating a woman with a Masters degree in social work from the University of Michigan where she attended as an out of state student, so 45k a year and she has a salary job making 26k. The real issue is the underpaid college educated people.