Interesting article about the value of college for young grads

[Catherine]

Given the perennial conversations here about whether it makes sense to borrow for college, to even GO to college, I am always on the lookout for relevant data. This article suggests that college is MORE valuable for the younger generation even than it was for us, in terms of job security, employment, and long term career plans:

 

http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/02/11/the-rising-cost-of-not-going-to-college/

 

I hope to get my kids through college without debt but the article suggests that the payoff is worth it for many grads who borrow.

 

Your thoughts?

[JumpyTheFrog]

I think a big part of the increase in the pay gap is because so many manufacturing jobs have been offshored or automated. There just aren't as many decent paying jobs around for people without a college degree as their were decades ago. I don't know if that means college is worth more on an absolute scale, just that high school is worth less than it used to be. Considering that wages have been stagnant and college costs have zoomed up, it might be possible that it is both a worse deal than it used to be, while also being more important. Does that make sense?

[MeaganS]

I think a big part of the increase in the pay gap is because so many manufacturing jobs have been offshored or automated. There just aren't as many decent paying jobs around for people without a college degree as their were decades ago. I don't know if that means college is worth more on an absolute scale, just that high school is worth less than it used to be. Considering that wages have been stagnant and college costs have zoomed up, it might be possible that it is both a worse deal than it used to be, while also being more important. Does that make sense?

Sort of, but I have been following a lot of the work the Mike Rowe does (the Dirty Jobs guy).  He makes a very compelling argument that there are tons of skilled labor jobs available with no one willing to take them.  Office jobs, generally not, but there are lots of other paths besides college that can still be quite lucrative.  Most of the stats I see point to the fact that there aren't enough people willing to do the skilled labor jobs and there are lots of places who can't find enough people to hire.

[Hunter]

No one likes to talk about it, but sometimes two people with exactly the same degree are just not comparable in employability because of prejudices.

 

 

Meridith Pushnik, a 30-year-old web designer, said she experienced such discrimination early in her career. In 2007, Ms. Pushnik and a male friend with similar education and experience both landed jobs designing web sites and creating software applications for a Denver firm. Four years later, she learned from the colleague that he earned $20,000 more a year than she did.
Ms. Pushnik didn’t bring up the matter with her manager because company guidelines prohibited employees from discussing wages among themselves. She left in December and in March joined EffectiveUI, Inc., another Denver technology firm.

 

Women earned 76.5 cents for every dollar that men did last year, moving no closer to narrowing a gender pay gap that has barely budged in almost a decade.

 

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2013/09/17/male-female-pay-gap-hasnt-moved-much-in-years/

 

• The pay gap is worse for women of color.
  Compared with non-Hispanic white men, Pacific Islander/Native Hawaiian women were paid 66 percent, African American women were paid 64 percent, American Indian/Alaska Native women were paid 60 percent, and Hispanic women were paid just 53 percent.

http://www.aauw.org/research/the-simple-truth-about-the-gender-pay-gap/

 

The reality is that our daughters cannot afford the debt our sons can afford. And some low income and minority students have to work so much harder to get into a school, to make it there, and then the reward is smaller. Sometimes an education is not worth it financially. There are other reasons to pursue an education other than finances, and if those reasons are a factor, then it's still worth it to pursue an expensive education.