Columns, Opinion

Supplying your Demand: Education’s ambiguous effects on wages

Now that high school seniors have wrapped up their college applications, let’s consider an important question that is undoubtedly on many of their minds: What is the value of higher education?

Some, especially first-generation students, see college as a necessary step toward fulfilling the American Dream. Others are lifelong learners who cannot resist the opportunity to stimulate their curiosity.

Economists, contrastingly, seem to have a much more utilitarian approach. Their discussions of college are typically centered around the positive impact education level has on wages.

Each incentive for attending college is justified in its own right. However, economists’ perceptions of a college degree can be problematic for two reasons: the value of a college education may ebb and flow, and degrees aren’t prerequisites for well-paying jobs.

If society assumes the positive relationship between wages and education level to be universally true, there are far-reaching consequences to consider. The labor market could become flooded with college graduates, which would depreciate the value of bachelor’s degrees. It may also lead to a stiffer labor market where people must differentiate themselves.  

And not all degrees necessarily guarantee utility. Consider those who study art history. They devote their years to an incredibly interesting field, but the career choices directly related to their studies include only museum work and research and development.

Remind yourself of essential members of society such as plumbers who, on average, make about $50,000 per year. Not only is plumbers’ work fulfilling and fairly well-paying, but they also pursued vocational school and apprenticeships instead of a typical undergraduate education.

Nonprofit organizations like The College Board should approach higher education with less bias. When naive high schoolers read headlines such as, “College Education Linked to Higher Pay, Job Security, Healthier Behaviors and More Civic Involvement,” they can forget that getting a well-paying job can be accomplished through other means.

As a college student myself, I definitely still appreciate and acknowledge the economists’ assumption that a college degree will lead to higher wages. There are so many invaluable experiences to be gained from college, like self-discovery, that cannot be evaluated in monetary terms.

Many times, I find myself in situations that can be replicated in few places outside of college.

However, the manner in which college is currently advertised is precisely why students are increasingly seeing it as the sole means to a job. While graduates’ job search experiences render the economic argument about college tenable, this argument ought to be de-emphasized during the college application process.

The individuals who founded the most prestigious higher-education institutions did so with one intent — to educate those who wanted to learn. Although the societal significance of a college degree has increased since then, we ought to remind ourselves of higher education’s original purpose moving forward.





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