I must have missed the law that stated that college students were forced to work for minimum wage.
One would think that an energetic, smart person could do better than the absolute minimum.
There is also that whole, working before you go to college thing.
It is simply not possible now to work one's way through college, and all the "I walked to school uphill both ways" stories won't change that. But I don't blame the young people, I blame the professors and administrators of the tax-supported institutions that rip these young people off.
A young, smart college person could make a lot than minimum wage at 40 hours a week waiting tables in a nice or concept restaurant part time.
The law of supply and demand, especially for someone with no experience and out of high school, they would be lucky to even get a job in the first place, much less just minimum wage. Heck, starting out myself, many decades ago, all I was getting was minimum wage (can you believe that was $1.25/hr).
I worked at a gas station, and a theater and a grocery store ... various times starting off, so I know how it is.
I’m trying to help a relative get a job right now and they basically can’t get one (over a period of a year), and if you do manage to ge to one, it’s definitely no more than minimum wage.
Another factor is that employers do NOT want to accommodate any kind of school schedule. The employer wants you to work WHENEVER they determine they need you, and they do NOT want to hear about this time off or that day off. You try that with employers and you’re fired and they get someone else!
And ... right now ... as a real old fogey ... if I were to get some kind of job, all I would be getting is minimum wage, because of my limitations. They’re different than the limitations that youngsters have, but they’re there.
You have to keep in mind that we’re talking “averages” here - in other words the BULK of the population group we’re talking about and not a 1% or 2% or 3% that may be able to “score big” and get an accommodating employer and even one that will pay more than minimum wage - all while taking classes all mixed in through the day and week.
I remember my college days and it was difficult enough even “finding a job” at all (and I definitely wanted one). And then if you got one - well, good luck even getting enough hours.
What you’re saying will work for a very few - but I’ll guarantee you it won’t work for the bulk of that group.
And that’s just the way it is. You better have all that money up front, or you better get it from your parents or you better get it from some other source. Any work you do is going to be minimum wage and you’re not going to get all the hours you need.
The trouble is that in a college town there are 20000 kids competing for the same few score jobs, so employers don’t have to pay much. Add in the fact that most of the students have classes during the day and are looking for jobs that operate on weekends and evenings, and the competition gets even stiffer.
My extremely hard-working, focused daughter tried to work her way through school. Despite extensive and excellent experience in a very difficult work area, plus glowing recommendations from everyone she had ever worked for, she couldn’t find a job in her college town. She ended up taking care of horses for $6 an hour. It was physically exhausting work in all weather with occasional injuries thrown in for good measure. She is very tough, resolute, and brave and she knew quite well what she was doing, but it still beat her to death. It wasn’t until her senior year that she finally got a retail job. Even then, she was dead on her feet. My hat’s off to that tough cookie for working and studying as hard as she did.
The problem is that if you are working full time, you may not be able to get the required courses in at the right time to graduate in four years. Graduating in five years is becoming more and more the norm. But in the fifth year the usual grants and scholarships go away. A student may find herself forced to face a choice between quitting without a degree or taking on (more) debt in order to finish.
I sold women's shoes in a local mall shoestore on weekends; I worked for Sears running a call center in Melrose Park Monday - Friday from 3pm - 9pm, I installed TV and communications antenna's and pre-wired new homes as they were being built for phone, cable, satellite, alarm and central vacuum systems with a friend as our own business.
I graduated in three years and had $7,500 in debt which I paid off my first year out of college. In addition to the full-time job I found upon graduation, I continued with the tv, communications, satellite, pre-wiring homes and installing alarms and central vacuum' systems business with my friend for several more years to keep making extra money. I'm very proud of the fact that I made my own way and did it on my own. That's something no one can ever take away from me.
I bought my first home at 23 years of age as a "fixer upper" and moved into it with my bride the same year. By the time we sold it 5 years later, it was the nicest house on the block, rehabbed from the inside out using our own labor and our own money. We made a very nice profit on the home when we sold it and moved into our current home with the profits.
The desire to succeed combined with hard work is a powerful motivator. Something which today's "millenials" lack. They want everything handed to them, and that's not the way the world works.
My company paid for my 2nd degree.
Here are a couple of solutions:
First, start your higher education at a community college—tutition is often one-third that of state-run, four-year schools and a fraction of private institutions. Believe it or not, you can actually work your way through a community college, as long as you don’t also need a luxury apartment, new car and designer wardrobe.
Option #2: ROTC scholarship. Tuition and books are covered by Uncle Sam, in return for your service as a military officer after college. Most schools also throw in a room and board scholarship for students enrolled on a ROTC scholarship and there’s a modest living stipend, too.
Option #3. Enlist in the military after high school. You get a place to live, a food allowance, and a full-time salary along with tuition assistance (up to $4500 a year). Start your college with TA, then finish up after your enlistment on the GI Bill.
FWIW-
A job with the flexibility to be a full time student, you aren’t going to get much over minimum age, I made about $10 an hour and worked my way through college, at that time that was more than double minimum wage, of course today that same job still pays about $10 an hour and is about 30% of over minimum wage.
Meanwhile College costs, for my entire 4 years was about 20k same school, same degree today cost is 20k a YEAR.
It is not impossible to work your way through school, but to make the 20k a year NET (not gross, got to pay your taxes) to cover your tuition means basically working a full time job at about 13 an hour just to pay your tuition, not your living expenses and other things....
Reality is school costs have risen annually and immoral rates, while wages have been completely depressed.
I graduated in 1994, I spent about 20k for my degree, and walked into a job making just shy of double that a year... today the same degree, same college will cost you 80k and the job will make you about 50k to start. So, in 20 years, College cost went up 300%, while wages for the degree went up 25%.
For me to do the same thing I did, which was work through college, I’d have to be earning $40 an hour, not $10 to just be equal... and very few college age folks are going to have the skills, let alone find a job with the flexibility needed to do full time work and be paid the equivalent of 80k a year.