Planning to Work Your Way Through College? It'll Take 4 Times as Many Hours as in the '90's

Working your way through school is much more of an uphill climb today than 30 years ago, a look at college tuition and minimum wage employment shows, according to a new report and analysis.

The report by MyElearningWorld indicates that 30 years ago, the average student at a public university could pay for a full year of tuition by working around 500 hours at a minimum wage job — a little less than 10 hours per week throughout the year, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics.

Today, the analysis finds the same student would have to work 2,022 hours on average at a minimum wage job to cover a year of tuition at a public university — about 39 hours each week, all year long. And in some states, he or she would have to work even more than that.

That’s about 4x as many hours on minimum wage as a student 30 years ago to access the same education – or the same number of course credits, given the changes in curriculum through the years.

In Connecticut, according to the report, 2022-23 in-state tuition and fees are $15,610; out-of-state tuition and fees are $34,220, and 82% of students are in-state students. That’s the average for public state universities in Connecticut according to data from College Board’s annual report. With a state minimum wage of $14, students would need to work 1,354 hours to pay annual tuition - which is less than the national average of 2,022 hours.

Nationally, students who aim to attend a private university have an even tougher road if they need to have a job to pay for their education.  They would have to work about 4,646 hours on average at a minimum wage job to cover a year of tuition — around 89 hours each week, every week of the year, according to the report.

The numbers don’t include the other costs that students face, such as books, room and board, food, and entertainment and don’t factor in the various taxes that come out of the typical paycheck, points out Scott Winsted, Founder & Editor in Chief MyElearningWorld. To cover those costs, a student would have to work even more hours to cover education and related costs without some form of financial aid.

While public and private college tuition rates have increased at several times the rate of inflation over the last 30 years, the minimum wage hasn’t even kept pace with inflation. There are 9 states where a student would have to work more than 40 hours per week, 52 weeks per year at minimum wage just to cover the cost of tuition and fees.  In 28 states, a student would need to work 30+ hours a week, every week of the year to afford the average tuition.

You can view the full report, along with the analysis, can be seen here: https://myelearningworld.com/college-tuition-minimum-wage-study/